The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) on Wednesday in Abuja enjoined the Federal Government to award 25 per cent of its contracts to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

This is desirable as SMES contribute about 50 per cent of the country's GDP and employ about 60 million people, SMEDAN's Director-General, Mr Charles Odii, told newsmen.

"Government is the biggest spender; the biggest employer of labour. We want small businesses to benefit from contract awards.

"What that means, however, is that small businesses need to be well-equipped to be able to win government contracts.

"96% of businesses in Nigeria are small businesses; so it is only 4 per cent that are big," Odii noted.

He said a meeting he held earlier with young legislators and small business owners aimed at getting a first-hand view of their challenges which mostly bothered on cost and funding.

He assured that SMEDAN would help small business owners to reduce cost of production.

"A lot of banks want to give funding, but they can't give small businesses because they are not adequately structured to receive the funding. NAN

"We shall help at least one million entrepreneurs to structure their businesses to become eligible for such funding."