The federal government has announced plans to domesticate the World Bank's inclusive business model in all the 36 states of the federation as part of efforts to boost efficiency and growth of Small and Medium Enterprises in the country.

The announcement was made yesterday by the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Aisha Rimi, at a stakeholders' roundtable on Inclusive Business Upscaling in Nigeria with the theme "Towards Achieving Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in Nigeria," organised in partnership with GIZ Nigeria.

"The concept of inclusive business was endorsed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in 2005. Following the successful implementations of IBs in various countries, Nigeria embarked on an IB landscape study in July 2022, initiated by the Inclusive Business Action Network (IBAN) at the request of the federal government and Kaduna and Lagos state governments which led to the development of a pilot Inclusive Business Strategy in Kaduna State.

"This stakeholders' meeting is very important because it presents an opportunity to practically explore opportunities for scaling up Inclusive Business models in the entire country and it is expected that this event will increase general awareness of inclusive business approaches and the potential to achieve Nigeria's Agenda 2050," the NIPC ES who was represented by Abayomi Salami, an official of the agency, explained.

Head, GIZ Nigeria and ECOWAS, Markus Wauschkuhn, said GIZ is working with both public and private partners and state promotion agencies with focus on MSMEs as part of efforts to boost inclusive business growth in the country.

He added that "Asides Supporting Kaduna state in the inclusive business strategy, the Organization has realized that it's important for Private investments which is why panelists will look at the growth of the pilot scheme in Kaduna state and offer solutions ahead of the national scale up,"