10 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The post-independence Nigerian government adopted the entrepreneurship government which constrained it to assume the role of entrepreneur and the urge to offset the economic neglect of the colonial government and that resulted in engaging in ambitious industrialization programmes. When the Nigerian industrial Development Bank Limited (NIDB) was established in 1964 for the purpose of speeding up the industrialization process, its mandate was to promote industrial projects which were large enough to make applicable contribution to the national economy. However, the collapse of the oil boom in the early 1980’s exposed the inherent weaknesses of this importation of inputs resulted in large idle capacities, thereby creeping many gross domestic product (GDP) declined in the face of the strong national aspiration for the restructuring of the economy and reduction of the dependence on petroleum. Small and medium scale enterprises have since become the focus of national industrial policy. In pursuit of self-reliance in a developing country particularly in Nigeria, the central government enacted a decree called “Enterprises promotion Decree” when there was need for small scale enterprises in the promotion of economic development. This has since been at the fore front of development strategies. 11
However, many developing countries have failed to adopt these strategies owing to their belief that it is a relatively slow process of industrialization. Without the development of small scale enterprises in Nigeria, the nation’s quest for industrialization will certainly remain forever at a slow pace. It is the humble opinion of the researcher that further development on our business enterprises must add to the basic issue of creating linkage within the economy to begin to yield real inputs to our economic activities. Priority attention must therefore be given to those business enterprises for which domestic inputs could easily be produced. The objective should be to maximize the value added in their processing and manufacturing as final strong producer incentives to small scale enterprises are necessary not only to meet the food requirement but also to promote growing input supplier industrial growth. The present economy constraints may well turn out to be a blessing in disguise to our small scale industry effort particularly for the dynamic manufacturing sector. For instance, the market determined exchange rate through Foreign Exchange Market with its resultant high cost of imported inputs may serve as an impetus for industrialist to intensify their search for loan substitute. In 1971, the government of then East Central State statutorily enacted an edit establishing an office which was hitherto a sub-system of the ministry of commerce and industry to be known as fund for small scale industries Credit Scheme (FUSSI) to give credits to prospective investors to enable them establish, thus helping the country towards industrialization.
As at 1996 and 1999 respectively, banks’ loans and advances to small scale enterprises rose from ₦42,302.1 to ₦46,824.00 million. However the very slow rate of growth of the industrial sector, the inability of the sector to adequately provide and satisfy the needs of the economy, the over-dependence of the nation at large on foreign goods, pose a necessary course for concern. The means for helping small scale enterprises to acquire the much needed finance form the background of this research.