President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday presided over a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Council Chamber of the State House, Abuja.
The meeting commenced shortly after Tinubu arrived at the venue at 2:34 pm, accompanied by Vice President Kashim Shettima.
However, a correspondent observed that the Ministers of Defence, Foreign Affairs, the Federal Capital Territory and Aviation, among others, were absent from Wednesday’s meeting.
The council is expected to consider a new National Policy on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), among other items on the agenda.
The Director-General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Charles Odii, disclosed on Tuesday that the policy was awaiting FEC approval.
Odii spoke during the rollout of a free digital training platform designed to improve small businesses’ access to government contracts in Abuja.
He said the platform would help make public procurement more accessible to entrepreneurs, expand the government’s supplier base and retain more economic value within the country.
“SMEDAN welcomes this partnership as the apex agency for MSME development. We see this portal as a practical step towards making government a more accessible market for entrepreneurs,” Odii said.
He added that the initiative aligned with the provisions of the proposed national policy, which seeks to improve micro, small and medium-sized enterprises’ participation in public procurement.
“This is fully consistent with the national policy on MSMEs. We are reviewing the national policy on SMEs right now and we are just awaiting the FEC approval for the policy, from 2026 to 2030,” he said.
According to Odii, the policy identifies access to public contracts as a strategic pathway to business growth, formalisation and local content development.
Details later…
