*Cross River 30 Years Growth and Development Plan, An Opportunity For Small and Medium Enterprises -Asibong*


Exactly Twenty-two years after the last business census of establishments in the country, the National Bureau of Statistics, with the support of the World Bank, has commenced the process of implementing the 2020 National Business Sample Census (NBSC) in Nigeria.

The exercise which has begun, and is expected to end on December 4, 2020, forms a part of the Government’s resolve to restructure the economy for faster growth through support to Small, Medium and Large-scale enterprises, in order to increase their productivity.

The main objectives of NBSC includes; to compile, frame, and develop instruments and concepts, establish standards and methodology for industrial and business surveys in Nigeria; to serve as a benchmark for updates of subsequent commercial and industrial sector statistics; to develop a national directory of commercial and industrial business establishments, with all their associated social and economic characteristics; and to provide the country with comprehensive and detailed information about the structure of the Nigerian economy.

According to the Commissioner for International Development Cooperation, *Inyang Asibong*, the exercise is important in Cross River State, especially as the *Gov Ben Ayade* led Administration has formulated the 30- year Growth and Development Plan for Cross River State.

Also speaking, the CRS Statistician- General, *Dr Josephat Ogar*, has said that all commercial and industrial businesses in each of the 18 LGAs across the are expected to provide information such as name, location address, postal address, phone number, email address, year of commencement, number of activities engaged in, main type of activity, and others to the enumerators designated to collate the data.

This data will also be used to support MSMEs under the Area 3 of the World Bank/Cross River CARES program set to take off later this year.

For easy access to get your business enumerated, below is the list of enumerators for the 18 LGAs.