CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY.
In recent time, the fortune of small scale and medium scale Industries attracted the attention of government world-wide and thus has been the focus of general interest and research, especially in developing Countries due to the importance of small scale and medium scale Industries.
Their importance cannot be over emphasized as they constitute a whole virile vehicle for the generation of vast production of outputs and job creation. They are also act as catalyst for restructuring and diversifying the productive base of an economy and for the Industrial economy and for the Industrial economy take-off and growth of such an economy. The small and medium scale Industries are seen to hold the key to future expansion of the Industrial sector.
In Nigeria, evidence has shown that in 1986, small scale and medium scale Industries accounted for 70% of all firms, employing millions of Nigerians (first Bank of Nigeria report, 1987). By the end of 1979, over 80% of all establishments licensed under the factory act were small and medium scale Industries (Onwuala, 1987). This made the importance of this economic unit to be unelectable.
Small scale and medium scale Industry in its widest sense implies the urgent response to the challenges of developing countries, of which Nigeria is not an exception. Small and medium scale Industries should be practiced with due regards to the importance of available local raw materials in its environs because the challenges facing small and medium scale Industrialist are enormous.
The importance of small and medium scale Industries to the economic development of any country, whether developing or developed, have been widely acknowledged and acclaimed. They are considered as there stimulate to private ownership and entrepreneurial skills, generate employment, promote industrial dispersal and rural- urban migration.