MARKETING CORPORATE GOVERNANCE & STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP TO SMEs IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR: THE NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
SUNNY, Ekakitie Emonena (Ph.D)
Department of Business Administration and Marketing,
Faculty of Management Sciences, Delta State University, Asaba Campus
ABSTRACT
The informal sector of the Nigerian economy operated by SMEs entrepreneurs is regarded as a den of disorganization, lacking in focused strategic business activities whose contributions to economic growth and development cannot be accurately measured. The study is focused on this sector and attempts a remedial set of strategies that can be marketed and infused into it and its operators to make it better value yielding. These are the twin strategies of corporate governance and strategic leadership and their ethos, principles and practices that are global. Several ingredients of corporate governance projected are: the business practices of formalized accountability, transparency, integrity, protection of stakeholders’ interest, etc.; along with strategic leadership components of strategic vision, control, competencies and strategic intents. These were projected as essential marketable ingredients to redirect and revamp the informal sector to impact better imaging, competitiveness and profitability like their organized private sector counterpart. The salient anecdotal narrative of how ex-Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State transformed SMEs in the Onitsha Main Market and environs to the amazement and envy of all showcased how strategic leadership can attempt a transformational strategy on any sector to generate better levels of revenue. The study suggested: a) Enumeration and categorization of SMEs operators in the informal sector into a reliable database according to nature and trade; b) Relocation of some categorized set of SMEs with strategic impact on the economy to government approved and organized industrial hubs/estates; c) Provision of roads, amenities, security and other supportive infrastructure with sustainable vector in the business hubs; d) Re-branding, promotion and imaging of the sector to show case its new stature as a revamped and repositioned sector, and; e) Provision of incentives to make the sector more attractive to stakeholders and indeed the outside world.
Keywords: Corporate governance, informational sector, strategic leadership, SMEs and entrepreneurs, economic growth and development