Pages: (21-38 )
Abstract
Small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) are widely acknowledged as agents of socio-economic development. Indeed, scholars, development partners, policy makers and governments have continued to demonstrate pragmatic efforts in various ways towards evolving a robust, viable and efficient SME sector that would facilitate the attainment of set development agenda. This paper analyzed, based on the experiences from Republic of Chile, United States, United Kingdom, South Africa abd Republic of Korea, how public procurement policy can serve as a veritable instrument for promoting the growth and development of SMEs, and how Nigeria can replicate same in her domain. The study found that publci procurment policy is u;timately a powerful tool for stimulating the development of a robust SME sector. It therefore concluded that Nigeria needs to see the public procurement system not just as a means of acquisition of goods, works and services, but as a multi-purpose development tool. The study recommends that Nigeria should take appropriate measures to deploy, harness and channel her public procurement power towrda achieving similar results in the case of the countries assessed in this study.
Keywords: Public Procurement, Public procurement policy, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), Socio-economic Development,