Chuku Wachuku

In March 2011, Wachuku announced in Lagos, that NASSI was launching a guaranteed project of action for its member firms, saying that the program was aimed at filling gaps for members who lacked collateral to support their credit proposals to banks. He affirmed that NASSI would work out the critical minimum requirement for accessing credit by small industries, emphasising that NASSI was already looking at ways of accessing the US$1.2 billion or ₦200 billion naira SMSEs: Small and Medium Scale Enterprises fund put up by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Wachuku stated: "I want to make sure that government understands that the engine of growth of any economy rests on SMEs. It is my duty to initiate and tell people that the policy direction of NASSI is to make loans available to SMEs. I want to ensure that lack of collateral by our members is addressed such that concessionary interest rate is given to small scale borrowers."[44][45]

In December 2011, Wachuku led NASSI to go into favorable agreement with Nigeria's National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), to help finance projects for NASSI members. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Managing Director of NERFUND, Alhaji Baba Maina Gimba and Wachuku. Under the agreement, NASSI was required to present projects that needed funding to NERFUND, accordingly, NERFUND was to evaluate and disburse helpful funds; as well as insuring all business deals. At the signing ceremony, Wachuku questioned “a country of 167 million people with some 59 million small scale industries, having only three functional Development Finance Institutions (DFIs)", stating that it was clearly inadequate, and calling for more DFIs.[46][47]

Strategically, Wachuku has always pushed for the realization of stable power supply in Nigeria; maintaining that since the 1999 arrival of democracy in the country, many companies have been operating below capacity because of unstable power supply, insufficient financial resources and alarming labor costs.[48][49]

He stated that gross inadequate power supply has increased businesses' expenses, reduced productivity and stunted economic growth in Nigeria, forcing the closure of many companies or/and relocation of some others to neighboring countries. Wachuku pointed out that: "blackouts are negatively impacting the economy, which is grappling with a combination of slow growth, a weak currency, high inflation and the effect of flooding that is expected to drive up food prices."[50]

Making sure that government upholds conducive ways and capacities for the private sector to empower and create jobs for the youth in Nigeria has been one of Wachuku's abiding principles of service.[51]

In a November 2011 lecture titled: Investment Climate: What is the Weather in Nigeria, presented at Ikeja, Lagos based SOFFE: Sam Ohuabunwa Foundation for Economic Empowerment , Wachuku reflected on his vision and mission of creating jobs for Nigerian youths. According to him,

"the private sector should be given more autonomy to direct matters that deal directly with youth empowerment and job creation. In this regard, NASSI will lead a networking initiative that will include value chain-related organisations along with states and local governments. NASSI will, through this partnership, adequately address issues and factors that militate against the growth of SMEIs and work out positive and workable frameworks that will once and for all ensure the growth of SMEIs. Government can not create jobs in a sustainable way. There is need to boost production and ensure that small-scale industries contribute 90 to 95 per cent to GDP. That is why I ask you, can government actually create jobs? To this particular question, my answer is no! And I speak as an expert on this matter. The other sustainable way I know is to create a powerful private sector-driven entrepreneurial base, propelled and predicated on small and medium scale industries and the informal sector."[52]

Again, in a June 2012 interview by Nigeria's Vanguard Daily Newspaper, Wachuku stressed the crucial need for jobs and youth empowerment, in the following words: "Nigeria needs to create not less than five million jobs yearly to meet employment needs of her growing population."[53]

With objective consistency, Wachuku has usually let the world know that Nigerian banks pay "lip service" towards effectively funding SMEs: Small and Medium Enterprises in the so-called "giant" African country. He maintains that, in any nation, banks should be helpful partners in sustainable economic development to the viable benefit of emerging businesses and general population.[54] In a February 2014 interview he granted The Punch, Wachuku stated:

"We want to add value through skills acquisition. But in doing this, we have found out that the main problem is getting finance at affordable interest rates. The Federal Government talks about this and banks also talk about it. But I want to state here that Nigerian banks have not been helpful. They always say money is available. Where is the money? There is no small scale industrialist who walks into a bank and gets a loan. It is difficult for SMEs to get loans from banks because they always demand for collaterals. The collateral they ask for is over and above the worth of the loan. So, banks are not keen on lending to small scale businesses at all. They say this sub-sector is risk infested. They may claim that they have given some amount of money as loans to SMEs; but you will find out that this is not true. For instance, what can a loan that is given to 2,000 people in a nation of about 167 million people do? The last statistics conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that there were about 17 million small scale industrialists in Nigeria and you are talking about empowering 2,000 people with loans. What is that? So, Nigerian banks are paying lip service to funding SMEs."[55]

As a respected financial expert and constructive economist, Wachuku was, in February 2014, called on by the media to comment on President Goodluck Jonathan's suspension of Central Bank of Nigeria's governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. He shared his economic and political view as follows:

"Sanusi should not have been publicly singing a different tune from that of the President. As a senior government official who has done an outstanding job in the country’s banking sector, what he should have done was talk to his principal and advise him in private. It was wrong for him to rush to the media to sing divergent tunes. No president anywhere in the world will allow that. However, Sanusi's suspension is likely to create micro-economic distortions and cause some shivers in the economy."[56][57]

In October 2012, Wachuku concluded Memorandum of Understanding arrangements for a new SMEs funding program between Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists and First Bank of Nigeria. Concerning the new program, Wachuku explained: "lack of access to loan-able funds at cheap and profitable interest rates had been the bane of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country. I commend First bank of Nigeria for their trail-blazing action. Before we got to First Bank, we had approached a number of banks, but their concern was primarily and solely the profit motif. It is, therefore, a major achievement that First Bank, as the leading bank, truly, agreed to our proposal. This gesture from First Bank is one laced with patriotic zeal, as it had the potential to revolutionize operations of small scale industrialists, and by extension the economy of Nigeria as a whole. The current Group Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Bisi Onasanya, gave unqualified support to the project. Onasanya saw it as a key corporate social responsibility activity with multiplier effects on the economy.The government itself agreed that the private sector contributes about 90 per cent to the nation's Gross Domestic Product. With SMEs forming about 65 per cent of private sector operations, one can only imagine what effects this new move by the First Bank will be on the economy." Continuing, he said "banks in the country, for a long time, had been part of the problem of the real sector, saying they would rather get involved in round-tripping and short-term lending for commercial activities, than to lend to businesses with manufacturing operations. It is in this light that the new twist is commendable of emulation by other banks. First Bank, through its current General Managing Director, has shown an unusual disposition to the plight of small scale industrialists. I think Mr. Onasanya deserves all kudos."[58]