One of the ways to achieve economic development is through the establishment of industries to process the abundant resources into finished goods. Therefore the establishment of small-scale industries all over the country is a right step in the right direction. The economy depends on its working population for economic growth and development in which the youths constitute the greatest percentage and this further establishes the reason why the youths should be gainfully employed. This study therefore attempts to review the contributions of SSEs to employment creation but most importantly to national development and the rationale for the growing emphasis on them as accelerators of this development. It further examines the imperatives for the development of SSEs as well as the approaches to tackling their problems with a view to preparing them to complement the efforts in other sectors of the larger economy.