Nigeria Needs To Support The SMEs
In this piece, Daniel Ifechukwude, ACA, FMVA® looks into the broad nexus of SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) funding in Nigeria. He posits that fixing the funding paralysis in the SME domain will help in improving employment opportunities since most workers in Nigeria work in the SME space:
"In the first quarter of 2021, data published by Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as precisely captured by Bloomberg, reported that Nigeria’s unemployment rate was now 33.3%. The implication is that one-third of Nigeria’s labour force have no work to do. Since SMEs account for 84% of Nigeria’s employment, it therefore suggests that unemployment in Nigeria is largely occasioned by frictions and dislocations experienced by SMEs. Hence, tackling the challenges faced by SMEs is pertinent to solving the issue of rising unemployment in Nigeria."
He offers the following suggestions:
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- Revamp the government SME funding initiatives for maximum impact:
- Provide SMEs with access to capital market funds:
- Set up an SME fund to take equity positions in SMEs operating in high growth sectors:
- Harness public private partnerships (PPP) to establish SME innovation centres across the country:
The small companies of today are the pipelines for the large corporations of tomorrow. They must thrive.