Leading social innovation
center, Co-Creation Hub and the Fate Foundation have urged Nigeria’s small
businesses to collaborate and learn from each other to scale, stressing that
aggregation of resources is the only way for effective growth for small and medium
scale enterprises.
This assertion
was made by the representatives of these companies at the recent SME Business
Clinic organized by MainOne, held at the Co-Creation Hub, Yaba.
Speaking
during the event themed, #ForSmartBusiness Clinic, Adenike Adeyemi, director at
Fate Foundation, who gave a presentation on “Collaboration for Growth”
highlighted the Co-Creation as a successful example of how the
collaboration/cluster model has worked in Nigeria and encouraged small
businesses to realise their potential by leveraging personal networks to test,
develop services and access new markets.
This view was
corroborated by Mrs. Joyce Akpata, the director general of the Nigerian
American Chamber of Commerce, represented by Osita Oparaugo, the chief
executive officer of Footprints to Africa, who stressed that start-ups and
small businesses can leverage partnerships with more established businesses
rather than spending capital on unnecessary overheads.
Using the
analogy of a local shoe manufacturers in Aba, Oparaugo urged them to adopt
technology to transform their business, creating an online sales model or
leveraging partnerships with more established businesses rather than investing
in CAPEX projects such as renting a warehouse in Lagos with its attendant
costs.
In his
comments, Charles Anyanwu the head, SME at the Lagos State Employment Trust
Fund, focused on the importance of entrepreneurship training and financial
support for SMEs and shared financing opportunities currently available for
small businesses provided by the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi
Ambode.
Convener of
the #ForSmartBusiness Clinic, Adeyemi Tanimomo, VAS Product Manager, decried
Nigeria’s unfriendly business environment and urged for support for Nigeria’s
small businesses.
He identified
the top challenges of small business as access to finance, markets,
information, networks and productivity tools and mentioned this informed
MainOne’s decision to organise the SME Clinic. According to him, technology
adoption and use of productivity tools would enable small businesses to scale
their businesses and announced MainOne’s promotional package solution, SME in a
Box, which offers small businesses a converged solution of high-speed internet,
voice services and Office Productivity tools from Microsoft, from N50, 000
monthly from June to August.
The
#ForSmartBusiness Clinics aw the best small and medium business owners, techies
and tech enthusiasts in Yaba and its environs, gather to gain insights from
thought leaders and SME influencers in the SME ecosystem on how to drive growth
and sustainability for their businesses.