Zoho Partners SMEDAN to Give Nigerian MSMEs N20bn in Tech Credits

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

About 25,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across Nigeria will receive N20 billion in tech credits from Zoho, a global technology company, to support beneficiaries’ businesses.

The funding support would give the selected entrepreneurs access to Zoho’s affordable cloud-based business applications. The goal is to help businesses develop the practical digital capabilities required to integrate technology effectively into their operations.

Business Post gathered that eligible businesses can use Zoho Wallet Credits for accessing any of Zoho’s 60+ applications that match their operational requirements, such as Zoho Workplace, Zoho’s business email and collaboration suite; Bigin by Zoho CRM, a pipeline-centric CRM solution designed for small businesses; and Zoho Books, Zoho’s cloud accounting platform.

For better implementation, Zoho has entered into a strategic partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to monitor the programme’s adoption and impact.

Beyond technology access, Zoho will provide participating MSMEs with training sessions, workshops and one-on-one business consultations throughout the partnership term, as well as ongoing technical support.

“MSMEs are fundamental to Nigeria’s economic development, but technology can only deliver its full potential when businesses can access and effectively use it,” the Country Head for Zoho Nigeria, Mr Kehinde Ogundare, stated.

“Through this partnership with SMEDAN, we are reducing the access barrier to adopting world-class business technology while providing businesses with the training, consultation and support they need to leverage cloud technology to streamline their operations, and catapult their growth.

“The partnership also reflects Zoho’s transnational localism strategy, which combines our global technology expertise with efforts to create self-sustaining local economic clusters.

“Through this approach, we aim to deepen our contribution to Nigeria’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and support the development of a more digitally-enabled and resilient MSME sector,” he added.

The chief executive of SMEDAN, Mr Charles Odii, on his part, said, “Our focus at SMEDAN is to ensure that small businesses can move from survival to growth and prosperity. That means helping entrepreneurs formalise, improve productivity, reach new markets and build businesses that can compete.

“Digital capability is now an important part of that journey, and this partnership with Zoho gives thousands of MSMEs within our ecosystem another practical pathway to strengthen how they operate and grow.”