Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Come Saturday, August 22, 2020, by 10 am, key stakeholders in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) will share their views on issues affecting the sector of the economy.
It is believed that the industry is a major contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria, but despite this, the sector has largely been given lesser attention.
But next Saturday, issues concerning funding and others would be discussed at a programme put together by one of the major forces in the space, MSME Africa.
At the event tagged MSME Dialogue and requires registration via http://bit.ly/MSMEDIALOGUE, experts in the field will proffer solutions to the issues of raising capital, accessing credits, funding types, business profitability and other related issues.
According to the organisers of the maiden virtual programme, business owners from different sectors will be in attendance and will have the Chief Energising Officer of Consistent Energy Limited, Mr Segun Adaju, as one of the speakers.
Others are the Deputy Chief Financial Officer of TVC Communications, Ms Victoria Ajayi; the Acting CEO of FirstCentral Credit Bureau Limited & Chairman, Credit Bureau Association of Nigeria (CBAN), Mr Oladimeji Peters; and the Chief Financial Officer of Titan Trust Bank, Mr Mark Oguh, with Ms Folake Adekola of PwC UK moderating the session.
Speaker on the forthcoming event, the convener and President of MSME Africa, Mr Seye Olurotimi, noted that, “Funding, financing and profitability and big deals to business owners; they pose major challenges to the growth and survival of MSMEs and that is why we have decided to address and proffer solutions to them at the very first edition of the MSME Dialogue.”
The MSME expert and champion further said, “From my interactions with MSME operators over the years, I have realised that there is a lot of gap with regards to information on the various financing types and the requirements for accessing them and this must be addressed.
“If we really want to grow the equally; we must pay attention to the over 41 million businesses who fall into the MSME category.”
According to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) from its PwC’s MSME Survey 2020- Building to last, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country face an estimated N617.3 billion financing gap annually which accounts for less than one per cent of banks’ credit in 2018.
The report further stated that besides obtaining finance, finding customers and infrastructure deficits also accounted for the top of the most pressing problems for small businesses, while generating electricity constituted the biggest cost to the MSMEs.
According to the PwC report, “Access to finance, in particular credit, is a critical enabler for the growth and development of small and medium enterprises.”
MSME Africa is a multi-faceted resource platform for MSME in Africa providing news, opportunities, articles and resources for stakeholders. The platform is poised to build the biggest network and community of MSMEs in Africa in years to come.
