• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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‘Entrepreneurs lack skills, information for effective business operation’

Access to credit is a key catalyst for MSME growth

Experts in the small and medium scale enterprise (SMEs) space say Nigeria entrepreneurs lack the required skills and information to effectively scale their businesses.

The experts spoke during the launch of ‘Essays on Nigerian Business Law’ book authored by Iyiola Oyedepo, managing director of Iyiola Oyedepo and Company (IOC), in Lagos recently.

Oyedepo noted that the book was published to aid entrepreneurs over the challenges they face by equipping them with vital skills and information to grow their businesses.

“The book covers everything starting from conceiving an idea to establishing it. It cuts across working with property vendors, dispute resolution and regulatory compliance, resolving tax issue, and entrepreneurship experience,” Oyedepo said.

“What we are trying to do is to give entrepreneurs the toolkit for effective business operations. As a business owner, we are trying to teach you where and how to manage your tax, how you can explore incentives and access alternative funding from private investors,” he explained.

Augustine Edet, executive director and chief operation officer, NEXTZON Business Services Limited, during a panel session titled ‘Powering SMEs to Success’ stated that small business face both internal and external problems they must address for scale.

“Lots of small businesses are unable to access loans from money deposit banks because they lack the understanding of preparing their financials for loans,” Edet said.

Also speaking during the launch, Sanusi Idowu Dauda, founder, DFS Professional Science, stated that intellectual gap has remained a major challenge confronting operators of small- and medium-sized businesses.

Bumikole Dawodu, head, Ogun State, Simeman, stated that policy flipflop is a problem that limits the growth of SMEs in the country.

He urged the government to enact policies that will drive the growth of entrepreneurship in the country, saying that lack of adequate funding for start-ups has continue to limit the country’s economic growth.

Dawodu said that entrepreneurship is about providing solutions to problems.

 “Wherever there are challenges it becomes an opportunity for entrepreneurship. We should get the right information and relate them to our business, information on books like this should reach out to the SMEs” he explained.

 

Angel James