SME.ng an impact investment group said they are looking to help connect small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) especially women-led, and youth-owned to transform them into formalized and sustainable business that support employment and create a lasting impact
According to the group, during a two-day conference held at the federal palace hotel themed “the funding space” said if SMEs can have access to funds especially women-led it will not only help scale up their inclusiveness but strengthen their competitiveness to help break Nigeria’s poverty cycle.
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Speaking at the event, Oluwatoyin Adegbite Moore Executive Director West Africa Venture Philanthropy Alliance said many SMEs are into great work that helps achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals but are dire need of funds to scale up but are unaware of the opportunities.
“There are investors who are ready to put in their money to businesses that have a social and environmental impact alongside a financial return, unfortunately, most SMEs in Nigeria are unaware where to access these funds.”
“The goal of bringing this funding space event together is that everyone within the SMEs can learn that there are funding opportunities out there and not just money but also non financial funding and the role of my organization the African venture philanthropy aligns, it’s to really look at the entire ecosystem and bring social investors together with investees who are ready to be able to get the funding that they need, I mean capital in terms of financial, human resource intellectual capital are very essential as needs of SMEs, some people don’t need money all they need is the human resources in other for them to scale it’s not just about money it could be just about knowledge and human resources” she said
Speaking on how fundraising helps SMEs execute their business plan Sade Adebanjo a Special Adviser to Ogun State Governor stated that while funds is one of the major challenges to SMEsgrowth he noted that a good business plan should be far more important first to an SME to attract fund.
“You give me an idea of what the business plan is if you do not have a strong conviction of what you are doing or selling there is no way we can give you money so you must have a clearly articulated business plan, the financial has been well documented so we know for sure you are it is not about to make money not just to collect money because at the end there must be return of investment to the giver”
Speaking on how easily fund can be accessed, Nnoli Nnoli Chief sustainability and governance, Dangote on the first day of the conference said
“In terms of accessibility of capital we are looking at capital that are financial and non financial one of the things that I will have to say is that SMEs need to be prepared they need to ensure they have their business plan intact and make sure they are connecting with all the foundations, the CAC is one place where they can find out all the organizations here in Nigeria”
“There are endless platforms to access fund starting from public institutions like the CBN and different banks although very often those opportunities are not accessed, Angel investment opportunity, rising tied Africa, advocacy platforms like the funding space initiative at the bottom of the pyramid-like the growing foundation, states level initiatives like lSETF, foundations like the Dangote foundations, there are range of them.”
