Arising from funding concerns for small and medium scale enterprises in the country, experts in business financing, funding and entrepreneurship will on Saturday, August 22, gather at the maiden edition of the MSME Dialogue to discuss and proffer solutions to the issues of raising capital, accessing credits, funding types, business profitability and other related issues.
The event, which is virtual and organised by MSME Africa, is expected to have in attendance entrepreneurs and business owners from across sectors.
Segun Adaju, chief energising officer, Consistent Energy Limited; Victoria Ajayi, deputy chief financial officer, TVC Communications; Oladimeji Peters, acting CEO, FirstCentral Credit Bureau Limited/chairman, Credit Bureau Association of Nigeria (CBAN), and Mark Oguh, chief financial officer, Titan Trust Bank, are scheduled to speak at the event.
“Funding, financing and profitability are 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,” Seye Olurotimi, president, MSME Africa and convener of the event, said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country face an estimated N617.3 billion financing gap annually which accounts for less than 1 percent of banks’ credit in 2018, according to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
The report, ‘PwC’s MSME Survey 2020 – Building to last’, 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.
“From my interactions with MSME operators over the years, I have realised that there is a lot of gap with regard 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 economy, we must pay attention to the over 41 million businesses who fall into the MSME category,” Olurotimi said.
