Benefit SME

Osinbajo Highlights Benefits of SMEs

by with No Comment Businesssme tips

Vice President Yemi Osibajo has restated the belief of the federal government in the capacity of small and medium scale enterprises to stimulate economic activities and provide jobs.

READ ALSO: Raising stake in SMEs financing, growth in Nigeria

He made the remark as the keynote speaker at the 2021 P&G – BoI SME Academy, where the consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble, in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment (FMITI) and the Bank of Industry (BoI) provided access to training for over 700 SMEs during.

According to the Vice President, “The federal government believes wholeheartedly that SMEs are the bedrock of the economy and we are constantly aiming to support innovations that can help SMEs grow and in turn groom the economy and provide job opportunities.

“The government has been working diligently and creatively on engaging the most vulnerable businesses especially during this current crisis.”

The plenary session at the academy with the theme: ‘SME Development and Growth as a Precursor to Nation Building,’ brought senior government and private sector leaders to discuss proven strategies that could be leveraged to drive the growth and development of local SMEs as the bedrock of Nigeria’s economic development.

Also, the Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Adeniyi Adebayo reiterated the need to create a favorable business environment for SMEs in Nigeria.

He said: “The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment is committed to providing SMEs the required support and trainings needed to consistently project their businesses in an upward trajectory.

“We achieve this through information-driven support vital in building a better playing field for commerce in the entire nation.

We are grateful to organisations like Procter & Gamble for their continuous efforts towards transforming their communities of operations through proactive projects like the SME Academy.”

In his remarks, the Managing Director, P&G Nigeria, Mr. Adil Farhat highlighted the need to continuously support SMEs in Nigeria, saying they have the potential to out rightly transform the country.

Farhat added that, “in line with the focus of Nigeria’s economic recovery and growth plan to drive industrialisation and economic growth through globally competitive SMEs, P&G in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Trade, industry and investment and the Bank of Industry launched the SME Academy to improve their standard, ensure longevity, and facilitate integration into global value chains.

“For over 27 years in Nigeria, P&G has consistently partnered with the Nigerian government to promote strong investor policies and practices that drive inclusive growth, jobs, and welfare of Nigerian citizens”.

SOURCE: THISDAY

5G Techcnology

‘SMEs Could Generate $433bn Through 5G By 2025’

by with No Comment BusinessNews

LAGOS  – Global telecom and communication service providers have been urged to do more to address the needs of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) if they are to see a return on their enormous 5G capital investments. 

A new report, published by BearingPoint//Beyond, in collaboration with Omdia, highlights the potential of SMEs as a major source of future 5G revenue for CSPs. 

The report estimates that SMEs around the world could generate up to $433 billion in revenues by 2025. 

READ ALSO: Jumia Lending empowers entrepreneurs.

However, this market segment remains vast and untapped with the majority of CSPs focusing 70% of their resources on the 1% enterprise market. Despite this revelation, not enough CSPs are recognising SMEs as a major source of B2B revenue, especially in regard to 5G. 

Yet SMEs, many of which already see value in 5G, perceive CSPs as their trusted 5G go-to partner with 42% prioritising them to execute their 5G strategies. 

“CSPs are still trying to approach 5G the same way they approached 4G, with a clear focus on consumer and enterprise. However, 5G opens new opportunities for CSPs and one of them is the SME segment. 

“Digitalisation and Covid-19 have transformed the needs of SMEs and their awareness of the impact that new technologies such as 5G, IoT, and AI can have on their business to enhance productivity and efficiency, and boost sales. In fact, our previous research highlighted that on average 73% of global SMEs see 5G as important to their business. 

“However, it’s clear that it’s not 5G technology that they’re after, instead SMEs understand that 5G is one part of a broader technology solution that they need. In fact, 93% of SMEs told us that it’s more important for CSPs to collaborate with an ecosystem of partners to build solutions that better fit their needs than to simply provision 5G services,” said Angus Ward, CEO, BearingPoint//Beyond. 

The report argues that CSPs currently identify large multinational enterprises as the segment that will drive 5G revenues, however the large enterprises surveyed do not regard CSPs as their primary 5G providers. 

In fact, the report finds that 72% of enterprises would prefer to work with a service provider that is not a CSP. Findings show that 31% of large multinational enterprises will choose cloud service providers to execute their 5G strategies and 34% even favour taking a D.I.Y. approach. 

The report emphasises that CSPs should not squander the opportunity to support SMEs in realising their 5G ambitions, as SMEs look to digitalise their business amidst the deeply transformational impact of Covid-19. 

“We’re looking at a new type of SME, one that is seeking a partner that will orchestrate comprehensive partner ecosystems to co-create solutions to provide them with a better service. For CSPs, this is a unique opportunity, especially considering SMEs see them as a strong candidate to fulfil this role. 

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT

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Fegho Umunubo, Arinze Chilo-Offiah, Dolapo Adejuyigbe To Speak at BusinessDay, NetPlusDotCom Webinar

by with No Comment Business

Fegho Umunubo, CEO of XTREME Mindz Solutions Ltd; Arinze Chilo-Offiah, Special Adviser to the Governor of Enugu State on SME Development and Investment Promotion and Dolapo Adejuyigbe, Co-Founder of Traction, will be speaking at the February edition of the Monthly SME Digital Transformation Webinar Series themed “Revamping your business processes in the digital era” by BusinessDay and NetPlusDotCom. The virtual event will hold on Thursday February 25, 2021 from 10:00am – 11:30am.

See also: Raising stake in SMEs financing, growth in Nigeria

This monthly series is organized by BusinessDay Media, West Africa’s leading provider of business intelligence and information and NetPlusDotCom, a leading technology and digital payment company.
The aim is to create an avenue for SME’s in search for expert information on navigating the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic to learn the modalities of the new age of doing business. It also offers a connecting platform for participants to meet with organizations that can facilitate access to market, finance and digital skills.

To register for this event, please visit https://bit.ly/3dyD1td

SOURCE:Business Day

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Raising stake in SMEs financing, growth in Nigeria

by with No Comment Businessfinance

From unemployment reduction to its contribution to government revenue, the benefits of a well-developed Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector can never be over emphasized. Given their contributions, nations have set out plans to develop the MSMEs sector to achieve economic growth.
  
In high-income countries, MSMEs contribute well over 65 per cent of employment and about 48 per cent to the GDP, while in low-income countries; they contribute to about 30 per cent of employment and about 15 per cent of GDP.
 
READ ALSO: How Rwanda plans to enhance SME corporate governance


MSMEs have been generally acknowledged as the backbone to the success of developed nations, gaining popularity through the success rates in such developed economies that invested in the sector.
 
There also exists a relationship between the informal sector, MSMEs and economic development. In low-income countries, the contribution from the informal sector is rather high, unlike high-income countries where the contribution from the informal sector is low.

This gives room for the development of the informal sector, to reduce the gap between the formal and informal sector and allow the poor to actively participate in the economy
  
For the Nation to be among the 20 most economically advanced nations in the world by the year 2020, serious attention must be paid to the development of the MSMEs sub-sector in Nigeria
  
The contributions of MSMEs to the economic growth of countries have been very significant. SMEs are viewed as an engine of growth that contributes enormously to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) employment generation, industrial output poverty alleviation, export promotion, and self-independence
 
In Nigeria, despite the fact MSMEs has been identified as a tool for economic development and provision of employment, variety of challenges seems to have a negative impact that constraint MSMEs from playing the vital role of stimulating economic development.
 
To this effect, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s most valuable bank brand has over the years demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the business success of SMEs in Nigeria.
  
At the just concluded Ehingbeti, the Lagos Economic Summit, the Group Chief Executive Officer of First Bank, Adesola Adeduntan said the bank has a cocktail of products and bespoke solutions, specifically designed to help grow and sustain SMEs; enable them play out their business activities as well as fulfill their goals and aspirations.

In addition, the bank offers advisory services that are tailored to meet the needs and aspirations of their SME customers.
  
He said the bank is enthusiastic about the SME segment as one of the strategic platforms to stimulate economic development.
  
“We have SME CONNECT portal which serves as a advisory services platform to help them up their skills, supporting them to make accurate decisions and a number of banks have similar support system. We refine and update the portal. Our SMEs portfolio is quite sizeable considering Nigeria’s population.
  
“Our support for relevant businesses helps us come far especially the SMEs. We have been active in providing various financing instruments. The path to growth and development of the Nigerian economy is growing the SMEs segment,” he said
   
With a bouquet of bespoke products and services, First Bank is set to place SMEs ahead of their competition through collaborations with the business owners to provide flexible and dependable services, helping each SME fulfill life time dreams for their businesses.

Source: Newscentric

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RSE CEO: How Rwanda plans to enhance SME corporate governance

by with No Comment Business

Watch Full Video Here!

Small and medium-sized enterprises often find it hard to access long-term investment capital. One of the reasons is that SMEs lack corporate governance. Rwanda has a plan to attract SMEs to list on stock exchange, and a new SME Governance Guidebook offers promise. Celestin Rwabukumba, CEO, Rwanda Stock Exchange joins CNBC Africa for more.

SOURCE: CNBC AFRICA