Globally, Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, are seen as engines of economic growth and major contributors to employment generation, wealth creation, and poverty alleviation, among others. In this analysis, Udo Onyeka, appraises how Nigerian banks are trying to boost the MSMEs’ performance through trainings.
According to reports, recent data provided by the National MSMEs collaborative survey 2010, put the number of MSMEs in Nigeria at 17,284,671 with total employment of 32,414,884. Notwithstanding the role of micro, small and medium scale enterprises in fostering economic growth and development, they have continued to face a variety of constraints. Some of the challenges they face are inadequate infrastructure facilities, shortage of skilled manpower, high rate of enterprise mortality, low level of entrepreneurial skills, lack of enabling operating environment, restricted market access and cumbersome regulatory requirements.
Experts have at various fora agreed that deliberate efforts must be put in place to grow these numbers if Nigeria must achieve its national vision of being among the 20 most industrialised nations by the year 2020. According to them, to achieve this all the challenges confronting MSMEs must be addressed especially low level of entrepreneurial skills which also leads to shortage of skilled manpower and high rate of enterprise mortality, Many experts have stressed the need for training in order to effectively manage small businesses.
This is important as analysts believe it would go a long way in curbing the problem of youth unemployment. According to former Managing Director of First Bank, Bisi Onasanya a central challenge that must be met “if our current democratic experiment is to succeed is the one where private sector participants contribute to the elaboration of solutions to problems across sectors. He said it was important for the country to encourage youth to acquire skills that would enable them create jobs for themselves and others. It was in the light of the above that many banks operating in the country have increased their support for Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs. An important area in which financial institutions have supported SMEs is in capacity building.
For instance towards the end last Diamond Bank organised a seminar for operators in the small and medium scale enterprises ,SMEs in the country, as part of its capacity building programme. Head, Retail Banking, Diamond Bank, Ms. Aishah Ahmad said her bank are always use every opportunity to improve what businesses are doing “which are the operational, legal governance are very critical to us and that is what drives some of the topics we discus in our lectures. “For us at Diamond Bank, we are very committed to small businesses. Every day we do something to that improve what they do.
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Asides from this, we also have an online portal were people can get information. We also do smaller clinics across different branches to ensure that all businesses around benefit from this,” she said. According to her, since its inception, Diamond Bank has been training about 15,000 people yearly and has done so for five years. In terms of financing SMEs, she said: “It is well known that Diamond Bank is an MSMEs bank and for us it is not only in financing. It is about making those businesses viable to be able to approach financing. Many operators have said that the apart from finance SMEs need information, technical knowhow so that their businesses could be sustained. “I am very committed to trying to help business see that we can build the kind of companies we admire in other countries small and medium doesn’t mean you can’t become large. I’m also trying to preach especially that we can do it by doing the right things.
“We should think big, think synergy, think impact and think excellence because we can transform this country.” An analyst Mrs Audrey Joe-Ezigbo had said. Also stressing the importance of training Executive Director, Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman, said the process for transforming SMEs to become bigger players and part of national growth does not start and end with finance. Suleiman, who said this at the capacity building training seminar for SMEs organised by the bank recently, noted that the programme was aimed at enhancing the managerial and entrepreneurial qualities of SME operators with a view to building sustainable business, in view of the critical roles they play in the development of an economy. Explaining the rationale for organising the forum, Suleiman said: “It is our view that for us to be able to support SMEs, the standard for reporting and the day-to-day management of the organisation needs to improve.
“We are focused on people we have done business with for a while and we want to assist them to take their businesses to another level.” He is also of the opinion that the type of education provided for SMEs needs to be improved. “Nigeria still has a lot to do and a long way to go when it comes to our legal environment, the process of securing approvals and setting up businesses,” he said. Ecobank Nigeria in partnership with the Enterprise Development Centre ,EDC, of the Pan-Atlantic University has trained and extended grants worth millions of naira to five budding SME operators. The programme, tagged “Ecobank New Venture Initiative, ENVI, is an innovative business training and education scheme, in collaboration with Ecobank SME Club and Pan Atlantic University’s enterprise centre.
The five selected SME entrepreneurs, known as ENVI Fellows are Olufemi Adenekan of Daily Fresh Farms; James Onyebuchi of Ojames Footwears; Winifred Obazeh of Asa Organics; Ifeoluwa Olatayo of Soupah Kitchen Limited; and Adegboyega Adesida of Charms Horizon International Farms Limited. The beneficiaries were enrolled for a one year training and mentorship with EDC, leading to the award of the highly sought Certificate in Entrepreneurial Management at EDC, the premier SME focused training centre of the Pan- Atlantic University. The grant was awarded midway into the training so as to monitor a real life growth in their businesses over the one year mentorship with EDC.
The Business Executive, Business Banking, Ecobank Nigeria, Kingsley Umadia, while speaking at the presentation of grants in Lagos, said the massive support for small businesses by the bank is in line with its philosophy that recognizes the SME sub-sector as the engine room of the nation’s economic growth. The Head of SME/Value Chain, Ecobank Nigeria, Sunkami Olowo, explained that the programme is geared towards developing the capacity of entrepreneurs, thereby creating sustainability in their business and also growing their bottom line. Also to support SMEs, First Bank of Nigeria Limited has commenced the sponsorship of an SME Radio programme, The Economy & You! The programme, is a joint initiative of Enterprise Development Centre, a School of Pan Atlantic University, Lagos and First Bank of Nigeria Limited. The sponsorship objective is to educate, inform and build capacity for small business owners by providing them with the resources needed to grow their businesses.
