Heritage Bank backs move to capture Lagos’ ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem’

OIL booms and busts may come and go but Nigeria’s entrepreneurs and small business owners will always be the backbone of the nation.

But sometimes these Small and Growing Businesses (SGB) don’t always get the support they need despite providing the overwhelming majority of jobs Nigerians rely on to put food on the table.

As the federal government’s focus, perhaps only temporarily, shifts from Big Oil to other, often neglected, sectors of the economy, ‘New Economy’ groups are trying to get a better understanding of the challenges faced by SGBs.

Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) created an ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem snapshot’ to help find solutions to the challenges faced by SGBs in Lagos and Abuja.

It’s expected the snapshot would provide the vital pieces of the puzzle to help third party organisations support entrepreneurs create viable and lasting businesses.

ANDE’s West Africa regional coordinator Olatunji Ajani told Business Day the commercial environment that SGBs operate in needed to be “nurtured to encourage greater growth”.

“SGBs would benefit from public-private partnerships (PPPs) that deliver high-quality business support,” Mr Ajani said.

He said Nigeria’s innovators and start-up entrepreneurs needed to encourage all players — investors, professionals, service providers, corporate partners etc — to buy in to the ideas of inclusiveness and engagement to transform the sector.

Although Mr Ajani said there was a good level of programs and trainers out there to help start-ups, the ANDE snapshot found that there was poor access to finance, lack of collaboration and coordination within the sector, a difficulty in finding suitably skilled workers and excessively high rent for space.

Heritage Bank, headed by MD Ifie Sekibo, attended the launch party of the ANDE ‘entrepreneurial ecosystem snapshot’ launch and, along with other stakeholders, championed the initiative to provide a clearer picture of the challenges faced by SGBs.

Speaking at the event Mr Ajani said ANDE’s plan was to illuminate the current business environment in Nigeria and Ghana so as to find ways of supporting SGBs to grow and prosper.