How Insecurity Forces Nigerian SMEs to Rethink Survival Strategies

Rising insecurity across Nigeria is fundamentally reshaping how small and medium-sized enterprises operate, pushing traders, transporters and producers to redesign supply chains as fears of kidnappings, highway attacks and communal violence intensify.

For many SME owners, survival is now driven less by market demand and more by the need to stay alive.

Across major commercial corridors linking the North to the South and the East to the West, once-busy trade routes are thinning as businesses avoid highways considered unsafe. In their place, longer and more expensive alternatives are emerging, driving up operating costs and squeezing margins that were already under pressure.

In Onitsha, Anambra State, spare parts dealer Chibuzo Okeke said he no longer travels personally to Lagos to restock goods. “I used to go twice a month. Now I haven’t been on that road in almost a year. We send drivers with escorts or rely on middlemen. It costs more, but my family prefers me alive,” he explained.

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Agricultural SMEs are also feeling the strain as insecurity disrupts the movement of food from farms to urban markets. A grains trader in Ilorin, Kwara State, Zainab Lawal, said supplies from the North-West have become unreliable.

“Sometimes trucks don’t come at all. When they do, prices are higher because drivers factor in risk money. Customers blame us, but we are also victims,” she said.

Transport operators say fear has altered delivery schedules and business hours. Night journeys, once common for moving perishable goods, are increasingly avoided. Abdullahi Yusuf, a small haulage operator on the Kaduna–Abuja route, said most drivers now reject night trips.

“Daylight is safer, but it brings delays and congestion. We lose time and money,” he explained.

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In the South-East, insecurity linked to separatist tensions has further constrained small businesses. Sporadic lockdowns, market closures and uncertainty have reduced effective trading days.

For instance, Ngozi Eze, who runs a fashion accessories shop in Aba, said she now stocks fewer items. “You don’t know when markets will open or close. I cannot risk borrowing to expand when sales are unstable,” she said.

Economists warn that the impact on SMEs, Nigeria’s largest employers, is becoming systemic. An economist and SME policy analyst, Dr Gbenga Adebiyi, described insecurity as a “silent business killer.” “

Small businesses lack buffers. When supply chains break and costs rise, they collapse quietly. This affects jobs, inflation and social stability,” he said.

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Industry groups report that some SMEs are relocating or scaling down operations to stay closer to home. While this reduces risk exposure, it also limits growth and interstate trade.

“We are seeing a retreat into local markets,” said Aisha Bello, a coordinator with an SME association in Lagos.

“That is bad for productivity and national integration.”

Although the Federal Government has repeatedly pledged to improve security, business owners say the impact is yet to be felt on key trade routes. Increasingly, SMEs are factoring insecurity into pricing, logistics planning, and even hiring decisions.

For traders like Okeke, the fear has become part of daily business calculations. “Business is about taking risks,” he said. “But in Nigeria today, the biggest risk is the road.”