SMEDAN, MTN  Sign MOU to Power SMEs with Digital Platform 

Dike Onwuamaeze 

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), and the MTN Nigeria Plc have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to provide a digital platform that would promote financial and digital inclusions needed to grow Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The MOU was signed by the Director General of SMEDAN, Dr. Charles Odii, for SMEDAN and the Chief Enterprise Business Officer, MTN Nigeria Plc, Ms. Lynda Saint-Nwafor, and Chief Operating Officer, MTN Nigeria Plc, Mr. Ayham Moussa, for MTN Nigeria Plc.

The signing of the MOU took place last week at the head office of MTN Nigeria Plc. Odii described the MOU as a handshake between the SMEDAN and the MTN Nigeria that would enable the SMEDAN to achieve its mandate of growing the prosperity of over 40 million SMEs in Nigeria.

He said: “MTN is a commercial communication technology organisation that is helping us to achieve this goal.  We have the mandate to develop these small businesses. So we are supposed to go into every local government and make sure that small businesses get developed.”

Speaking on behalf of MTN Nigeria, Saint-Nwafor said that ignoring the wellbeing of the SMEs that contribute close to 50 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP would amount to ignoring the economic growth of the country.

She said: “That is why the government paid a lot of attention by establishing SMEDAN to focus on identifying opportunities to help SMEs to grow. Now, as an enterprise business, MTN’s role is to enable every business, whether they are small, micro, small, medium or large companies.”