Experts Charge SMEs to Leverage AI to Build Competitiveness 

Oluchi Chibuzor

With Nigerian SMEs contributing more than half of the nation’s GDP, experts have urged them to adopt sector specific AI that would enable them to scale their process, profit, and build a structure that is globally competitive.

Speaking at the 11th FATE Business Conference, Executive Director of Fate Foundation, Ayomide Akindolie-Igwe, cautioned entrepreneurs in following technology trends that are not tailored towards their business, sector and value chain.

According to her, “So entrepreneurs should be careful not to follow trends for the sake of trends. They should pay attention to the details of their business, be intimately familiar with the details of their business, so their performance, their processes, and then get to know what the gaps are. And then pick on technology that’s trending, et cetera, to plug their own gaps.

“Because what’s working for somebody else may not be what works for them. So they have to start with learning what their own business needs before making any decision on technology, and not choosing things just because they’re trending.

“Because limiting ourselves to just this market puts us in a difficult position when we’re competing with local and global brands and global policy. And so thinking beyond borders is just to make sure you get to the kind of policy that allows you to compete globally. Maybe you may make the decision to actually just maximise locally, but even locally, you have to be globally competitive because we have so many imports now, right?

Dean & Director, FATE School of Entrepreneurship, Bambo Adebowale, said enterprise without structure is throwing money away.

“But an enterprise without structure is almost throwing money away. So what we do is to provide structure for entrepreneurs so that they’re starting, they’re growing, they’re scaling it all with a purpose. And that is why the Fate Foundation was set up originally,” he said.