nstructured Market, Bane of MSME Development, Says Experts

nstructured Market, Bane of MSME Development, Says Experts

By Emma Okonji

Experts in digital business development have identified myriad of challenges affecting the growth of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, which include unstructured market place, lack of funding and proper book keeping training.

They however preferred solution to address the challenges.

The experts who spoke at the virtual launch of Excite Enterprise into the Nigerian market with various simplified innovations, designed to lead MSMEs on the pathway to success and sustainability, said they have designed a business platform to facilitate solutions to the many problems faced by MSMEs in terms of low productivity, inability to access funds, legal difficulties involved in business registration, and reaching the right customers through influencer marketing.

Director at Excite Enterprise, Mr. Bolaji Okusaga, said SMEs have faced a lot of problems in Nigeria especially in the area of funding and other logistics because the government cannot reach out to all of them, hence the urgent need for Excite Enterprise to lead the way to the development of the country’s economy through the proliferation of viable SMEs.

Okusaga, who is also the CEO of Precise Platforms, said Excite would deliver on its promise to revamp the MSME sector through its partnership with organizations across countries that are willing to support entrepreneurs in the country.

Excite Enterprise, he explained, would provide innovative services to develop and deepen markets for MSMEs, thus providing entrepreneurs across the business space an opportunity to reach consumers, boost brand names, sales, competitiveness, and improve rendered services. These businesses will not only be able to access funding to scale up their potentials, they will also have entry to a bigger market, he added.

Another Director at Excise Enterprise and CEO of Mobinet, Hong Kong, Mr. Andrew Otiko, asserted that the platform’s sole aim was to make life easy for SMEs through technology usage as he is of the firm belief that if the sector is well organised, there will be massive employment in the country.

He said, “Excite platform has the sole aim of using technology to make life easy for SMEs. It will also facilitate funding from some of our partners that are involved in providing grants and also facilitate other services that will mitigate challenges faced by MSME.

‘’The only way the economy can grow is by providing jobs to the citizenry which can only happen if we change the narrative for SMEs, if processes are in a place where things are simple, there will be massive employment opportunities for everyone if each SME can sustain its growth and recruit just one person.’’

On how the features can spread across the country, especially for those in the rural areas to be able to access the platform, Okusaga said those within that category will be able to pick the language they want when on the platform, which will make the communication easy to use for them.

The Chief Technology Officer at Excite Enterprise, Mr. Chinonso Ukwandu, said the platform had every feature needed for every MSMEs to succeed as through navigating the website, each business owner can be able to meet agencies that can facilitate fund for it, do bookkeeping, build personal websites and engage influencers in marketing its products.

There is also a recruitment and training tool on the platform, where prospective employers can meet the right fit, and also facilitate training for the small business owners. The first edition of the training has been held and many more will happen before the end of the year, Ukwandu said.

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