Nume Ekeghe
The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has partnered with Bloc, a financial services infrastructure company that provides tools and software for SMEs to efficiently manage their financial operations and how they serve their customers with financial technology.
SMEDAN has rolled out numerous initiatives in the past, such as the Subsidized Business Development (SBD) services, National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) etc., that sought to empower MSMEs across the different regions in the country.
The Director General of SMEDAN Olawale Fasanya, in a statement, said the prevalent challenge for businesses in Nigeria has been a lack of/poor infrastructure to manage business operations and access financial services amongst other things, and this is one of the challenges this strategic partnership with Bloc aims to solve. He said the partnership is aimed at promoting the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in the country by providing them with easy access to FinTech tools and infrastructure in alignment with SMEDAN’s responsibilities as a government agency.
He states: “If micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) do well, they can contribute significantly to employment generation, wealth creation, poverty reduction, and sustainable economic growth and development in Nigeria.”
Explaining the role of Bloc in the partnership, He said it is a financial services infrastructure company that provides access to an array of easy-to-use tools and software for SMEs with little or zero technical know-how. According to him, Beyond what Bloc offers is their expertise in managing their financial operations seen recently with the launch of their new Dashboard and the wide range of FinTech products available on their infrastructure
