MY VIEW ON ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA I have spoken on several platforms about how money should not stop any ambitious entrepreneur. In fact my friend Steve Harris says, its not what you dont have that limits you, its what you have but do not know how to use That said, may I also say that the high cost of doing business in Nigeria has remained a critical challenge to entrepreneurial development and ultimately the stunted growth experienced in the SME space. Nigerian market across all sectors especially in RETAIL have witnessed significant changes owing to the incredible influx of foreign players in the past 10 years (dont get me wrong, I understand and appreciate the importance of foreign direct investments FDI, thats not what Im talking about here). Unfortunately, the entry barrier to these sectors is low making it easy for foreign players to come in. These foreign players secure loans and very low interest rates from their countries (low cost of fund), establish their businesses in Nigeria with little or no effort as regulatory barriers are low. They evade tax and transfer proceeds of their businesses to their countries. Labour comes very cheap to them, you may need to visit a typical factory owned but some of these foreigners to understand how Nigerians are used and poorly remunerated. Who is to blame? When government is struggling with N18,000 minimum wage. Are you saying we do not have the intellectual capacity in Nigeria? Are you saying we lack the skills? Thats not exactly true. One of the greatest assets of this nation is our people, weve got exceptional human resources. Several great dreams, inventions, discoveries etc have been buried due to lack or support and inadequate funding. Securing a loan facility from a Nigerian bank is a daunting task, even when you get the loan, it doesnt come cheap. Nigeria has one of the highest interest rates on bank loans in Africa. How sad. If nothing is done to address this issue, we would be forced to eat from the palms of this foreigners because our SME growth will remain stunted and I hope someday we do not wake up to realize we have sold our birthrights.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Nov 2013 15:37:35 +0000
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