‘I am coming into board of SMEDAN to assist small businesses’

Ekama Akpan is a member of the newly inaugurated board of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). She spoke with Harrison EDEH regarding her determination to ensure that operators of small-scale businesses get needed support.
What is your vision as a member of the newly inaugurated board of SMEDAN, and how will you help impact SMEs in the country?

I am coming in from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), and I am concerned with the situation of small businesses. In MAN, we have both large, medium and small. We have found out over the years that the bulk of the people are in the macro and small, and we are trying to see how we can incorporate the small and macro. But most times when people hear of MAN, they are afraid to come, that they don’t have the sum of money required, but we don’t have large groups anymore. So, most people are in the medium.

So how am I going to make the difference? I was given a choice and deliberately chose MAN. The people really in need now are the women and the youths who are out of school and have no jobs. Some want to work in the oil company, and you see mostly people dying shortly after retirement not knowing what to do. The truth of the matter is that entrepreneurship is what is happening in China and government must give support. They should not talk about it alone but put it to action, release fund to make it everybody’s business.

Mothers don’t really need to go to work, they can be taught how to source for fund, package and keep records of their products and sell in their houses. Banks are not giving funds anymore because they give at high interest, and they do not want to come at a loss. They are also in business to survive. Most of their loans that have been defaulted are from small businesses. They make the people understand that money needs to be refunded. But the truth is that these traders do not know how to keep record;  they do not know that money needs to grow. If you see good entrepreneurs like Dangote, they work hard, they don’t eat the seed of investment. An entrepreneur must know how to manage his investment for it grow and yield good seed.

Do you have any model of what you may want to introduce, like you talked about the knowledge gap?

Yes, I have a school because I found out that the youths are not ready to work, and when you ask them to work, they feel it is a burden. However,  when we make it compulsory that they must pass the entrepreneurship examination in the university like it is in Ghana, they will learn something. I don’t think any university has made it compulsory. Accounting and Book-keeping should be made compulsory in our secondary schools just like English and Mathematics. If they learn them in the university as compulsory courses before they get their degrees, they will take it seriously and when they start working, they will be mindful of what the business requires and know that you don’t eat your seed.

Business support service is key, how will the board implement it?

I have been saying for a long time that the problem is that many people don’t know how to keep books. Those that did ABC accounting can help with book keeping, do a little job and collect money from the uneducated ones.

Are you aware of the National Entrepreneur Development Programme?

Well, we only see all these things on the book, but it really does not get to the grassroots. People come to me to ask for money but looking at the money they have spent on their dress, I get scared that they might not return the money. So they should start from the small level. If the board is existing, it has not reached the grassroots. We will just keep talking about it. Just take a look at the Bank of Industry. How many people have they given money to? Almost nobody, because they make the process rigorous, such that the people in need may even decide not to take the money any more.

So if the government is serious, it should monitor such activities. If you go to take money, you will be asked to bring 40 percent of equity. If you can give them 40 percent, you can as well do it yourself without their help. Aba is comprised of people that are successful in business but they don’t go to banks. They don’t even need to work for anybody; they have the tendency to work for themselves. But if you tell them they will be given bonuses, they will start to employ.