Network to explore opportunities for SMEs in real estate

Opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are yet untapped in the real estate sector of the nation’s economy will be explored by a network of business women this week.

The network called NECA Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW) is an association set up under the aegis of the Nigeria’s Employers Consultative Association (NECA) and opened to all business women and aspiring ones.

Edobong Akpabio, the public relations officer of NNEW, says the network encourages SMEs to invest in real estate even if it is not related to their core business operations.

According to her, this would boost profitably and provide collateral for easier access to credit from banks. She then discloses that NNEW is partnering real estate firms to accommodate the needs of SMEs to acquire real estates. She says, “These real estate firms apart from proving housing estates can also provide commercial or industrial lands in estates for SMEs to acquire through instalment payments. All these would be explored at this event holding Thursday, June 27, this year at Alausa Shopping Mall in Lagos. It is opened to all SME operators apart from NNEW members with a token fee.”

NNEW was set up in 2005 to encourage and promote entrepreneurship among women. Apart from its regular networking meetings, the association provides free business consultancy services for members by consultants trained by International Labour Organisation (ILO), and also gives opportunities to members to showcase their businesses to large audiences.

NNEW believes that every of its members’ businesses can grow to become big businesses. According to the various experts that have come to speak at the network meetings, many of the highly successful multinational companies in the world were started by individual(s) with little or no money but with a strong vision. So, every small business has the potential of becoming a multinational company or public limited company provided the operators have the will to accomplish it.

The various steps that business owners can take to grow their small businesses into highly successful companies or multinationals have been shared at the network. It is with the realisation that though it is not so easy, the fact that there are small businesses that have achieved this within the last two decades in Nigeria where the business terrain is so tough shows that it is actually possible. Some of these businesses are FTN Cocoa Plc, Omatek Computers and so on whose founders/managing directors have been to the network to address the members.

Many of these small businesses of yesteryears that have become big companies today made solid investments in real estate as they grew. Having real estate provided collaterals which helped them access loans from banks even when they were small businesses. The real estate also shielded them from having to pay outrageously expensive rent on the buildings they occupy and such money was reinvested in the business. In some cases, some small businesses rent out unused space in their office or factory buildings and this also provides funds for reinvestment.