SMEs stressed as 70% of female-owned businesses un-served by banks
The sluggish growth of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa’s largest economy may continue as 70 percent of female-owned businesses remain either un-served or under-served by financial institutions.
According to Omowumi Gbadamosi, country director for Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), who quoted the International Finance Corporation (IFC), this is not just peculiar to Nigeria but extends to other developing countries.
“When women do have access to credit, they tend to rely on debt-based funding,” said Gbadamosi, who spoke at a conference organised by the women group of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NAWORG) in Ikeja, Lagos, last week.
Nigerian women struggle to access funds from financial institutions as the majority of their businesses are yet to be formalised. Banks complain that many, especially micro players, do not have proper records of transactions. The success of their enterprises is also crimped by family commitments and cultural values, Start-Up Digest has found.
Gbadamosi said without access to capital, women struggle to start and run enterprises.
“Even with the capital, women can be held back due to cultural factors,” she said, adding that females invest 90 percent of the money back into their families, meaning that their families are better-fed, healthier and more educated.
She cited a 2014 Global Economic Forum study, which said 40.7 percent of adult women in Nigeria and Zambia are owner-managers of their enterprises or are nascent entrepreneurs, as testimony that they need to be supported, while calling on women to influence and support policies and laws that have impact on businesses in order to deliver real benefits in the form of better operating, legal and regulatory environment for women-owned businesses.
Bassey Edem, national president, NACCIMA, while addressing the theme, ‘The Challenges, Opportunities and Benefits of Transiting from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’, said pursuit of the latter provides opportunities to create value to society by inspiring new innovative approaches, prompting companies to replicate successful activities in new markets, encouraging new collaborations and increasing participations in existing collaborations.
In her presentation entitled, ‘Galvanising the Grassroots Women Entrepreneurs to Key into Opportunities of SDGs’, Iyalode Alaba Lawson, 1st deputy national president of NACCIMA, said a strong desire to something positive is an inbuilt quality of entrepreneurial women, who contribute values in family and social lives, re-echoing The Economist’s 2006 position that ‘women are world’s most underutilised resource’.
Lawson said women need interventions of various degrees such as credit, business management training, market information, and research, among others.
Patricia Idiakhoa, vice chairperson of NAWORG, who also doubles as the vice president of Warro]i Chamber of Commerce, said women entrepreneurs are critical to and indispensable in the Nigerian economy.
“When you meet the woman that sells tomatoes, tell her to take record of sales. When she takes record, you will be amazed at how much she contributes to the economy. When big companies unload their wares, it is these women that sell them. If the women don’t sell, nobody will unload the next container,” she said.
Evelyn Obidike, assistant director at the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), said women entrepreneurs desirous of being exporters must take the issues of product development and market information seriously.
“We cannot go far without being computer-literate. If we must get to the market, we must know e-commerce, have our products logged on the internet and possess functional e-mails,” Obidike said.
“Networking is also very important. You need to have exposure in other markets where your type of products is sold. This will help you to learn best international practices,” she advised, urging exporters to conduct proper research before launching their goods into any market.
ODINAKA ANUDU