The maiden edition of Skye Bank's Business Seminar tagged "IT IS POSSIBLE" featured top business executives of the bank saying "YES" to the growth of SMEs in Nigeria.
Mr Timothy Oguntayo, the Executive Director, Investment and Corporate Banking Group, in his welcome address explained that SMEs over the world have been a viable tool for economic growth. According to him, recent statistics shows that about 32million Nigerians are employed by the SMEs, which is about 20% of the total population of Nigeria.
He spoke extensively about the downsizing and rationalising of large corporations and government's artificial embargo on employment since they can only employ a limited number of people.
He therefore reiterated the importance of SMEs and Skye Bank's resolve to play a pivotal role in making the business terrain more favourable for them and this he said is achievable by understanding the peculiarities of various SMEs and facilitating positive policy changes from the government. It is against this backdrop that the Skye Bank's SME seminar was conceptualised.
Mrs Arinola kola- Daisi, GM, Retail Banking Group in her opening remark made mention of the abounding opportunities in Nigeria amidst the harsh economic environment and difficulties faced as a nation. In her words ....."We as Nigerians must make sure we utilize these opportunities”
The seminar was divided into two parts, with speeches from various speakers who run SMEs themselves, stories of their humble beginning, starting from scratch to a very enviable position.
Mrs Bolanle Koya, CEO, The Wedding Store, an event planning outfit, shared a profound story about the struggles (most especially in getting finance from the banking sector to take the vision she had for her outfit to the next level) the pitfalls and the rise of her event planning outfit.
Mr Nwobi Chinedu Theo, CEO/Director, Everrise Wire and Cable Limited, narrowed down his speech to branding and how to start up a business with little or no capital but by availing one’s self to render services urgently needed. Sir Sunny Nwosu focused on the agriculture sector and how to boost the country's GDP by just starting an SME.
The second part part was a platform orchestrated by the bank to enlighten SMEs and budding entrepreneurs on how to be “bank smart". Mr Emmanuel Aihevba, SM, Priority Banking Group, Skye Bank focused on the company's retail banking group products and how it works. He broke them into four segments viz :
Small Business Groups
Priority Banking Business
Mass Retail
Money Transfer and Franchise.
Concluding that the aforementioned platforms are designed to support emerging and growing businesses through its low cost portfolio, making mention of convenience and cost management as the foundational principles behind the bank's product. Followed by an interactive session with entrepreneurs and customers of the bank.
Small and Medium Enterprise are companies whose personnel number fall below certain limit. Small enterprises outnumber large companies by a wide margin and also employs by far many more people.
SMEs are known to be responsible for driving innovation and competition in many economic sectors. In developed and developing countries worldwide, SMEs are making their mark on the economic landscape due to their strategic importance in re- engineering the industrial sector.
This is no less evident in Trinidad and Tobago where SMEs have mushroomed over the last decade numbering some 18,000 by the end of 2010, employing 200,000 persons and contributing nearly 28% to GDP. This compares favourably with India where SMEs contribution rose from 17% in 2009 to almost 22% by 2012.
Developed countries like The U.S.A, Japan, South Korea and Germany's contribution to their GDP respectively, exceeds 50%. It is instructive to note however that this comparison of SMEs are not on similar parameters as Small and Medium Enterprises are not uniform both in size and shape, across the globe.
Indeed SMEs are being viewed in many quarters as a vital engine for growth.
