A group, African Hub International, says it will partner with international organisations to provide a platform for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to thrive in Nigeria.

Mrs Oluneye Oluwole, the Executive Director of the group, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

“Our mission is to develop them, make them better, informed, connected, and create enabling environment for them to thrive,” she said.

NAN reports that African Hub International is an entrepreneur development organisation and middleman to SMEs in Nigeria.

It provides basic amenities to SMEs and startups such as virtual office with high powered internet and uninterrupted power supply, market platform, access to the foreign markets, standard and accreditation of products.

Oluwole said that the partnership would create synergy that would enable SMEs to have international access, business development and networking service.

She said: “We are an Africa ecosystem enabler where we enable SMEs; to that effect, we provide virtual office, platform for networking, restructuring and exposure.

“The SMEs lack structures to access fund to be investor ready and be bankable, because the financial institutions refuse to give them loan.

“We have to broker a kind of synergy and that will make the SMEs bankable, investor ready and investment ready.

“Because of this, we needed to intervene, to restructure their businesses in a way that they will be bankable to financial institution or to any grant-giving organisation, and of course, any investor.

“In view of this, we have brokered strategic partnership that we believe will help SMEs where they can access on their own.

“We have started brokering relationship with the USA commercial service, the Consulate, Nigeria Belgium Chamber of Commerce, Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), Distribution Generation Interconnection Collaborative (DGIC), Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Nigeria (AHK).”

Oluwole said the group had also partnered with Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO), Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to create a one-stop-shop for SMEs.

She added that her organisation was also engaging SMEs and startups on capacity building having discovered that most of the products exported abroad were denied access to the European market due to standard and accreditation.

According to her, our organisation took some SMEs to the last Agric Business Summit in Atlanta on seminars to develop their skills in entrepreneurship and to expose them to different partners.

“Capacity building is a major factor in developing SMEs in the country, transformation of SMEs is important at this time, because they are the nation builders, if you don’t grow them, you don’t grow the country,” she said. (NAN)

– Mar. 14, 2018 @ 12:50 GMT |