The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has granted 116 competent Business Development Service Providers (BDSPs) practice licenses.
Dr Charles Odii, Director-General of SMEDAN, stated this at the agency’s BDSPs Licencing Award event on Wednesday in Lagos.
Odii stated that the practicing license would allow BDSPs to give quality services to the country’s Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs).
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the BDSPs certification was developed in partnership with Kaduna Business School, the Enterprise Development Centre, and Pan Atlantic University.
The BDSPs are Nigerians from the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem who have met the standards to practice their profession in a specific jurisdiction.
This usually entails finishing a particular amount of schooling and training, passing an examination, and remaining morally upright.
“Today is a very big day for us at the agency because we awarded licenses to business development service providers, which is very important and a response to the cry of small businesses in Nigeria,” Odii explained.
“Many of them have different problems; just as you have sick patients and doctors, a couple of certified individuals must go through a rudimentary process to become certified in order to attend to sick people.”
“We have staggering statistics that show that 70% of small businesses fail within the first three years for a variety of reasons.”
“So, as an agency, we recruited a couple of people, they went through a scholarly process of training from the Enterprise Development Centre and Kaduna Business School, and then they got a certification and their license, and they became our eyes and ears throughout Nigeria.”
“So, right now, their job is to go into the market and help small businesses thrive.”
“The agency is collaborating with an NGO, The African Centre for Global Entrepreneurial Leadership, to ensure credible access to more affordable finance for MSMEs in Nigeria.”
“This is to put into action the Leadership Entrepreneurial Game Show, in which successful participants will receive N5 million in grants and tools.”
“The game show is currently in progress, and all existing and potential entrepreneurs are encouraged to register at www.legs.afrca,” he stated.
Odii revealed that the agency was collaborating with selected banks to launch the Matching Fund Programme for MSMEs in order to improve access to funding.
He described the intervention as providing finance as a promotional instrument to increase firm output, competitiveness, and job creation.
According to him, prospective beneficiaries may be eligible for loans ranging from N2.5 million to N500 million.
Odii invited all qualified MSMEs in the agricultural sub-sector to apply online at www.smedan.gov.ng.
While walking them through the portal, Dr Dahiru Sani, Rector of Kaduna Business School, stated that the key job of the BDSPs would be to support MSMEs in terms of how they would respond to the shocks of recent policy challenges.
“They will go around their ecosystem, conduct a survey, learn about the challenges they face, and try to determine what kind of interventions will be required.”
“Sometimes it’s financial, emotional resilience, technological support, market access, and the quality of people within the system.”
“Sometimes it’s shifting the market’s focus from Nigeria to outside the country, and other times it’s building a larger portfolio where you can earn in different currencies,” Sani explained.
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