Two million businesses collapse in Nigeria within five years – SMEDAN

Two million businesses collapse in Nigeria within five years – SMEDAN

Over two million Small and Medium Enterprises collapsed in Nigeria within five years.

Director General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Olawale Fasanya, disclosed this.

He said the huge loss that occurred between 2017 and 2021 threw over six million Nigerians into the unemployment market.

He said the death of the businesses was largely due to insecurity that had denied farmers access to their farms.

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Other factors leading to the collapse of the firms were listed as inadequate access to affordable funds, high cost of doing business, inflation, and lack of access to local, regional and global markets, among others.

Fasanya spoke at the opening ceremony of cluster empowerment programme on shea butter, organised by the agency in collaboration with the Niger State Government, which was held in Minna, the state capital.

Represented by Prof. Fisher Yinka of the Partnership and Coordination Department of the agency, Fasanya said the cluster empowerment initiative was aimed at reinvigorating the rural enterprises and mainstream them into the formal sector to cushion the effects of the economic downturn on SMEs in the country.

The Director General, Niger State Commodity and Export Promotion Council, Fatima Wushishi, said the state produces 196,000 tons of shea butter annually of the 500,000 tons produced in West Africa.

She however lamented that the opportunities in the shea butter business had not been properly harnessed in the country.

Two million businesses collapse in Nigeria within five years – SMEDAN