PwC’s MSME Survey 2020 shows that Nigeria has 41.5 million MSME businesses which have contributed 48% – on average – to the country’s national GDP over the last five years. Despite their large number, Nigeria does not have a lot more evolving as sustainable entities.
Also noteworthy is the fact that small business owners are confronted with challenges that make it difficult to build thriving enterprises. To address this and other challenges, more and more attention is given to accelerator programs as well as the role they play in helping to launch scalable businesses.
This issue was explored on Fidelity SME Forum, a half-hour knowledge sharing radio & Instagram Live program that aims to empower Nigerian entrepreneurs, under the theme “Creating Winning Businesses Through Accelerator Programs”.
For this edition of the Fidelity SME Forum LIVE on Radio, Regional Director at Founder Institute, Africa, Director at ISN Hubs and Co-founder of GoDo Hub and techbuild.africa, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, was invited to share his wealth of experience on how SMEs can leverage accelerator programs in building successful businesses.
In the course of the show, CFA demonstrates his zeal to help SMEs leverage technology, opening their minds to the possibility of scaling faster.
He draws a contrast between the traditional, brick and mortar enterprises which, more often than not, take a longer time to grow and become profitable and startups that operate on a completely different business model.
As a Regional Director for Africa at Founder Institute, the world’s largest pre-seed accelerator based in Silicon Valley, CFA helps to coordinate the accelerator program across Africa with a view to supporting entrepreneurs to build thriving businesses. He uses the Founder Institute program to illustrate the vital role accelerators play in the growth of businesses. Click here to listen to the chat and also feel free to enroll in Cohort II of FI Abuja or Cohort V of FI Lagos.
He describes the Founder Institute accelerator as a sector agnostic program that allows entrepreneurs to incorporate technology into the heart of their business. It is a 14-week intensive and rigorous that helps founders incubate their business at an early stage. He explains that entrepreneurs need a community that has a vested interest in the growth of their businesses; FI provides access to a vast community of enablers which include mentors, cohort members, and directors.
Participants of every cohort stand a chance to receive life-changing benefits such as mentorship from successful and established entrepreneurs within the Nigerian innovation ecosystem and beyond. In addition, they are well-positioned to receive funding.
Click here to listen to this episode of Fidelity SME Forum LIVE on Radio and enroll in Cohort II of FI Abuja or Cohort V of FI Lagos.
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