Technology has become a global phenomenon, cutting across all businesses in the developed and developing economies of the world. Its importance in enhancing the growth of small businesses, which often are the drivers of economic growth, is very obvious.

Mr. Adim Isiakpona, the Marketing and Public Relations Manager, Intel West Africa in this interview with Emeka Aginam explained how Intel seeks to offer Nigerian small and medium businesses( SMBs), with technology solutions to help grow their business. Stating that Africa is their growth market , he said SMEs should leverage on technology to boost their businesses.

Excerpts:

SMBs as the engine of growth for socio-economic transformation

Isiakpona

This is true, not just for the Nigerian economy but any economy. Studies show that In developed countries, Small amd Medium Enterprises, SMEs, account for a large proportion of the total employment growth, In such countries SMEs produce a significant share of increase in gross domestic product(GDP) while contribution from larger enterprises.

The situation in Nigeria is not different as SMEs are springing up each day. You will find that averagely managed SMBs create employment opportunities, income for citizens and ultimately the government benefits by way of taxes.

Challenges facing SMBs in Nigeria

There are many challenges facing SMEs including government regulations, recruitments, employee healthcare, growing revenue, increasing profit. But to put it in proper perspective, SMBs can be started by anyone with little or no capital in Nigeria today. With this explanation, I will say the key challenges SMEs face included structured and relevant support from large corporations, proper training or skills acquisition.

Why Intel chose to be part of this initiative

Intel celebrated 50years of existence a few months ago, and our core mission as a corporation is to enrich the lives of everyone one on earth through technology. We have been in the business of providing innovative technology that drive success for about 50years. More critical than ever we have started to narrow down to the SMBs as we see huge potential in that space.

They are the game changers to look out for in our society, extremely flexible and their time to market isn’t determined in a board meeting. Our main objective is to ensure that as SMEs in Africa strive to grow their businesses, they achieve this by using technology and solutions that help increase productivity and ultimately save time and money.

Strategies put in place to ensure accessibility

Our partnership with Diamond bank, MTN Business, Microsoft and HP is in itself strategic, as we individually have the SMB segment on our priority list of things to do. This program does not just seek to offer product and services from the different partners involved but to truly engage as closely

as we can with SMEs to understand what the real limitations are and ultimately help drive business productivity through technology & entrepreneurship trainings, using the right technology & services for their business enhancements.

Intel involvement in training SMBs

Over the years at Intel we have worked with different sub sets and partnered with countless organization to scale Technology and entrepreneurship skills. We have specifically tailored training programs that address relevant areas SMEs need to go grow their business uch as entrepreneurship training, Easy steps training on technology usage and adoption.

With this initiative we intend to not only focus on our existing training programs but leverage that of our partners to ensure we are really addressing SMEs pain points through technology.

Intel support for small scale businesses

Over and above this program Intel is constantly working with the IT ecosystem to ensure we deliver to the market the right products at the right price. Africa is one of our growth market and we not just working with big corporate to deliver these products but we also engage local manufacturers to scale and deliver locally relevant products and contents. These engagements, we believe, indirectly affects the SMBs space.

Technology as key driver to SMBs

Working smart, getting the right visibility and access to a potential customers for products and services requires the use of ICT. The objective of this program is to ultimately see SMEs acknowledge the relevance of ICT and adapt the relevant ICT tools that will help grow their businesses.

Success stories I expect to hear from SMEs who we intend to engage, would be how Technology has helped with time management, improve business processes, create visibility for the products or services, and most importantly helped them increase revenue.