•Not reflective of realities on ground – ASBON
•Survey report is strange – CPPE

By Yinka Kolawole

Despite the myriad of challenges confronting Nigerian entrepreneurs, about 80 percent of Nano, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (NMSMEs) say they are optimistic about business opportunities in the country.

A survey carried out on the State of Entrepreneurship (SoE) in Nigeria in 2022 by Fate Institute, gave an index score of 0.80 out of a possible 1.0 on the perception of opportunities for entrepreneurship.

The Institute is a research, policy and advocacy arm of Fate Foundation, the facilitator of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) MSME Community of Practice.

Speaking on the report, Executive Director, FATE Foundation, Adenike Adeyemi, stated: “The SoE survey covered 8,611 businesses across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Nigeria.

“The report tracks key indicators of entrepreneurship along five pillars – business performance, skills acquisition, innovation and technology adoption, perception of opportunities and enabling business environment.

“Despite the challenging business environment, the majority of entrepreneurs are optimistic about the future. 

“In 2022, Nigeria had an entrepreneurial index score of 0.58 out of 1.0, implying a slightly better than average performance on entrepreneurship development in Nigeria. Across the five pillars, the best performing was perception of opportunities with an index score of 0.80 out of 1.0. This indicates that 80 percent of entrepreneurs are optimistic about business opportunities in Nigeria.

“The result depicts that most entrepreneurs are highly optimistic about the future of their businesses and are most likely to expand their businesses in the coming year despite the harsh business environment,” she added. 

In his reaction, Dr. Femi Egbesola, President, Association of Small Business Owners of Nigeria (ASBON), stated: “Nigerians are typically always full of hopes and best wishes. We strongly believe in a better tomorrow and do pray and yearn for a good government that will perhaps change the economic fortunes of our dear country. However, the realities on ground show otherwise.

“Day by day, the economy is nose diving and many businesses are shutting down. This is escalated by the myriads of issues which include but not limited to rising inflation, forex, infrastructure breakdown and deficit, increasing lack of access to finance and market, eroded purchasing power of the average consumer, policy inconsistency and somersaults, rise in cost of fuel and energy, influx of substandard imported products competing with local ones, multiple taxation, etc.”

Also commenting, Director, Centre for the Promotion of Public Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, Director, said: “This is a strange survey report. Yes opportunities are there, but how easy is it to access or take advantage of these opportunities? 

“Prevailing economic conditions have crippled many businesses, especially the small businesses’’.