The Nation Newspaper

Category: Small Business and Entreprenuership

  • Establish brands to boost garment export, expert urges

    USAID West Africa Trade and Investment Hub Consultant Mr. Musa Rubin has urged garment exporters to establish brands to boost their trade.

    He spoke at a workshop organised by the Trade Hub and Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) in Lagos.

    Rubin  discussed the diversity of the United States (US) market, where over 50 million people spend an average of $1,000 per person on garments yearly.

    “As Nigeria is closer to the U.S. than Asia, it offers a particular geographic advantage. We don’t have to go through the Suez Canal or around Africa; it is just a straight shot,” Rubin said.

    Another advantage, according to Rubin, is the relatively low wage cost, meaning, if manufacturers improve productivity and quality, they can in turn increase access to the market.

    “And, finally, I think this is probably the more important point. Nigeria is a cauldron of creativity; the culture and designs would enable you to create demand in niche markets,” he added.

    Rubin, then, tasked each garment manufacturer to think about their capabilities and competitive advantage and consider where they want to be in the future in terms of pricing, product mix, order size, consumer perception of quality, and responsiveness.

    Trade Hub Apparel Value Chain Specialist Mr. Emmanuel Odonkor addressed the importance of certification.

    Odonkor and Finance and Investment Specialist Mr. William Addo took participants through the importance of becoming Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) certified—a requirement for many international apparel retailers— as well as how to prepare for trade shows and access finance to expand their operations.

    At the end of the workshop, participants formed the Nigerian Association of Apparel Manufacturers (NAAM) and elected members of the association’s steering committee.

    NAAM is expected to engage government and other key stakeholders in the sector to sensitise them on the opportunities that prevail in the sector, particularly job creation and revenue generation.

    The  Trade Hub and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) brought together about 40 apparel stakeholders to learn how to expand and enter international markets, particularly the U.S. market through the U.S. African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) – an  important challenge for Nigerian apparel factories, as identified in last year’s Trade Hub assessment of the apparel sector.

  • Cooking her way to success

    Food entrepreneur Miss Bolaji Ekundayo is one of the  few graduates, who can boast of their own businesses before graduating.

    The embodiment of entrepreneurial spirit, the Obafemi Awolowo University graduate’s passion  for running a business is noteworthy. Miss Bolaji represents a strong entrepreneur and innovative thinker.

    Her entrepreneurial journey began after she found out at an early age that the food sector was her true calling. Though she started a small venture, today, she is running a thriving food business, providing catering services at weddings and otherv events.

    She has catered for dozens of private events and personal “cheffed” to many. She said her undergraduate days were challenging yet rewarding.

    While at university, Bolaji created tasteful soups and meals, which students found delightful. They helped advertise her culinary expertise through word of mouth and recommendations.

    Her words: “Customers come via word of mouth.” In this way, she began to think of the university as her “home away from home”.

    Running a business was not easy; she encountered challenges along the way. The jam-packed weekend schedule that comes with jobs means early wake-up times and many late nights to prepare for events.

    However, she embraces these challenges, noting: “It was necessary to experience the bad days in order to realise and appreciate the good ones.‘’

    The university has provided her with an opportunity to pursue her passion and continue building her business. The experience opened  many doors in her life.

    After graduation and completing her National Youth Service, Bolaji    decided against paid employment.

    As business is growing, she is trying to break into corporate events. Her food is made like any at home. Her ambition is to make it easy for everyone in Lagos to eat good food during events.

  • ‘I started business in the varsity’

    ‘I started business in the varsity’

    Most undergraduates are preoccupied with how they will pay off their debts and meet their commitments while on campus. The Chief Executive, TechPreneur Africa, Bolaji Finnih, found a novel way to do it; he started his own drinks business while at the University of Lagos (UNILAG). He was one of the speakers at this month’s CFA’s Startups Hangout in Lagos, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    This  month’s CFA’s Startups Hangout in Lagos turned out to be very exciting. Two  entrepreneurs, Chief Executive, TechPreneur Africa, Bolaji Finnih,  and his iBez Solutions counterpart, Ommo Clark, shared their knowledge with startups on how to grow their businesses.

    A serial entrepreneur, Finnih has founded over seven businesses in 15 years, the latest of which is Joulytics, a power solutions company offering innovative energy products and consultancy. Finnih’s is one of the entrepreneurial success stories.

    A graduate of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), he studied Cell Biology and Genetics. He shared how he founded the business while in school, and  he has used the lessons he learnt in those days to build the business into what it is.

    Finnih told the forum that  he established a drink business when he realised students stay late on campus daily. To make it a success, he had to work extremely hard, with many late nights to keep the business going. Open from evening, it was a melting port for students.The venture grew tremendously. Starting a business at the university, according to him, was difficult but it provided the best building blocks for any future entrepreneur.

    Upon graduation, he went into recharge cards and mobile phones sales through a website.   Having mastered the business, he went into online retailing. A few years later, he left for Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, UnitQed States  (US) to study for a Master of Business Administration (MBA) Sloan Fellows Programme in Innovation and Global Leadership.

    He came back well empowered and  set for the highbrow world of  business incubation and acceleration. Having mentored many youths who have gone on to build successful businesses, he refused to take excuses from  unemployed youths still awaiting   white-collar jobs.

    Instead of wasting away at home, Finnih advised young people to grab opportunities in their communities and provide  solutions that will help them  become entrepreneurs and active participants in the country’s economy.

    On his own, Finnih has  established a  partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)  Legatum Centre for Development & Entrepreneurship and the MasterCard Foundation to open up new avenues for young entrepreneurs to develop locally grown solutions to problems.

    On her part, Ommo, Principal Software Designer & CEO at iBez, said she started off her career with Real Asset Management, United Kingdom (UK) as an Application Support Consultant. She moved to Lehman Brothers UK as a Team Leader charged with managing the web applications for the Mortgage Capital Division.

    She later moved to Nigeria in 2008 where she worked with a Software Company-SoftSolutions (EnterpriseWare) as Head, Delivery and Support until 2010 and then as an International Development Company as Chief Operations Officer (COO) until December 2012.

    She started running iBez full time in January 2013. She came up with Internet-based solutions to address some of these issues. The first of these is Handy Jacks, which is an application to find local vetted and trained tradespeople and technicians on demand.

    However, her entrepreneurial journey has been a roller coaster, full of ups and down. This is because she didn’t know how to run a business when she first started, although she had worked in the corporate world. She was soon to overcome her problems as the business has evolved dramatically.

    She has decided to take on less design work and focus on marketing her software and on teaching other designers. She also advised young entrepreneurs do a thorough research about the businesses they want to venture into to acquire knowledge about the business.

    The  convener, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, said CFA’s Startups Hangout is a monthly meet where entrepreneurs meet, network, learn and grow.

  • Boost for cocoa entrepreneurs

    Boost for cocoa entrepreneurs

    a new cocoa economy may be on the horizon as an international organisation, German International Cooperation (GIZ), is teaching agro entrepreneurs to explore new income possibilities across the cocoa industry. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    An international organisation, German International Cooperation (GIZ), is giving agro entrepreneurs the tools they need to turn cocoa production into a viable busines.

    With  so much  money  declared  by  international chocolate makers yearly, the organisation is determined to lift smallholder farmers out of poverty.

    Cocoa production accounts for 10 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and supports 10 million people, which translates to about 30 per cent of Nigeria ’s population.

    GTZ’s long-term aim is to help the farmers become independent members of an agricultural “value chain”.

    Across Ondo State, 18,648 cocoa farmers, made up of 7,449 women and 11,199 men in 648 groups across 10 local government areas, have received  the Farmer Business School (FBS) training supported by the German Development Cooperation-Sustainable Smallholder Agribusiness (GIZ-SSAB) programme. The core curriculum covers business, good agricultural practice and cooperative skills.

    According to GIZ Country Director, Dr. Thomas Kirsch, “the FBS has succeeded in changing the orientation of farmers, who now see farming as a business enterprise that needs to be well planned, to reap the highest returns from the enterprise”.

    Farmers have also recorded increase  income, production and yield, and group sales and purchases of input.

    Speaking at the inauguration of the  FBS Farmers Cooperative Multipurpose Union in Akure, Kirsch said the partnership between the organisation and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has brought business skills training to 89,040 cocoa farmers in  six states – Abia, Cross River, Edo, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun.

    The trained farmers are coordinating the groups in each local government of the states. The apex body known as Ondo State FBS Farmers’ Cooperative Multipurpose Union Ltd has been  inaugurated.

    Ondo State FBS Farmers Cooperative Multipurpose Union Chairman, High Chief Ebenezer Adenisimi, said the FBS training had helped farmers to adopt business skills in their farms.

    These, he noted, include record keeping of input and output, savings in banks, group purchase of farm input in large scale, group sales of farm produce to off-takers, diversification of production to generate additional income, organising and registering of groups as cooperative societies, accessing financial services from banks, keeping of farm records and putting to use good agricultural practices.

    An FBS-trained farmer and leader of Igba-Otun FBS Cooperative Society, Awopeju Village, Mr. Julius Urom, noted that the group has invested in cocoa nursery, fish farming, poultry and piggery to augment their cocoa income.

    He said 23 members of the society, who invested in the business with about N20,000, have increased their income base to over N100,000 inone year.

    Ondo State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, lauded GIZ for the traning which, according to him, led to the formation of the Cooperative Union.

    He said: “The farmers’ organisation we are about to inaugurate is a product of intervention from a Development Partner – GIZ, an outfit of the Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development of Germany.”

    The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Mr. Agboola Ajayi, praised the farmers for forming the cooperative society.

    This, according to the governor, was “to enable them own the programme and become self-sustaining financially as producer groups and become less dependent on the government”.

    The governor announced the donation of N25.75 million for the expansion of the Farmers Business School programme.

    He said this was in fulfillment of his pledge to “work with genuine stakeholders in the development of the state”.

    The Regional Director, GIZ-SSAB Programme, Dr. Annemarie Matthess, said FBS is innovative. “It fosters the business mind and skills of agricultural producers, be it men or women. After Farmer Business School, the majority of farmer graduates invest in cocoa and food production for more income,” she noted.

    Matthess, represented by Ayo Akinola, a Senior Technical Advisor to  GIZ-SSAB, said the FBS’s success story in five cocoa producing countries, including Nigeria, informed the expansion of FBS into 15 African countries to reach cocoa, coffee, cassava, rice, cotton, pineapple, milk, olives and tomatoes producers.

    She added that the registration of new cooperatives and multipurpose cooperatives unions is “a particular achievement in Nigeria compared to our other partner-countries”.

    She noted that  of the 95 new multipurpose cooperatives registered between 2011 and 2016 in Ondo, 84  have embedded the acronym “FBS”  in their names to show where they come from and what drives them;, adding that networking among the cooperatives and support provided by the state ADP led to the registration of the FBS Farmers Cooperative Multipurpose Union Ltd.

  • Traders get empowerment

    NO fewer than 17 market men and women in Gbagada, Lagos have benefited from the micro credit scheme of the Rotary Club of Gbagada South.

    They received cash worth N600,000. Three widows got free pepper grinders.

    President of the club Ademola Olutusin recalled that the micro credit scheme was launched 10 years ago to minister to the needs of small scale business men and women and that since then it had waxed strong with high repayment rate.

    The addition, this year, he said, were the free grinder. He urged the traders to make judicious use of the cash, adding that there were plans to increase it to N1million in subsequent editions of the programme.

    He advised the widows to not sell the machines or rent them out but to use them to generate income.

    District 9110 Governor Rotary International Dr Adewale Ogunbadejo said one of the objectives of the association is to help the less-privileged. He expressed satisfaction with the club, saying they were on the right track in their work.

    He advised the traders to live to the expectations of the club by paying back so that the programme could continue.

    The Baba Oloja (Male Leader) of Akerele and Diya market, Rev. Matthew Akerele, thanked the club for the gesture, noting that since the scheme started, it floaters had not disappointed them in cash distribution.

    He added that they would not let the members of the club down.

  • Attracting youths to productive agro businesses

    Attracting youths to productive agro businesses

    An Ogun-based agro entrepreneur Sola Adeniyi is attracting young Nigerians to farm-based enterprises, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    Chief  Executive, Natural Nutrient Limited, Sola Adeniyi, runs a large  agro enterprise in Ogun State. He is a successful agro entrepreneur and business owner.

    He   supplies watermelons,cucumber,moringa, and plantains seeds and produce across the state and beyond.

    He has a private plantain estate, pineapple plantain and a moringa processing business.

    Adeniji  also owns   a 50 acres land which he used for pineapple cultivation.

    A few years later, he has achieved  much with the farm growing bigger.

    He chose to work on the land, rather than in an office, because he realised farmers could earn a good income

    According to him, agri businesses  have the potential to create wealth and lift millions out of poverty, if it is pursued vigorously.

    He plans to adopt more innovative, cutting-edge technologies to produce animal feed, manage waste, and construct solar power plants. These would further set him apart from others, he reasoned.

    Very hard working, he found out that pineapple cultivation met with limited success because of some constraints.These included saline soils, a poor understanding of the requirements for nutrition, irrigation, growth and varietal adaptation, pest, disease, weather stress, crop management, and cultural practices.

    To address this, Adeniyi has developed an approach that led to the successful introduction, adaptation and commercialisation of pineapple production.

    According to him, pineapple is not one of Nigeria’s core fruits that can be exported because the its varieties in Nigeria are not.

    Through his exposure to permaculture, Adeniyi has succeeded in large scale implementation of better soil and farm management to achieve about five per cent yearly growth.

    His strategy is  safe use of chemicals, hygiene, and delivery to the market.

    His organisation runs  a model production farm, a vibrant agriculture education outreach programme, and logistics services to assist promising young farmers and new small-scale farm entrants, to have effective links to market. Today, the business prides itself in matching their outreach with avenues for practical hand-on learning and business development, and aims to establish a world-class model sustainable farm.

    Natural Nutrient Limited  is one of Nigeria’s  private initiatives that incubates rural entrepreneurship by radically redefining  agro entrepreneurship.The benefits include  exposing business opportunities  to youths and retirees, boosting economic benefits for farmers, bringing technology that is bridging the urban-rural divide, and helping reverse urban migration. He  is also bringing new resources and valuable networks to agricultural entrepreneurs.

    To reduce poverty and unemployment, Adeniyi, also Chief Executive, Highhill Agribusiness Development and Incubation Centre (HABDEC), has embarked on free training on agricultural productivity to empower Nigerians between 18 and 50.

    The free mentorship and practical agribusiness empowerment boot camp is designed to train participants on the four major crops, which include plantain, pawpaw, pineapple and potatoes, among others, horticulture and livestock.

    He said the company has mapped out strategies to get young people involved in the green business through the free agribusiness internship programme.

    According to him, HABDEC teaches and empowers both youths and women in  agriculture and the business of agriculture as part of efforts to reduce unemployment in the country.

    He said the company intends to release 600 agricultural consultants, advocates and producers to go about anything they want to do in agriculture.

    HABDEC was working to transform the agribusiness centre to a pre-university place where students can do their programmes and get certificates they can use to get direct admission.

    Speaking on the free project, he explained: “We have not received help from anybody but so far, we have been able to raise funds from family, friends, partners and some of the projects we do and from our farms; we sell some of the farm produce and we make money from there.’’

    A  key reason  the project is  outstanding is because participants are provided hands-on, comprehensive training on agriculture best practices over several crop cycles, linked farmers to markets, and embedded extension services.

    Adeniyi   partnered the government and private organisations to ensure that people in the state depended upon agriculture for their livelihood. Through his Go Green Project, Adeniyi is helping more people to break out of the cycle of poverty to create better futures for their families.

    The project provides training to individuals, especially youths and women, who look to agriculture development and built skills to fit market opportunities.

    For his efforts, this year, Adeniyi received the Agro Ambassador Award.

  • Group to host SMEs fair

    A group of entrepreneurship organisations is  set to hold a two-day  business fair where representatives from small businesses  can establish connections and explore partnerships.

    The event,themed: Tropika Summer Splash, will hold between July 29 and 30.

    It is being organised by Qeturah.com in partnership with Storried, Makoko Dream Project, Connect Nigeria, Printivo, Olorisupergal, Pulse.ng, Phenom PR, Nordic Food Festival, Ten Strings, and Dennis Ashley Wellness Centre.

    The pop up marketplace is a great avenue for guests to engage with local brands and for local brands to make sales.

    In a  statement, Qeturah.com said the forum was a fulfilment of their commitment to small business and recognising the value they contribute to the economy.

    The firms, expected at the forum,  represent various services, including fashion, beauty, home décor, food, entertainment and games ready  to  showcase their products, and make sales which serves as a revenue stream for their respective businesses.

    Qeturah.com is a social enterprise for promoting made-in- Nigeria’s brands.

  • Enabling environment key to MSMEs growth, says El-Rufai

    TheRE is need to help new entrepreneurs start and grow   Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country, Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has said.

    In a keynote address at the FATE Foundation’s third  policy dialogue series on entrepreneurship entitled: Scaling entrepreneurship: How state-led efforts can unlock the youth potential,  held in Lagos, El-Rufai stressed the responsibility of the government in providing an enabling environment for businessmen and women.

    Represented by Kaduna State’s Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, the  governor said Kaduna has taken the lead in the matter by investing in capacity building, market access, technology and eliminating barriers to MSMEs growth.

    He said: “One of the things we have done in Kaduna to build the entrepreneurship ecosystem is to identify and delete all the instances of multiple taxation that have bedeviled many of our business and is killing a lot of our small and medium scale enterprises.

    “We have codified our tax laws into one single unit that includes all our taxation which was passed in the beginning of last year, that law allows for only one single agency that is dealing with the internal revenue service to collect taxes on behalf of the entire state government. The impact of this is that businesses have a high survival chances and can now fully focus on providing the much needed jobs and growing the economy of Kaduna State.”

    He noted that capacity building of MSMEs could be best achieved with “great emphases on the peculiarities of local context”, adding: “It is very important to study the need of an area before providing intervention.”

    British Council’s Education, Enterprises and Skills Programme Director, Adetomi Soyinka, said the council ensures that its programmes were well adapted to the country to achieve optimal results.

    She said: ‘’We understand that local context is central. We are conscious of the fact that whatever knowledge we are bringing into Nigeria still need to adapt it to ensure that it can be utilised effectively here. So, when we have a programme where we might have UK facilitators or a dominance of contents coming from the UK, we still ensure that we have local facilitators or mentors who work with us to adapt it to the local context. It is very critical to ensure that whatever solution or intervention that we are doing is adaptable to what the Nigeria need is because Nigeria is a very special country with a different operating environment.’’

    Other speakers included Lagos State Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole and FATE Foundation Executive Director, Adenike Adeyemi.

    At the event, the Mapping of the Nigerian Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Report was presented.

    The FATE Foundation also  introduced its Annual Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship aimed at bringing stakeholders together, using its yearly Research Report as background.

  • Turning cassava into gold

    Turning cassava into gold

    Ekiti-born medical doctor Tope Aroge, has found fortune in processing cassava into flour, starch and animal feed. After eight years in the business, he is encouraging others to explore opportunities across the sector, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    A 28-year-old Ekiti born medical doctor, Dr. Temitope Aroge, has always wanted to be a businessman. The founder and Chief Executive Officer, Arog Bio Allied Agro Services Limited,  has his Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery,(MBBS)  from the University of Ilorin, Kwara State.

    But within a few months after his youth service, his entrepreneurial instincts got the better part of him .Now Aroge sees cassava as gold.  He made a fairly dramatic career change when he switched from medicine to cassava farming . He chose to be a full time farmer.

    What is it that drove the young Aroge to swap his stethoscope for cassava tubers?

    His words: “I started the business in the hospital. I had an encounter with a patient who could not pay his bills and was a cassava farmer. It got me curious to see the cassava on the farm. The curiosity further led me to learn more at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Oyo State .”

    As Nigerians become health conscious in their diets, Aroge decided farming and processing cassava  was the way to go.  He loves to see things grow.  He began   operations in 2009.

    To learn the business, he enrolled in several  courses  that  equipped him with knowledge on cassava plant-based value addition and farming.

    Today, he runs a flourishing cassava farm and processing business.  Cassava production across his farms has expanded to meet rapidly rising demand from the livestock feed, starch, and biofuel markets. Aroge said cassava trade is expanding quickly, particularly in response to burgeoning exports of dried cassava chips and starch.

    His capital structure is made of grants, equity and loans. He has gotten credit lines from Bank of Industry(BoI). He added: “Getting investors include “evangelising the message of value and profit in the company. I have investors who commited as low as N50000 . I also have investors in various degrees of millions.” With the support of government and other donors, the business is expanding.

    The business is unique addition to the food scene with the attempts he has made to produce garri and other derivatives. Initially, the company supplied customers in Ekiti, but it is expanding to meet a nationwide demand for cassava and derivatives. The company has 25 employees.

    What’s really impressive about   cassava business, according to him, is its huge potential for wider application.

    Cassava, he  explained,  has multiple uses and markets, ranging from on-farm consumption as food or livestock feed to local wet or dry starch processing and large-scale commercial operations. Consequently, he is exploring every opportunity to process cassava into higher value food and industrial products.

    Beyond the realm of  garri and cassava starch, he disclosed that  other market opportunities await entrepreneurs who are ready to  scale-up the use of cassava processing residues for livestock feeds.

    He has found a niche processing cassava into flour, starch and animal feed, and sees a bright future for young entrepreneurs.

    Aroge is the ultimate definition of an entrepreneur. He is the visionary who can see a gap in the market before others do and then diligently fill it. He also has the tenacity to push through any barriers.

    His role now is to represent farmers, sensitise farmers to the services available to them, and push for changes in policy which will help farmers.

    As a result, many farmers have improved their productivity and some have even established new enterprises as a result of what they have learned.

    His goal  is to bring cassava processing units to remote areas, minimise spoilage and increase farmers’ profits.

    He has developed partnership with farmers and their communities which enabled them  to significantly increase their income and improve their living standards.

    According to him, there are a lot of young entrepreneurs out there and they just need to put their business plans together, find a coach and get financed.

    He is confident that Nigeria can dramatically reduce unemployment and poverty in the next few years with an aggressive investment in agriculture. In the next five years, he wants to see the company  listed on the stock exchange.  While he still keeps his medical licence and continuing medical education, he is more comfortable managing cassava than patients.

  • How laundry startup is washing its way to success

    Chief Executive, Laundry Ideals Services Limited,Bosun Solarin  is one of those who believe in hard work. She started her career in the civil service but was selling  general goods on the side.  She decided to turn to business to protect herself, when she sensed there was going to be re-organisation in her place of work.  She turned to laundry business and started working on a business model.  After learning  the basics, she   started the business  in  her garage. She started her dry cleaning business with N50, 000.She bought a washing machine and a drier from Lawanson market, Lagos. But it was never going to be easy for her to start the business  at home. The clothes initially were washed and dried manually.

    The laundry business had scaled up after receiving a loan from the Bank of Industry. She acquired more washing machines and a pick-up vehicle to deliver clothes to customers  in   Lagos. Despite this, she accused banks   of  discriminating  against women and old people.

    At a time, her biggest handicap was being alone as  she could not get ready  hands to stay with her because of the location of the business.

    Today after all the hard work and initial suffering, Solarin owns a thriving laundry business. She has been working very hard on earn a brand for her laundry. The strategy is to use machinery in cleaning, drying and creating a clean and hygienic environment in her work place.

    For her, the best decision, was positioning the business as a high quality one.  This required higher investments.

    However, consumers were quick to spot the additional value the business brought to the market, which in turn led to quicker acceptance of their services.

    Her success mantra is “Never give up and save for the future”.

    Over the last 10 years, she has been a success story in what she ventured into.