Category: Small Business and Entreprenuership

The Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office (NMCO) has received the nod as the best in Digital Innovation in the Federal Government’s fifth .ng Award by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA).

At the Award Night, NIRA, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) established by the Federal Government to manage the country code, presented the award to the best portal of the government with excellent user, which promotes innovation and local content development with the .ng domain name.

The NMCO, which was nominated by the public, competed with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS); Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC); Federal Road Safety Commission ( FRSC); Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the National Pension Commission (PENCOM).

NMCO Director-General, Obadiah Simon Nkom who received the award for his agency, said: “The reward for hard work is always more work. I will say this award is a call for more dedication and commitment for MCO to continue until government’s desire for the agency and the sector is fulfilled.

“We will remain committed to professionalism and we can only improve on this achievement and many more so that MCO can be the gateway to economy diversification as well as boost government’s revenue.”

To provide awareness for its members’ products, the Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), MSMEs, Lagos chapter is set to hold its sixth trade fair.

The event, billed for the Digital Institute, Oshodi, according to the association’s Chairman, Local Organising Committee (LOC), Peter Popoola, has 200 exhibitors registered.

Its theme is “The indispensable role of MSMEs in the quest for Nigeria’s industrialisation”.

He noted that small scale industries were the backbone of an economy, especially Nigeria’s where they made up over 80 per cent of it and contribute significantly to its gross domestic product as well as provide jobs.

Popoola, who is also NASSI’s Vice Chairman, said the group’s members faced a lot of challenges such as lack of patronage, poor power supply and access to finance.

NASSI Lagos Chairman Mrs. Getrude Aikhimien said the government, as the biggest spender, should assist its members by buying their goods. She, however, thanked the Lagos State Government for its assistance over the years and for sponsoring the fair.

She noted that SMES were the backbone of the economy and that if they were not selling their products, it would have a spiral effect on the eceonomy. She listed the benefits of the fair as: more patronage, free training and access to funds. She appealed to hotel owners and other big businesses to partner NASSI members.

She added the symposium and training at the fair were free for participants.

At the event were Director of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperative, Lagos State, Mrs Titilayo Adesina, who represented the commissioner; Manager, Lagos, Bank of Industry, Uche Nwachukwu, SMEDAN DG representative, Mr Bunmi Dawodu and Ismael Lawal of GIZ GOPA. Mrs Adesina pledged the government’s commitment to the fair. She noted its assistance to the group over the years.

To address unemployment, Tony Udomiaye is training youths in digital marketing. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

Digital marketing specialist, Tony Udomiaye’s  dream is to provide a platform for youths to engage in digital marketing, a sector where the demand for labour is high.

His approach is based on maximising every individual’s potential through applied knowledge, best practices and innovative mindsets.

Udomiaye has over 10 years’ experience in digital marketing. He leads a digital marketing agency, where he helps companies to solve their digital problems.

According to Udomiaye, his journey has brought him opportunities beyond Nigeria, having been  doing business for Treepz, driving 67,000 downloads in two weeks, 500 referrals, and one million website impressions and 15,000 website visits.

The digital marketer was a strong force at Crowdyvest, where a monthly download and new user sign up moved from 100 to 2000 monthly and revenue increased from N20 million- N80 million-N108 million in one month.

Interestingly, Udomiaye led the digital analytics on social media platforms and monitored share of voice and sentiment analysis for All Progressive Congress (APC) governorship candidate Mr, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu in 2018, among other achievements.

Sharing some of the opportunities a digital marketer can bring one’s way, Udomiaye explained that 93 per cent of online activities starts with a search engine and ensures the continued effectiveness of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), as a superior marketing strategy while about 80 per cent of Americans make an online purchase at least once monthly.

“Anyone thinking about starting or leading a business needs to have a basic understanding of digital marketing to convert customers. There is a wide range of digital marketing jobs out there meaning there are a huge variety of career options and opportunities from video/audio production to interactive technology (such as artificial intelligence (AI)),Mobile marketing, SEO, Search engine marketing (SEM), Social media, E-commerce, Email marketing, Marketing automation content management and curation, Web development, Web design, copywriting and editing, Analytics and Business/marketing strategy.

Speaking further, the digital analytic expert sa he has always dreamt of raising a younger generation of digital experts who, he believes, can do better given the training and tools to explore the space. In fulfilling his dream, he has created a training platform where he empowers thousands of youths across the continents.

Explaining how many he has been able to train as a digital marketing coach, he stated: “Globally, I have trained and mentored over 1000 digital marketing young professionals. I recently got called the ‘ADPlist Power Marketing Mentor.’ This is given to professionals who have spent over 1000 hours mentoring and sharing knowledge on the adplist.org platform.

“I help people develop practical and transferable marketing and data analysis skills required for a successful career in marketing, and build specialist knowledge of consumer behaviour, marketing management, as well as digital marketing tools, trends, strategy and more.

“My training is designed for anyone who would like to increase their awareness and understanding of digital marketing. You don’t need any prior digital marketing knowledge, although any work experience will help contextualise and enhance your learning,” he added.

On his thought on how Africa’s unemployment rate can be reduced if more youth take up this skill. Udomiaye explained.

“One of the biggest advantages of digital marketing is that it has removed all sorts of geographical barriers. You can open your doors to foreign countries and offer your services to customers living miles away. You can market to them with just a click and create awareness among people who otherwise had no chance of knowing about your existence,’’ he said.

More Global businesses have resolved to hire people to work for them remotely and a few times I have connected my mentees to international opportunities which they have secured and are currently living their dreams of not just becoming a Digital marketing professional but also working for an international brand.”

Udomiaye said those who want to learn from him could reach him via his social media handles.

While trying to build successful businesses, entrepreneurs now have a powerful ally at their fingertips: digital marketing. No longer is marketing about big budgets and TV commercials. From social media to search engines, email campaigns to influencer shoutouts, digital tools are giving startups and small businesses the edge they need to compete, grow, and succeed in a fast-changing economy.

Entrepreneurship has never been more accessible. What once required heavy capital and gatekeepers can now be launched from a laptop. But having a great product or service is only half the equation. The other half? Reaching the right audience at the right time. That’s where digital marketing comes in.

Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn allow entrepreneurs to build brand awareness without spending a fortune. For example, a solo founder with a smartphone and a clear message can reach millions through short, engaging videos. With tools like Facebook Ads or Google Ads, small businesses can target specific customer groups with pinpoint precision, tracking every click, conversion, and sale.

Email marketing, often overlooked, remains one of the highest-performing tools in an entrepreneur digital arsenal. Personalized emails based on user behavior or interests can nurture leads, drive repeat purchases, and build loyal communities. Pair that with SEO—optimized content so it ranks on the first page on Google. And there is your formula for sustainable, long-term traffic and visibility.

Even more exciting is the rise of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing. Entrepreneurs are now using AI-powered tools to handle customer service, analyze buying patterns, and send perfectly timed messages. These smart systems save time, reduce costs, and allow founders to focus on strategy instead of daily tasks.

I’ve seen this firsthand. As highlighted in my book, Mastering Marketing Strategies to Build and Scale Successful Businesses, entrepreneurs who adopt a thoughtful, data-driven digital approach often grow faster, spend less, and build stronger customer relationships than those relying solely on traditional methods.

But digital marketing isn’t without its challenges. The online space is noisy, attention spans are short, and trends change quickly. Entrepreneurs need to stay curious, keep learning, and remain flexible. What works today might need tweaking tomorrow. The good news? Data is your compass. With the right tools, entrepreneurs can measure what’s working, drop what’s not, and optimize in real time.

In short, digital marketing is no longer optional, it’s essential. Whether you’re launching a new business, scaling an existing one, or trying to stay relevant in a competitive space, mastering the digital game can be your biggest advantage.

As we move further into an AI-powered, data-rich future, the entrepreneurs who embrace these tools will not only survive, they’ll lead.

Misbaudeen Yusuff Adeshina is a digital marketer, entrepreneur, and author of “Mastering Marketing Strategies to Build and Scale Successful Businesses.” He helps startups and scaling companies leverage digital tools to grow, reach new audiences, and succeed globally.

Avocado is thriving in the export market. Efforts are, therefore, on to empower youths with basic farm management skills for farming avocado. One of those championing this is Debo Onafowora, who has trained about 20,000 to explore business opportunities in the sub-sector, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

Avocados are doing well in the fresh produce exports market. It is a multi-million euro business in Europe. Several food companies are sourcing the fruit because it is a basic raw material for producing food, medicine and cosmetics.

Expectedly, in the international markets, its price is higher, but exporters are required to meet international quality standards. Indeed, agricultural exports must meet the sanitary and phytosanitary standards to enjoy acceptability.

One person training Nigerians to on avocado export is Debo Onafowora, the Managing Director & Chief Executive, Bic Farms Concepts.

He has been involved in farmers’ training, consultation and management of avocado farming projects.

The total value of world avocado exports is expected to reach an estimated $8.3 billion, thus positioning more Nigerians to explore the market, which, according to him, would help the country earn more cash  from the global market.

In Nigeria, avocado farmers want to enter the export market. Onafowora has trained 20,000 people across the country. He is working on raising 100,000 agri-preneurs by 2025.

He wants more farmers to embrace the opportunity and make good use of it.

According to him, the global market is yearning for Hass Avocado and growing demand is at the base of the expansion.  So far, Europe remains a larger consumer of avocados, mainly for health reasons.

He said Nigeria is blessed with a fertile soil for avocado farming. Nigeria can produce Hass Avocados for export. This places it at a competitive advantage, enabling it to supply at a lower cost.

To this end, he is grooming entrepreneurs to process and prepare export-grade fresh avocados for the international market.

Producers and exporters wanting to export fresh avocado have to ensure that their production farms, pack houses and fumigation treatment facilities are audited, he said.

His training exposes producers to the importance of good hygiene practice, organic production, appropriate production, transport requirements and cold storage facilities.

This is because while the demand for avocados is high, the importing countries are asking producers to comply with the requirements for quality and traceability and to be certified in Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).

Onafowora is ready to collaborate with investors to establish global benchmarked production facilities and practices and to help firms and individuals meet the required standards for the exports of fresh avocado.

A global network of zero-equity startup accelerators, United States-based MassChallenge, is working with IBM to groom startups to solve problems with artificial intelligence (AI).

The startups, according to the organisation, must have at least one founder from underrepresented identities, including black, indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC), non-binary, and/or female. The three-month mentorship programme include virtual launch hosted by IBM experts, while each startup and mentor managed their one-on-one meetings.

Founders in the cohort worked with various mentors from IBM and other organisations to address specific needs of their startups, including breaking into new customer bases, setting appropriate and strategic goals, transitioning from bootstrapping to new capital sources, and new avenues to scalability.

Last year, MassChallenge signed a partnership with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to commence the Bridge to MassChallenge Nigeria Programme (B2MC).

More than 2,300 MassChallenge alumni have raised over $5 billion in funding, generated more than $2.7 billion in revenue, and created more than 136,000 total jobs.

How to protect national infrastructure, which are vital to the existence of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) will top discussions at Securex West Africa International Exhibition and Conference, billed for Lagos.

In a statement, the Regional Director, Afrocet Montgomery (the organisers), George Pearson said the three-day event would kick off with a conference on ‘Protecting critical national infrastructure’. Those being expected are Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Dr. Ahmed Abubakar Audi; Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Abiodun Sylvester Alabi, and the Commandant, Lagos State, Federal Fire Service, Agasa Kehinde.

Also, ASIS, Nigeria Chapter will be hosting a session on ‘Global trends in security technology and implications for Nigeria’s security industry’ with speakers from ASIS, Coca-Cola, BAT and PR24 Nigeria

The conference for the security, safety, fire and facilities management sectors, will take place at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island,  from May 10 -12, 2022.

There will be sessions on ‘Strategies for fire disaster and control’ and ‘The role of government and professionals in cases of emergency’ where Director-General, Lagos State Security Commission, Mr Lanre Mojola, and MD, Surveillant Fire, Jumade Adejola, will present papers.

Others billed to attend are Brigadier-General Samad Akisode, director of Communications, Office of the National Security Advisor and CEO, Bulwark Intelligence, Tanwa Ashiru.

There will be an talk on Lagos Smart City Initiatives and Investment opportunities, followed by a keynote by Stanley Jegede, Executive Chairman of Phase3 Telecom on Security of Critical Digital Infrastructure across industries.

There are efforts to make cassava farming a major source of employment and income for millions of people, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

The global cassava market has risen to $164.1billion, according to Index Box estimates.

Reports listed countries with the highest volumes of cassava consumption as Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thailand, Ghana, Brazil, Indonesia, Angola, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Mozambique, China, and Malawi.

In realisation of its huge potential, Cornell University, United States’ College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), working with NextGen Cassava project, has been driving programmes on the opportunities in cassava farming.

The project seeks to partner cassava breeding institutions in Africa and use cutting-edge tools for efficient delivery of improved varieties of cassava.

Added to this are skills empowerment training to maximise the benefits of establishing cassava derivative businesses, including processing the roots into a variety of products – cassava flour, starch, ethanol and glucose syrup.

Buoyed by international demand, Cornell’s Department of Global Development is creating an integrated cassava seed supply chain and will improve linkages between farmers, seed entrepreneurs and markets.

To support this effort, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Tanzania Research Institute (TARI) have unveiled 25 improved cassava varieties to boost cassava production in Africa.

IITA Eastern Africa Hub Director, Dr. Leena Triatic, lauded the governments of Tanzania and Nigeria for their efforts at developing the crop for commercialisation by launching the National Cassava Development Strategy (2020-2030) in 2021 as the crop’s blueprint.

Also, SNV Netherlands, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has enabled poor people living in rural areas to develop sustainable cassava-based farm and non-farm business opportunities.

Under the Increasing Performance of the Cassava Industry (IPCI) in West and Central Africa (WCA) project, it has enhanced the performance of root and tuber projects in West and Central Africa.

In Nigeria, the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND) has been training entrepreneurs to explore opportunities across the entire cassava value chain.

A cassava entrepreneur, Mrs. Bari Endurance, is a beneficiary. Following the training she received, she has been able to create a successful cassava business.

A village seed entrepreneur (VSE) in Bayelsa State, she has been training cassava farmers in Bayelsa on good agricultural practices.

African German Entrepreneurship Academy (AGEA), an initiative consisting of a network coordinated by the International Small Enterprises Promotion and Training (SEPT) Competence Centre at Leipzig University (Germany), has begun an empowerment training.

The AGEA Start-up Class is a follow-up intervention of the AGEA Business Idea Competition aimed at  exposing business ideas from researchers based on their research results.

The training seeks to enhance and promote the business orientation and capacities of researchers and entrepreneurs to harness the business potential of their results to help them develop competitive products and services for the market.

The organisation said through the training the researchers will generate new knowledge and deploy them in universities for the benefit of society.

According to the organisation, knowledge and technologies are seldomly commercialised into products and/or services for the market, urging for intensive reduction of the gap between technology and research.

To promote research-based entrepreneurship, it noted that researchers and students need to be supported to develop science in a way that can lead to real-world impact and as well as into viable business enterprises.

The training, which has started, will take about 15 start-up projects through three months of training and coaching till June 8.

These projects were drawn from the AGEA Business Idea Competition, the Pan African Universities Innovation Challenge, the ABSbio project, and suggested start-up ideas from AGEA partners.

It will be conducted with presentations, workshops, discussion sessions, pitching, and extended coaching from experienced start-up development experts at Leipzig University (SEPT and SMILE).

The sessions will cover business idea development, business model development, enterprise resource planning, etc.

At the end of the training, the start-up teams are expected to advance the business models and plans for their start-ups and be well-positioned to attract the relevant resources to enter the market.

The network collaborates with its dedicated academic and business partners in Africa and Germany.

The aim is to promote cutting-edge practice-oriented entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship promotion and start-ups and businesses development in Africa.

AGEA contributes to improving graduate employability through the inclusion of a high level of hands-on training in African partner universities.

The Moroccan Government has opened applications for the Forsa support programme for young entrepreneurs with ideas.

The programme, which aims to finance and train 10,000 entrepreneurs, is opened to Moroccans residing in the country or abroad, aged between 18 and 35.

The support system includes e-learning training for all the projects selected, as well as a 2.5-month incubation for the benefit of the most promising projects, through the mobilisation of regional incubators.

The programme aims to support business makers across sectors by providing up to $10,000 at zero interest rates.

Beneficiaries have a maximum of 10 years to pay back the loans.

It targets individuals with business ideas or looking to grow their businesses.

The selection for the programme goes through four stages. In the first phase, project ideas are examined by experts to assess their level of engagement, motivation, feasibility, as well as their growth prospects.

The initiators of the selected or winning projects will, then, be called for an interview with experts within their respective regions.

After going through the interview,  a special commission will evaluate project ideas before candidates can join the Forsa programme.

The programme then will provide entrepreneurship training, supporting selected candidates in understanding how to structure successful projects.

Training is set to include courses on the development of soft skills, market knowledge, and the development of marketable products and services, among other courses.

During the third phase, an incubating structure will support the selected young entrepreneurs to formulate requests for financing. A special committee will then evaluate the financing requests and allocate funding according to the nature of each project.