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‘SMEs franchising, tool for economic growth’

By Benjamin Alade
10 December 2015   |   4:06 am
CHAIRMAN, Nigeria Association of Small & Medium Enterprises, Lagos chapter, Ladi Jemi-Alade has said that franchising of Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) would boost the nation’s economy.
Photo; muscatdaily

Photo; muscatdaily

CHAIRMAN, Nigeria Association of Small & Medium Enterprises, Lagos chapter, Ladi Jemi-Alade has said that franchising of Micro Small Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) would boost the nation’s economy.

He stated that MSMEs play an important role in the economic development of country through job creation, support for other sectors of the economy.

According to him, it will contribute significantly to improve living standards and local capital formation, thereby encourage innovation and competitions in developing economies.

In a lecture titled: ‘Franchising as a tool for MSME development in Nigeria’ at a two-day Small Medium Scale (SME) and Franchising conference organised by Informa Life Science Exhibitions in Lagos, said franchising is gradually gaining grounds despite the challenges faced by businesses in Nigeria.

He regretted that there is no legislation to support franchising in Nigeria, adding that government should create policies that would allow small businesses gain access to fund.

The Marketing Manager, Informa Life Science Group, Africa, Yasmin Coutain-Springer, said the purpose of the conference is aimed at changing the face of SMEs in Nigeria by co-locating franchise with SMEs.
“There are over 70 million SMEs in Nigeria and there is less franchises because there are challenges of too many policies in place and people don’t know how to sustain a franchising successful model. We are here to educate small medium business on franchising, she said.

The biggest problem here is access to finance. That is why we are co-locating franchise model with SMEs because franchise model is a proven and tested system that works all over the world. Franchising is not very big in Nigeria but SMEs are, we are here to stabilise that. She noted that franchising element is an easier way for small businesses to keep them on track.

She said “ we hope this is a start of something great with our partners in government sector like Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), National Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprise (NASME) and the private side. We hope that together, we can really help drive the Nigerian economy through the empowerment of the SMEs.” We hope to see more and more international companies coming into Nigeria as the number one economy in Africa, she said.

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