SMEDAN, CWG partner on technology for SMEs

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The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and Nigerian technology company, Computer Warehouse Group CWG Plc said they have signed a technology pact that will foster growth of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

 [su_quote cite=”Austin Okere, Group CEO of CWG Plc”]“We know that unemployment is a big issue in our country, according to statistics from the NBS, unemployment in Nigeria today stands at 23.9 percent or 16 million people. If this project helps the 17.7 million MSMEs to build capacity so that they each employ one additional person, we would have helped to create 17.7 million jobs.” [/su_quote]

Under the Memorandum of Understanding between the two organizations, CWG will provide a technology platform for use by MSMEs at very little cost and also avail them the services of an Enterprises Resource Planning (ERP) platform called Small and Medium Enterprise Resource Planning (SMERP).

The platform will allow the MSMEs to manage their business operations and provides functionalities such as accounting management, inventory management, sales and order tracking. The MOU’s Second objective is to provide an e-commerce platform that enables MSMEs to sell their goods and services online by creating a virtual store for each SME on the Internet, CWG said.

Alhaji Bature Umar Masari, Director-General, SMEDAN, identified access to finance and markets as the major issues affecting MSMEs in Nigeria, while speaking at the formal ceremony.

He said the pact between SMEDAN and the Computer Warehouse Group will effectively ameliorate these challenges.

In his response, Mr. Austin Okere, Founder/CEO, Computer Warehouse Group said the SMEDAN/CWG collaboration would boost the development of MSMEs in the country.

Okere cited that the latest World Bank Doing Business Report indicated that Nigeria had moved five steps up, adding this is well above the average improvement of two positions by the MINT countries comprising of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey.

The starting a business and getting credit pillars saw the most significant changes moving up nine and 73 places respectively, a situation he said was significantly aided by the contribution of SMEDAN.

“We know that unemployment is a big issue in our country, according to statistics from the NBS, unemployment in Nigeria today stands at 23.9 percent or 16 million people. If this project helps the 17.7 million MSMEs to build capacity so that they each employ one additional person, we would have helped to create 17.7 million jobs” Okere said.

“For me the pursuit of this sustainable social impact investing objective, which we have termed CWG2.0, ties in strongly with the SMEDAN mandate, and we are pleased to join hand with SMEDAN to actualise it,” he added.