By Daniel Tyokua
Experts in the business sector have described the Ayoba’s accelerator program as a viable tool that will help to deepen the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
The experts which took turns to share their thoughts on SMEs growth, during the SME activation program organised by Ayoba in conjunction with Adanian Labs joint initiative, identified the new technology as a pedestal to changing the narrative in the business circle.
Country Head, Adanian Labs Nigeria, Killian Mayua, said Ayoba drive would provide a platform for businesses to grow and provide an opportunity to leverage technology to excel.
“We partnered with Ayoba for the Ayoba Accelerator Program 2023 in Nigeria. The process, which started some months ago, saw over a thousand applicants apply.
“The main purpose of this accelerator is to provide a platform for businesses to grow, to give small businesses an opportunity to leverage technology and more specifically the Ayoba technology and marketplace to be able to reach more customers and generate more revenue for their businesses and to scale.
“We will continue to deep dive into their businesses and provide all the support that we can pprovide In the course of these three months, they will be exposed to several core areas around leveraging technology and specifically the Ayoba platform to grow their businesses. Some of these areas will include knowledge of platform, we will also have mentors from various areas around SME growth to join us, and this mentors will be drawn from some of our key partners which include MTN, fidelity bank, Zenith bank, some technology platforms and also some SME focused microfinance organizations.”
In his remarks, Segun Adewumi, head of operations, Zenith Bank, said special attention should be given to the growth of SMEs
“We, as Zenith Bank have looked at the environment and we have seen that this is the future and then we have concentrated on SMEs. We have about 3 products for SME. We have SME grow my business.
“We have various ones that are friendly and then to this end, we feel that we should not eradicate that middle line of business. So we have the support business that we have prepared for the SMEs in enabling the environment”.
On her part, the founder of Raze Clothing, Ifeoma Anselem, called for external push for both private and government bodies.
She said organisations need strategies that will bring about visibility, SME tools and business growth .
Anselem said: “every SME right now needs the external push, both from private and governments bodies.
“I’m happy that Ayoba has taken this initiative with Adanian Labs to bring us this help.
“I want to thank every partner that has come together, Ayoba, Adanian labs, MTN, Zenith bank, and other partners involved.
“We hope that this doesn’t stop with us, that it’s going to be a continuous program for other SMEs so that the economic and get better”.
Flora Anaba, the Growth and Operations Manager, Adanian Labs Nigeria, the partner for Ayoba SME accelerator program described the initiative as a viable tool or viable opportunity for SMEs to scale their business to become sustainable with the products and services that they offer to the public.
“They’ll be able to learn different tools of digitalization, they will be able to digitize their business, which core and very important for new businesses, existing or start off to understand kind of digital tools they can use to scale their products into the marketplace, and that is what the Ayoba SME accelerator program is about to do for businesses.
“All the selected SMEs and start off have the opportunity of reaching out to the vast resource of clients already existing on the Ayoba app, and with this, it obviously gives them vast economic inclusion for their business. It makes it more sustainable, helps them to generate wealth, helps them to also scale in and become the reference points for other SMEs”.
