By Job Osazuwa
Contrary to the general belief that recession was the most unfavourable period to start a business, the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of African Hub, Oluneye Oluwole, has called on Nigerians to seize the recession ravaging the country as an opportunity to begin Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
According to her, recession is actually the best period to start a business because it helps the investor to lower his cost, be creative and hardworking. She added that any small scale business that overcomes recession would surely metamorphose into a bigger brand that can stand the test of time.
She stated this in Lagos at the Enterprise Europe Network Partnership brokerage between Gidigba and African Hub, where she emphasised entrepreneurial renaissance as the African solution.
She expressed optimism that Nigeria has economic comparative advantages, adding that the entrepreneurship spirit always displayed by the growing number of Nigerian women and youths was enough to transform to socio-economic development of the country.
The founder of the networking platform, established to support Nigerian investors in the small scale businesses to thrive and positively impact the continent, decried that these human resources have not been maximally harnessed over the years.
“My advice for people is that this is the time to set up a business because you would have learned the ropes of increasing your revenue. So, when the boom comes, the investor would have been trained on how to best manage income, and it becomes an added advantage to the investor. We need to understand that there are advantages of recession. Rather than folding our arms and murmuring, we have to look at what opportunities lie before us and exploit them.
“Gidigba is a business service provider and a player in the e-business and SME promotion sector, involved in agribusiness, export, aviation, fashion, IT etc., while African Hub provides a range of on-site business services such as human capacity building, networking, business advisory and so on.”
Oluwole stated that the partnership would assist MSMEs in accessing new markets; broader financial/seed funding opportunities locally and internationally; reduce operational costs and with basic skills to enhance overall entrepreneurship and business management capacity.