[NIGERIA] Wema Bank’s Webinar to Share Strategies of Growth for Tech Start-ups and SMEs in Nigeria

Wema Bank, Nigeria’s most innovative bank, has announced that the next edition of its quarterly webinar, aimed at assisting the small and medium-scale enterprise (SME) and early-stage start-up segments of its customer base, will hold on Friday, 21 October, 2022 by 10 a.m.

Arthur Nkemeh, Head of SME Banking at Wema Bank said the webinar, themed, “From Start-up to Unicorn: Strategies for Sustainably Scaling a Tech Company in Nigeria,” will focus on the strategies that start-ups and SMEs in the tech space in Nigeria can adopt to develop the capacity needed to withstand the challenges facing the tech industry around the world.

“We have seen many tech companies in Nigeria and around the world struggle to raise funds, lay off their employees and slash their workers' salaries in recent times. We want to utilize this webinar to share insights with the tech start-up and SME community in Nigeria on the strategies that they can adopt to navigate these challenges and build structures that will ensure that they will continue to grow.”

He further said that the October webinar will address some of the biggest challenges facing the tech start-ups and tech-enabled SMEs in the country – such as managerial capacity, talent acquisition and retention, access to credit and partnerships, among others – and find the right path to profitability.

“The year 2022 has been very challenging for many tech companies, not just in Nigeria, but around the world. However, we have seen, with the success being recorded by some tech companies within and outside Nigeria, that most of the challenges facing this sector are surmountable if the companies are given the right boost. The webinar will avail tech startups and tech-oriented SMEs ups with the tools that they need to grow.”

Nkemeh informed that Ashim Egunjobi, Managing Partner of Octerra Capital; Oluwole Oyeniran, Enterprise Technology and Performance Leader and TMT Leader for Deloitte in West Africa; and Eyitayo Ogunmola, founder and CEO of Utiva, have been confirmed as guest speakers at the webinar.

The Head of SME Banking at Wema Bank noted that Wema Bank’s quarterly SME Webinar series, which is aimed at facilitating the growth of the SME and early-stage startup sectors in Nigeria, is borne out of the bank’s understanding of the role these sectors play in the Nigerian economy and the immense potentials that they hold.

“According the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the MSMEs sector has over 37 million MSMEs, employs over 54 million skilled and unskilled labour and contributes about 54 percent to GDP of the country. Tech start-ups, on the other hand, have been at the forefront of innovation across various sectors in the country. Wema Bank sees these contributions as cogent and makes these start-ups and SMEs worthy of all the support they can get. The quarterly webinar series is one of the ways Wema Bank demonstrates its support to the growth of these all-important businesses,” Nkemeh concluded.