FirstBank of Nigeria and former Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun have partnered to equip Small and Medium Enterprises with the tools and skills needed to access finance opportunities.
Speaking at FirstBank’s Q2 2026 SMEConnect webinar, Adeosun stressed that SMEs are crucial to Nigeria’s economic development, contributing 48% to the GDP and employing 84% of the workforce. “To grow the economy, we must grow SMEs. We must strengthen our SME sector,” Adeosun said, adding that government focus on SME growth is key to increasing job opportunities.
She advised SMEs seeking funding to start with a solid business plan, test ideas before investing, and stay adaptable, noting that ideas must be backed by a business model and entrepreneurs must understand that business is an evolving process.
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First Bank’s Managing Director, Olusegun Alebiosu, said the SMEConnect webinar aims to deliver capacity-building value to SMEs, empowering them with knowledge, tools, and resources to thrive. “This quarter’s edition focuses on securing funding, leveraging digital solutions, and overcoming operational hurdles,” he said.
In the same vein, the Managing Director of First Bank of Nigeria, Olusegun Alebiosu, said the SMEConnect webinar is one of the bank’s ways of delivering capacity-building value propositions to small and medium-sized enterprises and it aims to deliver capacity-building value to SMEs, empowering them with knowledge, tools, and resources to thrive. “This quarter’s edition, themed ‘Funding Your Growth: How SMEs Can Access Finance and Scale Faster,’ will deliver actionable insights on securing funding, leveraging digital solutions, and overcoming operational hurdles,” he said.
The Head of Credit Analysis and Processing at First Bank of Nigeria, Afoluwake Dahunsi, also said some of the challenges faced by SMEs include a lack of credit history, absence of viable business plans, and failure to maintain proper business accounts while noting that many SMEs struggle with loan repayment capacity, which remains one of the major challenges hindering access to finance for small businesses.
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