The Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Mr. Karl Toriola, on Friday urged Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) owners to use the data being sourced from telecommunication companies and financial systems to access funds for sustainable growth of their enterprises.
The telecom operator, who gave the charge at the Sparkle’s webinar for SMEs with the theme ‘Simplifying Support for Small Businesses’, pointed out that data was abundant in both the telecommunications and financial system to support SMEs owners’ funding needs.
Toriola said “The person to make magic out of this is the person that can turn data into wisdom because the data is out there and not many people have successfully been able to transform and beneficially structure this data.
“If we convert data into wisdom, then I think we can create a magic formula that can transform the SME world and fix the problem about access to capital. More than 95 per cent of registered businesses around the world are SMEs.
‘’Africa is no different, according to the World Bank, they provide for more than half of all jobs and account for more than a third of the combined GDP of emerging market economies. Getting access to credit, however, is an uphill task for most of these SMEs”, Toriola added.
According to him, it is now widely established that lack of access to finance constituted the most significant constraint to small enterprises’ growth, adding that in developing economies, it is estimated that the annual credit gap for SMEs could be as much as $5.2 trillion.
Toriola restated MTN Nigeria’s commitment to enabling the growth of small businesses by offering solutions to improve their operational effectiveness and productivity.
He explained that the telco had been creating access to knowledge and information to businesses in Nigeria through easily affordable, sometimes free tools and learning programmes through SMS automated port training programmes.
The CEO further said that the telecom company had been trying to provide access to infrastructure with specifically designed packages for SMEs, such as cost-effective voice and data solutions and collaborations with global ICT partners.
