Event Description

Posted Fri, Feb 16, 2024 11:28 AM

Timeframe: Thu, Feb 29, 2024 11:00 AM - Thu, Feb 29, 2024 2:30 PM

MSME Community of Practice General Assembly

Nigeria’s vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem has long been plagued with challenges and gaps that make running a business in Nigeria difficult and unattractive. These challenges include gaps around access to funding, capacity building and business support, access to markets, unstable policies and poor policy design and implementation approaches. To deliver a competitive entrepreneurial ecosystem capable of creating employment, wealth creation and driving socio-economic development, gaps within the entrepreneurship ecosystem must be urgently addressed for its potential to be harnessed.   

While myriad challenges require attention, the Community of Practice on MSME has identified three core areas requiring urgent policy reforms in the Nigerian entrepreneurial ecosystem. These are: Access to finance, Access to markets and Taxation. These challenges have consistently ranked among the top five (5) issues confronting Nano, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (NMSMEs) over the past three (3) years and have formed the crux of policy reform initiatives at the NESG Community of Practice on MSMEs. In 2023, the Community of Practice for MSMEs held design thinking workshops on the urgent entrepreneurship policy reforms that will strategically and sustainably address the identified gaps. A central theme across the stakeholder engagement sessions was the role of technology in driving the required reforms around the identified areas. 

Therefore, the Community of Practice is set to focus its policy reform efforts in 2024 on driving policy advocacies for technology adoption across the three thematic areas. In recognition of the need for support from the MSME community, the Community of Practice on MSME is looking to host a General Assembly (GA) to engage members on the proposed policy advocacy plans of the Community of Practice in 2024. The GA will provide an opportunity for members of the MSME Community of Practice to learn about the activities of the MSME CoP, the agenda for the year and how to support the policy advocacy efforts of the Community of Practice. The Community of Practice is expected to hold two GAs in a year, which will be the first for 2024. The GA will form a platform for agenda-setting for the year.