Power, Skills, Finance Gaps Must Close For SMEs To Scale – Experts

Experts said that Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria will only achieve sustainable scale if the country tackles structural constraints around power, skills, and access to finance.

They stated this at the Nigeria Business Summit 2026, during a session titled: ‘The SME Economy: Advancing Trends and Opportunities.’

The session brought together perspectives from business operators, policymakers, and SME development institutions to examine why many enterprises remain trapped in survival mode and what must change to unlock growth at scale.

The managing director of Ojay’s International,  Innocent Egwuonwu, said operating conditions remain deeply challenging for Nigerian SMEs, particularly those in manufacturing.

“Access to finance and power are the two biggest constraints. Interest rates of over 30 per cent make it very difficult for SMEs to survive, and collateral requirements are often unrealistic for young businesses,” he said.

Egwuonwu noted that power costs alone can wipe out margins, saying that “diesel is now about N1,820 per litre. In my business, we spend over N1 million every week just generating power and such costs directly limit expansion and job creation.”

Beyond energy, Egwuonwu highlighted the burden of multiple taxation, calling for clearer and harmonised tax assessments to help SMEs plan and operate with certainty.

From a policy and institutional perspective, the director-general of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Charles Odii, identified formalisation as the single biggest structural gap holding SMEs back.

“There are about 40 million MSMEs in Nigeria, but many are not captured in any system,” Odii said.

He added that “if a business is not registered, it is invisible, and when you are invisible, you cannot access finance, incentives or structured support.”

Odii explained that many SMEs cite access to finance as their main challenge, but that formalisation often determines whether financing becomes possible in the first place.

He said, SMEDAN is addressing this through clusterbased models that reduce individual collateral requirements and provide zerointerest or blended financing at scale.

Providing a state level policy lens, Commissioner for Trade and Industry, Anambra State, Mr. Christian Udechukwu argued that SME growth accelerates when governments actively remove cost pressures.

Udechukwu added that partnerships with financial institutions, development finance institutions, and agencies like SMEDAN allow SMEs to access funding of up to N10 million without traditional collateral; using cooperative and guaranteebased structures.

“These interventions are not just about finance, they are about creating an environment where SMEs can think beyond survival and begin to scale,” he said.

Panelists stressed that sustained investment in skills and capability improves both resilience and bankability, while cooperative models, blended finance, and advisory support can unlock growth where traditional lending constraints persist.

Stanbic IBTC Bank stated that “as highlighted during the session, SMEs looking to move from survival to scale can engage the Bank to explore financing options, advisory support, and partnershipdriven solutions aligned with their growth stage.

“Through collaboration with regulators, development agencies, and state governments, the bank continues to help Nigerian businesses translate insight into execution and growth into sustainability.”