Standing Strong?

I had to send this to you...

Hello, my friend,

Recently, I was discussing with the Head of one of Lagos’ foremost private schools.

This individual kept lamenting the impact of the sporadic increase in the cost of diesel and the japa frenzy on their business model. 

She mentioned that this situation has never been this bad since the establishment of the school over six decades ago.

They even doubled the fees to meet up with diesel costs, then rising FX keeps wiping out the fee increment, and japa keeps taking their students away. Now the enrolment is low. 

When I shared this on Twitter, one of my followers shared her sad story about how she had to close her school down after several attempts to keep it afloat. This has been the case with many other businesses.

Let’s not talk about the depreciating state of our dear Naira.

Is wahala not too much like this?

If a business such as that big school is struggling with its model, I can imagine what my SME people are going through.

We won't give up, we’ll definitely scale through this time.

A de ku orire Tobi Amusan (Congratulation to us on Tobi’s recent feat).

Let’s keep our hopes high.

This has to be my first personal email to you in a long while. You people should hold Alex responsible for hoarding your email.

Now, let’s look at all the good things that have been happening asides from the bad news of rising costs.

Recently the Nigerian Senate passed the Nigerian Startup Bill.

Senator Oseni Yakubu, the Chairman of the Committee said the bill seeks to provide for the establishment of the National Council for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 

What does the NSB (Nigerian Startup Bill) mean for MSMEs?

The Bill drafted between June and September 2021 by over 30 tech leaders aims at providing enablement to some of the teething problems in the start-up ecosystem.

• One of its objectives is to bridge the engagement gap between startups and regulators.

• Also, the bill will see to cutting down toxic regulators for businesses. 

• The bill also seeks to provide incentives, such as tax breaks, government loans, and credit guarantee schemes for the establishment, development, and operation of start-ups in the country.

• It will also ensure that start-ups that require licensing from regulators such as the CBN and Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC will enjoy accelerated processes.

Lagos State Government had recently declared its readiness to domesticate the bill once passed into law at the federal level. Other states of the federation would be expected to do the same for the bill to have a nationwide impact.

Let’s continue to hope the President assent to the bill.

My team is launching Fedhagap in a few weeks’ time. Fedhagap will help you up-sell and supply your products or services to those big clients that you have been afraid to sell to because they won’t pay you until after 30-90 days.

We will take up those invoices and pay you the money at a very small discount so that you can have your cash to do other things, while we take up the stress of waiting for the payment from your client. 

We are also opening the Caladium SME Hub, where all you our beloved community members can use your official address, hold meetings and receive your packages at a very small token.

If you know you’ll like to benefit from this, send me an email at ayobankole@fedhagap.com so I can queue you up for it.

Finally, we at the Caladium Lagos SME Bootcamp are looking at starting an Instagram live series on Business 360. It is going to be a recurring series with actionable information to help you become more profitable in your business. 

I’ll also be inviting friends and experts from across Africa to share knowledge with you that will help you better grow your business.

Which part of the business would you want me to discuss with you during our first session?

Respond to this letter with your most preferred business topics, you can also reach me via my email address at ayobankole@lagos-sme.com and copy our community manager via alex@lagos-sme.com. 

See you again next month (If God and Alex permit).

To your continued business success

Ayo Bankole Akintujoye