THE Chief Executive Officer, Vertrag International Limited Olubunmi Oluwadare has said taht any country that strives for development must have the support of banks and entrepreneurs.
He told The Nation that banks must support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for the country to experience any meaningful growth, adding that countries, such as China, India and Turkey that have grown their economies did so through partnering with private businesses and the SMEs.
Oluwadare said the challenge of entrepreneurship in Nigeria is the banks, saying no country grows without entrepreneurs.“Banks should invest in entrepreneurs as it is better to have 10,000 entrepreneurs bringing money into the bank than to have an individual’s money,” he said.
He said seeing investment in SMEs as a risk factor is an excuse, noting that every business is a risk. “What the banks need to do is to create departments to handle these entrepreneurs. When the entrepreneurs come to the banks for partnership, the banks should not just give them the funds, but should be part of the business from the beginning so that they will know that the money they are investing is coming back to them.”
He said the main challenge to job seekers who want to venture into SMEs is that the banks are not helping entrepreneurs to grow. “Government can handle infrastructure, but they cannot do business because they are not good managers of business. The government alone cannot create jobs; it is entrepreneurs that create jobs. If entrepreneurs are provided with funds and are able to create jobs, unemployment will reduce,” he said.
He therefore urged the banking sector to look inward and focus on entrepreneurs, not on the people that steal government’s money, or the people they give money to because they have colateral, who may never pay back the money.
Oluwadare said it is better to have few functional banks than to have many that are not functioning.
“Now there is problem everywhere; economy is not in good shape, the banks should sit down and see how they can channel the money to build entrepreneurs. Every business is a risk and when you can’t take risk, you lose everything. You don’t have to give the entrepreneurs the cash, but you can buy all they need to start the business for them, as you are realising the money, you will monitor the business as it is going, don’t leave them alone because your money is involved and you will collect it back with interest,” he said.
He said the challenge with Nigerians is that they want to start a business and make the money immediately, adding that they do not want to be involved in a long term business. “Every business will have a patient time but our banks are not patient, they want quick money which cannot work in entrepreneurship journey,” he said.
He lamented that Nigeria is not leveraging on anything, saying that nearly every sector is untapped, including, tourism, culture and entertainment.
“Most of the people causing traffic are those looking for jobs, who will wake up every morning, over 4000 youths are on the road every day looking for jobs. If there were jobs, most of them will be in the factory for months before they return. If the unemployed people are reduced, crime will reduce, government expenditure on security will reduce and the money spent on security will be diverted to job creation,” he said.