PwC MSME Survey 2020

INTERVIEW: OLUSEGUN AWOLOWO, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NIGERIAN EXPORT PROMOTION COUNCIL (NEPC) 50000= Olusegun Awolowo "The Council's recent Zero-to-export programme won the International Trade Centre's 2018 World Trade Promotion Organization Award for "best initiative to ensure that trade is inclusive and sustainable." lusive and What are the most important challenges to SMEs that the NEPC have noticed over time? There are a number of challenges that SMEs face in Nigeria. Firstly, access to finance is the major challenge we witness. At interest rates of upwards of 20%, it is very hard for SMEs to access finance. They cannot get the necessary loans to scale up production. This makes it hard for them to meet local demand, let alone international demand. Secondly, the issue of certification is another challenge. Getting the necessary certification to break into the European and North American markets is challenging and costly for SMEs. Buyers, particularly in agro-processing, will not do business unless you have the HACCP certification. NEPC is working with many SMEs to ensure their processes meet the HACCP standards with the ultimate aim of gaining the certification. Finally, infrastructure is a key challenge for SMEs. Generators are expensive and power outages can really hurt SMEs. On top of this, regarding export, moving your goods to the port can be incredibly time consuming and costly. The Apapa port gridlock was an example of this. How is the Council using the Export Development Fund (EDF) to help the growth of SMEs in the country? The Council has been helping SMEs in the country in a number of ways. Our recent Zero-to-export programme, which trained SMEs all the way to the point of export, won the International Trade Centre's 2018 World Trade Promotion Organization Award for "best initiative to ensure that trade is inclusive and sustainable". We have also sponsored SMEs to participate in trade fairs in SIAL (Paris), Gulfood (Dubai), the inaugural Intra-African trade fair (Cairo), amongst many others. We have been working with SMEs on training them on the necessary international certifications. We have an upcoming training session with the British Standards Institute, who following partnership between the NEPC and the British High Commission, are training SMEs on the necessary steps to get the HACCP certification and on entering the UK market. Have SMEs been able to access the training, capacity building and access to finance benefits of the EDF? Yes, many SMEs have benefitted. I have mentioned already how we are helping to train our SMEs on certification. On top of this, we have our Human Capital Development Centre in our regional office in Lagos. This facility is training many SMEs in the apparel and garment sector. This is just one of many examples, of how we are building the capacity of our SMEs. Regarding access to finance, I delivered a presentation to the Bankers' Committee on non-oil exports in December 2018. Following discussions, the CBN governor formed a sub- committee to look at non-oil exports. Out of this has come the Export Facilitation Initiative. This gives companies access to low interest loans in five sectors: cashew, cocoa, palm oil, shea and sesame. In this way, access to finance has been improved for SMEs in these areas. PwC MSME Survey 2020 PwC June 2020 37

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