LCCI, others task youth entrepreneurs on innovation, technology

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and some stakeholders in Organised Private Sector have charged youth entrepreneurs to be more innovative and adapt to technological changes to scale up their businesses.

They gave the charge at the LCCI Youth Entrepreneurship Summit with the theme: “Innovation and business opportunities in a changing world” late on Thursday in Lagos.

Mrs Toki Mabogunje, President, LCCI, noted that in today’s constantly changing world, particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic, innovation played an important role within any organisation, especially for entrepreneurs.

“The way we do business across the globe keeps changing by the day, therefore, entrepreneurs need to adapt and innovate in the face of these changes so as not to flounder.

“While there will always be problems and other bumps along the road, it is imperative that these obstacles are overcome to increase the odds for success,” she said.

Mabogunje noted the theme of the event was aimed at examining challenges faced by young entrepreneurs within and beyond the borders.

She added that it would provide platforms to give direction on emerging opportunities and the possible entrepreneurial innovations in today’s changing clime.

“In view of this, the Chamber will continually encourage the youth to embrace entrepreneurship through sensitisation programme of this nature.

“The LCCI has been giving support to start-ups through its business mentoring programme since 2013 and those entrepreneurs have been contributing immensely to the growth of the GDP of our nation.

“We also acknowledge the efforts of the state government as well as the private entities and selected NGOs whose focus has also been on entrepreneurship development.

Dr Dikko Radda, Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), stressed the need for MSMEs to quickly adapt to the massive changes in digital transformation for seamless growth and development of the sector.

Radda said some of the challenges confronting the nation included how to ensure that its strong economic performance translated to improved standards and growth in the MSME subsector.

He listed some of the challenges to include weak capacity to adhere to local and international standard, poor access to finance, lack of work space, weak enabling environment and infrastructure, mismanagement of business operation, administrative barrier and multiple taxation.

The SMEDAN DG stressed that to ensure seamless development and growth of the MSME subsector in Nigeria post COVID-19 era, all the challenges confronting the subsector must be addressed.

He assured of the agency’s continued support towards achieving the country’s dream of an improved MSME subsector in the areas of job and wealth creation, poverty alleviation and food security.

“MSMEs must quickly adapt to the massive changes in digital transformation.

“It behoves on business owners to build stronger customer relationship to help them build better competitive advantage.

“The quickest and the most effective way to impact the average Nigerian is to devote time, attention and resources the growth is MSME subsector,” he said.

Mrs Nike Adeyemi, Chief Executive Officer, Fate Foundation, tasked MSMEs to find a better pathway to innovation by changing processes to meet the market place demand, extract value from existing resources and be scalable.

“You must be open to using extra resources and technology to boost your product and service value proposition.

“MSMEs must explore partnerships and collaborations, take advantage of community learning and sharing and encourage employees and customers to provide feedback,” she said.