External Funding Possibilities for SMEs in Nigeria

Small and Medium Enterprises play a pivotal role in the economic growth of any nation, thereby increasing productivity, GDP, and employment opportunities. One major challenge to the growth and development of this sector of the economy is poor funding. It is on this prem-ise that this research is based upon, finding the external funding possibilities for SMEs in Nige-ria.

This study briefly talks about the importance of the SME sector to the Nigerian economy and also extensively explains the major external funding possibilities available to SMEs in Nigeria. Funding initiative by governments (Federal and States) as well as those of Non-Governmental Organizations, and International Development Agencies were also adequately considered.

The qualitative method was used in this research, thereby data was collected from both pri-mary and secondary data. The primary data was obtained by interviewing two key officers of a SME business in Nigeria. Two senior officers at two lending institutions were also inter-viewed. Most of the secondary data used in this research were obtained by consulting arti-cles, journals and other publications.

During the course of this research study, the researcher found that there are numerous sources of external funding possibilities with relatively cheap, available and accessible medi-um to long term funds for SMEs in Nigeria but are not aware of them because their existence and services were not adequately given enough publicity by the media.
The findings identified new initiatives springing up to support the sector. In the light of the above, the SMEs need to get acquainted with the knowledge of external funding initiatives available to them. It should also be noted that the entrepreneur’s attitude towards external funding should be taken into consideration.