The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria has stated that the country’s major challenge is no longer the availability of funding for startups, but rather the shortage of investment-ready businesses capable of attracting and effectively deploying available capital.

The agency said it was therefore training a new generation of entrepreneurship trainers to equip young Nigerians with the skills required to build innovative, technology-driven and globally competitive businesses.

Vanguard reported that the Director, Director-General’s Office, SMEDAN, Onesi-Lawani, who represented the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Charles Odii, stated this at the commencement of the two-week Training of Trainers programme under the Abuja Centre for Entrepreneurship Project in Abuja.

According to a statement issued on Monday by the Head of the Corporate Affairs Unit, SMEDAN, Moshood Lawal, the programme is designed to produce ACE-certified trainers capable of grooming young Nigerians to build and scale investment-ready enterprises.

The statement read, “The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria has charged participants at the Abuja Centre for Entrepreneurship Project’s Training of Trainers programme to become catalysts for developing a new generation of innovative, technology-driven and globally competitive Nigerian entrepreneurs.”

Congratulating the participants, Onesi-Lawani said the selection process was highly competitive, noting that the call for applications attracted more than 1,100 responses.

He said the Project Management Consortium subsequently shortlisted 80 candidates across the Business Management and Artificial Intelligence streams, before another round of interviews produced the 30 successful participants currently undergoing the training.

He charged the participants to see the programme as an opportunity to become catalysts for a new generation of Nigerian entrepreneurs.

The SMEDAN director said Nigeria had significant funding opportunities for startups, but many businesses were unable to attract the available capital because they lacked the structure, innovation, scalability and business models required by investors.

“Significant funding opportunities exist for Nigerian startups, but there remains a shortage of investment-ready businesses capable of attracting available capital. The participants are to focus on developing entrepreneurs with the capacity to build globally competitive and scalable enterprises,” he stated.

He urged the participants to focus on developing entrepreneurs capable of creating businesses that could compete beyond the Nigerian market and attract international investment.

Onesi-Lawani identified fintech, agritech, healthtech, logistics and mobility as some of the major opportunity areas under the ACE Project.

He also listed the creative economy, including digital media, fashion, gaming, animation and film, among sectors with significant potential to produce globally competitive Nigerian businesses.

He said Nigeria remained Africa’s leading startup destination and was home to five of the continent’s eight unicorns.

The SMEDAN official urged the participants to use the training to help Nigerian youths develop businesses capable of achieving similar global success.

He expressed confidence that the two-week programme would deepen the participants’ commitment to the objectives of the ACE Project and strengthen the country’s entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem.

The Abuja Centre for Entrepreneurship is a flagship initiative of SMEDAN, implemented in collaboration with the Korea International Cooperation Agency.

The project is supported by a $12m commitment from the South Korean Government to establish a world-class Skills Acquisition Centre in Abuja.

The project is designed to strengthen Nigeria’s entrepreneurship ecosystem through entrepreneurship education, digital innovation, business incubation and acceleration, institutional capacity development and policy support.

Through the ACE Project, SMEDAN seeks to identify, develop and support young Nigerians with innovative ideas and high-growth potential.

The initiative is also expected to provide participants with the knowledge, skills, mentorship and networks required to build scalable and globally competitive enterprises.

The training comes amid growing efforts by the Federal Government and development partners to deepen Nigeria’s startup ecosystem, improve access to capital and increase the contribution of small businesses and innovative enterprises to economic growth.

However, the persistent gap between available funding and the capacity of many startups to meet investment requirements remains a major challenge for the sector.

The latest initiative is therefore expected to focus not only on entrepreneurship education but also on building a pipeline of businesses capable of moving from ideas and early-stage ventures to scalable enterprises that can attract domestic and international capital.