Tuesday, September 13, 2011

The importance of Small Business: It is an established fact right now, that small businesses are now the engene growht of many economies, especially those of develping countries in Asia. Countries like India, Malaysia, Singapore, have derived maximum benefits from small businesses. These businesses have at different times been the main source of employment for the people, and it contributes a substantial percentage of the gross domestic product of these countries. African countries on the other hand, have not started benefiting from the uniqueness of small businesses. This is simply due to the fact that these businesses are not growing because of the inability of would-be investors to find the finance to establish these businesses. The government of Nigeria some years ago, attempted to solve this probvlem of access to finance by small businesses, by approving the establishment of micro finance banks. Those banks were then called community banks. There sole responsibility was and still is, to make lending possible by small businesses. Unfortunately, many of these banks eventually crashed, and were liquidated by the apex bank in Nigeria,k the Central bank. for a would-be investor to be eligible for a loan from a micro finance bank, he must belong to a co-operative group, or a group where his cohorts in the same business are. This is to give the banks the assurance that they will be able to recover their money. The banks give out money to these groups, and the groups inturn lend them out to their members. Or the group can guarantee a loan for a membver. One hlpes this will continue to be the trend, and small busineses can grow in Nigeria. A major problem such small businesses have in Nigeria, is infrastructural. Electric power is a problem. Any investor in Nigeria, must have a generator, as an alternative source of electric power. These generators have to be powered by fuel, which is also very expensive at the moment. Small businesses are now growing on the internet as well. We will talk about that a lot more in subsequent posts. It is a common phenomenon,