The Managing Director of T-Square Foods, an Ondo State-based small enterprise, Paul Adebusuyi, has identified a lack of access to cheap funds, high-interest rates, collateral requirements, and high cost of business registration as hindering the growth of SMEs in the country.
The journalist-turned-entrepreneur pointed out that the production for his unripe plantain business had not increased due to the many challenges he and other SMEs in the country were currently experiencing.
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He said there were plans to increase production, as well as the market base of the product, but lamented that access to capital and high-interest rate, cum collateral from banks, had made the plan to be kept on hold.
The entrepreneur explained that interest rates should not be too high such that they would eventually ruin the survival of any business.
He decried the cost of products’ registration as a major challenge and said, “When we approached NAFDAC for registration, we were shocked to hear that over N600,000 would be spent to register our product to get a NAFDAC number.
“As a result of that, we could not add a NAFDAC number to the product, as such, we could not take it to shopping malls and departmental stores to sell. Due to the influx of unripe plantain in the market, our product which is not mixed, seems expensive while others which are mixed, become cheaper. Nigerians prefer cheaper items. Loans should be accessible too.”
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