FATE Foundation, Nigeria’s leading non-profit, promoting business and entrepreneurial development in Nigeria, launched her maiden State of Entrepreneurship Report during her 7 the Annual Policy Dialogue Series on Entrepreneurship programme with the theme: “Building an Inclusive, Cohesive and Sustainable Ecosystem” which held on Thursday, November 11, 2021.
The virtual event had in attendance, Fola Adeola, Founder & Chairman of FATE Foundation; Tokunbo Talabi, Secretary to the Ogun State Government; Stefan Nalletamby, Director, Financial Sector Development Department, African Development Bank (AFDB); Matt Smith, Director, Research and Policy, Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN); Yewande Adewusi, Regional Director Africa, BBC Global News; Tubosun Alake, Special Advisor to the Lagos State Government on Innovation & Technology; and Tosin Faniduro-Dada, Managing Director & CEO, Endeavor Nigeria and a host of other speakers.
The report survey had over 7,100 respondents across 26 states and explored indicators looking at Business Performance; Perception of Opportunities; Digital Adoption; Skills Acquisition and the Enabling Environment. Key findings from the report indicate that:
- Most businesses in Nigeria are youth-led (67%) with an increasing number of businesses being female-led (43%);
- Entrepreneurship is fairly strong in Nigeria with Skills and Digital Adoption at the highest indicator levels while business performance and enabling environment scored lowest;
- States such as Abia, Bauchi, Edo, Gombe, Kwara, Jigawa, Oyo and Lagos have more female than male-led businesses;
- 34% of female-led businesses did not record growth due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown albeit;
- Technology was a major driver youth-led businesses which experienced growth with those in the Retail, Fashion, FMCG, Agribusiness and Hospitality accounting for the highest technology adoption; and
- Inadequate infrastructure, insecurity and poor access to finance are the major constraints to business growth and performance.
Speaking at the launch, Adenike Adeyemi, the Executive Director of FATE Foundation noted that the report will be very beneficial for policymakers, regulators, enterprise training centres, incubators, business service development providers, funders and other ecosystem players looking to cultivate, motivate and enable the different entrepreneurial communities within their ecosystems.
The FATE Institute is the research, policy and advocacy arm of FATE Foundation which leads innovative thinking and creates platforms to enable idea exchange and problem-solving strategies to foster sustainable
entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
The Institute has published 12 thought leadership reports on Nigeria’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and entrepreneurs; held a yearly Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, and in 2021 launched a quarterly Policy Workshop series.
The 2021 State of Entrepreneurship in Nigeria Report can be downloaded at https://www.fatefoundation.org/download/2021soe/.
Media Contacts: Amaka Nwaokolo, Head, Research & Policy, FATE Foundation. research@fatefoundation.org
