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By Merit Ibe
Businesses should begin to form collaborations in areas such as production, market access and research, product design, strategy and action plan for growth.
Bosun Solarin, Founder and Owner, Dasun Integrated Farms Ltd and DIFL Nigeria, made the remark in a webinar organised by the Talking Trade and Investment Global.
She said organisers and member of the talking trade team should start putting their ideas into action and by the end of the first carter, collaborate to form business groups that can coordinate activitiess ahead of the third and fourth quarters of the year.
The success and lessons, she said can be used to monitor processes and repeat non-oil export -focused activities.
Highlighting some benefits of a collaborative approach, Solarin listed the following; Shared facility-a shared cost, which will lead to reduced risks; Economic of scale-reduced cost of production, leading to higher profit; shared logistics, trade shows and exhibitions collaborations interventions from development agencies.
Solarin, who has been actively exporting Nigeria products on international scale, decried the structural defect pulling back many Nigerians small businesses.
She also explained that businesses that do not have a proper accounting system and record-keeping systems will be unable to receive support or grants to grow their businesses from reputable donor agencies, she explained.
She recommended the creation of an export civil society sector group that will help fight policies that do not support exporters and resolve a situation where exporters are tossed to and fro.
“Until we put our differences behind us, mend, change our ways, allow integrity, trust, accountability, credibility and through a most determined effort, build a team that is formidable enough to withstand distractors, when our advocacy becomes stronger, then we will begin to move closer to our destination.
“Business membership organisations must play an advocacy role in capacity building, business growth, trade facilitation and funding opportunities for businesses insetting up with standards for successful trading.”
Solomon Ogunleye, another participant and a retired customs officer, noted that although collaboration is the way forward, one must conduct KYS”-Know your self and do thorough due diligence before working together.
He noted that an entrepreneur must understand the business and do necessary research before venturing into exporting, adding that there is still much potential to be seen in exports.
Mrs Omolara Akanji, former CBN deputy director, said the 2023 elections would provide a reasonable transition period to deploy new strategies, she also recommended the adoption of the Export Promotion Zone (NEPZA) by Nigerian SMEs so that when the processing is done at the zone, it becomes easy to transit to the level of a shared facility.
She further explained that although the government is to regulate the system, the anti-trust approach should be deadened.
