The Entrepreneurship Eco-System (EE) component aims to strengthen the provision of demand driven Business Development Services (BDS), especially access to finance services (A2F link), to MSMEs- including women enterprises, enterprises owned by persons living with disabilities and members of other vulnerable target groups. We facilitate access to holistic entrepreneurial support and enhance the basic entrepreneurial and financial skills of MSMEs and potential entrepreneurs to be.
Approach
We promote a modular capacity building programme, namely the ICSS (INSPIRE, CREATE, START, and SCALE) Entrepreneurship Development Programme, tailored for MSMEs at different stages of their business lifecycle. Our approach, which was developed and adapted from the SME Loop, focuses on bolstering the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The ICSS Entrepreneurship Development Programme is also referred to as the SME Modular Loop. With sustainability in mind, the programme is implemented in collaboration with over 20 partner organisations/entrepreneurship support organisations (POs/ESOs). They deliver tailored training, coaching, mentoring, and business development services (BDS) linkages to MSMEs. To better align with the country’s priorities, the ICSS Trainers’ Certification process is paired with the National Business Development Services Providers Accreditation programme, authorized by the national agency for MSMEs (SMEDAN). Additionally, we foster early entrepreneurship endeavours for students through the Students Entrepreneurship Activity Hub (SEA-Hub) project, implemented in secondary schools. The SEA-Hub project has an Alumni Network (SHAN) established with the goal of raising Nigeria’s under 25 CEOs. Through several digital financial literacy platforms, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria’s SabiMONI platform, we also build the financial knowledge of our beneficiaries.
Partners
Our key partners cut across our POs/ESOs, the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), State MSME agencies, Federal and State Ministry of Education, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), all other entrepreneurship ecosystem actors, including financial institutions (see A2F link), and selected reputable business schools across the country.
Initiatives and Outreach
- We have built the capacity of over 35,000 MSMEs (44% women).
- Over 200 ICSS Trainers, Facilitator and Coaches (TFCs) reached, 25% of them are accredited Business Development Service Providers (BSDPs) by SMEDAN.
- We have built the financial literacy capacity of over 200,000 Nigerians (45% women).
- Over 37,000 secondary school students (60% girls) have improved their basic entrepreneurial skills.