Female entrepreneurs have been urged to embrace frugality, professionalism and ethics to make their businesses sustainable in the highly competitive Nigerian economy.
At the First Bank Sustainability Centre’s workshop for women-led SMEs which held at Lagos Business School today, FBN Holdings Chairperson, Ibukun Awosika, gave participants practical steps that would grow their businesses for the long haul, including values that would make them reference points for opportunities, however fierce competition gets.
She disclosed that banks and financial institutions were beginning to understand the value of growing the SME sector, but were faced with the challenge of getting small businesses to meet their conditions for loans. “So in order to build their customer base, financial institutions are investing in their future customers to give them the capacity to be bankable,” she explained.
Using her personal growth trajectory as a case study, she recommended traits such as hard work, doggedness, commitment to values and people skills, which she assured would not only make participants’ businesses weather financial storms, but also equip them for the future.
“Sometimes we are the ones who lack the necessary structure and discipline to make our businesses grow,” she disclosed. “Don’t eat your dinner for breakfast. There’s a time and season for everything.”
