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AfricaApril 1 2007

Small money

The government is taking steps to address the lack of funding available to micro, small and medium-sized businesses. John McCarthy reports.
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Nigerian micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) across all sectors have long faced several shared problems that hinder their activity, sustainability and growth.

One of the chief problems has been inadequate transport and communications infrastructure, which the government has started to address seriously. But MSMEs must also operate against a background of poor information flows, weak intra-sectoral links, weak health, safety and environmental safeguards and low levels of market access. Beyond these, they face restricted access to land and have typically been disfavoured by legislation designed with large businesses and state-backed projects in mind. However, one of the principal problems for many MSMEs has been the difficulty of accessing reliable and cheap capital to sustain ongoing operations and fuel growth.

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