By Bassey Udo
Nigeria’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are the heartbeat of the nation’s economic transformation, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, has said.
The Minister who spoke in Abuja at the unveiling of Moniepoint’s 2025 Edition of the Nigerian Informal Economy Report, said apart from driving innovation and creating jobs, the FinTech MSME community in particular not only play a defining role in powering digital trade, but in enabling all trades.
“With over 39 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises accounting for about 96 percent of all businesses, they contribute about 50 percent to Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs over 84 percent of the workforce,” she said.
The Minister, who represented Vice President Kashim Shettima, said the figures reflected the strength and resilience of Nigeria’s entrepreneurs who continue to sustain the economy despite structural challenges.
Nigeria committed support SMEs
She said government was committed to continue to support the development of the informal economy as the heart of nation’s story of resilience, creativity, and enterprise, adding that small business owners, artisans and digital entrepreneurs have continued to power commerce and trade daily, while keeping services alive across the country.
Acknowledging Moniepoint’s contributions to the significant milestones and remarkable global ambition of Nigeria’s technology firms, the Minister said the company’s growth story has continued to inspire confidence in Nigerian innovation and the economy.
With over 10 million active businesses and individuals served, she said Moneypoint was today Nigeria’s largest investment platform, by volume, and the nation’s leading merchant acquirer.
FinTech community growing
Expressing pride in the expanding FinTech community not just across Nigeria and Africa, but globally, the Minister said their growing cross-border presence reflects strong investor and consumer confidence in Nigerian’s innovation.
She said the present administration was committed to creating favourable conditions for trade to thrive across Africa, as the country is being positioned at the forefront of Africa’s digital transformation.
Some of the initiatives to create an enabling environment for MSMEs to thrive, she said, include improving access to finance, simplifying registration and compliance processes, and equipping entrepreneurs with the tools to scale sustainably.
Commending Moniepoint for spotlighting the realities of the nation’s informal economy through its new report, Oduwole pointed out that such insights were crucial for evidence-based policymaking.
Inroads to AfCFTA
On how the MSMEs could plug into the regional value chains and take advantage of the opportunities offered by emerging marketplace of 1.4 billion people under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTFA), the Minister said government was removing barriers to their upscaling their businesses.
Apart from streamlining trade processes and promoting market access, she said government was providing the private sector with the tools and information to scale across borders.
She highlighted several trade-related initiatives under the AfCFTA designed to boost market access for Nigerian businesses, including the SMEDAN Enterprise Support Programmes, and NAPC’s wide programme designed for women in digital exports as well as other entrepreneurs to compete, scale, and succeed within AfCFTA’s single market and beyond.
Other initiatives, she said, include gazetted tax concessions for trading goods to enable preferential and eventually duty-free access across Africa, and the launch of the Adegboye Export Corridor with Uganda Air, targeting 13 Southern and Eastern African countries with export corridor offers at discounted cargo rates that reduce air freight costs by as much as 75 percent, to help Nigerian exporters reach regional markets faster.
Besides, she said efforts to support women entrepreneurs led to the launching of the $50 million Women Exporters in Digital Economy (WEIDE) Fund in partnership with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Trade Centre (ITC).
Moniepoint and its mission
Moniepoint Chief Executive Officer, Babatunde Olofin said the company’s inspiration for the decade-long journey was a mission to create “financial happiness” through inclusive digital payment systems.
Olofin disclosed that so far the company has grown to serve more than 10 million individuals and businesses across Nigeria, making it the country’s largest business payments platform by transaction volume.
“Our focus has always been on enabling people to build sustainable livelihoods, whether they run a market stall or a growing enterprise,” he said, adding that the company would continue to deepen financial inclusion through technology, bridging the gap between formal and informal businesses, while expanding to other African markets.
SMEDAN ready to help
The Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Charles Odii, described the informal sector as the backbone of the Nigerian economy, as it is deeply embedded in the fabric of the people’s daily life, with market vendors, artisans and millions of Nigerians depending on it for their livelihoods.
Odii said ensuring the survival of the SMEs, which is part of SMEDAN’s core mandates, was crucial for their growth, poverty elimination, rural industrialization and enhancement of livelihoods.
He said SMEDAN was committed to continuing to partner with the informal sector to remove the limitations to access to finance, markets and structured interventions that enable business to thrive.
To promote the formalisation of businesses inn the country, Odii said SMEDAN was working with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to register 250,000 business names at no cost, to help open doors for entrepreneurs, particularly youth and women, to formalise their operations.
Besides, he said SMEDAN has continued to provide support through capacity development, market access initiatives, and financial interventions to encourage small businesses.
Key highlights of report
Key highlights of the 2025 Informal Economy Report include details on the resilience and fragility of Nigeria’s informal sector, which showed the sector employs nearly two-thirds of its workforce and remains central to the country’s economic activity.
Also, the report revealed that while 65 percent of informal businesses recorded revenue growth in the past year, rising costs meant only 47 percent saw higher profits, with about 38 percent of operators earning less than N10,000 daily, underscoring the precarious nature of livelihoods within the sector.
Although unemployment remained the main reason many Nigerians turn to informal work, the report noted that the sector continued to serve as a major job creator, with four in ten participants employing others.
Significantly, the report noted that gradual digital shift was underway, while cash remaining the dominant mode of customer payment, with nearly half of business owners preferring to pay suppliers through bank transfers.
The report identified limited access to finance, weak business structures, low digital adoption and poor infrastructure as key constraints to growth in the sector, noting that improved financial literacy and wider access to affordable digital tools could unlock significant productivity gains.
In spite of he harsh economic climate in the country, the report found that informal businesses remain remarkably adaptable, relying on mobile transactions and community-based savings networks to stay afloat.
In its recommendations, Moniepoint urged policymakers and financial institutions to support these entrepreneurs with targeted interventions that could strengthen their long-term stability and contributions to Nigeria’s economic growth.
