The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and NASD Plc have co-hosted a stakeholders’ forum designed to introduce Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprises to capital market funding as a practical alternative to bank loans and high-interest borrowing.
Held in Lagos and themed “Financing Growth: Propelling the Real Sector Through the Capital Market,” the forum brought together entrepreneurs, investors, and regulators to map out a more accessible and structured path to medium- and long-term financing for small businesses.
Read also: Invest in Lagos 3.0 opens as state targets N4 tn investment to boost SMEs
Why the capital market matters for SMEs
NASD Managing Director Eguarekhide Longe framed the core argument plainly: businesses need more financing options, investors need more opportunities to deploy funds, and the capital market provides the bridge between both. For most Nigerian SMEs, that bridge has historically remained out of reach — either because the requirements seemed daunting, the process felt opaque, or awareness of what the Over-the-Counter Exchange actually offers was simply too low.
The forum addressed all three barriers directly. Oludare Fajimolu, Head of Research and Strategy at NASD Plc, outlined the practical benefits of the OTC Exchange for small businesses, including multiple capital-raising options, a regulated environment that gives investors confidence, improved market visibility for participating companies, and direct access to investors without requiring a full listing on the Nigerian Exchange.
For an SME that has been told it does not qualify for a bank loan, the capital market offers something structurally different: it raises money not against collateral or credit scores, but against the quality of the business itself.
Read also: MTN Nigeria, SMEDAN target 5 million MSMEs with mySMEville as $158bn funding gap deepens
What SMEs need to prepare
Participants at the forum were given an honest account of what qualifying for capital market funding actually requires. A clear and credible business model, a well-defined growth strategy, sound corporate governance structures, audited financial statements, and transparent cash flow records were consistently identified as the minimum baseline.
LCCI Director-General Dr Chinyere Almona described the real sector as the engine of economic growth and stressed that SME operators need patient capital to expand and thrive — the kind of capital that bank loans, structured around short repayment cycles and high rates, are poorly suited to provide. The OTC Exchange offers instruments with longer tenors and more flexible structures that better match the investment needs of growing businesses.
Governance and transparency are not bureaucratic boxes to tick. They are the signal that tells investors this is a business they can trust with their capital — and without that signal, no funding window, however well-designed, will close the gap.
The broader context
With commercial lending rates for SMEs still above 30 per cent annually and over half of Nigerian small businesses opting out of formal borrowing entirely, initiatives that open alternative funding channels carry genuine weight. The LCCI-NASD forum concluded with a direct call for SME promoters to strengthen accountability and corporate governance as the foundational step toward capital market readiness — a message that applies regardless of which funding route businesses ultimately pursue.
