By Onu Okorie
Nigeria’s unemployment challenge may require more than government intervention, as the growing number of young entrepreneurs with viable business ideas face a more immediate obstacle: access to affordable capital, markets, mentorship and infrastructure.
This was the central message at the fifth edition of the BILAAD Development Trust’s Gem Hunt project, where the organisation provided grants to young entrepreneurs while urging businesses and investors to deepen funding for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
The event, themed “Roots to Riches: Building Nigeria’s Next Generation of Entrepreneurs,” brought entrepreneurs working across Information Technology, renewable energy, agriculture, commodity trading and fashion.
Chairman and Coordinating Trustee of BILAAD Development Trust, Dr Sadiq Suleiman-Abdullahi, said Nigeria had no shortage of entrepreneurial talent but lacked sufficient support systems to help promising businesses move from ideas and small-scale operations to sustainable enterprises.
He identified funding, market access and mentorship as critical areas requiring greater intervention.
According to him, many entrepreneurs with viable and potentially investable businesses remain excluded from conventional bank financing because they cannot meet collateral requirements.
He therefore challenged oil companies, banks, telecommunications firms and other profitable businesses to establish or expand Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and impact-investment funds targeted at small businesses.
“Most development efforts are done by the organised private sector,” Suleiman-Abdullahi said.
Suleiman-Abdullahi said MSMEs and the wider informal sector contributed more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product and accounted for between 80 and 90 per cent of employment.
Yet, he noted, the businesses responsible for a significant share of economic activity continue to face high energy costs, limited access to the digital economy, inadequate mentorship and poor access to credit.
The implication, he said, is that supporting entrepreneurs should not stop at awarding grants.
A business that receives initial funding but lacks reliable electricity, digital infrastructure, customers, business knowledge and follow-up financing may struggle to survive or expand.
The Gem Hunt initiative therefore seeks to identify young entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and expose them to potential support beyond the competition.
Suleiman-Abdullahi said BILAAD had reached more than 2,000 people through its various programmes, including entrepreneurship initiatives, Ramadan feeding programmes and local and international scholarships.
Former Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Mrs Asabe Ahmed, urged individuals and organisations to continue supporting the entrepreneurs after the competition.
She said the contestants had demonstrated resilience by identifying problems in their communities and developing businesses around potential solutions.
“This is also an opportunity for each and every one of us to reach out to these other kids and see what we can do to help their startups or at least encourage what they are already doing,” Ahmed said.
Her appeal points to a wider challenge in Nigeria’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, where one-off grants and competitions can provide a starting point but sustained growth often depends on access to finance, mentorship and customers.
Chief Executive Officer of BILAAD Realty Nigeria Ltd., Dr Usman Bassi, said the entrepreneurs did not necessarily require huge amounts of money to move their businesses forward.
He said most contestants were seeking between ₦1 million and ₦2 million to scale their operations.
“It’s not about the money; it’s the idea and the resilience,” Bassi said.
He argued that relatively small financial interventions could enable young businesses to increase production, employ additional workers and develop solutions to community problems.
Bassi also highlighted the entrepreneurs’ focus on indigenous solutions and local content, particularly in areas linked to sustainability and climate change.
The calls at the event place greater emphasis on the role of private capital in Nigeria’s job-creation strategy.
Rather than relying exclusively on government grants or conventional commercial loans, impact investment and structured corporate funding could provide an intermediate financing channel for businesses that are too small or too young to qualify for traditional bank credit but already have products, customers or demonstrable growth potential.
Such funding could also allow large corporations to connect their CSR spending with measurable economic outcomes, including job creation, local sourcing and development of new suppliers.
For BILAAD, the objective is to ensure that young Nigerians with workable ideas are not held back by the absence of relatively modest amounts of capital.