No fewer than 200 intending and existing entrepreneurs attended a Business Boot-Camp for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) growth within the South-East on Sunday.

A facilitator of the programme, Mr. Kazeem Sanusi, told newsmen in Enugu that the essence of the programme was to support intending and existing SMEs with helpful business knowledge and skills.

Sanusi, who is with Development Facilitator and Strategic Planning (DFSP) Limited, said that the programme would be followed with a three-month online support and growth acceleration exercise.

He noted that the programme was meant to equip the intending and existing entrepreneurs to believe in themselves and the propensity of their businesses to grow.

“Teaching them how to source for single digit-interest loans and other criteria to access government business incentives as well,” he said.

Sanusi noted that the programme had been organised in Lagos for South-West, Port Harcourt for South-South; while that of Ilorin for North-Central, Kaduna for North-West and Yola for North-East would be coming up soon.

In a lecture titled, ‘Entrepreneurial Development for SMEs’, an expert entrepreneurship development, Mr. Joshua Adesoji, enumerated common challenges faced by entrepreneurs, which include low market access, poor access to credit and poor information flow.

“Discriminatory legislations, weak operating capacities such as skill, knowledge and resource as well as low access to business development services,” Adesoji, who is with Vine Logic Solution Ltd., said.

He also enumerated how the challenges can be surmounted by entrepreneurs.

In another lecture titled, ‘Accounting Record Keeping and Cash flow Management for SMEs’, a tax expert, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Olufon, noted that tax evasion was punishable for law and it attracts huge penalties most times.

Olufon, who is with Lefort Consulting Ltd., said that negative tax issues affecting SMEs included multiple taxes, regulatory compliance cost and poor access to government finance.

In the programme, Mr. Obaro Osah, Regional Manager (South-East), Bank of Industry, made a presentation on accessing the bank’s single-digit interest loan and SME businesses the financial institution was interested in.

One of the participants, Miss Glory Osita-John, a fashion designer, said that she had learnt to be faithful with her book keeping processes and records as well as separating her personal account from that of her business account.

Osita-John, who is the owner of Glowzoe Fashion Concept, said that she also learnt how to study her target market segment as well as where and how to raise capital for her business expansion.

Another participant, Mr. Obiora Obeta, said that engagement was very robust especially as it concerns taxes and using its remittances to attract loans and goodwill from government and other corporate organisations.

Obeta, who is the Executive Director of Betas Integrated Technologies Ltd, encourage youths to rise to build the nation via SMEs in order to create job and wealth to improve the economy.

The programme was organised by D37 Capital in support with its partners.