By Akpa Evelyn Ogbene
Over the past six years, Nigeria has witnessed a massive relocation and sharp reduction in operations of top corporate enterprises, mostly multinationals, while smaller businesses continue to fold up at an alarming rate.
It is against this backdrop that business owners, investors, regulators and entrepreneurs converged in Lagos to seek practical solutions for long-term investments that can preserve and protect businesses, especially Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and indigenous companies on the verge of collapse
The platform was the Business Summit, Fair and Awards (BSFAA) 2026, held on Thursday, October 15, 2026, in Lagos. The event was convened by the CEO of Beady’s Word Productions, Ms. Beady Nnanna.
In her opening remarks, Ms. Nnanna noted that while Nigerians daily come up with new ideas, create job opportunities and develop solutions, businesses are still struggling to survive due to multiple taxation, unstable infrastructure, rising operating costs, limited access to finance, regulatory bottlenecks, poor policy implementation and an increasingly expensive digital economy.
According to her, regulatory systems should protect lives, build confidence and promote standards.
“Registration and certification should never become the ultimate objective. Where dangerous, fake and substandard products continue to find their way into the market, we must ask whether we are sufficiently focused on monitoring and public safety, not simply registration and revenue,” she said.
Speaking on the theme *“Innovate and Elevate: Powering Nigerian SMEs into the Digital/AI Future,”* Nnanna said the summit was designed as a convergence point for entrepreneurs, SMEs, investors, government representatives, regulators, corporate organisations, development partners, innovators and especially persons living with disabilities, to confront the realities facing businesses in Nigeria and identify viable solutions.
She added that the intent of the conversations was to move “from complaints to solutions, from policies on paper to policies that work, and from merely collecting revenues from business owners to creating an enabling environment where businesses can thrive.”
She affirmed that the future of the country cannot be built by government alone, but by entrepreneurs, innovators, workers, investors and communities.
Corroborating Nnanna, the President of NdigboAmaka Progressive Markets Association, Hon. Comrade Chinedu Ukatu, in his presentation titled “Strengthening Enterprise: The Role of Community Leaders in Building Sustainable Business in Nigeria,” stated that businesses in Nigeria do not die because of lack of ideas, but because of lack of structure, lack of community and lack of continuity.
According to him, anyone can start a shop, but it takes a community to sustain a business. He highlighted three critical roles of community leadership:
*1. Sustainability:* Community acts as an incubator that trains before trading through apprenticeship programmes where intending traders learn customer loyalty, honesty and business settlement. “Government and banks give loans, but community gives mentorship. No loan can teach how to manage a customer who insults a trader and still buys from the trader the next day,” he said.
*2. Community as a Regulator:* Where traders sell substandard products, the trade association queries, fines and seals the trader’s shop before handing over to authorities. This, he described as self-regulation by the community. He emphasized that where formal regulation is weak, community leadership creates trust, as customers can always return to market associations to lay complaints.
*3. Community as Safety Net:* “This arises by lifting others,” Ukatu said. He pointed out that during COVID-19, market associations saved traders through contributions, sharing palliatives, negotiating with landlords and giving second chances to those who lost all their belongings not the banks.
He stressed that the future of sustainable business in Nigeria cannot be decided in boardrooms alone, not by writing letters and speaking grammar, but by seeing traders as partners in economic development and carrying them along in quality foundations.
The market leader, however, noted that community leadership is a bridge and urged government to stop seeing market associations as mere revenue points. He encouraged fellow community leaders to formalise the apprenticeship system, teach apprentices digital skills, enforce quality and stamp out fake and adulterated products, since their reputation is their brand
A renowned human rights activist and President of Women Arise, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, who was also one of the awardees, while addressing participants, emphasized that SMEs and entrepreneurs are the soul of a nation like Nigeria.
“80 percent of our jobs are contributed by entrepreneurs in terms of empowering our community and ensuring that we have a Nigeria that works and our passport is accepted anywhere,” she said.
According to her, despite economic hazards and glaring hunger, entrepreneurs still play a major role. She reiterated that government must create an enabling environment to encourage more people, including persons living with disabilities, to thrive in business.
While urging those in business to overcome low self-esteem, Dr. Odumakin also charged successful entrepreneurs to be truthful about their achievements and ensure they empower those still struggling with proper access and funding.
Earlier in the event, a representative of Union Bank, Mr. Adebayo, gave a talk on accessing funds, noting that every SME is the backbone of every economy because they support local businesses, create jobs and contribute to national development, but one of the major challenges remains access to finance.
The Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer of NAFDAC, Mrs. Ibimina Adedeji, concurred with other speakers, affirming that NAFDAC has enhanced the ease of doing business for SMEs by going digital.
In the interactive session, some Nollywood stakeholders raised concerns. Ambassador Cornel Udofia, CEO of Cornel Media Consult (CMC), asked how NAFDAC intends to regulate and stop the indiscriminate sale of sachet alcohol, while Oruka musician, Sunny Nneji, urged NAFDAC to consistently run campaigns to create awareness on fake products.
The summit also featured exhibitions by different businesses, including clothing lines and healthy cereals.
Other notable dignitaries present included Nollywood star and President of the Association of Voice Over Artists (AVOA), Segun Arinze, who advised entrepreneurs to remain disciplined, focused and never be in a haste to rise; former Senator representing Lagos East Senatorial District, Senator Anthony Adefuye, Patron of BSFAA; and the Olugbon of Lagos, who emphasized strategic pricing, integrity and sound business practices as essential tools for building successful and sustainable enterprises in Nigeria.
The highlight of the event was the presentation of awards to exceptional individuals and organisations that have contributed to business and national development.
The summit ended with a renewed call for collaboration between government, regulators, financial institutions, market associations and entrepreneurs to move Nigerian SMEs from survival to sustainability in the digital and AI-driven future.
