The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to collaborate with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to implement joint nationwide sensitization campaigns on “Financing SMEs through the Capital Market.”
Director-General of the SEC, Emomotimi Agama, said this during a meeting with SMEDAN in Abuja on Tuesday. He said both agencies would co-brand financial literacy content and SME investment-readiness toolkits.
Agama explained that the meeting aimed to initiate a strategic collaboration between the SEC and SMEDAN to support small business financing through access to the capital market.
The engagement, he noted, aligns with the mandate of the SEC’s newly established Office of Small Business Advocacy (OSBA), which serves as the primary interface between the Commission and SMEs seeking to raise capital via securities issuance.
According to him, SMEs represent over 90 percent of businesses in Nigeria and contribute significantly to employment and GDP.
Despite their importance, most SMEs face major obstacles in accessing long-term, affordable financing.
He said the SEC, through the OSBA, is actively working to broaden access to market-based financing instruments for SMEs.
He noted that SMEDAN, as a statutory stakeholder in the MSME space, has deep knowledge, nationwide networks, and relevant data infrastructure to support SME development.
A collaborative framework between the SEC and SMEDAN, he added, will foster synergies for policy innovation, capacity building, and SME investment readiness.
Agama further disclosed that the Commission seeks to formalize a partnership with SMEDAN to implement coordinated interventions such as secure access to reliable and verified SME data to enable capital market outreach and segmentation, joint use of SME analytics for market readiness assessments and policy insights, and training programmes for SMEs on capital market funding opportunities, governance, and compliance.
He added that both agencies hope to co-host a National SME Capital Market Summit in the third or fourth quarter of the year to showcase financing opportunities for SMEs.
He emphasized the need to harness Nigeria’s entrepreneurial potential through inclusive capital formation, saying, “There will be no economy without the capital market.
“The capital market is the engine room of any economy. The reason companies are not approaching the market is due to lack of funds.
“We are here to change the narrative because we know that SMEs are the backbone of our economy.
By working with SMEDAN, we can create enabling frameworks to help these businesses access long-term funding.”
Also speaking, the SEC’s Executive Commissioner, Legal and Enforcement, Frana Chukwuogor, noted that under the new Finance Act and SEC regulations, small business owners can raise funds through the capital market, either through equity or debt, to grow their enterprises. She added that the capital market can provide the financial boost SMEs require.
In his remarks, the Director-General of SMEDAN, Charles Odii, welcomed the collaboration, describing it as a game-changer for Nigeria’s SME landscape.
He said that the alliance with the SEC aligns perfectly with SMEDAN’s mandate to upscale and formalize the informal sector.
By introducing SMEs to non-traditional funding avenues like bonds, equities, crowdfunding, and other market instruments, he said more businesses can be empowered to scale sustainably.
The meeting concluded with a shared commitment to establish a national working team to streamline SMEs’ onboarding processes for capital market participation, develop targeted investor education programmes, and create innovative financing models tailored to the needs of small businesses.
This partnership marks a pivotal step toward inclusive economic development and is expected to catalyze job creation, industrial growth, and financial inclusion across the country.