How women can raise capital for their businesses

Raising capital for any business is a big challenge. This is true especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The truth of the matter is that most SMEs find it very difficult to access loans from banks. But there are other ways to raise funds to start up your business. Money from family and friends […]

Raising capital for any business is a big challenge. This is true especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The truth of the matter is that most SMEs find it very difficult to access loans from banks. But there are other ways to raise funds to start up your business.

Money from family and friends

For finance to start your own business, Mrs. Latifat Balogun, CEO of Hatlab Ice Cream, Abuja, said you most not wait for loans from banks but leverage on your relationship with family and friends.

“A lot of times, you don’t even need bank money. Sometimes if you have a good relationship with family members and friends who can lend you money, you can get funds. Sometime ago, someone lent me N5m without collateral. So, leverage on those you have around you and friends. But, you must pay back the debt,” Mrs. Balogun advised.

Contribution (adashe)

Through internal contribution (adashe) you can get some money to start a small business.

Mustapha Usman, a trader at the Wuse Market, Abuja, said he started his business from such.

“I started my buying and selling business from a contribution I was doing. When I got mine, I used it to buy grains to sell. Now, the business has grown and I am selling bags of rice,” Usman said.

Start small

Modupe Ayeni, an events planner, shared her view. “I did not wake up to be an events planner. I started by selling clothes in my brothers car. I would come home for semester break and use my pocket money to buy clothes; I will drive to offices and pop the trunk open and sell.  From the profit I made, I diversified to other businesses,” Ayeni said.

Savings

Mr. John David, the CEO of Hullintton Limited, an oil servicing company, said he started out from savings he made while he was working with an oil company.

“I saved 10 per cent of my salary when I was holding a paid job. This was what I used to start off and the business is growing,” David said.

Cooperatives

The Executive Secretary of the National Cooperative Financing Agency of Nigeria (CFAN), Mr. Emmanuel Atama, said entrepreneurs could also start up a business by forming a cooperative.

“If entrepreneurs form clusters and pull resources together like a cooperative, they can start a business. Because each individual contributes their quota to make the business stand. In Ghana, the cooperative form of owning a business is very common and it works for them,” Atama explained.