To close Nigeria’s $158 billion funding gap for 40 million small businesses, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has joined forces with MTN Nigeria to operate a platform known as mySMEville Academy.
The aim is to reach a target of 5 million MSMEs through the mySMEville Academy, e-commerce integrations, and national policy advocacy.
The platform was created as a one-stop shop for resources, with four core areas: information, funding, infrastructure, and markets, to support a sector that contributes 48 per cent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) but remains largely underserved.
On Tuesday, May 12, 2026, SMEDAN visited MTN’s head office alongside Angola’s INAPEM, the National Institute of Support for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Angola’s agency is studying the collaboration between MTN and SMEDAN, which led to the launch of the mySMEville partnership in November 2025.
After a pilot in Lagos onboarded 200 businesses in December, the platform rapidly grew to include over 2,600 businesses nationwide by May 2026. This rapid expansion is essential given that 80 per cent of Nigerian SMEs are currently informal and only 3.9 per cent access formal credit, leaving a staggering $158 billion annual financing gap.
Emphasising the strategic necessity of this collaboration, the Chief Enterprise Business Officer at MTN Nigeria, Ms Lynda Saint-Nwafor, said, “Our goal is simple, we want to be the best technology partner out there, helping African businesses grow fast, compete globally, and make a real, lasting impact.”
Supporting this view, the Director-General of SMEDAN, Mr Charles Odii, said the initiative represents the future of business on the continent, asserting that
“What we are witnessing here is a formidable force for economic progress. Through this deliberate Public-Private Partnership, Nigeria is aligning its public and private sectors to lead the way for Africa,” he stated.
On his part, the Senior Specialist for ICT Segment Management at MTN Business, Mr Olatunbosun Agosu, demonstrated with a live demo how the mySMEville platform, a joint effort by MTN and SMEDAN, is the “one-stop orchestrator” for Nigeria’s 40 million small businesses.
INAPEM’s Chairman, Mr Bráulio Augusto, confirmed that Angola intends to adapt the framework to its own economic reality, noting, “The key thing I learned here is the strength of the public and private sector partnership. mySMEville clearly shows what’s possible, and we will absolutely use these insights as we adapt this model back home in Angola.”
