Zoho and SMEDAN has partnered to support 25,000 Nigerian MSMEs with ₦20bn Cloud Technology Credits.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that global technology company Zoho has entered a strategic partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, to accelerate digital adoption among Nigerian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Under the partnership, Zoho will provide wallet credits with a combined value of up to ₦20 billion to a maximum of 25,000 eligible MSMEs within the SMEDAN ecosystem.
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The initiative will give participating businesses access to Zoho’s portfolio of more than 60 cloud-based business applications alongside training, consultation and technical support.
The partnership combines SMEDAN’s reach and mandate to promote Nigeria’s MSME sector with Zoho’s portfolio of affordable and scalable cloud solutions.
It also aligns with SMEDAN’s GROW Nigerian strategy, which prioritises business formalisation, access to finance and markets, increased productivity and digital adoption.
The strategy includes SMEDAN’s existing partnership with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, to facilitate the free registration of 250,000 businesses, bringing more enterprises into the formal economy and improving their access to growth opportunities.
Commenting on the partnership, SMEDAN Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Charles Odii, said the agency was committed to helping small businesses transition from survival to sustainable growth.
“Our focus at SMEDAN is to ensure that small businesses are able to move from survival to growth and prosperity. That means helping entrepreneurs formalise, improve productivity, reach new markets and build businesses that can compete,” Odii said.
He added that digital capabilities had become crucial to business growth, noting that the partnership would provide thousands of MSMEs with a practical pathway to strengthen their operations.
Zoho Nigeria Country Head, Kehinde Ogundare, said the initiative would reduce the barriers preventing MSMEs from adopting advanced business technology.
“MSMEs are fundamental to Nigeria’s economic development, but technology can only deliver its full potential when businesses are able to access and effectively use it,” Ogundare said.
“Through this partnership with SMEDAN, we are reducing the access barrier to adopting world-class business technology while providing businesses with the training, consultation and support they need to leverage cloud technology to streamline their operations and accelerate their growth.”
Ogundare explained that the partnership reflected Zoho’s transnational localism strategy, which combines the company’s global technology expertise with investments in self-sustaining local economic ecosystems.
Eligible MSMEs will be able to use the Zoho Wallet Credits to access applications suited to their operational needs.
These include Zoho Workplace, a business email and collaboration suite; Bigin by Zoho CRM, a customer relationship management platform designed for small businesses; and Zoho Books, the company’s cloud-based accounting platform.
Beyond providing access to technology, Zoho will conduct training sessions, workshops and individual business consultations throughout the partnership period.
Participating businesses will also receive continuing technical support to help them integrate the applications into their operations effectively.
Zoho and SMEDAN will jointly undertake outreach to eligible MSMEs and monitor the programme’s adoption and impact on participating businesses.
