The following is an excerpt from an IFC's Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) department newsletter called SME Focus. This is the third part in a four-part series highlighting different country examples of IFC's work in this area. August 23, 2001Nigeria's GDP is officially estimated at $35 billion. But that does not include one of the economy's most dynamic components: the roughly $20 billion of "informal sector" Microenterprise activity that goes on each year without being recorded in government books. Approximately 20 million Nigerians depend on these tiny enterprises for their livelihoodusually without access to the finance and consulting services that they need to grow. In response, IFC last year provided $200,000 to launch a new micro- and small-enterprise development effort in Nigeria, the Support and Training Entrepreneurship Program (STEP). It is seeking additional funding to keep operating after this year. The project so far focuses on giving emerging businesses in the Lagos area one-on-one support in inventory management, marketing, bookkeeping, and other business skills, while also collecting the data and creating the training programs needed for future expansion. Its modest payroll includes 25 Nigerian "cadets," recent college graduates who assess and advise local entrepreneurs based on a small business management course taught at the Lagos Business School. The response is encouraging: several fish and vegetable sellers recently paid $15 each to take STEP's small business development course. Step has now worked with 188 of the 391 government-registered vendors selling food and other goods in Lagos street markets. It is also compiling an extensive data base on entrepreneurship that could grow if additional funding is secured. Of particular interest to potential future donors such as the Citicorp and Ford Foundations, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the United Nations International Development Organization, the database will be a valuable tool both for screening potential micro enterprise projects and for identifying potential markets for new small business products. STEP cadets are also working as short-term local consultants, helping local micro- and small-businesses gain management skills and develop strategies for obtaining capital. STEP and Nigeria's City Express Bank are also structuring a microcredit program that would provide loans of up to 60,000 naira ($600) per vendor. To date, City Express has made about 500 loans in this project, with current recovery rates near 100 percent. A self-sustaining Nigerian NGO could emerge from these efforts if clients agree to pay fees high enough to cover STEP's costs. The organization could also derive additional income from an adequately capitalized microcredit operation and from possible expansion throughout Nigeria or into neighboring countries. Useful links: For more information: Alexis DuRoy. For more on the International Finance Corporation, visit: http://www.ifc.org. For more on Small and Medium Enterprises, visit: http://www.ifc.org/about/contacts/sectors/smes/smes.html. For more on the Bank's work in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, visit: http://www.worldbank.org/afr. Read the first two parts of our SME Focus series on projects in Kenya, Vietnam & Cambodia. Please return tomorrow for the final part of the series which will focus on Kazakhstan. | 
