In a major boost for Nigeria’s small business sector, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has partnered with global technology company Zoho to provide up to ₦20 billion in digital technology support for as many as 25,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country.
Announced in late August 2026, the initiative will deliver Zoho Wallet Credits that eligible businesses within the SMEDAN ecosystem can use to access more than 60 cloud-based business applications. These tools cover core operational needs such as accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), email, collaboration, and other productivity solutions typically associated with larger organisations.
Participating MSMEs will be able to apply the wallet credits toward applications including:
- Zoho Books – cloud accounting platform
- Bigin by Zoho CRM – pipeline-focused customer management designed for small businesses
- Zoho Workplace – business email and collaboration suite
Beyond software access, the partnership includes practical capacity building. Zoho will provide training sessions, workshops, one-on-one business consultations, and ongoing technical support throughout the programme. The goal is to help businesses not only acquire the tools but also integrate them effectively into daily operations, improving efficiency, formalisation, and competitiveness.
The collaboration forms part of SMEDAN’s broader GROW Nigerian agenda, which prioritises business formalisation, access to finance and markets, productivity improvements, and digital adoption. It complements other ongoing efforts, including a partnership with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to facilitate free registration for 250,000 businesses—aimed at bringing more enterprises into the formal economy and unlocking further growth opportunities.
SMEDAN Director-General Charles Odii highlighted the importance of digital capability for MSMEs seeking to move beyond survival mode.
“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,” he said. “Digital capability is now an important part of that journey, and this partnership with Zoho gives thousands of MSMEs within our ecosystem another practical pathway to strengthen how they operate and grow.”
Zoho Nigeria Country Head Kehinde Ogundare emphasised the dual focus on access and usability: “MSMEs are fundamental to Nigeria’s economic development, but technology can only deliver its full potential when businesses can access and effectively use it. 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 catapult their growth.”
Nigeria’s MSME sector is widely recognised as a backbone of the economy, contributing significantly to GDP, employment, and innovation. Yet many small businesses face barriers to technology adoption, including cost, limited digital skills, and lack of tailored support. By combining SMEDAN’s nationwide reach and mandate with Zoho’s suite of affordable, scalable cloud tools and pairing software credits with hands-on training, the programme seeks to lower those barriers at scale.
Eligible businesses associated with SMEDAN stand to gain practical digital capabilities that can improve record-keeping, customer management, collaboration, and overall operational efficiency. In an increasingly competitive and digital-first economy, such tools can help MSMEs formalise operations, access wider markets, and build more resilient enterprises.
This public-private partnership represents a concrete step toward equipping Nigerian small businesses with the digital infrastructure needed to thrive. As SMEDAN continues to shift its support model from pure survival interventions toward scalable growth, initiatives like the Zoho collaboration signal a practical pathway for thousands of enterprises to modernise and compete more effectively.
