Lagos, Nigeria – In what is viewed as a major move to provide a fillip to the Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector, Adanian Labs has successfully concluded the SME Accelerator program held in partnership with Ayoba. It follows that after a rigorous six-month training course under the initiative to empower small and medium-sized enterprises with artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, 42 entrepreneurs have successfully graduated.
The exhibition, graduation, and awards showcase the success of the program in graduating a new generation of tech-savvy entrepreneurs ready to drive economic growth in the region.
Training for the future In this view
The SME Accelerator program was an intense training regimen designed to integrate SMEs into the digital economy.
The experts from Adanian Labs and Ayoba also organized coaching workshops, tutorials, and group discussions on how AI could benefit SME owners and staff. The reason the curriculums that were developed were tailor-made to meet the peculiar needs of the business so that what is learned is practical to the operations.
In West Africa, Killian Mayuwa is the regional head of Adanian Labs. Mayuwa said the program should serve to prepare SMEs to turn into successful participants in the digital environment, which is evolving rapidly. The comprehensive areas covered include inventory management and customer engagement, all designed to ensure SMEs become more innovative, adaptive, and ready to explore the myriad opportunities presented by AI.
Collaborative efforts and Community building
The success of the program has been largely reliant on the solid collaboration of Adanian Labs with Ayoba and some of the main stakeholders, such as the United States Consulate in Nigeria, MTN, and Fidelity Bank. Over 1000 applications were received, out of which 50 persons were shortlisted, and 42 completed the program. These SMEs also obtained invaluable technological insights and were, most importantly, onboarded into the Ayoba platform, having access to its wide user base of more than 30 million across Africa.
According to Sheila Yabo, Ayoba’s Head of Ecosystem Development, the accelerator has a vision of leveraging technology for the exponential growth of Africa. This is taking a bold step toward digitalizing Africa and calls upon entrepreneurs to be part of the platform and contributors to the technological development on the continent.
A testament to resilience and potential
There would also be a graduation ceremony, where success stories from the program would be shared, as well as issues about the future of the startups in Nigeria. Kenise Hill, U.S. Consulate Deputy Political and Economic Chief, represented by Kelechukwu Onyeke, had glowing praise for the startups, saying they are the backbone of any booming economy due to their ability to innovate and blaze the trail.
Ifeoma Anselem, the founder of Rae’s Clothing and a fellow in the program, said she considered the experience very useful and as much organized support toward the management of business and access to funding. This personalized attention underpins the program’s commitment to cultivating each SME’s unique potential.
Driving forward
The successful completion of the Ayoba SME Accelerator could only be part of a more significant journey en route to a more technologically empowered SME sector in Nigeria. This program has provided SMEs with very strong support, building their capacities through offering skills and knowledge required in the application of AI towards sustainable growth and innovation. So, these entrepreneurs, when they come back to their businesses, really come back with the technical know-how but also really come back with a vision of the digital future and poised to impact, set up their own business, and the economic landscape of Nigeria and beyond. This epitomizes the fact that small and medium enterprises if assisted appropriately with technology, can very well sail through the ordeals of the digital age and make phenomenal contributions to the economic growth of the country. The partnership between Adanian Labs, Ayoba, and their partners saw a template being established for future programs that would be seeking to deploy technology to help in economic growth, hence setting the pace for other regions.