Downsizing Hits Nigerian Small Businesses – Report

Within the last six months, five per cent of small business (SMB) owners in Nigeria have been forced by economic realities to reduce the size of their workforce by five per cent while in Ghana, the figure is 16 per cent, according to Meta’s latest Global State of Small Business Report released yesterday.
Meta, which is Facebook’s parent company, said as the pains of COVID-19 pandemic wanes, the most significant challenges SMBs are facing now is the current state of the economy, supply chain disruption, inflation, fear of economic recession as well as skyrocketing production costs.
According to the report, due to the state of the economy, within the past six months, five per cent of SMB owners in Nigeria have been forced to reduce the size of their workforce while in Ghana, the figure is 16 per cent.
Meta, however, said the festive season is a critical period for small businesses as the Report showed that 25 per cent of SMB owners expect to make more than half of their annual revenue in the final months of the year.
While SMBs fight to find their footing during this post-COVID era and navigate the current economic situation, Meta technologies have been instrumental in helping local businesses thrive and have their good ideas discovered.
In the lead up to the festive season, Meta had launched the ‘Good Ideas Deserve to Be Found’ campaign to further build on the success of the campaign first launched last year. The campaign is aimed at spotlighting and celebrating local businesses with unique gifting ideas while encouraging holiday shoppers to support local businesses during this festive trading window.
Speaking on the report, Corporate Communications Manager for Anglophone West Africa at Meta, Oluwasola Obagbemi, said:  “At Meta, we are committed to empowering SMBs with free skills and resources to help them build thriving businesses, develop meaningful connections, and unlock economic potentials so they can continue making a positive impact across the world.
“This festive season, we seek to spotlight and tell the stories of SMBs with unique gifting ideas and provide SMBs with access to tools, support, and solutions needed to grow thriving businesses while reinforcing our continued support of small businesses to ensure they have a voice and ensure the right customers find their good ideas.”
According to Meta, when surveyed, 49 per cent of SMBs in Ghana reported using digital tools for advertising and 59 per cent of SMBs in Nigeria reported generating at least 25 per cent of their sales through digital channels in the past 30 days.
It was also revealed that 46per cent of operational SMBs in Nigeria on the Facebook app reported having sold their goods or services to customers in other countries in the past five years. This compares to the global average of 30per cent.
These discoveries have been made possible through the provision of digital tools for SMBs to ensure they are found by the right customers.