Financial Literacy Education, Mandatory For MSMEs – Survey
Financial literacy education is necessary in building sustainable businesses and improving the economy.
This is one of the outcome of a survey entitled ‘Improving financial literacy amongst Nigerian Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, MSMEs’ ,carried out by FATE Foundation in association with ACCA Nigeria.
According to the study, the vast majority (73 percent) of MSMEs in Nigeria needed greater financial literacy skills , which plays a significant role in the low levels of successful access to external finance. Eighty-two percent of entrepreneurs interviewed said they had no accountancy knowledge, while 20 percent of respondents interviewed believed financial literacy wasn’t important to their business.
Head of ACCA Nigeria, Tom Isibor explained that Nigeria has a real opportunity to be the most dynamic economy in Africa.
“One of the biggest challenges restricting this is our problem with financial literacy. This is a timely report which provides suggestions on how this country can benefit from improving its financial literacy, especially within the MSME sector – creating more sustainable, successful businesses.
“We hope this study will encourage policy makers to develop a financial literacy framework for education in Nigeria”.
Also commenting, Executive Director, FATE Foundation, Adenike Adeyemi said, “Understanding the most important foundational knowledge (financial literacy) required by Nigerian entrepreneurs is the first step to effectively supporting and enabling them. Our report provides the framework and guidelines required by any individual or organisation providing capacity building, advisory services and business development support to Nigerian MSMEs”.
Both organisations maintained that financial literacy is a major life skill and vital in building sustainable businesses. And for entrepreneurs, it is a skill based on having the knowledge required to undertake a broad range of activities integral to business success, including: planning and managing business finances; identifying funding requirements and financial risks, complying with regulation and understanding the financial and economic landscape in which the business operates.
