Driving Nigerian Smes Venture Capital Transformational Financing Super-Highway: Focus on the Nigerian Economy (Small and Medium Enterprises ) (Report‪)‬

Abstract The fact that a business started small is not an absolute transcendental sentence to perpetual littleness & ordinariness. This conviction set the stage for the conduct of this study. The prime task was to examine the transformational financing window of venture capital (VC) and its instrumentality in driving small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to the higher heights of greatness and largeness. The key perspectives of VC examined were equity finance, management support, and technical support. A total of 120 copies of questionnaire 120 were administered on SME focal officials (60 each for VC-backed and non-VC-backed) in various parts of the Nigerian nation. The ensuing inferential statistical results established that the VC-financed SMEs significantly out- performed their non-VC-financed counterparts in critical ways. Specifically, management support prevailed as as the most critical driver of SME development and transformation. Essentially, it is imperative to provide robust incentives for VC investment in SMEs. Greater participation of private sector stakeholders will meaningfully help to actualize and optimize the recent industrialization and commercialization sensitization regime. The Nigerian nation and allied developing economies will ultimately be the best for it.