Ecosystem Snapshot

Port Harcourt

Stakeholder Insights

Challenges

  1. Lack of collaboration among actors in different sectors
  2. Lack of access to suitable financial support
  3. High cost of infrastructure
  4. Mono-sectoral concentration and dependency on oil and gas
  5. Disconnect between investors and the reality of the ecosystem
  6. Poor business implementation skills among small businesses
  7. Tedious process of business documentation
  8. Low awareness of investor requirements

Opportunities

  1. Growing support provider interest, including by investors, in technology enabled businesses
  2. Increasing government willingness to collaborate with the private sector
  3. Opportunity for business support providers to access corporate social responsibility (CSR) grants support for technical assistance
  4. Growing interest to diversify support from the oil and gas sectors to other sectors like agriculture, education and renewable energy
  5. Increasing demand for smaller investment size to meet small businesses’ needs
  6. Opportunity for government and private sector collaboration for technological development
  7. Opportunity to define standards for business capacity development by adopting or adapting best practices from other areas

Recommendations

  1. Investor Education: Investors should be educated on the particular needs of SGBs in Port Harcourt.
  2. Skill Diversification: Capacity development providers should focus on grooming entrepreneurs in multiple skills areas.
  3. Collaboration Platform: There is a need to create a platform for interaction between SGBs, support organizations, and the government in Port Harcourt.
  4. Leverage Media: Actors in Port Harcourt should use the media to promote opportunities within the ecosystem to external support providers.
  5. Business Documentation: Entrepreneurs must learn proper business documentation practices early on in order to improve their credit worthiness.
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