GEN Global President Extols Nigerian Startups, Entrepreneurs

The President, Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), Mr Jonathan Ortmans has stated that Nigeria has extra-ordinary potential to grow much faster as a startup nation than other developed countries of the world.

Ortmans, who visited Nigeria recently in preparation for the 2024 global entrepreneurship week celebration in November 2024 stated this during the conversion with GEN President event powered by GEN Nigeria.

According to him, “Nigeria has got a lot of assets. It is much harder to build a healthier hyper-performing entrepreneurial ecosystem in a large economy than it is in a smaller economy. This may sound illogical because of so many complexities that the larger your country is the more difficult it can be to make it work,” he added.

In his words; “We have seen some countries do very well at this in a shorter period of time, we think Nigeria has the right entrepreneurial culture, it has got the size of the economy as a result of some of the other areas that they have grown their gross domestic product (GDP), but it has also got the potential as a result of the high population that interested in entrepreneurship. Therefore, we see an extra-ordinary potential for Nigeria to grow much faster as a startup nation.”

Speaking on the GEN Nigeria collaboration with agencies of government, Managing Director, GEN Nigeria, Dr. Olawale Anifowose said, “GEN Nigeria is in partnership with many of the government agencies that are responsible for supporting SMEs in Nigeria. We have a strategic partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), we also have a strategic partnership with Bank of Industry (BOI), Development Bank of Nigeria.”