FATE Foundation (FATE) holds its 1st Annual Policy Dialogue Series on Entrepreneurship Nigeria’s foremost entrepreneurship and enterprise development non-profit, FATE Foundation will hold her inaugural Annual Policy Dialogue Series on Entrepreneurship on the 3rd of December, 2015 at Victoria Hall, Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The theme for this programme is “Positioning SMEs for Growth: How to ensure Nigerian SMEs thrive Despite Economic Headwinds”. As an organisation committed to improving the Nigerian business environment, FATE Foundation designed the Policy Dialogue Series event to bring together stakeholders in the Nigerian SME space and high-level business experts from within and outside Nigeria to discuss factors and policies that impact on the SME sector in Nigeria with a view to proffering implementable solutions.

The Panel discussants are Dr. Sarah Alade, Deputy Governor, Economic Policy Directorate, Central Bank of Nigeria; Otunba Bimbola Ashiru, Honourable Commissioner, Commerce and Industry, Ogun State; Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, MD/CEO, Bank of Industry (BOI); Alh. Bature Masari, Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN); Mrs. Toyin Bakare, CEO, SAS Textiles and Dr. Henrietta Onwuegbuzie, Academic Director, Owner-Manager, Lagos Business School will moderate the panel.

As a background to the policy discussions, FATE will also be realising a report which it commissioned to Agusto & Co reviewing the Nigerian MSME Policy Environment. The report which will be published on the FATE website (www.fatefoundation.com) on the 3rd of December looks at the key policies and programmes currently in place to support MSMEs in Nigeria; highlights key learnings from other countries with working models to improve the business environment; and offers recommendations on the Policy review fundamentals required to review the business environment in Nigeria.

FATE Foundation (FATE) which was founded in March 2000 by Mr Fola Adeola (Founder and Pioneer Managing Director, GTBank) in response to the challenges of the Nigerian business environment. FATE has graduated over 3400 people from her entrepreneurial training programmes and reached out to over 48,150 young entrepreneurs on the subject of entrepreneurship over the past 15 years and continues to focus on providing business knowledge and enterprise support to aspiring and emerging Nigerian entrepreneurs.