Damilola Adeniji

Nigeria's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are among the most hardworking businesses in Africa, yet many remain stuck at the same level year after year, not because they lack ambition, but because they lack the systems needed to grow.

That was the central message delivered by Damilola Adeniji, Marketing Manager at Proximaforte Ltd, during the launch of Oloja by Payxy in Lekki, Lagos, where he addressed an audience of entrepreneurs, fintech professionals, startup founders, policymakers, and business ecosystem stakeholders.

Adeniji argued that while many SME owners spend long hours managing customers, sales, inventory, and operations, much of that effort fails to translate into measurable business growth.

According to him, countless entrepreneurs have become trapped in what he described as an "illusion of productivity" a cycle where constant activity creates the appearance of progress while underlying business fundamentals remain weak.

"The Nigerian SME owner is one of the hardest-working people on this continent," Adeniji said. "But hard work and business growth are not the same thing. We have millions of entrepreneurs who are genuinely busy from 6 a.m. to midnight, and yet, at the end of the year, nothing has changed. The business has not grown. The owner is exhausted. And they cannot even tell you why because they have no records."

The Real Problem Is Not Effort, It's Infrastructure

For decades, discussions around SME growth in Nigeria have often focused on access to capital. However, Adeniji believes another challenge receives far less attention: the absence of structured systems that enable businesses to scale sustainably.

He noted that many entrepreneurs spend most of their day responding to customer inquiries on WhatsApp, posting products on social media, manually tracking stock levels, and chasing outstanding payments.

While these activities are necessary, he argued that they consume valuable time that should be dedicated to planning, analysis, and business development.

"Busyness has become a substitute for strategy in this market," Adeniji said. "You are answering DMs, sending account numbers on WhatsApp, manually counting stock, and chasing unpaid invoices all at the same time. That is not a business. That is organised chaos."

His comments drew strong reactions from attendees, many of whom acknowledged facing similar operational challenges within their own businesses.

The Three Hidden Barriers Preventing SME Growth

During his presentation, Adeniji outlined what he described as the three invisible obstacles holding back thousands of Nigerian businesses.

1. The Visibility Trap

According to Adeniji, many SMEs have embraced digital channels but remain difficult for customers to discover and engage with effectively.

Rather than operating from a single digital hub, businesses often sell across multiple platforms simultaneously, including Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, online marketplaces, and word-of-mouth referrals.

The result, he said, is fragmented visibility.

"You are everywhere and nowhere at the same time," Adeniji said. "A customer who heard about you last week cannot find you today or explore your products seamlessly."

Without a central online storefront, businesses struggle to build credibility, maintain customer relationships, and create consistent purchasing experiences.

2. The Records Trap

A second major challenge is poor record-keeping.

Many SMEs still rely on handwritten notes, informal bookkeeping practices, and scattered transaction records, making it difficult to accurately track performance.

According to Adeniji, this becomes particularly problematic when businesses seek financing, interact with regulators, or attempt to attract investors.

"When tax season comes, when a bank asks for statements, when an investor wants to see your numbers, most owners pull out a notebook, a WhatsApp chat, or nothing at all," he said. "How do you scale a business you cannot measure?"

Without reliable sales, inventory, and financial data, business owners often make critical decisions based on assumptions rather than evidence.

3. The Isolation Trap

The third barrier, Adeniji explained, is the tendency for small businesses to operate independently without access to shared infrastructure or collective market opportunities.

Unlike large retailers that benefit from integrated logistics, customer traffic, distribution networks, and technology systems, many SMEs are forced to build everything on their own.

"We have millions of individual sellers, each shouting into the void on their own," Adeniji said. "Meanwhile, large retailers and supermarkets benefit from collective infrastructure, shared logistics, and consolidated customer traffic. Small businesses have been locked out of that model until now."

Digital Commerce Is Moving Ahead, With or Without SMEs

Adeniji also warned that rapid changes in consumer behavior are creating new realities that businesses can no longer afford to ignore.

Today's consumers increasingly discover products online, compare prices digitally, read reviews before purchasing, and expect seamless payment experiences.

Businesses that fail to establish a professional digital presence risk becoming invisible to a growing segment of the market.

"The Nigerian consumer has moved," Adeniji said. "They are shopping online, comparing prices, reading reviews, and paying with their phones. If your business does not exist in that space, properly, professionally, and searchably, you are invisible to a growing segment of the market."

To illustrate the scale of the opportunity, Adeniji referenced figures from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), which reported that electronic payment transactions reached N284.99 trillion during the first quarter of 2025, representing a 17.7 percent year-on-year increase.

"This is happening right now," he said. "The question is whether Nigeria's SMEs are part of it."

Oloja by Payxy Targets the SME Growth Gap

As part of the event, Adeniji introduced Oloja by Payxy, a commerce platform developed by Proximaforte Ltd and designed to address many of the structural challenges facing SMEs.

According to him, the platform provides merchants with a centralized digital environment where they can establish an online storefront, manage inventory, maintain transaction records, and receive payments through a single system.

"Oloja by Payxy was built specifically to bridge the digital visibility gap for micro, small, and medium enterprises," Adeniji said. "It gives local merchants the ability to instantly set up a unified virtual storefront and handle transactions through a centralised, link-based infrastructure."

The goal, he explained, is to reduce operational fragmentation while helping businesses build stronger digital foundations.

Beyond helping merchants sell online, the platform also seeks to connect businesses to broader regional and international commercial opportunities.

"The idea is to move businesses from isolated selling into collective sales and distribution within African countries and globally," Adeniji said. "We are not just building a shop. We are building the infrastructure for the next generation of Nigerian commerce."

From Constant Activity to Sustainable Growth

Closing his presentation, Adeniji challenged entrepreneurs and ecosystem stakeholders to move beyond conversations about SME growth and focus on implementing practical solutions.

He argued that technology, infrastructure, and digital tools are increasingly available, but adoption remains a major hurdle.

"We keep having conversations about SME growth at conferences, and then everyone goes back to their WhatsApp groups and nothing changes," Adeniji said. "The tools exist now. The infrastructure exists now. The question is whether business owners are willing to stop looking busy and start actually growing."

He urged business owners to embrace structured systems capable of supporting long-term growth rather than relying solely on informal processes.

"You cannot build a scalable business on a WhatsApp broadcast list," Adeniji said. "You need a system. You need a storefront. You need data. Oloja gives you all three."

For Adeniji, the future of Nigeria's SME sector will not be determined by how hard entrepreneurs work, but by how effectively they leverage technology, data, and digital infrastructure to turn effort into sustainable growth.

As Nigeria's digital economy continues to expand, businesses that adopt scalable systems may find themselves better positioned to compete, while those that remain dependent on fragmented operations risk being left behind.