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Walure Capital approves ?20m for 200 SMEs

A technology resource company, Walure Capital, has set aside N20 million to boost the operations of 20 small, medium enterprises in Lagos.

Its General Manager, Mr. Obafemi Okubanjo, who announced the gesture during the fourth anniversary of the company yesterday, said though SMEs are currently confronting a myriad of challenges in the country, they must devise strategies to weather the storm.

According to him, the decision to lift 20 SMEs aligned with the company’s efforts to genuinely ensure survival of retail and small business owners in Nigeria.

"We operate in the tech industry and we want to contribute our quota to the development of Nigeria as a whole. As a way of giving back to the society, we have decided to support two hundred businesses that consistently use IPOS for six months with the sum of ?100,000. IPOS is completely free with no charges or subscription fees. Also, businesses that consistently use IPOS for six months will have their businesses displayed for free on our LED billboard," Okubanjo said, adding that the company has business interests in tech training, software development, tech hub, talents outsourcing, and media resources.

According to him, the company's passion to ensure the success of SMEs and tech talents in Nigeria informed the establishment of Walure Academy, an arm of Walure Capital which trains and nurtures tech talents for local and global exposure.

"We don't only train. Tech training is a journey. Walure Capital supports tech talents throughout the journey; from training, through internship, hands-on experience, collaboration, tech accelerator programmes, and down to facilitating employment for the talents through the Walure Talent outsourcing service that provides talents-as-a-service solutions to organisations within and outside Nigeria," he said.

As a way of giving back to the society to support both businesses and young tech talents, Mr Okubanjo said the company recently donated a Tech Lab to Community Primary School, Magodo in Lagos as one of its several corporate social responsibility initiatives. “As an organisation, Walure Capital will continue to explore impactful ways the company can support businesses, talents and the society as a whole,” he reiterated.

Also speaking on the occasion, its Managing Director, Mr. Samuel Adeleye, who spoke on the importance of leveraging technology for business growth, advised SMEs adopt sustainable strategies and leverage technology for operational efficiency in order to scale their businesses. He said a technology-driven product such as IPOS offers retail and SMEs businesses a lot of benefits, especially in terms of operational efficiency and scalable opportunities to grow their businesses.

He said IPOS is a solution by Smartware designed for book-keeping and inventory management solutions developed for retail and SMEs to enhance operational efficiency by addressing book-keeping and inventory management challenges often faced by retail and SMEs.

He explained that with IPOS, retail and SMEs can take stock level, automatically apply tax to taxable goods, track products, product history, top performing products, customer's purchase history, generate invoices, and store all information for future purpose, using a cloud-based technology, noting that SMEs owners can use the data stored by IPOS to secure grants and loans from financial institutions to scale their businesses.

During the occasion, Walure Capital also announced plans to hold a fitness initiative on November 18, 2023, codenamed “Walure Fit”. The initiative highlights the importance of health, wellness, fitness, and lifestyle in the tech ecosystem. It is an opportunity for tech experts, tech bro, tech sis and other professionals in the corporate world to interact with fitness experts, have fun, burn some calories, and network for business opportunities and collaborations.

The fourth anniversary of the company kicked off with “Walure Tech Connect '23”; a two-day event that explored and proffered sustainable strategies for SMEs owners to scale their businesses. The event was a convergence of retail, small and medium business owners, SMEs accelerator experts, human resources professionals, tech experts as well as tech innovators.