Zoho, a global technology company, has entered into a strategic partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to expand access to affordable cloud technology for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across Nigeria.
Under the partnership, Zoho will provide wallet credits worth up to N20 billion to as many as 25,000 eligible MSMEs within the SMEDAN ecosystem, giving participating businesses access to Zoho’s portfolio of more than 60 cloud-based business applications.
The initiative is designed to lower the cost barrier to digital adoption while helping small businesses improve productivity, streamline operations and build capacity to compete in increasingly digital markets.
The partnership supports SMEDAN’s GROW Nigerian strategy, which prioritises business formalisation, access to finance and markets, productivity and digital adoption.
It also complements the agency’s ongoing collaboration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to facilitate the free registration of 250,000 businesses, a move aimed at bringing more MSMEs into the formal economy and improving their access to opportunities for expansion.
“Our focus at SMEDAN is to ensure that small businesses are able to move from survival to growth and prosperity. That means helping entrepreneurs formalise, improve productivity, reach new markets and build businesses that can compete,” said Charles Odii, director-general/chief executive officer of SMEDAN.
“Digital capability is now an important part of that journey, and this partnership with Zoho gives thousands of MSMEs within our ecosystem another practical pathway to strengthen how they operate and grow,” he added.
For Zoho, the initiative is intended to go beyond providing software by equipping participating businesses with the knowledge and support required to integrate digital tools into their day-to-day operations.
“MSMEs are fundamental to Nigeria’s economic development, but technology can only deliver its full potential when businesses are able to access and effectively use it,” said Kehinde Ogundare, country head, Zoho Nigeria.
“Through this partnership with SMEDAN, we are reducing the access barrier to adopting world-class business technology while providing businesses with the training, consultation and support they need to leverage cloud technology to streamline their operations, and catapult their growth,” Ogundare said.
He noted that the partnership also reflects Zoho’s transnational localism strategy, which combines the company’s global technology capabilities with efforts to develop self-sustaining local economic clusters.
Participating MSMEs will be able to deploy Zoho Wallet Credits across the company’s range of applications, depending on their business needs. These include Zoho Workplace, its business email and collaboration suite; Bigin by Zoho CRM, a customer relationship management platform designed for small businesses; and Zoho Books, its cloud-based accounting platform.
Beyond software access, the partnership includes training sessions, workshops, one-on-one business consultations and ongoing technical support for participating enterprises.
Zoho and SMEDAN will jointly implement the programme, including outreach to eligible businesses and monitoring adoption and impact.
The partnership comes as Nigeria’s MSME sector faces growing pressure to improve productivity, formalise operations and adopt digital tools amid an increasingly competitive business environment.
By combining SMEDAN’s nationwide MSME development mandate and reach with Zoho’s cloud technology portfolio, the initiative seeks to make digital transformation more accessible to smaller businesses while strengthening their capacity for sustainable growth.
