AWKA, ANAMBRA STATE — The historical failure of West African micro-enterprises to scale past their initial five years is rarely due to a shortage of local market ideas or entrepreneurial drive. Instead, commercial lending departments routinely decline small business credit applications due to the high risks involved, forcing local traders to operate within highly fragmented, cash-reliant systems that prevent them from attracting formal investment.
To address this systemic funding gap, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of VFD Group Plc, Mr. Nonso Okpala, called on sub-national and federal governments to expand public credit guarantee schemes to systematically absorb lending risks and unlock commercial bank capital for growing enterprises.
Speaking at the pre-conference symposium of the 7th International Conference of the Department of Accountancy, Faculty of Management Sciences at Nnamdi Azikiwe University ($\text{UNIZIK}$), Awka, Okpala explained that using state-backed financial guarantees is the most reliable way to lower the strict collateral requirements that typically lock small businesses out of institutional credit pipelines.
Moving Beyond Free-Market Cash Constraints
The international academic and corporate symposium, themed “Shaping Africa’s Future Through Accounting Governance, Technology and Sustainable Business Management,” brought together prominent industry executives, policymakers, and management scholars at the UNIZIK Business School.
Okpala argued that developing a resilient entrepreneurship ecosystem requires active, long-term partnerships among public institutions, universities, venture funds, and local communities.
He noted that many common operational bottlenecks facing African merchants already have clear, established solutions. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, local business owners should utilize knowledge-sharing platforms, professional development seminars, and automated software to upgrade their day-to-day business systems.
The VFD Impact Fund: Deploying Free Educational Infrastructure
To turn this talk of social impact into concrete action, the VFD Group chief reaffirmed his company’s long-term corporate social responsibility ($\text{CSR}$) commitment to regional education. He announced an ambitious infrastructure program to build 20 completely free primary and secondary schools across Nigeria.
Construction has already commenced on the first pilot school facility in Uga, Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. Okpala described high-quality, accessible education as an essential tool for teaching young people modern problem-solving skills and building a highly competitive, digital-ready workforce.
Building Beyond the Founder: The Succession Imperative
A major highlight of Okpala’s address was a direct warning about the high corporate mortality rates tied to weak institutional structures. He urged African founders to stop running highly centralized, informal businesses and focus instead on building robust corporate systems capable of surviving long after their exit.
“Successful enterprises must evolve from a personal vision into a lasting corporate legacy,” Okpala stated. He emphasized that poor succession planning, combined with weak internal tracking systems, remains the leading cause of business failure across the continent after the exit of the original owners.
