Access Bank Launches SME Academy To Tackle Business Failure Rate

Access Bank has unveiled a new SME Academy, aimed at equipping Nigerian entrepreneurs with the vital skills and business tools needed to survive — and scale — in a challenging economic landscape. The move underscores the bank’s commitment to reducing the high attrition rate in the small business sector.

Bridging the Knowledge and Funding Gap

At the Academy’s launch, Access Bank’s Head of Retail Banking, Olumide Olatunji, explained that the initiative is modeled after a similar programme in Ghana, which they say delivered strong results for SMEs there. According to group Head of SME Banking, Abiodun Olubitan, the first cohort is capped at 80 established business owners who will undergo a three-day intensive training.

The curriculum covers strategic business planning, digital marketing, financial management, operational efficiency, and how to access growth capital — areas the bank identified as common stumbling blocks for Nigerian SMEs.

Long-Term Support, Not Just One-Off Training

Olubitan stressed that this Academy goes beyond short-term coaching — Access Bank envisions the programme as a recurring pipeline for mentorship and finance. The hope is to build a cohort of bankable entrepreneurs: while the current edition doesn’t offer grant funding, participants who prove their business viability could gain access to credit from the bank.

The Academy is also a response to sobering statistics about business failure: according to the bank, studies show more than half of small businesses in Nigeria collapse within their first five years, often because of limited capital and insufficient capacity development.

Entrepreneurs Applaud the Move

Participants at the launch praised the initiative. Juliet Ike, CEO of TMA Global Consult, said the free, high-quality training came at “the right time” for her business. Dr. Onipidan Adebayo, managing director of ShawBC Ventures, added that the Academy offers business-school-level wisdom at no cost: “You probably need to pay a huge sum to some business schools. So having Access Bank bring us together … on a free platform … to scale up your capability … is very, very important.”

A Strategic Investment

For Access Bank, this is more than corporate philanthropy — it’s a strategic investment. By building SMEs’ capacity and resilience, the bank is planting seeds for long-term partnerships. As these businesses grow, they could become strong credit partners and clients.

In doing so, Access Bank is betting that knowledge + mentorship + access to finance is a more sustainable path to SME success than simply writing checks.