The festive season is a critical period for small businesses as a study from Meta’s latest Global State of Small business Report shows that 25 percent of SMB owners expect to make more than half of their annual revenue in the final months of the year.
However, the study observed that as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, the most significant challenge SMBs are facing now is the current state of the economy, supply chain disruption, inflation, threat of recession as well as production cost hikes.
According to the report, due to the state of the economy, 16 percent of SMB owners within the past six months reduced the size of their workforce in Ghana while 5 percent of SMB owners in Nigeria have made similar adjustments to their workforce within the same timeframe.
While SMBs fight to find their footing during this post-Covid era and navigate the current economic situation, Meta technologies have been instrumental in helping local businesses thrive and have their good ideas discovered.
In the lead-up to the festive season, Meta decided to launch the ‘Good Ideas Deserve To Be Found’ campaign to further build on the success of the campaign first launched in 2021. The campaign is aimed at spotlighting and celebrating local businesses with unique gifting ideas while encouraging holiday shoppers to support local businesses during this festive trading window.
“At Meta, we are committed to empowering SMBs with free skills and resources to help them build thriving businesses, develop meaningful connections, and unlock economic potentials so they can continue making a positive impact across the world.” Oluwasola Obagbemi, Corporate Communications Manager for Anglophone West Africa at Meta.
She also said, “This festive season, we seek to spotlight and tell the stories of SMBs with unique gifting ideas and provide SMBs with access to tools, support, and solutions needed to grow thriving businesses while reinforcing our continued support of small businesses to ensure they have a voice and ensure the right customers find their good ideas.”
When surveyed, 49 percent of SMBs in Ghana reported using digital tools for advertising and 59 percent of SMBs in Nigeria reported generating at least 25 percent of their sales through digital channels in the past 30 days. It was also revealed that 46 percent of operational SMBs in Nigeria on the Facebook app reported having sold their goods or services to customers in other countries in the past 5 years. This compares to the global average of 30 percent. These discoveries have been made possible through the provision of digital tools for SMBs to ensure they are found by the right customers.
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