Why start-ups fail despite access to finance — Jane Oma 

The Convener of an Annual Summit for business leaders, Global Mentorbridge, Jane Oma has explained why small businesses fail despite having access to finance.

She gave this explanation at this year’s Summit, Connecting Generations: Building sustainability, over the weekend in Lagos.

Oma said having access to finance is not enough but mentorship is very important.

She explained that there is that gap in knowledge transfer, exchange, insights, experience, innovation, balancing because there is a lot of people with excitement, ready to change the world and the older ones looking at them saying they don’t understand.

Jane, who described Mentorship as one of the critical pillars needed to support the youths, said mentorship is an effective tool that bridges the gap between different generations of business leaders, sectors, knowledge the older ones have acquired and the younger ones are yet to. 

She added the innovation, readiness, excitement, and the zeal the younger ones have but the older ones do not have as much anymore substantiate the need for mentorship.

“Sometimes, it is not just about access to finance.  Beyond the money, we have seen founders that had been given money and the businesses still flopped. Why? 

“There is a study that says most MSMEs fail within the first to three to five years of business. Why? This is because there is that gap in knowledge transfer, exchange, insights,  experience, innovation, balancing because there is a lot of people with excitement, ready to change the world and the older ones looking at them saying they don’t understand.

“So, it is important to ensure that as founders get access to finance they also gain access to mentorship in order to ensure that they put the finance to good use.

“You would find out that when the business owners die, the business continues to die. So, how can we ensure that our businesses stay longer while taking advantage of experiences, innovative spirit and bringing it together to ensure we have sustainable businesses. 

“Mentorship is an effective tool that bridges the gap between different generations of business leaders, sectors, knowledge the older ones have acquired and the younger ones are yet to. 

“Also, the innovation, readiness, excitement, and the zeal the younger ones have but the older ones do not have as much anymore.

“So, mentorship brings them together when they are talking, listening and basically feeding into what each other is doing,” she said.                                                

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