The State of Entrepreneurship Index for Nigeria rose marginally to 0.47 index points in 2025 from 0.46 in 2024 according to The Fate Institute 2025 State of Entrepreneurship in Nigeria Report.
The Institute noted that this marginal increase reflects a modest improvement in Nigeria's entrepreneurial landscape since 2001 when it started measuring entrepreneurship development across Nigeria.
The report, which covered 10,882 businesses across all 36 states and the FCT, presents Nigeria's State of Entrepreneurship Index and provides analyses of female and youth-led enterprises, net job creation, key constraints facing businesses, opportunities and policy recommendations.
Also, Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Senator John Enoh, said the only reason Nigeria' economy has not collapsed is because of the resilience of micro, small, and medium enterprises, MSMEs, adding that the country cannot build an industrial economy if her entrepreneurs cannot access the capital that it requires for growth.
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Enoh spoke in a keynote address during the presentation of the report at the 11th Policy Dialogue Series, PDS, on Entrepreneurship titled: "From Enterprise to Industry: Unlocking MSME Potential for Nigeria's Industrialisation."
While noting that the government still has so much to do for entrepreneurs, Eno pointed out that the sub sector has been able to make the progress that it has because of the resilience and creative ingenuity of its members.
He stated further: "I think that the more the government pays attention to this ecosystem, the more the government works to respond to what the challenges and the issues are for MSMEs, there would be some lease of new life for the MSMEs in our country.
"So MSMEs, of course, represent the energy and creativity and demographic power of the nation. They make up 96 percent of businesses. And these numbers remind us that Nigeria's economic destiny rests on the success of its entrepreneurs.
"We are working towards building an industrial economy where MSMEs do not struggle, but where MSMEs scale, where manufacturing growth does not shrink, where innovation leads, not lacks; youth enterprise becomes a source of national power, not national frustration".
Earlier in his opening remarks, Founder and Chairman, FATE Foundation, Mr. Fola Adeola, said for several years, the FATE Institute consistently championed the cause for a simplified, transparent and fair tax regime for the MSMEs segment.
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He said that the institute's data repeatedly showed that administrative friction and complexity were disproportionately burdening micro-businesses and slowing urbanisation.
