Paylink sponsors UI SME Fair, provides digital empowerment

Success Damian:

Paylink, an e-commerce platform that empowers businesses to showcase their products and services online and get paid instantly, has partnered with the University of Ibadan (UI) to sponsor the premier institution’s Small and Medium-scale Enterprise Fair (UI SME Fair) which would hold at the International Conference Centre of the university on Thursday, November 12, 2020.

In a release, this disclosure was made recently when authorities of the university announced plans for the event which, among others, would foster a robust town-gown relationship between the university and the SME community. The event also offers participating SMEs varied opportunities which include the discussion of specific business issues with SME coaches and mentors, interaction with business and product researchers as well as guidance on intellectual property protection.

Now in its second year, the UI SME Fair would further expose small and medium scale businesses to how they can better leverage digital platforms like Paylink to more easily expose their products to local and international markets, make it more convenient for customers to pay them through multiple channels, and help them better manage inventory, invoicing and revenue tracking.

“As an organisation committed to the development of the Nigerian economy, we are always ready to partner to help bring to fruition the dreams and aspirations of Nigerians, especially millions of SMEs spread across the country. This is evident in our previous partnerships with organisers of similar SME-focused initiatives like Lagos SME Bootcamp and the Social Media Week Lagos,” said David Okeme, Division Head, Vertical Markets and Payment Applications at SystemSpecs, providers of Paylink.

“It is for this reason we areglad to collaborate with the University of Ibadan on the hosting of the SME Fair especially at a time like this that the national economy needs to be rebuilt and accelerated following the slowdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Okeme added.

Themed “Co-create the Future”, the 2020 edition of the UI SME Fair follows the inaugural edition last year which featured hundreds of SME owners and managers, researchers, representatives of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, financial institutions, Industrial Trust Fund and government. The event’s keynote will be delivered by the managing director of Nigeria’s Bank of Industry, Kayode Pitan.

According to a statement signed by the university’s Deputy Vice Chancellor responsible for research, innovation and strategic partnerships, Professor Olanike K. Adeyemo, the event would “showcase SMEs in order to inspire research direction/focus of the University Community” and also “establish a web-based platform (UISME-HUB) to moderate the collaborative network between the SMEs and the University of Ibadan.”

While participation is free, SMEs interested in attending and showcasing their product and service offerings at the fair can register via the website for the organisers, sme.ui.edu.ng.   

The 2020 UI SME Fair would be streamed live on Paylink’s Instagram account, PaylinkNG, as part of SystemSpecs’ support for SME capacity development and digital empowerment.