Over the years, loans (either through financial institutions or friends and family) have been one of the main sources of finance for businesses. Though there are other effective ways to fund a business, loans are sometimes imperative and unavoidable, since they are one of the financing opportunities that quickly come to mind when seeking funds
Deciding to run a business, especially in a developing nation like Nigeria, is a risk in itself. This is as a result of the numerous challenges business owners face daily from coping with regulatory uncertainties to economic instability, currency fluctuations, market disruptions, amongst others.
Nigeria’s first Stamp Duty legislation dates back to 1948. As the name implies, it provided for a stamp to be affixed to a wide range of documents, from receipts to agreements for loans and mortgages. The provisions of this act were known by only a few Nigerians, for instance, people seeking to perfect titles for lands. The idea was that if you are not involved in transactions such as selling property or contracting mortgages which involve drafting and signing documents to be admissible in a court, you do not have to border with stamp duty. This is no longer the case, as the law has resurrected, through an amendment to the Stamp Duty Act of 2004 contained in the 2020 Finance Act. Simple things like giving receipts or paying rents now require affixing adhesive stamps to relevant documents or paying stamp duty. SMEs should not be caught unawares.
According to a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), MSMEs had generated 59.6 million jobs as of December 2017, with 5% or 2.8 million of those jobs created by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). With MSMEs' significant role in revenue generation and economic development for developing nations like Nigeria, MSMEs will continue to facilitate job creatio
