Crowdfunding is a way of raising money from different individuals for a particular Project. This is normally done using an online platform.
There are different forms of Crowdfunding, they include;

> Donation/Reward based crowdfunding
> Equity Base crowdfunding.

EQUITY BASED:
This involves raising funds from a large number of investors who in turn gain certain percentage of your company. This form of crowdfunding is not popular in Nigeria. The Stock Exchange Commission is yet to approve these form of crowdfunding and there is a higher possibility that they may approve of it before the end of the year.

DONATION/REWARD BASED CROWDFUNDING:
This is the most popular form of crowdfunding in Africa, but is yet to gain massive penetration in Nigeria. This form of crowdfunding entails people donating to your campaign. You can decide to give them a reward for their donation. This reward is not mandatory, but it goes a very long way in motivating people to donate to your campaign.

WHAT CROWDFUNDING CAN DO FOR SMEs IN NIGERIA.
Most Persons starting businesses in Nigeria has always sited lack of fund as their major obstacle, but yet we are yet to adopt a better solution or strategy that can check mate the above in Nigeria. It is believed that small businesses are what drives the economy and Nigeria has many small businesses of which most are on the edge of failure because of lack of funds.
With crowdfunding, majority of these businesses can actually raise funds for their businesses. Not necessarily in millions, - at least enough to keep the business afloat and comfortable.

While most crowdfunding sites are based abroad(in the U.S and Uk) and cannot even send money to Africa, hence the reason why we in Africa can’t use the platform effectively.

Is there any Platform suitable for Nigeria?
Well, Yes! There is a good platform that can help people raise funds here in Nigeria. Permit me to introduce you to a platform called Elesarr ( https://www.elesarr.com ). With Elesarr, Nigerians and Africa at large can raise funds for any project. Be it creative, businesses or even a tech project.
Nigeria has a population of over 180 million (Source: Nigeria Bureau of Statistics), hence the reason why we can leverage on the power of crowdfunding in order to fund and sustain its small businesses. Meanwhile, to sign up on Elesarr use the following link: https://elesarr.com/signup

SUCCESS STORIES OF NIGERIANS ON ELESARR
The story of Seth, a student software developer who created the Unifiedcamp, an online interactive platform for Nigerian students to access educational material and also network with fellow students. With the help of Elesarr he always able to raise 22,000 naira of 20,000 naira target on the platform in order to host his project on a cloud storage. This Amount, he raised in 48 hours, even though the campaign was meant to last for 30 days. That’s the power of crowdfunding!


With crowdfunding, Nigeria small businesses and creative can be able to raise funds for their project by leveraging on the massive population of Nigeria.

I just hope that Nigerians will leverage on the power of crowdfunding to move the SMEs in the country forward.
CC: Lalasticlaa , Seun.