COME-INN

The Cottage and Micro Enterprise (CoME) Investment and Incubation division of Pekerr Associates Limited was set up mid-2005 to give special attention to empowerment of investments falling into these categories. Definitions vary from country to country, as can be seen in the table below, using number of employees, but a large number of firms fall into the CoME category all over the world.

In Nigeria, most of the members of Nigerian Association of SME (NASME) and Nigerian Association of Small-Scale Industrialists (NASSI) actually fall into the CoME category. Either because there is no formal forum for CoMe or as a result of the stigma associated with being a CoME, these hide under the umbrella of SMEs. As the capital base of SMEs got progressively hiked, CoMEs got less and less attention.

A change in situation came in December, 2005 when the National Policy on Microfinance was launched in Nigeria. For the first time, CoMEs in Nigeria got specialized attention along with respectability, and can henceforth hold up their heads.

In the third and fourth quarters of 2005 CoME-IIN started forging relationships with private sector associations, community banks, community-based development NGOs, universal banks, etc to lay a foundation for the networks and alliances needed to take advantage of the new Policy. As soon as the Policy was launched, CoME-IIN immediately went to work actualizing the networks and providing capacity development to stakeholders in the microfinance industry. In just 2 months since the Policy was launched, the division has either organized or is planning to organize training workshops for community banks, universal banks and CoME entrepreneurs.