The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has unveiled the Building Resilient Young Nigerian Entrepreneurs (BRYNE) initiative, an ambitious programme designed to support more than 100,000 young Nigerian entrepreneurs annually through training, incubation, mentorship, finance and market opportunities.
Nigeria’s young population continues to play an increasingly important role in the country’s economic development. However, many young entrepreneurs still struggle with access to business knowledge, funding, mentorship, markets, infrastructure and the networks needed to turn promising ideas into sustainable businesses.
To address some of these challenges, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has introduced a new initiative known as the Building Resilient Young Nigerian Entrepreneurs (BRYNE) project.
The initiative was announced by SMEDAN’s Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Charles Odii, as part of activities marking International Youth Day 2026.
According to the agency, BRYNE will provide practical pathways for young Nigerians at different stages of their entrepreneurial journey, bringing together several forms of support that are often difficult for emerging business owners to access independently.
SMEDAN’s broader mandate already includes entrepreneurship promotion, access to finance, market access, research, capacity building and collaboration with other organisations involved in MSME development. Learn more about SMEDAN’s mandate and programmes.
What is the BRYNE programme?
BRYNE stands for Building Resilient Young Nigerian Entrepreneurs.
The programme is designed to create a more structured pathway for young Nigerians who want to start, strengthen or expand businesses.
Rather than focusing exclusively on financial grants, BRYNE brings multiple forms of entrepreneurial support together. These include:
- Enterprise training
- Business incubation
- Mentorship
- Access to finance
- Market opportunities
- Business development support
- Entrepreneurship education
- Networking
- Innovation and enterprise development
Announcing the initiative, Charles Odii explained that BRYNE would give more young Nigerians the opportunity to develop sustainable businesses capable of creating employment.
The approach is significant because entrepreneurship support does not necessarily end with providing capital. A young business owner may require training, a mentor, access to customers, better production facilities, formalisation support and financial knowledge before additional capital can translate into sustainable growth.
SMEDAN’s previous programmes have similarly combined capacity building, access to finance, equipment and market opportunities. In one of its reported interventions, the agency said it empowered more than 116,000 entrepreneurs and facilitated the creation of more than 90,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2025. Read SMEDAN’s empowerment and impact report.
BRYNE targets more than 100,000 young entrepreneurs annually
One of the most significant aspects of the BRYNE initiative is its scale.
SMEDAN says the programme is expected to support more than 100,000 young Nigerian entrepreneurs every year.
The agency intends to reach young people through multiple channels rather than relying on a single physical programme.
According to Bimpe Fawale, head of SMEDAN’s Women and Youth Unit, BRYNE will operate through four major channels, allowing young entrepreneurs to participate through communities, tertiary institutions and digital platforms.
This multi-channel approach could make the initiative particularly relevant to young Nigerians who may not live close to SMEDAN offices or traditional entrepreneurship centres.
Four major channels of the BRYNE initiative
1. SMEDAN Incubation Programme
One of the components of BRYNE is the SMEDAN Incubation Programme, which will support approximately 600 young entrepreneurs annually.
The incubation programme will focus on sectors including:
- Fashion
- Woodwork
- Agriculture
- Other enterprise and productive sectors
Incubation is important for entrepreneurs who have moved beyond the idea stage but still need practical support to develop their businesses.
Instead of simply receiving theoretical entrepreneurship lessons, participants can benefit from an environment where they can develop products, improve their processes, understand customers and work towards building commercially viable enterprises.
SMEDAN has previously invested in facilities designed to provide entrepreneurs with access to productive equipment and infrastructure. For example, its garment and textile facilities have been highlighted as part of efforts to support fashion entrepreneurs and local production.
A partnership between SMEDAN and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has also supported improvements at SMEDAN’s Idu Industrial Development Centre in Abuja, including renewable-energy infrastructure for the garment-making section. Read the UNDP report on the SMEDAN partnership.
2. Campus Enterprise Engagement Platform
The second channel is the Campus Enterprise Engagement Platform, which is targeted at student entrepreneurs in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
The programme is expected to provide:
- Practical business workshops
- Business advisory sessions
- Networking opportunities
- Exhibitions
- Support for student-owned businesses
According to SMEDAN, the programme could reach as many as 3,000 participants per participating tertiary institution.
This is particularly important because many Nigerian students already operate small businesses while studying.
Student entrepreneurs may sell fashion items, food, technology products, beauty services, digital services, agricultural products and other goods. However, many of these businesses operate informally and may lack access to professional business training.
By introducing entrepreneurship support directly into tertiary institutions, BRYNE could help young people develop commercial skills before they graduate.
The focus on students also builds on SMEDAN’s earlier efforts to promote entrepreneurship among undergraduates. The agency previously launched the SMEDAN Undergraduate Internship Program (SUIP) to give students practical exposure to entrepreneurship and business development.
3. BRYNE Digital Connect
Another major component is BRYNE Digital Connect.
The digital platform will provide entrepreneurship education while helping young businesses access wider markets.
For today’s entrepreneurs, digital visibility can be as important as physical business infrastructure.
A small fashion brand, food business, software company, agricultural enterprise or creative business can potentially reach customers outside its immediate location through digital platforms.
BRYNE Digital Connect is therefore expected to focus on:
- Entrepreneurship education
- Innovation
- Business growth
- Digital opportunities
- Market connections
- Youth-led businesses
This digital focus is consistent with the growing importance of technology in Nigerian MSME development.
SMEDAN has also operated initiatives such as its SME Digital Academy, which is designed to improve the skills and knowledge of small-business owners. The agency’s official website currently highlights the academy alongside other business-support initiatives. Visit SMEDAN.
4. Weekly Startup Hackathon
The fourth BRYNE channel is a weekly startup hackathon designed to provide business education and enterprise opportunities to 5,000 young entrepreneurs.
The programme will also introduce a seed-funding component.
According to SMEDAN, 52 selected winners will receive ₦250,000 each, with one winner selected every week.
This creates a potentially important opportunity for young Nigerians who have business ideas but need initial capital to test or expand them.
However, the value of the hackathon goes beyond the ₦250,000 seed funding.
For an emerging entrepreneur, participating in a structured competition can provide exposure to business education, pitching, networking and feedback. These experiences can help entrepreneurs better understand how to present their businesses to customers, partners and potential investors.
Why BRYNE could be important for Nigerian entrepreneurs
Nigeria has a large and highly entrepreneurial youth population, but starting a business is only the first step.
Many young entrepreneurs face challenges such as limited access to finance, inadequate business management skills, weak market connections, poor infrastructure and difficulties formalising their businesses.
This is why an integrated programme such as BRYNE could be significant.
Instead of treating entrepreneurship as simply a question of providing money, the initiative combines several pieces of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
A business owner may need:
Knowledge + mentorship + capital + customers + networks + infrastructure
BRYNE attempts to bring several of these elements together.
From training to finance: the importance of an integrated approach
One of the biggest challenges in entrepreneurship development is the gap between training and financing.
A person can complete a business training programme and still be unable to purchase equipment, produce inventory, rent a workspace or reach new customers.
SMEDAN’s recent activities demonstrate an increasing emphasis on connecting business development with financing and other forms of practical support.
For example, SMEDAN has previously reported securing billions of naira in financing support for Nigerian SMEs and facilitating job creation through partnerships and business-support programmes. Read more about SMEDAN’s financing and job-creation efforts.
The agency has also emphasised the importance of making Nigerian businesses more investment-ready.
In July 2026, SMEDAN said Nigeria’s challenge was increasingly about the shortage of investment-ready businesses rather than simply the availability of funding. The agency said it was training entrepreneurship trainers to help young Nigerians develop innovative and globally competitive enterprises. Read the report on investment-ready Nigerian startups.
This makes BRYNE’s combination of training, mentorship, incubation and finance particularly relevant.
BRYNE and the future of youth entrepreneurship in Nigeria
The success of BRYNE will ultimately depend on implementation.
Reaching more than 100,000 entrepreneurs annually is a significant target, and the programme will need effective systems for registration, participant selection, training delivery, monitoring, funding distribution and post-programme support.
The quality of mentorship will also matter.
Young entrepreneurs need more than motivational speeches. They need practical knowledge about pricing, bookkeeping, customer acquisition, taxation, digital marketing, product development, business registration, procurement, financing and scaling.
SMEDAN’s existing work with regulatory agencies and development partners could provide useful foundations for this.
The agency has previously worked with organisations including the Corporate Affairs Commission, NAFDAC, Standards Organisation of Nigeria and the Federal Inland Revenue Service to support business formalisation and compliance.
Charles Odii’s role in SMEDAN’s youth entrepreneurship agenda
Charles Odii, SMEDAN’s Director-General and CEO, has placed entrepreneurship development and MSME empowerment prominently within the agency’s agenda.
SMEDAN’s official profile describes Odii as an entrepreneurship-development expert who has worked extensively within Nigeria’s small-business ecosystem. Read Charles Odii’s profile on SMEDAN’s website.
His earlier work with youth entrepreneurship organisations also provides context for his focus on young entrepreneurs.
Odii has been associated with the BRYNE Foundation, an organisation focused on building resilient young Nigerian entrepreneurs and improving access to finance, markets, capacity development and mentorship. His professional profile also lists the foundation among his initiatives.
His entrepreneurship-development background has included initiatives focused on young business owners, women entrepreneurs and startup recognition.
BRYNE builds on SMEDAN’s wider youth empowerment efforts
BRYNE is not occurring in isolation.
SMEDAN has introduced and participated in several initiatives aimed at helping young Nigerians develop businesses and acquire entrepreneurial skills.
The agency’s first-100-days report under Charles Odii highlighted initiatives including the Conditional Grant Scheme, industrial development facilities, the Green Energy and Climate Change Desk and the SMEDAN Undergraduate Internship Program. See SMEDAN’s first-100-days report.
The agency has also worked with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) on entrepreneurship development.
In January 2026, NYSC and SMEDAN reaffirmed their commitment to empowering corps members through entrepreneurship and skills-development initiatives. Read the report on the NYSC-SMEDAN partnership.
These initiatives suggest that youth entrepreneurship is becoming an increasingly important part of Nigeria’s broader MSME development strategy.
What young entrepreneurs should watch out for
Young Nigerians interested in BRYNE should pay attention to official announcements from SMEDAN regarding registration, eligibility requirements, application windows, participating institutions and programme locations.
Entrepreneurs should also avoid paying unofficial agents who claim they can guarantee selection into the programme.
As with other government entrepreneurship initiatives, applicants should rely on official SMEDAN communication and verified programme channels rather than unconfirmed social-media posts.
The official SMEDAN website is the best place to monitor announcements, programmes and opportunities from the agency.
What BRYNE could mean for young Nigerians
If effectively implemented, BRYNE could create a broader pipeline for Nigerian youth entrepreneurship.
A young person with a business idea could potentially enter through entrepreneurship education, develop the idea through a campus or community programme, receive mentorship, access incubation support, connect with markets and potentially obtain seed funding.
That creates a pathway from idea → training → incubation → mentorship → market → finance → business growth.
For existing entrepreneurs, the opportunity could be equally important.
A young business owner who already has customers may need access to new markets, better equipment, financial management training or additional capital to scale.
BRYNE’s multi-channel structure is intended to accommodate entrepreneurs at different stages rather than treating every participant as a complete beginner.
Final thoughts
The launch of the Building Resilient Young Nigerian Entrepreneurs (BRYNE) initiative represents a significant new addition to Nigeria’s youth entrepreneurship ecosystem.
With a stated ambition of reaching more than 100,000 young entrepreneurs annually, the programme combines entrepreneurship training, incubation, mentorship, access to finance, market opportunities and business development support.
Its four channels — the SMEDAN Incubation Programme, Campus Enterprise Engagement Platform, BRYNE Digital Connect and weekly startup hackathon — are designed to reach young Nigerians in communities, tertiary institutions and through digital platforms.
The planned ₦250,000 seed funding for 52 hackathon winners could also provide a practical boost to selected young entrepreneurs.
Ultimately, the real measure of BRYNE’s success will not simply be the number of people trained. It will be whether participating young Nigerians are able to build stronger businesses, generate sustainable income, create employment and successfully access wider markets.
For young Nigerians looking to build businesses, the message is clear: entrepreneurship support is increasingly moving beyond basic training towards a more integrated model involving skills, mentorship, markets, finance and long-term business development.
Young entrepreneurs should therefore monitor SMEDAN’s official channels closely as details about BRYNE participation and application opportunities become available.
Related SMEDAN Resources
- SMEDAN Official Website
- About SMEDAN and its MSME mandate
- SMEDAN Director-General Charles Odii
- SMEDAN’s First 100 Days Under Charles Odii
- SMEDAN Empowerment and Impact Report
- SMEDAN and UNDP MSME Support Initiative
- SMEDAN and NYSC Youth Entrepreneurship Partnership
- SMEDAN’s SME Financing and Job Creation Efforts
- SMEDAN’s Investment-Ready Startup Programme
