University of Tehran Press Interdisciplinary Journal of Management Studies 2981-0795 10 4 2017 12 01 The Status of Entrepreneurship Support Agencies (ESAs) in Lagos State, Nigeria موقعیت شرکت‌های حامی کارآفرینی در ایالت لاگوس نیجریه 853 881 63624 10.22059/ijms.2017.229310.672578 EN Lawal Abdulazeez Abioye Department of Business Administration, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria Akingbade Waidi Adeniyi Department of Business Administration, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria Williams Babatunde Mustapha Department of Banking and Finance, Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria Journal Article 2017 03 06 The purpose of this paper is to appraise theoretically and empirically the status of ESAs in Nigeria. Government agencies, organized private sector, industrial associations and international institutions constitute ESAs in Nigeria and have been in the forefront of MSMEs’ development, through enabling environment. The study used a qualitative multiple case study by purposively contacting 56 SME operators in Matori, Lagos Industrial Centre for interview. Data were gathered from 30 firms that agreed to participate through structured interview and relevant documents. The content analysis of available information reveals the interaction of SMEs with regulatory agencies for certification. However, a performance appraisal of ESAs indicates that these agencies have been ineffective due to poor implementation resulting from challenges such as bureaucratic bottleneck, high costs of services, corruption, lack of infrastructure and inadequate staffing to mention just a few. The paper, therefore, recommends a change in value system, empowerment of ESAs, availability of MSMEs’ databases, effective communication and publicity, and consolidation of existing ESAs with duplicating roles for ESAs to be relevant in MSMEs’ development https://ijms.ut.ac.ir/article_63624_f83b137ebf2c33554068954e730c3f13.pdf