We are all observers to the current world recession termed global financial and economic meltdown which crept into the world economic system sometime last year but became so pronounced around the third and last quarters of the year.

The global view about the origin of the financial and economic crisis is the United States of America when its financial system started crumbling and generated some ripple effects in other countries financial systems.

Since then, various international organisations, multinationals, governments of various countries, have thought out what actions to take to hedge their systems or citizens from the effects of the full weights of this global crisis.

As we can all see, we are not immune in Nigeria from all of these crises. In fact, we can even say that ours have been a long lasting recession which started so many years back. The economy has been so bad, so badly run for so many years in this country that even the assistance created through the various schemes in Nigeria, has not really transited the active poor into financially self - dependents.

Our microfinance system, our poverty alleviation schemes, our cooperative development system should be able to assist the active poor to transit from poverty to self-employed status and ultimately to a small scale employer of labour, no matter how small.

For now we are not seeing any of these at least at any appreciable level. If we have not seen any of these expectations, all the schemes and systems put in place to achieve them have either failed or are yet to achieve results.

The summary of all these is that every one is still on his own to fend for himself especially now (with the global financial and economic meltdown) when banks' credits have become almost impossible to access.

As micro, small or medium enterprises how do you go from here? What should be your bailout strategy? What self-help can you adopt in this era of financial and global economic meltdown? How do you manage your financing?

It has already been mentioned that it is almost impossible to access bank credits during financial crisis. Every bank would like to safeguard its liquidity and try not to open itself to unnecessary or excessive exposure. With this at the back of our mind, the financing methods that would be considered in this piece would be limited to financing outside the banking system.

It is not that we do not need the banking system. What we are saying is that it is very difficult during this global financial crisis to get bank's assistance and it has already been established that banks are more likely to grant you a credit or loan if only you can prove that you do not really need the money. To prove to any bank that you do not really need the money you want to access from it, you need to do a lot of home work, a lot of internal financial management that would put your financing in a very sound footing that would make your business the ideal customer for loan / credit facility.

Some of these internal financing methods can now be considered.

Retained profits are internally generated financing and in general internal funds are a very important source of finance for micro, small and medium enterprises especially in this era of global economic meltdown. At this critical time, it is instructive for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to be more prudent and plough back their profits into their business concerns.

Retained profits as would be explained by an accountant, consist simply of the amount of net profit that has not been taken by taxation or used up for the payment of dividends to shareholders.

It must be explained that the Balance Sheet of the business at the end of the year does not mean that, the money is still available as cash or in the bank account of the company. The money may have been spent in buying some items like more machinery or more raw materials. The point being made here is that, the money is internally generated to finance some of the needs of the business.

This involves the management of the cash inflow and outflow of the company to gain maximally from the two ends. Cash is a commodity which businesses too often seek from external sources without first taking a closer look within. Small companies are usually short of cash and generally are poor managers of their cash. There is a need for enterprises to improve their knowledge on cash collection and disbursement. This requires a thorough examination of the company's system of processing cash and then implementing the changes needed in the light of the opportunities identified. This is required more now in this era of global financial and economic meltdown.

Some companies own their premises whereas others operate in rented property and buildings. The former enjoy the opportunity to use this method to obtain finance; the latter do not enjoy such. The usual procedure is for the company to sell its factory or other property, for example, a warehouse or retail outlet, to an organisation who would undertake to lease back the property to the seller for a long period of time. The seller receives a sum of money which it intends to invest, and the purchaser receives the title to the property and negotiated annual rental.

Trade credit is a natural method of obtaining finance as it arises from ordinary business transactions. It is an arrangement between enterprises purchasing raw materials and its suppliers whereby the supplier delivers the goods and then agrees to defer payment of the debt. It is quite normal for the deferment period to be around one month. Terms are usually arranged by the supplier to encourage the customer to pay the debt before the due date through granting of discount.

A small enterprise that deals with a big company as a customer may obtain a loan in order to purchase the raw materials needed for the finished goods which are delivered to the big organisation. The loan may be free of charge (interest) because the big company deducts from the delivery price the agreed value of raw materials therein.

Alternatively, the customer may provide free of charge the materials required in the production of component parts which they normally purchase from the component manufacturer.

6. Warehousing Finance

In the case of warehousing finance, the lender lends money on goods delivered to a supervised warehouse. The borrower receiving orders for the goods informs the lender who in turn notifies the supervisor of the warehouse to release the goods. Payments are collected by the borrower who forwards the money to the lender. This method can however be expensive because of charges that may include discount, heavy charges in administering and supervising the warehouse and periodic stock taking.

The methods considered in this piece are some of the various options open to MSMs to manage their finance in the face of difficulties in accessing banking facilities in this era of global financial and economic meltdown.