As part of effort to increase investment in training and empowerment of young entrepreneurs that form the bulk of main players in the micro, small and medium-scale enterprises, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has begun innovatve training for 312 young business owners drawn from Ogun, Balyesa and Kaduna states.
The innovation training, according to Ime Andy, the Assistant Director, Enterprise Development and Promotion Department of SMEDAN, is designed improve on the investment space within MSMEs’ sector of Nigerian economy and to mitigate the perceived failures being recorded by the young business owners who are majorly the greenhorns.
Andy said that 312 young entrepreneurs were selected from Ogun, Bayelsa and Kaduna as beneficiaries under the Young Business Owners in Nigeria (Y-BON) for 2019 as the programme is being run simultaneously in the three states, adding that two centres were selected in each of the three states for the training and 52 participants would be trained in each of the centres.
She said, “Like in Ogun here, the two centres are in Abeokuta and Sagamu, 52 each in a centre which gives us 104 participants in Ogun. The same thing goes with other states, so in that case, 104 participants are also undergoing the training in other two states and they would be supported with provision of workspace.
“The criteria for selected participants include youths between the age of 20 and 45, and they must already be in business. The programme is in three stages: we have done the first stage which is the sensitisation stage; this is the second stage in which the participants are being educated and trained on building their capacity to run their business successfully.
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“After training stage, based on the provision by the government, SMEDAN will support the successful participants who have passed all the criteria with a token of money to provide for workspace. I believe with this support the unemployment rate will be reduced and it will also contribute to the Gross Domestic Products of the economy.”
Also, Gbenga Ogundeji, the South-West Zonal Coordinator of SMEDAN, noted that the training on entrepreneurship and marketing skills would sharpen business management knowledge of beneficiaries and enhance performance, explaining that Federal Government is supporting SMEDAN’s mandate to create new employment opportunities for young Nigerians, by assisting them to create jobs for others instead of relying on white collar jobs.
