By Ojo Sola Olusegun
Kaduna
Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) yesterday said it has completed plans to train about 2,500 prospective entrepreneurs under its General Entrepreneurship Development Programme (GEDP) at the rate of N370 million as part of efforts to reduce the high rate of unemployment in the country.
Each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) would get about N10 million to run the programme, depending on the type of training to be provided and the number of participants.
Addressing the flag-off of the 2014 GEDP yesterday in Kaduna, Director General of the Agency, Alhaji Bature Umar Masari, told newsmen that the training was to build, broaden and deepen the capacity of the co-operatives, enhance their entrepreneurial competences and ensure effective and functional linkages to vital supports.
He said participants would be trained in various areas such as personal and business visioning, customer care, sales techniques, agriculture and agro-allied business among others.
“It is to be noted that this flag-off signifies the beginning of the GEDP in all states of the federation and is expected to ensure the empowerment of about 2,500prospective entrepreneurs to the tune N370 million in the 36 states and the FCT.
The idea is to see that we impact basic entrepreneurship skill into the participants so that when they go back they will equally impact similar skill into other members of their co-operatives. We are starting in Kaduna with 15 corporate bodies drawn from the three senatorial constituencies with each of them represented by three members. So we are training 45 of them.
“The overriding desire is to ensure generation of more employment opportunity for Nigerians and equally help to reduce the level of poverty. When people are trained in entrepreneurship and equipped with start-up capital, linkages for financial institutions in Nigeria, they employ others.”
Flagging-off the two-day training, Deputy Governor of Kaduna state, Ambassador Nuhu Audu Bajoga, called on participants to be attentive during the training so that they would have full confidence on how to improve their businesses with modern technologies.
In their separate remarks, two of the participants, Mrs. Mary Adamu from Press Cooperative Society and Chairman, Cooperative Union, Igabi and Gadan-Gayan Commercial Farmers, Alhaji Abdullahi Hassan, said whatever skills they acquired would be taken back to other members of their cooperative societies.