Trade Ministry partners SMEDAN,  UNIDO to equip small businesses 

 
The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to set up a formal academy to train and equip small business operators with the requisite knowledge to help their day-to-day activities and deepen their contributions to the country’s economic growth.
 
The Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite explained that the essence is to help them to overcome market challenges and we will look at different models and consider those models that helped China and India churn out successful start-ups and unicorns. 
 
She said they will adopt and domesticate whatever model that made China and India strong SME and industrial countries.
 
The minister gave the assurance during a meeting recently with the UNIDO delegation led by Jean Bakole, said the statistics for success as a startup are very bad. 
 
He said five out of 100 survive and a lot of it goes to issues including inability to access credit, and the link to the market that needs their services.
 
The minister explained that the participants at the academy will be selected by SMEDAN, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI), the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), the Nigerian Association of Small Medium Enterprises (NASME) and the various UN women groups in different units of the MSME sector. 
 
She said the training school will be a departure from the current practice of random training programmes that are conceived and run by different institutions including the banks but which in the long run, have no impact on the MSME sector and contribute nothing to the economy. 
 
While responding, the leader of the UNIDO 
 delegation, Jean Bakole stated that UNIDO will play a huge role in the project having attended to several SMEs in the past using several tools like it did during the Covid-19 pandemic.