SMEDAN empowers young Business owners in Anambra

www.odogwublog.com reports that as part of the struggle to eradicate unemployment in Nigeria and to
encourage young people into becoming business owners, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria,SMEDAN has organized a sensitization program to empower young business owners to improve on their businesses even as some would be encouraged to start off their own businesses.

Speaking at opening ceremony of the sensitization of the Young Business Owners in Nigeria program (Y-BON) Thursday at Amawbia, Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State, the Director General of SMEDAN, Dr Dikko Umaru Radda, said that the young business owners in Nigera(Y-BON)  is designed to provide a platform where existing entrepreneurs either as standalone or cooperatives will be competitively selected for further supports.
The DG furtehr said that only one out of 100 Nigerian graduates are employable and attributed this to poor skills and lack of entrepreneurial competence.

He said it was towards addressing this challenge that the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria  had initiated the Young Business Owner in Nigeria .
Represented by  represented by Director policy Advocacy, and Coordination Mr Monday Ewans  the DG said the  population of young people between the ages of 15 and 24  was rapidly on the increase, adding that  the vast majority of them lived  in the poor and emerging economies.
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His address read in part, "There is no doubt that the unemployment situation in Nigeria has reached a crisis level. Statistics have shown that only one out of every 100 graduates is assured of getting a job in Nigeria.
"One of the major causes of unemployment is skill shortages occasioned by dearth of skilled personnel and entrepreneurial competence, inadequate capacity of vocational skill centres and the non-orientation of the educational system to the production of vocational skills that are aligned to industry requirements.
" The Young Business Owners in Nigeria is designed to provide a platform where existing entrepreneurs either as standalone or cooperatives will be competitively selected for further supports. The support package is aimed at reducing some of the fundamental challenges that usually confront MSMEs.
"Essentially, the target beneficiaries are young people between the ages of 20 - 45 years. The focus on this target is because of the need to create new opportunities for employment and enterprises growth which are usually not easily realizable in start-ups.
" The selection criteria will be determined by the technical capacities of the promoters, available raw materials, markets, available skills, access to appropriate technologies, etc.
"The outcome of the needs assessment will form the basis for the design and delivery of the entrepreneurship training in each zone/state.
He went further to reveal that SMEDAN is under the ministry of industry trade and commerce saying that their function is to give loan to people running small business in order to help the federal government in creating job for the people and maintains that unemployment situation in the country has reached a crisis level.
The different cooperatives that attended the programme were given forms to fill individually which will help the SEMDAN to ascertain the individuals qualified for the empowerment. He said that the selection process will start in two weeks time assuring the people that all the activities will end within this year.
Speaking at the event the head of department small and medium enterprise and wealth creation, Mr Obiechina Okwudili who represented the governor of Anambra State and also commissioner for commerce trade and industry  revealed that the state was chosen as a result of its success in exporting yam, vegetables which made Anambra the best in Agriculture in the six geopolitical zoine in Nigeria.

A staff of the SEMDAN Abayomi Oduenye who lectured the youth on entrepreneurship sensitization said that the objective of the programme is to help the young ones who has the idea of business. He advised everybody to get registered to be able to qualify for granting
of loan.
SMEDAN empowers young Business owners in Anambra SMEDAN empowers young Business owners in Anambra Reviewed by Unknown on Monday, November 27, 2017 Rating: 5

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