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.
.
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
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, November 27, 2017
Rating:
No comments: