By Matthew Denis
In a bid to encourage self reliance among youth across the state, no
fewer than 500 youths in Ekiti/Irepodun/Isin/Oke-Ero Federal
Constituency of Kwara, on Tuesday commenced a 3-day training on the
benefit of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Omu-Aran, Irepodun
Local Government Area.
The training was put together by the constituency office of Hon Raheem
Olawuyi in conjunction with Oladodo Consulting, the constituency’s
Lead Consultant on Training, Asset/Finance and Empowerment.
Other collaborators in the training are Agricultural and Rural
Management Training Institute (ARMTI) Bank of Industry (BOI), Nigeria
Export Promotion Council, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Others are Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria
(SMEDAN), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) as well as the National
Orientation Agency (NOA).
The training programme was tagged: “SME Stakeholders Interractive Session”.
Olawuyi, in his remarks, at the opening of the session in Omu-Aran,
said it was geared toward exposing the youths to the accrued benefits
of SMEs through the relevant stakeholders, for them to be self
reliance.
Olawuyi, represented by Dr Abiona Petu-Ibikunle, expressed the belief
that only the coming together of stakeholders could achieve the
desired youth and socio-economic development in the constituency.
“Development is a significant catalyst in the attainment of a
meaningful progress of a nation.
“No meaningful development can take place in an atmosphere devoid of
opening up of information on financial and technical opportunity,
especially for the youths.
“Agriculture produce and manpower development is our strength and we
must take advantage of it.
“Me and my team decided to organise an SME stakeholders session to
create awareness about government low interest funding opportunities.
“This has encouraged us to the empowerment drive in providing training
for 1,500 youths and women per quarter under the development and
vocational areas,” he said.
