Stories by Matthew Denis
The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria
(SMEDAN) has trained no fewer than 200 entrepreneurs on innovation and
how to add value to their products in Ilorin, Kwara State capital last
week Thursday.
The two -day programme which started with road walk within Ilorin
metropolis, witnessed a large turnout of participants cutting across
different segments of the economy.
Speaking during the programme themed: ‘Big money for small business:
financing the sustainable development goals,’ the Manager of SMEDAN
office Kwara State, Engr. Zainab Abdulmalik said the programme is
targeted at sensitising the small business owners on how to carve a
niche for themselves and assist them in branding their products.
“On the first day we had free skill acquisition training where
participants were taught how to manufacture certain products, like
air freshener and liquid soap.
“We also gave them training on how to produce paint, interlocking
among others, mainly to expose the participants to self-reliance and
enable them think outside the box in order to bring out the creativity
in them.
According to her, for the second session of the programme, there was a
seminar to unveil plans by the Federal Government through various
programmes of SMEDAN to facilitate finance for the entrepreneurs.
She noted that there have been instances where the agency even funded
cooperative groups through programmes like the ‘One Local Government
One Product’ in which each cooperative benefitted N4 million fund for
agriculture in each of the three senatorial districts of the state.
She said, ” These cooperatives are doing very well as the agency has
been monitoring their activities and assisting them when necessary in
packaging to move them from the informal sector to formal sector in
compliance with NAFDAC standard.”
Other guest speakers who are partners to SMEDAN also encouraged the
participants to always look inwards to ensure that the quality and
value of their products and service is outstanding for more patronage.
