The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) trained 25,000 small business owners in various vocational and enterprise development programmes in 2015.The Director-General of SMEDAN, Bature Masari disclosed this, saying that the agency hasstrategised to provide more services this year.
“No fewer than 25,000 small business owners were trained under various vocational and enterprise development training programmes of the agency in 2015. This includes about 4,000 small business operators trained under SMEDAN’s 2015 capital project implementation across all states of the federation and the Federal capital, Abuja. In addition to that, more than 1,000 business owners and starters have received various trainings, counselling under the National Enterprise Development Policy piloted by SMEDAN.
“Also, more than 20,000 other business operators accessed SMEDAN empowerment and training programmes through the implementation of the 2015/2016 zonal intervention capital programmes of the National Assembly,’’ Masari said.
According to him, the agency has adopted strategies to provide its services to more Nigerians by redesigning its training programmes to run throughout the year. “From this year the agency will be conducting its training programmes quarterly instead of waiting till the last quarter of the year,’’ he said.
By Dike Onwuamaeze