SMEs Development: SMEDAN Empowers Budding Entrepreneurs

DAILY NEWS EXTRA

SMEs Development:

SMEDAN Empowers Budding Entrepreneurs

Participants at a two-week intensive training program for budding entrepreneurs anchored by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in Abuja, were upbeat at the opportunities the training provided them. They commended SMEDAN for the training programs, and urged the Agency to do more of such to give direction to the teeming number of unemployed in the country.
Some of the participants rated SMEDAN high in its training programs designed for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and described the programs as “all-encompassing, intensive, enlightening and educative.”
Mr. Ibrahim Najira, an elderly poultry farmer and owner of Najira Poultry Farm in Bwari Area Council in Abuja, said the training had afforded him much more information than he ever hoped to get about developing a small business. “In fact, most of the questions I had lined up for the resource persons were answered long before I asked them during the training,” he said.
While commending the Agency for the well thought-out areas as they affect SMEs in a harsh business environment like Nigeria, he added: “I urge others like me who want to know anything about owning successful businesses to come to SMEDAN for a complete package. With more of these types of training, more Nigerians would break free of poverty and would be financially fulfilled.”
A second participant, Ozigi Christianah Hajara, who is into soap-making, said the training was an eye-opener in the areas of developing a business plan and book-keeping, which a lot of business owners took for granted. “I have learnt that as an entrepreneur, I should be able to use a third of my money to buy materials for my business, a third to pay myself and keep a third in savings,” she said, adding that SMEDAN was doing excellently well with its training programs.
Echoing their satisfaction with the program, Samson Emmanuel and Naomi Michael, both poultry farmers called for more participation by youths who need guidance on setting up their own businesses and how to access loans from financial institutions. “The idea of forming cooperatives to access loans as advised by the facilitators is a good one going by high interest rates on loans and having to provide collateral, which many of us do not have,” Emmanuel said.
“I thank God for SMEDAN and their dedicated staff. I have learnt that with hard work, commitment and focus, I can take my business to greater heights. I pray that others will follow and reap tremendous benefits from these training exercises. As for me, I am already seeing a difference in my life, having just been blessed doubly with the fruits of the womb after a long wait,” Naomi Michael added.
The program, targeted at forty entrepreneurs in the fields of poultry and soap-making was divided into vocational training in the first week and entrepreneurship classes in the second. Some of the courses designed for the participants include Personal and Business Visioning, The A-Z of Starting Businesses, Marketing, Legal and Regulatory Issues, Book-Keeping and Preparing a Business Plan.
Meanwhile, the facilitators had in their different presentations pointed out the importance of paying taxes, the requirements for business registration with various government bodies such as NAFDAC, CAC and FIRS. They also advised against diverting loans for other purposes than it was intended; encouraged saving culture, packaging bankable business proposals and forming cooperatives to ease their access to financial credit facilities.