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SMEDAN begins delivery of empowerment programme nationwide

By BusinessNews Staff on January 18, 2016

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has commenced the delivery of the 2015/2016 Zonal Intervention programmes of the National Assembly domiciled in the agency to various senatorial districts and federal constituencies across the country.

The programme are tailored towards providing entrepreneurship training and vocational skills as well as variety of empowerment materials such as Tailoring machines, grinding machines motorcycles, tricycles, hair dressing equipment and block-moulding machines among others, to women and youths across the country.

A statement by the agency’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Ibrahim Muhammed, at the weekend said the zonal intervention was aimed at providing succour and economic empowerment to Nigerians by members of the National Assembly with a view to reducing unemployment and poverty in all parts of the country. Speaking at a brief ceremony to flag-off the delivery of the materials in Abuja, the Director General of SMEDAN, Mallam Bature Umar Masari, urged contractors handling the intervention programmes to ensure strict compliance with due process, and adhere to all guidelines contained in the contract agreement.

He further advised the contractors to liaise with members of the national assembly in whose constituencies the programme would be executed in order to have seamless implementation of the entire excise for the benefit of Nigeria

He also appealed to SMEDAN staffs that are saddled with the responsibilities of monitoring and evaluating the programme to put extra efforts at ensuring that no standard is compromised.

The director general stated that the agency’s management would closely monitor the implementation of the programmes in order to achieve its desired objectives.

Meanwhile more than 20,000 small business operators and start-ups would benefit from the empowerment programmes in addition to about 5,000 other business owners who benefited from SMEDAN business development services and training programmes in all parts of the country.