The nation’s small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) has received a major boost with the proposed support by the Investment and Technology Promotion Office of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation which has assured stakeholders that it will work with Africa, and indeed Nigeria, to realise the projected growth of small businesses.
The Head, UNIDO ITPO Nigeria, Mrs. Adebisi Olumodimu, who gave the assurance at the closing ceremony of a four-day intensive training programme organised by UNIDO-ITPO Nigeria for three federal government agencies, said a strong team had been developed to strengthen the training potential of the agencies toward improving their mandate delivery.
“UNIDO ITPO Nigeria has just finished the training of experts which it will use in its training tasks ahead,” she said, adding that the team had been able to evolve the needed strategies to address challenges associated with entrepreneurial development in Nigeria.
“As a team, the collaborators have analysed the Nigerian business climate, and we have also imbibed the spirit of enterprise so that we will train entrepreneurs in the interest of ensuring that their businesses thrive despite challenges,” she noted.
“I have no doubt that we will achieve our set goal of making conglomerates of entrepreneurs by strengthening SMEs and placing them on the path of growth,” she added.
The beneficiary agencies are the Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, National Office for Technology Acquisition & Promotion and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council.
Olumodimu tasked the agencies to maximise the opportunities afforded them by the training, stating that they must leave no stone unturned in applying newly devised strategies to their operations as regards development of entrepreneurs.
The Director-General, NIRSAL, Aliyu Abdulhameed, thanked the UNIDO ITPO Nigeria for the platform and assured stakeholders that NIRSAL would sustain the inter-agency collaboration established by ITPO Nigeria for the development of SMEs in the country.
“We are going to work with our partners in NIPC and NOTAP. We will identify realistic projects in the agricultural value chain that have to do with youth and we will apply the training we got here,” he added.