Ekiti: SMEDAN Empowers Youths, Women

About 90 youths and women have been trained by the Small and Medium, Entreprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) in vocational skills acquisition in Ekiti.

Olawale Fasoran, the Director-General of SMEDAN, said this during the closing ceremony of the two weeks training programme in Ado-Ekiti.

He said the essence of the programme is to bridge the skills gap among the over 39 million small businesses in the country.

Fasoran, who was represented by the agency’s Assistant Director of Enterprise Development and Promotions, Shuaibu Haruna explained that agriculture has the highest number in the scheme, adding that skill acquisition is key to employment.

He said the National Business Skills Development Initiative,(NBSDI) which was initiated three years ago targeted youths and women; in order to reduce unemployment.

“This initiative is to get more people self-employed and that will also reduce youths' restiveness, if you notice, over 95 per cent of the beneficiaries are youths and women

“Those are the focal target of the people, because, if a nation is able to empower youths and women, such a nation reduces a lot of the pressure in the society,” the SMEDAN DG said.

According to him, the 2022 edition of the programme trained the beneficiaries in fashion design, photography and catering.

He said the agency during the two weeks programme not only trained the beneficiaries but empowered them with 70 industrial sewing machines, 10 catering tools and 10 pieces of photography equipment.

He added that the Federal Government through SMEDAN is providing this opportunity with the initiative.