Nigerian team from SMEDAN visits ICECD centre in Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad, Nov 5 (UNI) A 15-member delegation from the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has arrived in the city to attend a 10-day programme, commencing today, in International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Career Development (ICECD) here.

The aim of the visiting delegates is to get themselves trained in SME development in order to promote SME development in Nigeria.

In her address, ICECD Director Hina Shah explained to the delegation that entrepreneurship training and business development activities focus on the need to develop government and other non- government organisations working towards facilitating sustainable MSME development.

However, in Nigeria, there is a need for systematic, focused education for the organisations. A large number of support organisations are providing business development services like product details, finance, export promotion and marketing support.

But there are no takers, as people lack entrepreneurial spirit.

This needs to be ignited through the right motivation. Through this training, the officials will be able to learn from ICECD's experience in SME Development in India and other developing countries of Asia, Africa and the Pacific areas, and replicate the same in Nigeria to trigger further development and growth of SMEs, she said.

Director General of SMEDAN Ms Adelaja said ''The benefit of this learning will reach a cross-section of the society, such as women and youth. The physically challenged, victims of HIV/AIDS and prison inmates.'' ''This partnership of exchanging Indian experience and expertise through ICECD will go a long way in addressing the needs of the Medium and Small Entrepreneurs of Africa,'' she added.

SMEDAN Chief Programme Officer Fisher David Adeyinka said '' Looking at the success of ICECD models to develop sustainable MSMEs and considering the need to facilitate SME development in Africa, SMEDAN partnered with ICECD to train their officers in fostering entrepreneurship programmes in Nigeria for men and women to remove unemployment through Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Development.'' ''Our purpose of visit is to study ICECD models and operations especially in the areas of entrepreneurial education and training and also Trainers programme for Women Economic Empowerment. Other areas we seek learning are the Programme for Developing effective Business Development Services for small and micro enterprises, how to teach rural participants under our capacity building sessions, Improving the effectiveness of Business Development Services and forging a strategic relationship with ICECD so that we can send our staff for specific trainings on periodic basis,'' he added.

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