The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has commenced capacity training for no fewer than 155 participants in agribusiness across the 16 Local Government Areas of Ekiti State to enhance food security and boost agricultural export.
The Director General of SMEDAN, Olawale Fasanya, while speaking at the opening of the five-day 2022 Agric-business Development and Empowerment Programme (ADEP) under its National AgricPreneurship Training Scheme (NATS) in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital noted that the agency would be dedicated to providing functional knowledge and skill for existing agricultural value-chain associations and individuals.
He explained that agriculture potentials of the country if properly harnessed, could serve as a focal point of the nation’s economy, adding that the over-reliance on oil for export was no longer sustainable.
Fasanya said that the beneficiaries after the training would be supported with equipments including linking them up with public and private institutions towards impacting their initiatives, “to bring about sustainable food security, employment generation and poverty reduction.”
According to him, “the programme is to empower the agripreneurs by integrating entrepreneurial skills and knowledge into modern agricultural practices to produce agripreneurs and workforce to cater for agricultural enterprises in Nigeria and beyond.
“It is intended to unleash and reinforce agricultural transformation for food security and also improve agricultural export earnings which are currently abysmally low.
“As an agency with the mandate to facilitate a structured, sustainable and efficient MSME sub-sector, we will continue to strive for excellence and strategic growth through forming strong partnership with reputable public and private institutions as this will enable us to build inclusive and globally competitive enterprises.”
