ITF, NIPC Pledge To Train Women Entrepreneurs

The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) on Wednesday agreed to collaborate on capacity development for women entrepreneurs along the agricultural value chain.
Both agencies reached the agreement when the Executive Secretary of NIPC, Mrs Uju Hassan-Baba, paid a courtesy visit to the Director-General of ITF, Mrs Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko, in Abuja.
In separate remarks, the ITF and NIPC heads also pledged to broaden the synergy for general manpower development, particularly in the non-oil sectors of the economy.
They noted that the collaboration was critical to an effective local skills and manpower development to drive the Federal Government’s economic diversification agenda.
Mrs Hassan-Baba zeroed in on women entrepreneurs, saying that the visit was aimed at intimating her ITF counterpart on the technical challenges facing them in the agricultural sector.
She said: “Yesterday we had an investment forum for Nigerian women entrepreneurs where they complained that they were having a lot of difficulties in accessing finance.
“They said they wanted to invest in the agriculture and engage in the value chain within that sector, but they were hampered by their inability to access capital.
“Another of their request was capacity training, because they realised that their inability to access finance was partly due to lack of requisite capacity to comprehend the processes of accessing these funds.
“They want to be taught book keeping; they also need training on how to be able to take their business decisions and identify markets for their products.