NDDC, SMEDAN Partner On Enterprise Dev

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) have entered into a partnership to promote enterprise development in the oil-rich region.
Also involved in the partnership is the Builders Hub Impact Investment Programme, a private-sector driven organization involved in entrepreneurship development.
Speaking during the signing of an MoU in Port Harcourt, among the development partners to kick start the enterprise development programme, Managing Director and CEO of NDDC, Nsima Ekere said the programme would be given the desired motivation and incentive to succeed.
He said the meeting was a follow up of a previous engagement with the Director General of SMEDAN, Dikko Radda, in Abuja.
Ekere said the Niger Delta region was in dire need of development which requires inter agency synergy to achieve target objectives in the economic development of the region.
The NDDC MD said the target was to make the Niger Delta region an entrepreneurial hub through the engagement of most of the youths, who form the active population in productive ventures.
He emphasized that the tripartite agreement would help in tackling the menance of insecurity, poverty and unemployment in the region.
“We must get the project running in the shortest possible time.
“We have made provison for funding of the programe in our budget and I think in the next one or two months we will have sufficient budgetary provision for the take off.
“The project, according to the NDDC MD, will commence with one of the Industrial Development Centre (IDCs) owned by SMEDAN in the Niger Delta.
He said the target beneficiaries were mostly, youths and women in the region.

By: Teneh Beemene.