NEPC Trains 80 Entrepreneurs On Covid-19 Business Management Strategies

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) says it has trained no fewer than 80 women entrepreneurs from the South East on Coronavirus (COVID-19) business management strategies.
The Executive Director of the NEPC, Mr Olusegun Awolowo, made the disclosure during a training of women entrepreneurs in Enugu on Monday
The CEO said that the training would provide struggling businesses a leeway in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Awolowo, who was represented by the Deputy Director, Women-in-Export, NEPC, Mrs Esther Ikhoba, said that the training was under the ‘SheTrades Initiative’ of the council.
He described the initiative as a one-stop reference point designed to guide Women-Owned Businesses (WOBs) in their decision making processes during and after the pandemic.
He said the SheTrades Initiative was launched in Nigeria in June 2016 when the council partnered with International Trade Centre (ITC) in a bid to connect 200, 000 Nigerian women entrepreneurs to the global market.
“This initiative is part of the broader United Nations goal of bringing three million women to the global market by 2021.
“It is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to promote gender inclusiveness in export business,” he said.
Awolowo said the scheme was a Commonwealth project  that aimed to increase the participation of WOBs in economic activities in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that the pandemic had caused a monumental shift in the global economic and social structure as well as created lots of fluctuations in the business environment.
“At this time of global uncertainty when companies worldwide are struggling to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, WOBs in Nigeria would be advised to make good use of the Business Crisis Management Toolkit.
“This will enable them to assess and manage the impact of the pandemic on their businesses,” he said.
He said that the toolkits would provide the women entrepreneurs access to a resilience and recovery action plan canvas  and access to webinars and online trainings.
Awolowo said that through the council’s collaboration with ITC, Nigerian women entrepreneurs had been sponsored to participate at international events.
“We have also conducted trainings and a mapping exercise of 4,000 women entrepreneurs and surveyed 400 women businesses nationwide to gather valuable data on the challenges faced by women-owned enterprises in Nigeria”, Awolowo said.
Earlier, the South-East Regional Coordinator of NEPC, Mr Arnold Jackson, said that the council desired to improve the fortunes of WOBs in order to make them resilient.
Jackson said that COVID-19 had ushered new dynamics in the business environment which had challenged the capacity of entrepreneurs to remain afloat.
In a lecture, Mrs Leticia Onu of Women-in-Export Division, NEPC, said that the workshop became necessary following the recognition of the role of women in sustainable economic growth.
Onu urged the participants to make use of the toolkits during uncertain times in the business environment.