UNIDO Trains 42, 000 Nigerian Entrepreneurs In Six Years

The United Nations Indus trial Organisation (UNIDO), says it has trained 42,000 Nigerian entrepreneurs from 2016 till date.
The National Project Coordinator UNIDO HP LIFE, Mr Francis Ukoh, disclosed to newsmen at a five-day training programme for SMEDAN officials in Uyo, recently.
Ukoh said the organisation had so far empowered about 418 trainers and 10 master trainers in Nigeria to support the training for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
According to him, the core function of UNIDO is mainly to strengthen and empower institutions of government.
To this end, he said that UNIDO had supported various institutions including universities and SMEs across the country.
“Today’s programme by UNIDO is to facilitate job creations, enterprise creations and providing people with business skills to develop bankable business plas to be able to carry out their businesses in most effective and productive manner.
“We have conducted several trainings of such in so many states in Nigeria. We have supported so many institutions including universities and many SMEs support institutions.
“So far in Nigeria, we have empowered about 418 trainers and 10 master trainers to support the training programme for SMEs in the country.
“Through those directly trained by us so far, we have trained over 15,000 people from the face-to-face training and we have had over 27,000 people accessed the online training programme because, we always divide the training into two phases.
“This is good enough because we hope that these institutions will ensure that those trained have access to funds, particularly Federal Government intervention funds,’’ Ukoh said.
Also speaking, the Lead Master Trainer for UNIDO HP LIFE project, Prof. Sani Garba, said that the initiative was to support Nigeria in addressing the unemployment challenge, which had become a critical factor in the country’s national development.
Garba said the organisation was interested in young Nigerians, ranging from those with no business ideas to those who have a business plan, but no capital to run it.
“Our target group here are young Nigerians who do not have any business idea, our intention is to provide training for them so that they will be able to generate business ideas.
“We are also interested in young Nigerians who have their own business ideas but they don’t know how to translate the idea into a business plan and those with business plans but with no capital to run it,’’ Garba said.
Garba advised young entrepreneurs against starting businesses with bank loans as it might not be cost effective to beginners.
He urged government to always make favourale business policies that would benefit entrepreneurs and in turn grow the economy.
The Principal Data Processing Officer of SMEDAN, Mr Anthony Muoboghae, commended UNIDO for their effort in equipping young Nigerian entrepreneurs with business ideas.
He said that by building the capacity of SMEDAN, they would deliver the knowledge acquired during the training to young entrepreneurs in the state.