SMEDAN Partners 50 Tertiary Institutions On Entrepreneurship

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) says the agency has partnered with 50 tertiary institutions across the country to prepare their students for a successful entrepreneurial journey.
Director-General of SMEDAN, Mr Olawale Fasanya, made this known in Lagos at the opening ceremony of SMEDAN’s Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Programme (TINEDEP) at the PAN Africa University-Entreprise Development Centre (EDC).
Fasanya, who was represented by the SMEDAN Director, Partnership and Coordination,  Dr. Friday Opara, stressed the need for lecturers to have an entrepreneurial mindset to successfully hand-hold their students through the journey of entrepreneurship.
He said the programme was to equip lecturers  with the necessary tools and techniques to prepare students for the fourth industrial revolution, following the paradigm shift in education.
The Director-General said this could only be achieved through an efficient entrepreneurship education and development to bridge the gaps between the university classroom and the field.
He noted that the programme would also give the tools and provide full practical sessions to broaden the knowledge of participants in the learning process.
“In our present educational system, certificates and degrees only prepare students to be job seekers and not job creators.
“The tertiary institution’s curricular must place the needed emphasis on entrepreneurship and vocational training.

“The training prepares the students to become entrepreneurs and job creators, as the future is skill and skill is the future.

“The concept is designed to inculcate into the students the intelligent and intellectual consciousness of their environment to enable him/her maximises their existence and potential.

“It is an adaptable education that will prepare the students for self-employment which must necessarily be the ultimate,” he said.

The Director, Entreprise Development Centre, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, said the programme was organised for all lecturers in tertiary institution that taught entrepreneurship.

Bamkole said the initiative was to empower the lecturers to inculcate entrepreneurial mindsets in the students.

He advised the upcoming entrepreneurs to get into a network of like-minded people for ideas sharing within the ecosystem.

“We have about 50 institutions here, and ordinarily, every Nigerian is a born entrepreneur.

“However, there are techniques that will help  to nurture it, so that opportunities are better understood when they come,” he said.

Also, the Head of Department, Business Administration, Arthur Jarvis University, Cross River, DrUduakMbong, commended SMEDAN for organising the event, saying that it would provide a network to enhance the practice of entrepreneurship in the school.

Commenting, the Director, Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Federal University, BirninKebbi,  Prof. Isa Garba, said after the programme he should be able to come out with a modem in teaching entrepreneurship in the university where he lectures.

Garba stressed the need for more collaboration and partnership among participants to enable him to build a better ecosystem in his institution.