SMEDAN, Niger Govt to establish entrepreneurship club in schools

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has said that it is collaborating with the Niger Government to establish entrepreneurship clubs in schools across the state.

Mr Olawale Fasanya, Director-General, SMEDAN, made this known in Minna, during a three-day capacity building for entrepreneurship teachers in public and private primary and secondary schools in the state.

The programme is being implemented under the Mind Shift Entrepreneurship Programme (MEP) known as the National-School Entrepreneurship Programme (N-SEP).

Fasanya who was represented by Mr Levi Anyikwa, Deputy Director, Partnership Coordination, SMEDAN, said that training of the trainers among the teachers was a continuous exercise.

The Executive Director said that there was much anxiety and uncertainty among the Nigerian students about their future, because of dearth of opportunities in the employment market and their lack of entrepreneurial skills to venture into new businesses.

He said that MEP was designed to engage the vibrant energy of students and youths and channel it into productive venture creation and management of their own businesses.

Inaugurating the programme, Hajiya Hannatu Salihu, the State Commissioner for Education, promised that government would provide the necessary instructional materials to enable the trainees inculcate entrepreneurial skills in their students.

Salihu said that 70 teachers were drawn from the public schools in the state for the training, while 30 came from the private schools.