Eighty women in the agribusiness sector will receive five days of training from the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in Bauchi State.
This was said at the training’s closing ceremony in Bauchi on Friday by Mr. Olawale Fasanya, Director General of SMEDAN.
He claims that the program was started under the agency’s Women in Self Employment Programme (WISE-P) with a specific focus on women who work in agriculture and agribusiness (agro value chain) production.
Fasanya, who was represented by Mr. Mahmood Isa, Zonal Coordinator, SMEDAN, North-East, stated that many women are involved in farming and many are willing to do so as a source of income and self-employment.
However, their progress is constrained because they lack the resources and expertise needed to continue successfully and even gain access to markets, which is why SMEDAN introduced the program.
“The programme is designed to provide entrepreneurship training, vocational training, empowerment with common facilities and delivery of business development service to 80 participants per state across six selected states for phase one.
“Today, the first phase of the programme is commencing simultaneously in six states of Osun, Ebonyi, Katsina, Bauchi, Ekiti and Kwara.
“The WISE-P is designed basically to promote self-reliance amongst women and to empower them to achieve improved productivity and sustainability in businesses in terms of crop farming and agro-processing along the value chains.
“It is also to boost production of raw materials for industrial use and development because it is said that when you train a woman, you train a nation and when you empower a woman, you have liberated the nation,” said the DG.
He continued by saying that all of the recipients would be given the tools and resources they needed to expand their means of doing business.
