Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) says it has trained no fewer than 2,000 women entrepreneurs in the export sector in conjunction with the International Trade Centre (ITC) for international competitiveness.
NEPC Executive Director, Mr Olusegun Awolowo, disclosed this on Thursday in Akure, Ondo State, at a capacity building and export skill acquisition workshop for women entrepreneurs, Â tagged: “She Trade: An Opportunity for Women Entrepreneurs to Acquire Export Knowledge in the Post- Covid-19 Era.”
Awolowo, who was represented by Mrs Iyabode Abe, the NEPC Trade Promotion Advisor (TPA) in Akure, said that the NEPC had been involved in several capacities for women in export programmes, adding that NEPC had partnered with several international outfits to organize the “She Trade initiative and Women Breaking Export Barriers” in collaboration with the ITC.
Awolowo said women had also benefitted from ‘Matching Nigeria Women with Potential Buyers and She Trade in the Commonwealth’ projects.
According to him, NEPC had in the last five years, been taking pragmatic steps to redesign non-oil export direction through a programme tagged: the Zero Oil Plan.
He urged the women entrepreneurs to be dynamic, information-driven and knowledge-based so as to be successful in their export endeavours.
In a presentation, Mrs. Leticia Onu of Women Export Unit, NEPC Office, Abuja, said that NEPC had given Nigerian women a lot of opportunities to promote their businesses. “We have a number of capacity building programmes and they can benefit from our international trade fair abroad. We spearhead the international participation of Nigerians in international exhibitions.
Women are mostly invited in order to connect them. She-Trade is one of the programmes for women and it is intended to get over three million involved globally and Nigeria is targeting at least 300,000 women to connect them with this market. We are encouraging women to register and be visible in this market. We need to empower women and promote their businesses in international market”.
Onu urged the participants to be technologically-driven and be involved in workshops and seminars for their business growth.
Ondo State Chairman of the National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), Mr. Greatseyi Akintunde, urged participants to get their businesses registered so as to benefit from the government’s economic largesse.
 Mrs. Modupe Olakunle, President of the state Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (OSCCIMA), applauded the She Trade initiative and described the workshop as most appropriate at the moment.
Two of the participants, Mrs. Juliet Olatunde and Mrs. Jennifer Balogun, lauded the programme for enabling them to know the strategies on selling their products through online means.
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