Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), on Monday, commenced a three-day training for 100 primary and secondary school teachers in Osun State on entrepreneurship skills.
Declaring the training open in Osogbo, Director-General of SMEDAN, Mr Dikko Radda, explained that it was organised in partnership with Osun government.
According to him, the training is aimed at building the capacity of the teachers and empowering them with requisite knowledge for entrepreneurship development.
Radda, who was represented by SMEDAN South-West Zonal Coordinator, Mr Shode Oluwakayode, explained that the Federal Government aimed at building, engaging and channelling the minds of the students into entrepreneurship.
He said the training was also a way of curbing and eradicating criminality, while assisting the participants on how to create and manage their own businesses.
The SMEDAN DG said that the training programme tagged: “Mind-Shift: National School Entrepreneurship Programme (NSEP) 2021,’’ encompassed sensitisation, training and converting school pupils and students to entrepreneurs from childhood.
“The programme aims at inculcating in pupils and students, through their teachers, the passion for entrepreneurship development and community service, through formation of competitive entrepreneurship clubs and establishment of school enterprises.
“The programme also aims at providing access to functional and hands-on entrepreneurship, financial literacy and community service education at the primary and secondary school levels in Nigeria.
“The alarming increase in crime, banditry and restiveness in the country can be easily attributed to the increasing rate of unemployment among youths, due to lack of preparedness to start and successfully run their own businesses,’’ he said.
According to Radda youths are bubbling with energy, which, if not harnessed early and channelled positively and productively, can be detrimental to them and the society at large.
He said after the training, all participating schools were expected to create entrepreneurship clubs and school enterprises, which would compete at the “National School Entrepreneurship Competition and Award Ceremony’’ in Abuja.
He said the 2021 NSEP would take place in 12 states, with 100 teachers and education officers (per state) participating, adding that 300 primary school pupils and secondary school students from 15 states had benefitted from the training since 2018.
Speaking at the occasion, the state Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperative, Mr Bode Olaonipekun, commended SMEDAN for bringing the programme to Osun State.
Olaonipekun, who said that the training would equip the participants with necessary entrepreneurial values, urged them to pay adequate attention to the programme, as they would be the ones to impact the acquired knowledge on their students.
He said that the state government was focused on ensuring that everyone in the state had one thing or the other, aside their paying jobs, that would add to their incomes.
The commissioner urged the participants to be at their best, adding that the success of the programme and future of the students lay in their hands.
