SMEDAN to Establish Tertiary Institution for Entrepreneurship

Samuel Mobolaji

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) is set to establish a tertiary institution to develop the next Generation of Entrepreneurs who will be able to initiate a business idea and scale it.

The DG, SMEDAN, Charles Odii disclosed this while speaking to a team from UNDP, who were on an inspection tour of the proposed facility for the Abuja Campus.

Odii explained that the capacity gap has been identified as one of the banes hindering the development of the MSMEs in Nigeria as most MSMEs lack capacity to either do product development, market analysis, production process, business plan, keep operational records as well as have a Human Resource manual.

This, he pointed out, has hindered the growth of several small businesses that lack the capacity to access multiple volumes of funding available in the ecosystem.

According to Odii, Nigerian MSMEs play a vital role in promoting economic growth, industrial development, technology adoption, and capacity development but face multiple challenges that hinder their ability to reach their fullest potential resulting in mortality rate of about 62 per cent within a five-year period.

To stem this tide, he believes, the Tertiary Institution when fully functional, will build the resilience of these small businesses and promote economies of scale.

The Institution aims to provide Workforce Support for all spheres of the Nigerian Economy, the focal areas will be building a curriculum to support entrepreneurship and employability of the teeming Nigerian Youths.

The Campus will house Masterclass Training Faculties, Ideation hubs, Export Facilitation Units, Micro Finance Bank, a Regulatory desk as well as an Arbitration section for trade disputes.