The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) , says it has trained 170 youths and women in the area of marketing and entrepreneurship.

The State Coordinator, Mr Thaddeus Asochukwu said  the training would enable them run successful businesses and remain productive.

Asochukwu, stated this on Sunday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on more plans to train and empower youths in the state.

He also stated that the agency would reduce reliance on white-collar jobs, make them self-reliant, help eradicate poverty, create employment and give people stable means of income.

The Coordinator said that the federal government through the agency, sought  the development and promotion of Micro Small and Medium Enterprise sector in Nigeria.

He said that the agency targeted that the 170 participants would create jobs by themselves and be employers of Labour after the training.

He said participants were trained on business management skills, Human resources management, sales and marketing.

Other areas are finance and records, team building, entrepreneurship development among other strategies.

“The first empowerment is building their capacity to enable them succeed.

“We started in building their capacity on entrepreneurship which is educating them on business success strategy.

“The one- week workshop of capacity building and skill acquisition is for 170 participants who will be trained on tailoring, hairdressing, making of liquid soaps, toiletries among other skills,” asochukwu said.

According to him, consultants with Michael Jacobs Consulting Limited collaborated with SMEDAN to run the theoretical aspect of the exercise on capacity building.

Asochukwu, however assured that participants would be financially empowered to enable them start.

He advised  participants to advance their knowledge more on capacity building as the one week training would not be enough to impact all the needed skills.

He acknowledged the role of  passion , which he said was key to basic skill development in achieving  success in business.

He also advised them to look for a mentor who would advice them, while aslo attending trainings regularly to improve their capacity.

He urged them to visit SMEDAN office in the state for business ideas and other supportive measures that would be given to them.

(NAN)