The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) said it trained 3,450 retirees on Vocational and Entrepreneurial Skills Training (VEST) from 2013 to 2015.

Mr Wale Fasanya, SMEDAN’s Director of Enterprise, Development and Promotion, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday that the agency had strategised to provide its services to more Nigerians in 2016.

Fasanya said VEST was a flagship programme developed to equip participants with the necessary skills for starting and running an enterprise successfully.

He said the programme involved the provision of vocational skills in specific enterprises such as poultry, fishery, catering services, GSM repairs and ICT, liquid soap making and air freshener production.

He said the training, which ran for two weeks, was done in three phases, namely: vocational training, entrepreneurial training, and workshop on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).

“The vocational training was done in the first week and it was dedicated to practicals on the specific enterprise in addition to field trips conducted for the participants.

“Entrepreneurial training is where the skills learnt are merged with business management skills to enable them to compete globally and equip them with the requisite knowledge required to run a successful business.

“The workshop on SMEs is where the trainees get to meet the relevant stakeholders in the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) subsector.

“The stakeholders put them through the legal and regulatory requirements of running an enterprise.”

Fasanya said the programme also provided a one-on-one business counseling for the trainees to ascertain their level of preparedness to start an enterprise.

He added that counseling session offered the stakeholders the opportunity to counsel the trainees on how to generate business ideas, source for finance, how to locate an enterprise, how to source raw materials and access the market for their products.

According to him, the major challenge limiting the programme from recording greater success is the inability of the trainees to access government funding that will enable them to either start or expand their enterprises.

He stated that another challenge that is making it difficult for the agency to duplicate same training in different states is limited resources. (NAN)

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