The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday said it is collaborating with the United Nation Development Programme to train 30 women on business development skills.
The Director General of SMEDAN, Alhaji Bature Masari, said this during a five-day workshop in Minna, the capital of Niger State, organized by the agency for five women cooperative groups drawn from Niger, Katsina and Gombe States.
Masari said Niger and Katsina States have two women cooperative groups, with six representatives each, while Gombe State has one cooperative group, with six representatives attending the workshop.
Masari said the training was aimed at empowering the women-owned cooperative societies in the six geopolitical zones of the country to enable them handle their businesses properly toward alleviating poverty.
According to him: “The essence of the programme is to give the women business managerial skills in order to create jobs, wealth and alleviate poverty in the society.”
The Director General, who was represented by his Deputy, Monday Ewans, said the workshop would expose participants to how to register business, business ethics, marketing, book-keeping and business plans.
The programme is made up of four components: entrepreneurship sensitization, entrepreneurship training, vocational retraining and delivery of business development services.
It was gathered that the training is the second component of the programme with the participants.