C/River: SMEDAN trains 54 teachers on Entrepreneurial skills

THE Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has trained 54 teachers in selected primary and secondary schools in Cross River on entrepreneurship and financial literacy.

Speaking at the end of a 3-day training in Calabar, Dr Dikko Umar, Director General of the agency, said that the training was in collaboration with Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) in Nigeria.

Represented, by Mrs Ime Andy, an Assistant Director, Strategic Partnership Department, Umar explained that the initiative of the training was to impart the knowledge of financial literacy, community service and entrepreneurship on teachers.

He added that the training would help the teachers to impart such knowledge to their students with a view to educate them on the need to become self-reliant after school.

“The training is in collaboration with the Cross River Ministry of Education and it’s geared towards changing the mindset of the pupils and students in the direction of entrepreneurship after tertiary education.

“The teachers were rightly selected from nine primaries and nine secondary schools in the state respectively. We are hoping that 50 students will be trained in each school by these trainees’, he said.

The DG advised the participants to be committed to impacting the knowledge they have acquired during the training to their pupils and students.

“This same programme is currently going on in Bauchi and Kwara states. Our objective it to catch them young’’, he said.

Speaking, the state Commissioner for Education, Mr Goddy Etta, lauded SMEDAN for the initiative.

Etta added that with the current high level of unemployment in the country today, it was important to impart the knowledge of entrepreneurship to the students.

He urged the participants to make judicious use of the training by empowering their respective students with the requisite teaching of entrepreneurial skills.

Responding on behalf of the participants, Mr Pius Edor, thanked the DG of SMEDAN for choosing them for the training, promising that they would impact same knowledge on their students.