Fed Poly, Ado-Ekiti, SMEDAN promote entrepreneurship village

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti on the establishment of an Entrepreneurship Village inside the institution.

Part of the goals of the partnership is that SMEDAN will give technical support that will trigger the needed funding from funding, sponsorship and support national and international institutions to build the village including a 350-room hostel facility for trainees.

The collaboration with Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti is the first of an arrangement that will see SMEDAN supporting an institution from each of the 36 states and Abuja.

Rector of the polytechnic, Dr. Mrs. Taiwo Akande who spoke during the ceremony said “Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti has the best entrepreneurship and vocational centre in Nigeria’s higher institutions and best named Centre for Excellence in Africa by United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Akande explained that the proposed entrepreneurship village is designed as a mode of public, private partnership that will be a reference training and skill development hub for youths, veterans and senior citizens that will activate inter-generational programmes.

“This is a unique initiative that present for our ear country, an added skill development support system, resource platform and a model of academic-community/regional partnership with opportunities for employment generation, poverty reduction, resource mobilization as well as elderly/youth engagement leveraging on the higher institution’s entrepreneurship profile and academic protocol”, she disclosed.

Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development and Vocational Studies of the institution, Engr. Jimoh Adetunji noted that when the centre was inaugurated in 2010, most students and academic staff were hostile to the idea.

“However, when students began to have carryovers from non-core courses, they say tight. Now, many of our students are making money from what they learn from the centre and are even supporting their families.”

Adetunji stated that the centre currently offers 13 skill acquisition courses including aquaculture, apiculture, snailery, textile design, soap production, crop production and simple electrical gadget.

Others are welding and fabrication, information and communication technology, fashion design, ceramic, arts and craft as well as event management.

He disclosed that the centre was already making money or the polytechnic through the business arm, which engages in block moulding, bakery and confectionery, feed milling, livestock breeding and carsh wash.

The centre has collaboration and partnerships with USAID/WINROCK International Farmer-to-Farmer Support; Texas Technical University; IITA/World Bank; NYSC SAED programme and SMEDAN.

Its available assets include a 250-hectares arable land available for entrepreneurial activities.

“Between 2011 and 2016, over 17.147 trainees have completed skill acquisition programme in our centre”, Adetunji stated while adding that “as a way to discover, encourage and proie support or stat-ups of the programme, about 50 of our students who completed the programme between 2013 and 2015 have been recorded.”