SMEDAN launches entrepreneurial club in Ibom Metropolitan polytechnic

The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has unveiled an Entrepreneurial Club in Ibom Metropolitan Polytechnic, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State to ensure students acquire maximum skills for self-reliance and job creators after school years.

The Director General of SMEDAN, Mr Charles Odii, while inaugurating the club at the school premises in Uyo on Saturday said the essence was to empower students with requisite entrepreneurial skills to be self-reliant.

Odii, who was represented by the State Manager of SMEDAN in Akwa Ibom, Mrs Lucy Ekpenyong, said that many institutions across country were only focused on skill training for their students.

The director general noted that such was only a small aspect of entrepreneurship, as it made the curriculum to be limited.

He stated that such limitations spurred SMEDAN to establish Entrepreneurial clubs in tertiary institutions to make graduates “be fully baked” and be able to become totally independent and creative.

The DG urged the students to be innovative and aspire to launch their products before graduation, adding that SMEDAN will support them to have access to mentorship programmes and access to funding opportunities.

“We found out from research that tertiary institutions are just doing skill training which is a very small aspect of entrepreneurship.

“So, we felt the curriculum was still lacking, we decided to launch entrepreneurial clubs in our institutions. 

“Unemployment is still high despite the skill acquisition programmes in some schools, this is because the entrepreneurial mindset is missing.

“We want to support you so that you will be fully baked, any government that is not putting entrepreneurship as its main agenda is doomed. Such a government is not going to have a society, its citizens will sleep at night.

“All members of the club will have access to mentorship programmes, we will link you up with successful entrepreneurs within and outside the state, we will also facilitate your access to funding,” Odii said.

In her remarks, the Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Education, Mrs Idongesit Etiebet, harped on the importance of skills and entrepreneurial acquisition by graduates.

Etiebet, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Rose Bassey, said gone are the days when acquiring a school certificate for formal education and acquiring skills are separated.

She said the Ministry of Education is in support of holistic education,  where a student will have a formal education alongside skills.

The education commissioner urged all students to take an active part in the club activities, as it will be beneficial for them in future.

Earlier in his remarks, the Rector of the Polytechnic Engr. Nnamonso Akpabio lauded the DG of SMEDAN for the choice of the institution to launch the entrepreneurial club.

Akpabio urged the students to maximise the opportunity by taking all that would be taught seriously, as it will make them job creators and not job seekers upon graduation.

The Rector also urged the Akwa Ibom State Government to partner with the institution by building a three-storey Entrepreneurial hub that would accommodate all the training departments in the school. 

In an interview with the proprietor of the school, Engr Victor Williams, he explained that skill and entrepreneurial development have been the base of the institution.

Williams noted that many Oil and Gas companies and other multinational industries value specialised expertise and skills more than university certificates.

He said that is why the institution pays premium attention to training its students in skills and vocations which has paved the way for many of them to get juicy jobs in oil companies in Nigeria and abroad.

The proprietor added that the Polytechnic is in partnership with the University of Texas petroleum training department as well as the City and Guilds of London vocational training centre where the certifications of their students come from to enable them secure jobs abroad.

He also revealed that in order to key into Governor Umo Eno’s ARISE agenda, his institution is training 1000 Akwa Ibom indigenes on skill acquisitions such as oil and gas training, fabrication, welding, and plumbing among others.

He urged the governor to assist the trainees by sponsoring their global certification, noting that giving them only national certification may not give them broader opportunities.

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“We are so concerned in preparing our students with specific training and skills alongside the academic certificates. We want government to sponsor the global certification of the 1000 Akwa Ibom people we are training.

“We don’t need the money. If you train people and give them a University of Uyo certificate, it will not cross the border, but if you give them the certificate from City and Guild of London Institute, it is recognized in over 150 countries in the world. Most of our students who left Lagos to UK, US have City and guild certificates.

“If the state government can do that for them, I will put them in the world employment fora in such a way that if a job comes out, they will be called.  

“As we are suffering unemployment many countries do not suffer it they are even looking for people that will do the work but you must have the right qualifications.

“We need to prepare our people and equip them with international certification so that they can travel out and bring the foreign exchange. 

What we want the government to do is to sponsor the international certification, we will support them in offering the free training,” Williams said.