SMEDAN and Oyo Govt Team Up to Support Youth-led Businesses and Innovation

In a bid to boost youth development and entrepreneurship by having access to grants, soft loans, and others, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has partnered with the Oyo State Government through the State Agency for Youth Development under the Chairmanship of Hon. Adebowale Adebayo Falana.

It could be recalled that the Smedan chairman on his condolences visit to the Executive Governor of Oyo State, Engr ‘Seyi Makinde over the demised of his brother Engr Sunday Makinde expressed his interest in partnership with the Oyo State Agency for Youth Development in providing necessary support for the SMEs in the state in having access to grants, loans and other business training and support from the federal government.

Speaking with the Oyo State Manager (SMEDAN), the Youth agency Chairman, Hon. Adebowale Adebayo Falana stated that the collaboration aims to provide young individuals with the necessary skills, resources, and support to thrive in the business world.

He speaks extensively on the 2-day training organized for the youth in digital revolution skills held at the International Conference Center, University of Ibadan, where over 12,000 youth graced the event, learning about tech development, digital marketing, Amazon Kindle publishing, artificial intelligence powered by the state government, and precision automation purely practical for a thorough understanding of the concept. The participants were subjected to a learning management system to become professionals.

Adebowale also expressed optimism on the form rolled out based on vocational professionals, rooted to the registered youth groups where over 40 associations under each according to their clusters. He also explained further that the form reached the influencers in each local government, the council Chairmen, the State lawmakers, and some other personalities who have a lot of SMEs across the 33 local governments and 35 LCDAs in the State.

“We have youth who believe in small-scale enterprises, and we want to give them access to grants and other entrepreneurship training centered on youth; we have a record of the SMEs on the ground. We’ve clusters of businesses that need to be empowered where youth are yarning for help; we strongly believe that anything the SMEDAN is offering will be genuine and will be streamlined to the appropriate quarters,” Adebowale assured.

He, however, requested SMEDAN requirements for the SMEs to have proper access to grants or loans from the federal government through the Oyo State Agency for Youth Development.

In her remarks during the courtesy visit, Mrs. Ojogbede Iyabo Mabel the Oyo State Manager, SMEDAN, acknowledged that the partnership is expected to enhance the operational capacity of the existing Micro, Small, and Medium-size Enterprises (MSMEs) and encourage the growth of new start-ups in Pacesetter State.

She urged the young enterprise to register under SMEDAN, secure their certificate, and fill in the necessary data about the necessary requirements.

She further highlighted the assertion that each skills vocational programme would be streamlined into different categories of clusters. Any list of entrepreneurs the agency is providing will be picked into different categories of their programme.

This initiative is expected to have a positive impact on the state’s economy and youth population, setting a precedent for future collaborations between government agencies and the State.

Mrs. Mabel, however, explained the conditional grant payment done for each local government through the SMEDAN, stressing that the next phase of the events will be directed to the Oyo State Agency for Youth Development for hitch-free distribution across the State constituencies and the local government areas.

Earlier in his contributions, Hon. Michael Ogunsina, the PDP Youth leader and acting publicity secretary, applauded the partnership with the SMEDAN, assuring them that the collaboration would be a win-win for each party.

He also reiterated that the appropriate data has been collated by the agency for their work to be easier and will be sent to SMEDAN. Noting that double registration will never be done, each participant’s business and location will be duly monitored to ensure legitimate sorting, coordination, and monitoring.

This will be one of the amiable collaborations in ensuring that Smedan and Oyo State Agency for Youth achieve the organization’s stated objectives.