By Olayemi Esan
Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Dr Dikko Umaru Radda has pledged the readiness of the agency to partner with the Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association (NAOWA) to promote entrepreneurship.
Radda made the pledge while receiving on courtesy visit, the NAOWA President, Mrs Salamatu Yahaya at the agency’s Headquarters in Abuja.
Dr Radda while appreciating President NAOWA for the visit, expressed delight with the activities of NAOWA, which focus mostly on women and the less privilege in the society.
He described NAOWA as an association that has the caliber and potentials to stimulate and promote the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country, which he said is also in line with the vision of SMEDAN.
The DG further extolled NAOWA’s activities which are geared towards improving the standard of living and capacity building of women and youth in the barracks and beyond, which he said will help in stimulating Nigeria’s economy.
He acknowledged NAOWA as a disciplined and serious association which SMEDAN will be ready to partner with in order to have positive effect on Nigerian society.
Dr Radda also promised to offer technical support to NAOWA on capacity building by providing skilled staff toward achieving her entrepreneurship drive nationwide.
Earlier in her remarks, the President NAOWA Mrs Salamatu F Yahaya stressed NAOWA’s objectives of assisting the poor, needy and improving the standard of living within the barracks nationwide.
She said that “NAOWA has over the years positively impacted on so many lives and communities through skill acquisitions, empowerment programmes, and economic growth opportunities to the less privileged through effective collaboration with key public and private sector institutions for business planning skill and other capacity building services.
Mrs Salamatu acknowledged SMEDAN’s key guiding principles of reaching out to as many Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) which she said is crucial to achieving the goal of economic growth, industrialization and job creation in Nigeria.
She further leveraged on the SMEDAN modest operating strategy of creating partnership that works and therefore, sought to key into the Agency’s Social Investment Programs of One Local Government One Product Schee, Conditional Grand Scheme and Zonal Interventions Programm.
Highpoint of the visit were the decoration of DG SMEDAN with 2022-Armed Forces Remembrance Emblem, presentation of souvenir and group photographs.
