The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) says the agency has partnered with 50 tertiary institutions across the country to prepare their students for a successful entrepreneurial journey.
Its Director-General, Mr Olawale Fasanya, made this known in Lagos, on Monday at the opening ceremony of SMEDAN Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Programme (TINEDEP) at the PAN Africa University-Entreprise Development Centre (EDC).
Fasanya, represented by Dr Friday Opara, the SMEDAN Director, Partnership and Coordination, stressed the need for lecturers to have an entrepreneurial mindset to successfully hand-hold their students through the journey of entrepreneurship.
He said that SMEDAN programme was to equip lecturers following the paradigm shift in education with the necessary tools and techniques to prepare students for the fourth industrial revolution.
The SMEDAN director-general said that this could only be achieved through an efficient entrepreneurship education and development to bridge the gaps between the university classroom and the field.
He said that the programme would also give the tools, provide full practical sessions to broaden the knowledge of participants in learning entrepreneurship.
“In our present educational system, certificates and degrees only prepare students to be job seekers and not job creators.
“The tertiary institution’s curricular must place the needed emphasis on entrepreneurship and vocational training.
“The training prepares the students to become entrepreneurs and job creators, as the future is skill and skill is the future.
“The concept is designed to inculcate into the students the intelligent and intellectual consciousness of their environment to enable him/her maximises their existence and potential.
“It is an adaptable education that will prepare the students for self-employment which must necessarily be the ultimate,” he said.
Dr Peter Bamkole, the Director, Entreprise Development Centre, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, said that the programme was organised for all lecturers in tertiary institution that taught entrepreneurship.
Bamkole said the initiative was to empower the lecturers to inculcate entrepreneurial mindsets in the students.
He advised the upcoming entrepreneurs to get into a network of like-minded people for ideas sharing within the ecosystem.
“We have about 50 institutions here, and ordinarily, even Nigerian is a born entrepreneur.
“However, there are techniques that will help nurture it, so that opportunities are better understood when they come,” he said.
Also, Dr Uduak Mbong, Head of Department, Business Administration, Arthur Jarvis University, Cross River, commended SMEDAN for organising the event, saying that it would provide a network to enhance the practice of entrepreneurship in the school.
Commenting, Prof. Isa Garba, the Director, Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Federal University, Birnin Kebbi, said that after the programme he should be able to come out with a modem in teaching entrepreneurship in the university where he lectured.
Garba stressed the need for more collaboration and partnership among participants to enable him to build a better ecosystem in his institution.
Dr Manji Kumdi, a Lecturer in the Plateau State University, Jos, said that his expectation was to learn the business ecosystem and how to enrich the entrepreneurship development in the university.
(NAN)
