The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has trained a total of 70 Ekiti community women in agro-allied businesses.
The SMEDAN Assistant Director for Agriculture Business Development and Extension in Nigeria, Mr Tunde Oloyede said in Ikere Ekiti on Tuesday that the training was aimed at ensuring food security in the country.
Oloyede who spoke during the commencement of the second batch of the programme tagged” Women In Self-Employment Programme (WISE-P)’’ said the Federal Government would not relent in activities capable of lifting rural women out of poverty.
He explained that the training was targeted at women, because of their active involvement in the processing of agro-allied products.
“What we are doing is a deliberate shift from oil to agriculture, which is more sustainable.
“There is an issue of food insecurity that is already threatening the nation. This is a direct intervention in this direction through SMEDAN,” Oloyede said.
Speaking earlier, the Ekiti SMEDAN Manager, Mr Tomi Ikuomola urged Nigerian women to embrace agricultural related business.
Ikuomola advised the participants to make good use of knowledge gained and opportunity presented by the WISE-P training.
Two of the participants, Mrs Cecilia Bamidele and Mrs Monisade Olanipekun thanked government for the opportunity and pledged to ensure the grant was used for the right purpose.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that participants were drawn from agricultural food processing and marketing sectors. (NAN)
