SMEDAN Seeks EFCC Support to Promote Made-in-Nigeria Products, Empower Youths

By Joseph Sunday 

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, has sought the support of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to promote locally made products and expand opportunities for young Nigerians.

The Director-General of SMEDAN, Mr. Charles Odii, made the appeal on Wednesday in Abuja during a courtesy visit to the Executive Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, at the Commission’s headquarters.

Odii commended Olukoyede for restoring investor confidence in Nigeria through the anti-corruption fight, noting that the EFCC’s work in the last 34 months has helped to rebuild Nigeria’s image internationally.

He said SMEDAN is driving several initiatives to equip young Nigerians with practical skills. According to him, the Agency has secured approval from the Ministry of Education to establish the Inspire, Create, Start and Scale, ICSS Institute, which will offer National Diploma programmes integrated with entrepreneurship.

Odii also disclosed that SMEDAN is currently finalising a five-year National MSME Policy for submission to President Bola Tinubu. The policy, he said, will encourage small businesses to employ reformed ex-inmates who have acquired vocational skills while in custody.

“We go into prisons to train inmates who have six months left to be released. The project has been life-changing,” Odii said. “In our policy, we are proposing that anyone who has served time, is remorseful and has learned a skill should be rehabilitated and given a chance to work in small businesses.”

He proposed collaboration between SMEDAN and the EFCC’s Cybersecurity Research and Training Centre, offering to provide curriculum and technical expertise to train young Nigerians, including repentant internet fraudsters, as part of efforts to reintegrate them into society.

In his response, EFCC Chairman Olukoyede expressed readiness to partner with SMEDAN on promotion of made-in-Nigeria goods, youth empowerment, skills development and cybercrime prevention.

“I have been following your activities and I’m very proud of you,” Olukoyede told the SMEDAN delegation. “I’m interested in anything that will help to develop skills for young people, because that is one of the major challenges we have.”

The EFCC boss urged Nigerians to patronise locally produced goods to grow the economy and called for a national policy mandating patronage of Nigerian-made products.

He decried the damage cybercrime has done to Nigeria’s economy and global reputation, warning that cybercriminals can cripple the nation’s financial system “at the press of a button.”

Olukoyede disclosed that the EFCC’s Cybersecurity Research and Training Centre, which is supported by the Federal Government, is designed to train about 500 persons per intake. He invited SMEDAN to be part of the project from conception to operationalisation.

A highlight of the visit was the exhibition of locally produced goods under SMEDAN’s G-R-O-W, Guidance, Resources, Opportunity and Workforce, initiative. The products displayed included hibiscus tea, coffee, wax candles, cassava biscuits and indigenous fabrics.