The Akwa Ibom State Government and the Lagos State-based Enterprise Development Center have entered into a new collaboration arrangement that will benefit 10,000 women between the ages of 18 and 35.
At Government House in Uyo on Friday, the state government and the center on the Ibom Leadership and Entrepreneurial Development (Ibom-LED) Program signed a collaboration agreement.
The women were chosen for entrepreneurship training and capacity building, along with support services to start small and medium-sized enterprises upon completion of the course, according to a statement released on Saturday by the Government House Press Unit.
The state governor, Pastor Umo Eno, spoke during a brief ceremony to sign the Memorandum of Understanding and hailed the collaboration as a positive step forward.
He stated that the state government was willing to collaborate with the center in order to accomplish the goals of the program.
The governor confirmed that the new capacity building program for 10,000 women in addition to the 400 youths already enrolled in the Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program at the Ibom-LED training center are indications that the program is already accomplishing the intended purpose, while praising the Ibom-LED’s interpretation of his administration’s human capital development vision.
The hovernor clarified that, given the crucial roles SMEs play in generating employment and advancing the economy, it was insufficient to simply provide capital for people to enter the business world ignorantly. It was also necessary to provide training on business ventures to ensure the highest level of confidence and dependability.
“The vision for Ibom-LED is to raise entrepreneurs and we also want to support them, but it’s not just enough to give people money. You have to train them and make them reliable.
“So this partnership for me is critical. I thank the EDC for this partnership and ask for more of this support so as to realise the visions that we have set out and at the end of it, Ibom-LED can truly say we have developed our SMEs. We can’t get it wrong with SMEs”, he stated.
He claimed that rather than entering politics unprepared for leadership, young Akwa Ibom people will improve their skills in managing people and material resources through Ibom-LED and become better leaders.
The Managing Director of Akwa Ibom Investment Corporation and Ibom-LED Team Leader, Pastor Imo-Abasi Jacob, clarified that the Enterprise Development Center is a division of Pan Atlantic University, which was once called Lagos Business School.
He was hopeful that the state will benefit from the kindness shown in allowing Ibom-LED access to their capacity building program thus far.
