By Najib Sani
Bauchi
Worried by the rate of unemployment and youth redundancy in the society, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has suggested the inclusion of entrepreneurship education in primary and secondary school curriculum in the country for students to imbibe the spirit of self-reliance when they grow up.
Director General of SMEDAN, Dr Dikko Umaru Rada, represented by a deputy director in the agency, Mr Suleiman Tanimu Abubakar, gave the suggestion yesterday during the opening ceremony of the national schools entrepreneurship programme (NSEP) organised by SMEDAN in collaboration with the international Non Governmental Organization known as ‘Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE0 for secondary and primary schools teachers in the state.
The DG, who explained that 54 participants were selected from 18 primary and secondary schools in the state, added that the teachers were expected to step down the training to their pupils and students in the schools.
“We want to catch the students young and inculcate in them the spirit of entrepreneurship. The teachers will mould them, and when they do that it will make the students to start thinking of being on their own after graduating from school whether post primary or secondary,” he said.
He explained that plan was underway by SMEDAN to establish clubs under SAGE in order to be training interested members on business ideas and supporting them, noting that the programme was scheduled to be conducted in six states of Bauchi, Katsina, Ondo, Ebonyi, Kwara and Cross River.
According to him, SMEDAN was established in 2003 to boost small scale businesses as well as encourage promote entrepreneurship among the citizens as a way of tackling unemployment and poverty in the nation.
