The Nigerian Institute of Management Chartered (NIM) has partnered with Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to drive human capital development and improve Small and Medium Enterprises.

Dr Christiana Atako, president, NIM, during a courtesy visit to the agency in Abuja on Monday, said the partnership was necessary to sharpen the managerial professionalism of SMEDAN.

She said that there was need for the agency to key into the various programmes of the institute for increased staff productivity and improved service delivery.

This, she said, would be achieved via subscription to the various human capital development programmes of the institute.

They include intensive training for Membership Admission, Top Executive Leadership Programme and Mandatory Continuing Professional Education Programme to drive human capital development.

Others, she said that included the Continuous Learning and Development, Women in Leadership and Management Conference and other in-plant and specialised programmes.

The NIM president commended the SMEDAN Director-General, Mr Olawale Fasanya, for his visible contributions toward turning around the agency since his appointment.

“Apart from acting as the voice of micro-medium and small-scale enterprises by acting as intermediary between them and government, your administration has been ensuring that SMEDAN plays its assigned mandates in its enabling Act.

“By fulfilling these mandates, this agency has become one of the fulcrums of the nation’s developmental strides under your watch and we are proud of your achievements and encourage you to keep up the good work.

“This visit became necessary because we are desirous of fashioning out ways NIM and SMEDAN can work together, especially in the area of capacity building in a mutually beneficial manner as two forward-looking organisations.

“The institute is proposing to organise tailor-made training programmes for your staff, some of whom are members of the institute, as well as solicit you to nominate them to always attend the regular human capacity development and learning programmes,” she said.

Mrs Atako urged Fasanya to extend to the institute the opportunity to contribute to the continued management excellence of SMEDAN, through consultancy projects in restructuring, training need analysis and design of in-plant training programmes.

In his response, Fasanya commended NIM for the move to include many government agencies in the institute’s capacity-building programmes.

He said that the agency was ready to subscribe to the various human development programmes of the NIM.

(NAN)