The Small And Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) has begun a 10-day entrepreneurship and vocational skills training exercise for 55 unemployed youths in Adamawa.

SMEDAN’s chief enterprise officer, Ishaq Hamis, stated this at the inauguration of the training exercise in Yola on Thursday.

He said the trainees would be exposed to passion design, tailoring, catering, laundry and dry cleaning.

Others are business management, identification and utilisation of business opportunities, marketing strategy and techniques, record keeping and how to access funds for small businesses, business registration and legal matters.

He said the trainees were drawn from the 21 local government areas of the state based on the recent needs assessment conducted by the agency.

The exercise, he said, is being implemented under its National Business Skills Development Initiative (NBSDI).

He said the initiative was designed to reduce redundancy and unemployment and promote self-sustainability and self-reliance.

“I call on the participants to utilise the skills acquired during the training exercise. “At the end of the exercise, we will distribute 35 sewing machines, 10 units of gas cookers and cylinders, and 10 units of washing machines free of charge to the trainees, ” he said.

One of the participants, Kimiya Nashion, lauded the gesture and pledged to use the knowledge learned to engage in productive activities and become self-reliant.

(NAN)