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By Anthony Maliki, Abuja
The North Central Development Commission (NCDC) is set to partner with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to promote entrepreneurship and industrial growth across the North Central region.
This was disclosed during a courtesy visit by the NCDC management team, led by its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Cyril Yiltsen Tsenyil, to the SMEDAN headquarters in Abuja, where they were warmly received by the Director General, Mr. Charles Odii.
Dr. Tsenyil explained that the visit was aimed at exploring areas of collaboration through which the newly established Commission can leverage SMEDAN’s experience and institutional capacity to harness the region’s vast human and material resources.
He noted that such collaboration would help address key challenges such as unemployment, poverty, and youth restiveness in the North Central zone.
According to him, issues of inadequate power supply, limited access to finance, low human capital development, and poor organisational structure are areas where NCDC hopes to work closely with SMEDAN to proffer sustainable solutions.
In his response, SMEDAN Director General, Mr. Charles Odii, expressed his agency’s readiness to collaborate with NCDC through its existing programmes while also exploring new joint initiatives.
He highlighted several programmes that could serve as platforms for collaboration, including cluster entrepreneurship projects, industrial development centres, enterprise talent hunts, specialised skills acquisition schemes, agribusiness and extension services, opportunity fairs, and apprenticeship development programmes, among others.
Mr. Odii assured Dr. Tsenyil and his team that SMEDAN—which operates within the jurisdiction of the NCDC—will designate officers to work closely with the Commission to strengthen the emerging partnership for the overall progress and development of the North Central region and Nigeria at large.
The visit also featured a guided tour of some cluster development facilities within the SMEDAN premises.
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