Hajia Rekiya Onaivo Sani,MD/CEO,KEDA.
By Correspondent in Lokoja.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer,Kogi State Enterprise Agency (KEDA), Hajia Rekiya Onaivo, says the agency has so far registered and sensitised 50,000 persons in the state for small and medium enterprise (SMEs) in kogi state.
She made the disclosure on Thursday during the Break fast chat with Journalists in Lokoja to mark KEDA 2 years in Operation.
The KEDA boss recalled that the state government established the agency to enhance the scope of SMEs which constitute 75 per cent of business enterprises in any society and to boost the economic and social development of the state.
According to the KEDA boss, she and her management and staff of the agency had embarked on various sensitisation, enlightenment programmes for the wellbeing of small scale farmers and others business interests with a view to knowing agency’s level of intervention to make their businesses fulfilled.
According to Hajia Sani,KEDA had also formed small business community and cooperatives into clusters, for shared responsibility a development she described as very crucial to the growth and development of their businesses.
According to her, she and her team have visited a lot of associations such as barbing saloons , artisans among others on tailor-made approaches and organised trainings and workshops for them, coupled with clinics and start for others to boost the success of business climate in the state.
KEDA also embarked on creating awareness by setting up platforms through which enterprising business owners show cased their products,she added.
The MD/CEO also told Journalists that she her team traveled to various organizations sharing similar experiences with KEDA, in Lagos,Abuja,and Bauchi among others, with view to learning from their experiences and blend them into the programmes of the agency.
According to her, the agency also prioritises women and members of the the People Living with Disabilities (PLWDs) in its programmes through various empowerment programmes.
The Reporters gathered that
KEDA, an agency under the State Ministry of Commerce and Industry, was established under law to facilitate and enhance recovery of Small and Medium Enterprises in thestate.
She noted that the agency might not have achieved much within two years of its birth,”we want to assure kogites that we have a lot achieve as we have hit the ground running “.
The Reporters reports that the occasion coincided with the flagging off of the Kogi Orange-Fleshed Sweet-Potatoes initiative,piloted by KEDA and flagged off by the Governor of the state, Alhaji Yahaha Bello, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Governnent,Dr.Afolashade Arike Ayo-Ade.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
