Voice of Nigeria (VON) says it will partner with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) to promote small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The Director General of Voice of Nigeria, Mr Jibril Ndace says no country in the world develops without a very robust Small and medium enterprise (SME.)
Mr Ndace said this when he paid a courtesy visit to the Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, Mr Charles Odii, in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
He said to enhance the mandate of the agency in promoting SMEs in the country, Voice of Nigeria is willing to partner with SMEDAN in broadcasting the good works being done by the agency in growing SMEs in the country.
“Since you came on board, I have followed many of your activities both within the FCT and in another part of the country and our discussions, you have also outlined a lot of activities you intend to carry out.
“VON is already promoting and propagating many of your programmes through various programmes that you have that speak to issues on SMEs, poverty alleviation, and other things you do.
“Voice of Nigeria is the only public broadcast station in Africa that broadcasts in 8 languages.” Mr Ndace added.
The DG VON also revealed that he is working on starting broadcasts in Mandarin, Portuguese and most likely pidgin English and is also focused on fighting fake news, misinformation, and disinformation about Nigeria and its people.
The Director General of SMEDAN, Mr Charles Odii said the collaboration with VON is needed because the agency has been in the dark for too long.
“Government is doing a lot of things, but the greatest problem it has is communicating all the things they are doing to the people and I think that it is the role of the Voice of Nigeria to bridge that gap between government and its people so that everyone can take advantage of the information available out there.
“We have a theory of change at SMEDAN, and that theory of change is ‘GROW’ We believe that with the right amount of guidance, the right amount of resources, the right amount of opportunities and the right amount of workforce support, any small business can grow.
“We want to equip people in clusters so that they come together and can access the right amount of resources, opportunities and support; that is our strategy for this administration.”
