BusinessDay 12 Dec 2017

Tuesday 12 December 2017
32 BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556
THE BIG HEART DIGEST
In association with Delta State Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Developement Agency (DEMSMA)
1,000 YAGEPrenuers, STEPrenuers
to showcase products at Delta fair
•••Event to record 4,000 attendees ••• 2,324 benefit from job creation scheme
MERCY ENOCH, ASABA
About 1,000 out
of the 2,324
special entrepreneurs
in Delta State
termed STEPreneurs and
YAGEPreneurs that are
trained and established
by the Delta State Government
under the Skills
Training Entrepreneurship
Programme (STEP)
and Youth Agricultural
Entrepreneurs Programme
(YAGEP) would showcase
their products during the
maiden edition of STEP
and YAGEP Exhibition and
Business Fair slated to hold
at the Cenotaph, Asaba,
this week.
The special entrepreneurs
were beneficiaries
of the 2015 and 2016 cycles
of the state government
schemes under the Job
Creation Office.
The event which is
slated for December 13
and 14 2017 would be declared
open by the state
governor, Ifeanyi Okowa.
The members of the state
executive council and top
government functionaries
are expected to be present.
Not less than 4,000 attendees
from all parts of
the state, including speaker
and members of the Delta
State House of Assembly
as well as board members,
development partners and
donor agencies, federal
government agencies, traditional
rulers and religious
leaders, Business
Membership Oraganizations
(BMOs), commercial
banks in Asaba, and Micro-
Finance Banks (MFBs) accredited
by the Delta State
Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprise Development
Agency (DEMSMA).
Others are professional
associations, non-governmental
organizations
(NGOs), private development
foundations (PDFs),
cooperative societies and
farmers organization in
Shimite Bello
Delta State, market unions,
trader groups and artisans
association in Delta
State, private corporate
establishments, all STEP
and YAGEP trainers, mentors
and training centres,
public servants, and the
general public.
Chief Job Creation Officer
of the State, Eric Eboh,
made the disclosure at a
media briefing held at the
conference hall of the Job
Creation Office in Asaba,
last week.
He said that 2,324 entrepreneurs
including 51 persons
living with disabilities
had been trained and established
in the enterprise
of their choice since the
job creation programme
commenced over two years
ago. According to him, not
less than 1,000 out of this
number have indicated
interest to participate and
showcase their products at
the two-day event.
Eboh, a professor, explained
that the exhibition
and business fair with the
theme, “Nurturing Entrepreneurs,
Creating Wealth”
would be the first of its kind
in the country. According
to him, it would showcase
STEPrenuers and YAGE-
Preneurs and thereby offer
them a platform and ladder
for growth and sustenance.
He disclosed that the
event would provide STE-
Pro-Eboh
Prenuers and YAGEPrenuers
an opportunity to
exhibit and market their
products and business
enterprises; make vital
business contacts; create
business relationships
with investors; and communicate
their business
vision to banks and business
support institutions
from within and outside
Delta State.
“The goal of the exhibition
and business fair is to
demonstrate the outcomes
of STEP and YAGEP since
inception of this administration
and elicit buy-ins
from national and international
(bilateral, multilateral)
development agencies
and partners” he said.
He added that ‘The buyins’
are vital for increased
and sustained resource
flow, national and international
endorsement of the
STEP/YAGEP model.
He disclosed that the
event organized by an inter-agency
planning committee
comprising ministries,
departments and
agencies. “It is built around
STEPreneurs and YAGE-
Preneurs. The objective
is to promote and uplift
them to greater heights
through exceptional exposure
to new markets, new
ideasand new contacts.
Hence, the event focuses
on the STEPrenuers and
YAGEPreneurs”, he added.
He said STEPrenuers
and YAGEPreneurs were
being intenstively prepared
and mobilized for
the exhibition and business
fair. “These participants
were selected based
on expression of interest
through a combination of
survey techniques including
statewide registration
drive, physical interactive
sessions across the state
and telephone calls.
“The selected STEPreneurs
and YAGEPrenuers
are being subjected
through intensive group
chats, telephone calls and
physical visits to enlighten
and guide them regarding
the products and services
exhibit, how to exhibit the
products and services, why
the exhibition and business
fair and how to make the
most of the exhibition and
business fair”
According to him, participants
would be given
booths by enterprises to
display their products and
services in their chosen
manner and style. Exhibition
stands would be
also given to the DEMS-
MA, Technology Incubation
Centre and Industrial
Training Fund, Warri, to
show a sample of their
graduates and products
and services.
Delta budding entrepreneurs
assured of market share
MERCY ENOCH, ASABA
Entrepreneurs
involved in production
of goods often
fear absence of good
market share, but the Delta
State government has moved
to eliminate this fear. Off-take
has been the producers’
nightmare since the industrial
revolution. Nations
anchor their foreign policies
on market shares.
The Delta State government
seems to realize this
and has launched a project
to work with the teeming entrepreneurs
emerging in the
state to open more marketing
avenues. This was revealed in
an exclusive interview with
the Executive Secretary of the
Delta State Micro, Small and
Medium Enterprise Development
Agency (DEMSMA),
Shimite Bello.
Hear her: We have an
agricultural marketing committee
where the Chief Job
Creation Officer sits as the
chairman and I am one of
the members. The essence
is that when we give people
money, that is, when we give
them loan and had done
the trainings and all of that,
sometimes, they cry that
there is no market. They cry
that there is nobody to buy
their products. So, the state’s
marketing committee has
started working assiduously
to find buyers and one of the
biggest products we are looking
for market for, is garri and
plantain flour.
We’ve been able to
identify a market in London
and New York. One of them
want to buy five containers,
we already have the International
Purchase Order (IPO).
We also have others that want
to buy one container in a
month. With these, at least,
we can help with market so
that they don’t just sit down
and say they are not getting
market; or dash out what they
have or sell it out at discounted
rate. So, we’ve been able to
find markets.
We are also exploring
markets for other products
like palm oil and the rest but
we want to taste training Deltans
on how to export. This is
something that the governor
is passionate about – to
ensure there is market. He’s
also asked us to look at local
markets – be it Shoprite, be
it market in Lagos, Kano and
other places, where our people
can sell what they have so
that they are no more crying
that they don’t have market
to sell their products or that
their cassava is just spoiling
etc. So, we want to put an end
to all that.
We have gone a bit far in
that and hopefully, Deltans
would now be enjoying from
Delta State Government not
just access to finance and
training but access to market.
We are going to be teaching
some of them on how to get
funds from NEXIM Bank for
imports, exports, and domestic
market and credit line. So,
we are looking at that in terms
of market and off-take. We are
going to be training on that
as we are teaching them how
to sell their products, when
to sell their products, helping
them with the correct paper
work. We are helping them
with National Food and Drug
Administration and Control
(NAFDAC) through the
ministry of commerce and
industry, Standard Organization
of Nigeria (SON) etc.
In all the 25 local council
areas of the state, DEMSMA
has empowered 9,920 persons
in 1,204 cooperatives,
empowered with N1.466Bn.
This is generally namely:
school, agriculture, computer,
trading, ice block, Keke
NAPEP (tricycle) and all kinds
of businesses. That’s what we
have done till date.
The rate of pay back of
the loans is very low. We
have only been able to
recover about N400 million.
Before now, we were
not recovering anything.
In some states, they would
look at our N400 million as
something very good, as if
we have done well but to
us in Delta, His Excellency
the governor will expect
us to do more in terms of
loan recovery. The people
of Delta are just getting
used to the fact that when
you take a loan you must
pay back. That was not the
mindset. So, slowly and
surely, they are beginning
to understand that funds
must revolve.
Editorial coordinator’s corner:
Off-take, new Delta focus
IGNATIUS CHUKWU
Off-take is assurance
that goods
produced by a
manufacturer
would be taken off him at
a reasonable price to motivate
for more production.
For the production circle
to be complete, there must
be off-take guarantees.
So much attention is
however usually paid to
production but little of it
is given to off-take. This
leads to glut and loss to
producers. Any commodity
that does not have a
ready market is doomed to
suffer divestment. In these
days of massive promotion
of local manufacture and
entrepreneurship espe-
cially by the government,
serious-minded governments
are realizing that
the market is an important
segment that must be integrated
into the production
process.
This is what Delta State
has done. Read the second
story in this edition and
get the details. Some governments
are thinking.