40 Widows Trained on Entrepreneurship 06/24/2011
Forty widows of the Odekhoa Akhume Okaisabor Memorial Foundation have benefitted from the entrepreneurial training of SMEDAN aimed at empowering widows by facilitating vocational and entrepreneurship training programmes for them and linking them to business opportunities.
Declaring the training open, the DG of SMEDAN, Alhaji Muhammad Nadada Umar pledged the Agency’s support and readiness to intervene in areas of business counseling and provision of business information for the widows.
Declaring the training open, the DG of SMEDAN, Alhaji Muhammad Nadada Umar pledged the Agency’s support and readiness to intervene in areas of business counseling and provision of business information for the widows.
To this end, Alhaji Umar, while appreciating the Foundation’s objectives, expressed SMEDAN’s readiness to assist the Foundation to establish open outreach and vocational training centers in the six geo-political zones of the country as well as expand her scope to be an internationally-acclaimed avenue through which the lives of widows and children would be secured financially and spiritually.
He said: “SMEDAN cares for vulnerable groups such as yours. Widows form an important part of the society because with the exit of their husbands, they assume the role of breadwinners, making those who were unemployed in the past to turn towards small businesses and skill acquisition. This gingers the development of micro and small businesses, which in turn drives the economy.
“In addition, widows deserve special attention because they have several dependants, including children, in-laws and relatives, hence, developing enterprises for them gives them something to fall back on to cushion the devastating effects that their losses have on them as well as their dependants”.
He therefore urged the participants to make good use of the training SMEDAN was offering them, adding that SMEDAN would assist them along the way until their chosen businesses have grown enough to be sustainable. “The best managed businesses are those that started from scratch and stood the test of time. So think big, start small, and remember that the success of your businesses translates into the success of SMEDAN”, he enthused.
In her remarks, the founder of the Memorial Foundation, Honorable Justice Dr. (Mrs) Ngozika Okaisabor expressed her appreciation to SMEDAN for being a dependable partner in alleviating the plights of widows by conducting Entrepreneurial Sensitization and Awareness Creation programmes as well as Needs Assessment Training during the Foundation’s previous Memorial Lectures.
Dr. Okaisabor said that the first batch of the Foundation’s beneficiaries have received their start-up equipment. “In addition, the Foundation has assisted widows with accommodation and medical needs, with some receiving free eye-tests and eye-glasses.
She called on other organizations in the public and private sectors to partner with SMEDAN and the Foundation in alleviating the plights of widows, stating that she set up the Foundation in memory of her late husband after whom the Foundation is named, and who died on board the ill-fated Bellview aircraft that crashed in Lisa village in Ogun State on October 22, 2005.
Odekhoa, who was the first son of Engineer and Dame Okaisabor studied Economics at Chestwell Tutorial College, Oxford, England, and the University of New Delhi. Born on May 29, 1959, Odekhoa served the nation in different capacities at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He married Dr. Ngozika Okaisabor in 1990 and their union produced four children. He was a philanthropist who donated severally to the physically disabled.
He said: “SMEDAN cares for vulnerable groups such as yours. Widows form an important part of the society because with the exit of their husbands, they assume the role of breadwinners, making those who were unemployed in the past to turn towards small businesses and skill acquisition. This gingers the development of micro and small businesses, which in turn drives the economy.
“In addition, widows deserve special attention because they have several dependants, including children, in-laws and relatives, hence, developing enterprises for them gives them something to fall back on to cushion the devastating effects that their losses have on them as well as their dependants”.
He therefore urged the participants to make good use of the training SMEDAN was offering them, adding that SMEDAN would assist them along the way until their chosen businesses have grown enough to be sustainable. “The best managed businesses are those that started from scratch and stood the test of time. So think big, start small, and remember that the success of your businesses translates into the success of SMEDAN”, he enthused.
In her remarks, the founder of the Memorial Foundation, Honorable Justice Dr. (Mrs) Ngozika Okaisabor expressed her appreciation to SMEDAN for being a dependable partner in alleviating the plights of widows by conducting Entrepreneurial Sensitization and Awareness Creation programmes as well as Needs Assessment Training during the Foundation’s previous Memorial Lectures.
Dr. Okaisabor said that the first batch of the Foundation’s beneficiaries have received their start-up equipment. “In addition, the Foundation has assisted widows with accommodation and medical needs, with some receiving free eye-tests and eye-glasses.
She called on other organizations in the public and private sectors to partner with SMEDAN and the Foundation in alleviating the plights of widows, stating that she set up the Foundation in memory of her late husband after whom the Foundation is named, and who died on board the ill-fated Bellview aircraft that crashed in Lisa village in Ogun State on October 22, 2005.
Odekhoa, who was the first son of Engineer and Dame Okaisabor studied Economics at Chestwell Tutorial College, Oxford, England, and the University of New Delhi. Born on May 29, 1959, Odekhoa served the nation in different capacities at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). He married Dr. Ngozika Okaisabor in 1990 and their union produced four children. He was a philanthropist who donated severally to the physically disabled.
This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
