THE investment and technology promotion office of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO, has launched another phase of its capacity building programme by training over 40 Nigerian women in financial literacy in Lagos.

The financial literacy project, which was in collaboration with the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, was initiated to equip the business owners with interactive online learning packages, financial literacy tools and major mechanisms for upgrading and expanding existing enterprises.

Stanislaw Pigon, chief technical adviser, UNIDO-ITPO, said: “Aside from the training, we will also offer the entrepreneurs business counselling and mentoring programmes aimed at facilitating enterprise growth. Our online tools are open to the entrepreneurs as they are expected to ask questions or seek for clarifications. From the perspective of the MSMEs, the most important factor is that they are bank-ready.

“This means we need to offer them some simpler tools to present the financial aspects of their business ideas. We are facing a problem of financial literacy, starting with university graduates, who cannot find jobs, to existing, even successful Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which cannot find resources to grow.”

Adebisi Olumodimu, head, UNIDO-ITPO, Nigeria, explained that the workshop was designed to support the Federal Government in its bid to diversify the economy, empower business owners, especially women, across the agriculture, manufacturing, and food and beverages sectors and ensure they are equipped with best practices tools for the development of value-added services.

– Dec 8, 2017 @ 14:30 GMT |