By Moses Uwagbale
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) says it has trained no fewer than 2,000 women entrepreneurs in the export sector in conjunction with the International Trade Centre (ITC) for international competitiveness.
The NEPC Executive Director, Mr Olusegun Awolowo, said this during a capacity building and export skill acquisition workshop for women entrepreneurs in Akure on Thursday.
The workshop was tagged: “She Trade: An Opportunity for Women Entrepreneurs to Acquire Export Knowledge in the Post- Covid-19 Era.”
Awolowo, who was represented by Mrs Iyabode Abe, the NEPC Trade Promotion Advisor (TPA) in Akure, said that the NEPC had been involved in several capacities for women in export programmes.
He said that NEPC had partnered with several international outfits to organise the “She Trade initiatives,Women Breaking Export Barriers” in collaboration with the ITC.
The executive director said that women had also benefitted from Matching Nigeria Women with Potential Buyers and She Trade in the Commonwealth projects.
According to him, NEPC in the last five years, has been taking pragmatic steps to redesign non-oil export direction through a programme tagged: the Zero Oil Plan.
Awolowo urged the women entrepreneurs to be dynamic, information-driven and knowledge-based so as to be successful in their export endeavours.
In her paper presentation, Mrs Leticia Onu of Women Export Unit, NEPC Office, Abuja, said that NEPC had given Nigerian women a lot of opportunities to promote their businesses.
“We have a number of capacity building programmes and they can benefit from our international trade fair abroad. We spearhead the international participation of Nigerians in international exhibitions.
“Women are mostly invited in order to connect them.
“She-Trade is one of the programmes for women and it is intended to get over three million involved globally and Nigeria is targeting at least 300,000 women to connect them with this market.
“We are encouraging women to register and be visible in this market.
“We need to empower women and promote their businesses in international market,” she said.
Onu urged the participants to be technologically-driven and be involved in workshops and seminars for their business growth.
Mr Greatseyi Akintunde, the state Chairman of National Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), advised the participants to get their businesses registered so as to to benefit from the government’s economic largesse.
Mrs Modupe Olakunle, the President of Ondo State Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (OSCCIMA), applauded the She Trade initiative and described the workshop as most appropriate at the moment.
Two of the participants, Mrs Juliet Olatunde and Mrs Jennifer Balogun, lauded the programme for enabling them to know the strategies on selling their products through online means.
