AEA SUPPORTS FIRST BATCH OF THE NIGERIA ARMY RANKING OFFICERS WIVES COOPERATIVE SOCIETY

The Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA) is working closely with businesses to help lessen the effects of Covid 19 pandemic. The Agency through its Credit Risk Management Department has mobilized and stabilized some Widows of the Nigeria Army Ranking Officers Wives Cooperative Society of Karu.

This loan disbursement which was done under the Abuja Enterprise Agency’s Loan Revolving Scheme Programme, took place recently at the AEA Complex Abuja.

The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of AEA Dr. Arabi Muhammad Tukur has said that women are better to be empowered as they create more opportunities/wealth with the little resources assistance or given. ‘Women are the backbone of the family and the bedrock of the society. Empowering them becomes necessary since they are the breadwinners of their families’.

The Managing Director who was represented by the Deputy General Manager Mallam Shehu Abdukadir urged the beneficiaries to utilize the funds given and use for the said business purpose. He encouraged them to pay off at the appropriate time to enable the other members of the Cooperative access another round of loan if the need arises.

The women from the cooperative society were assisted with total loan of One Million Nine Hundred Thousand Naira only in the first instance.

The Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement/Civic Interventions Mrs. Olatoyosi Onaolapo who represented the office of the vice president expressed her profound gratitude to the Management of AEA for finding the group recommended by their office worthy to grant Loan assistance. She stated that there shall be more collaboration from the office of the Vice President and Abuja Enterprise Agency

Mr Bolaji Asuni, the Manager Credit Risk Management, while pointing out the terms and conditions of the loan encouraged them to use the funds judiciously so as to enable them pay on time and avoid defaulting charges. He further advised them to be good ambassadors of Widows Cooperative to pay back so that others too can get the loan and improve the economy.

The widows on the other hand thanked the office of the Vice President and the management of the Abuja Enterprise Agency for the Loan opportunity granted and promise not to default.

AEA Trains Staff on Hp-Life Platform

As part of Abuja Enterprise Agency’s (AEA) resolve to develop and equip its manpower on business development and management skills, AEA has trained her staff on Hplife online training to enable them meet up the challenges encountered in the discharge of their duties. The training is a free online training programme that enables students, teachers and entrepreneurs to gain business and IT skills that help create job and stimulate economic growth.

  The training  held between 18th and 29th of January, 2020 at the AEA ICT-Hub,  

The training which was structured in two parts: the e-learning (online platform) and the one-on-one interaction (offline platform). The modules that were handled during the training include; Marketing Benefits vs Features, Unique Value Proposition, Target Audience, Basics of Finance, Sales Forecasting, Profit and Loss, and Cash flow

During the online learning, the participants were requested to complete series of interesting activities with guides for each of the module on the HP-LIFE platform. The programme on completion has authoritative certificate issued to Participants by HP-LIFE. 

Earlier the Agency trained two staff her staff on UNIDO Hewlett Packard – Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurship (HP-LIFE), Training of Trainers (TOT) on Business Management skills that held in Calabar, Cross River from 16th – 20th Dec, 2019. Upon completion of the training programme, the staff became certified HP-LIFE trainers to facilitate the training programme and it was integrated into the Agency’s training curriculum.  

GUY RYDER APPLAUDS ABUJA ENTERPRISE AGENCY

As part of ILOs’100years of existence and 60 years in Nigeria, the Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA) played host to the Director General Guy Ryder who was on a day’s visit to its entrepreneurial complex in Abuja.

The Director General, (ILO) Guy Ryder commended Abuja Enterprise Agency on their laudable entrepreneurial initiatives and achievements in addition implored them to continue the cooperation.

 Mr Ryder made this commendation during his visit to the Agency recently to commemorate ILOs’ 60years in Nigeria.

“There are wonderful examples of successes but we know there are a lot of people out there who need decent work opportunities. There are a lot of young people looking for a place in their world of work, so it’s just doing more. I glad with what they are doing but we need to scale up,” he said.

The ILO boss continued: “I’m pleased that the ILO has been able to partner with the AEA in recent years, to be able to improve capacity of the agency.

“What I like most about this visit is that I have been able to see firsthand the positive results of all this work, particularly women entrepreneurs, who have been able to establish businesses and making a living from it”. 

Earlier in his address the Managing Director of AEA Arabi Muhammad Tukur said the agency was established in 2006 as the FCT administration’s vehicle for entrepreneurial development, poverty reduction and wealth creation.

He revealed that the agency, in the last 10 years, has supported 73,450 individuals and businesses (90% of whom are youths) with critical entrepreneurial areas like business clinics, access to finance, counseling, sensitization, workspace and market linkage and many more.

He added that AEA has supported 31,100 rural entrepreneurs in 160 communities of the FCT with capacity building trainings, access to finance, provision of equipment and other critical areas. These are just some of the few achievements the Agency has attained over the years.

He said: “The agency has designed to expand its grants programme to support the provision of work tools which will eliminate drudgery, share new technology to rural entrepreneurs and finance Start-ups, who are confronted with inadequate access to finance.

“We also focus on youth and women development; we have in the past three years trained over 800 youths and women on ICT, skills acquisition programmes covering areas such as shoes production and other leather works, cosmetology, confectionary and entrepreneurial training.

“We are in the process of conducting a financial literacy sensitization programme to increase the number of entrepreneurs who have access to financial services to understand how to properly use the funds they received for their businesses.

“We are also in talks with other partners to upgrade the agency’s ICT hub with additional systems, and other advanced systems to provide the needed environment that can inspire innovative solutions.

We will continue to enhance our engagement with Entrepreneurs in the FCT towards facilitating business growth.

“Our mandate is geared towards accelerating business development in the FCT through designing and implementing of projects, programmes and activities that would stimulate business growth; thereby creating employment and reducing poverty”.

Tukur further revealed, that in line AEA’s five-year strategic plan (2015 – 2020), it has focused its efforts on the rural communities of the FCT. The efforts  includes the aggregation of rural entrepreneurs into groups, building the capacity of these groups through cooperative management, business management amongst others and provide them the capital in cash or processing equipment to support the growth of their business.

“This has achieved some level of success and has prompted us to reach to our partners; one of whom is the International Labour Organization (ILO), Nigeria Office, towards scaling up and building new projects in various locations in the FCT”, he noted.

X