22 Bauchi tailors receive SMEDAN training, get sewing machines as starter packs

• 

Samuel Luka, Bauchi

No fewer than 22 Bauchi tailors who were given additional training by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) have received sewing machines from the agency as starter packs to enable them boost their businesses.

Speaking during the closing ceremony of the training and distribution of starter packs to the beneficiaries, the Director General, SMEDAN, Mr Olawale Fasanya, said that the programme was put up by SMEDAN to improve the performances of tailors in the state.

He said that the aim of the programme was for people to see a well packaged and designed clothes being sown by the tailors.

Fasanya who explained that the training was not meant for beginners in the tailoring industry, said it was meant for established tailors.

He added that the idea was to also help them get a more finished product that could be exported abroad.

Mr Salau Mikhail, Deputy Director, SMEDAN, headquarters who represented the DG said Nigeria has a lot of talented tailors but many are faced with challenges of finished work, hence the training and empowerment by SMEDAN.

He said that each of the beneficiaries would be given three different types of sewing machines so as to enable them get a more finished work that could make them compete globally.

“With some of these empowerment we are going to give them which are finishing machines, it will help them get to market both locally and internationally,” said Fasanya.

The DG also expressed optimisms that the federal government is going to involve more participants in the empowerment programme in order to showcase their talents to the world.

He called on the beneficiaries to take very good care of the machines, urging them to also use the starter packs effectively and for the purpose they were meant for.

“They have been taught how to handle the machines as well as how to maintain them and they are expected to employ more people with the starter packs given to them,” he said.

On his part, Malam Abdullahi Meshago, the Organising Secretary, Bauchi State Tailors Association who spoke on behalf other beneficiaries, said they were abled to acquire additional knowledge during the two-day training exercise.

While appreciating SMEDAN for giving them the additional training, Maishago promised that the monitoring committee of the association would ensure that none of the starter packs is sold by any of his colleagues.