The future of Nigeria belongs to today's youths who are actively running their own small businesses. Minister of Youth Development, Akinlabi Olasunkunmi, made this statement in Abuja at the closing ceremony of the Corpers' Entrepreneurship Development Programme (CEDP) organised by Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in collaboration with the Directorate of National Youth Service Corps [NYSC].

The Minister of Youth Development, who was represented by Assistant Director (Youth Enterprise Development & Promotions), Mr. Luka Jonathan Mangset, commended SMEDAN on the CEDP initiative and urged participants to seize the opportunity to save themselves the trouble of searching for the dwindling job vacancies.

The 2008 batch of CEDP was flagged-off about five weeks ago. It is one of the small business development programmes run by the agency. The 2008 batch was concurrently run in five locations across the country namely, Abuja, Lagos, Jos, Bauchi and Gusau.

The training is aimed at inculcating entrepreneurial culture by taking them through a well-structured enterprise development training exercise which will enable them to start and run profitable and sustainable small businesses.

Akinlabi, who described entrepreneurship education as the lifeline for the Nigerian economy recommended that more corps members get involved in order for them to both secure their financial future and launch Nigeria on the pathway of sustainable socio-economic development. He also stated that getting the youths involved in enterprise development is one of the main ways to realise the 7 -point agenda of Mr. President.

In his remarks, Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig. Gen. Mohammed Bomoi, who was represented by an Assistant Director at the National Directorate Headquarters, Mrs. Nnenna Ukonu, said he was delighted about the partnership between SMEDAN and NYSC.

He stressed that CEDP has come to reduce the number of jobless graduates on the streets. He encouraged participants to put to use all that they have learnt during the training exercise in order to make themselves job creators instead of job seekers.

Considering the importance of the training exercise, Bomoi said the NYSC Directorate will do everything possible to ensure that subsequent batches of CEDP witness a larger number of corps members participating.

Assuring participants of SMEDAN's continuous support, DG, Mrs. Adelaja, stated that "as a way of ensuring the sustainability of the gains of the training programme, evidenced by the practical application of the lessons learnt, our officers shall be meeting you in due course to assess the extent to which you have implemented your business plans."

Adelaja also commended Celtel Nigeria Limited for partnering with SMEDAN towards achieving the objectives of the training programme at some Centres.