Sterling Bank, NASME hold workshop for small businesses

Sterling Bank Plc in collaborations with Lagos Chapter of the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) will today, flag off a three-day Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSME) workshop for members of the association.

The workshop is scheduled to hold at the Federal Institute for Industrial Research (FIIRO) Oshodi, Lagos.

Sterling Bank, as part of its nationwide workshop to empower MSMEs, had earlier, organised similar workshops in Port Harcourt and Kaduna for MSME operators, as the next after Lagos is in Ibadan, Oyo State.

NASME was registered in 1996 as a Business Membership Organization (BMO) with the responsibility of coordinating and promoting the growth and development of the MSME sector of the Nigerian economy and has pursued its objective through strategic collaborations with institutions like Sterling Bank.

According to the bank, the workshop would provide participants with the opportunity to fully appreciate the concept of entrepreneurship and  better position them  to improve their managerial capacity in the areas of risk management and profit maximization.

It will also cover basic accounting skills, customer service and team building, sales and marketing, essentials of business plans and human resources management among others.

The Executive Director, Finance & Strategy of the bank, Abubakar Suleiman, had announced at a press conference earlier in the year that the bank would be anchoring a series of workshops for MSME operators in various states nationwide.

He explained that the Bank came up with the initiative to empower the MSME operators in the country in order to improve their capacity and contribute to the economic growth of the country.

“MSMEs remain the pillar of any growing economy and the operators in the sector must be well positioned and equipped for accelerated growth and positive impact on the economy”, Suleiman reiterated.

A cross section of participants who spoke at both the Port Harcourt and Kaduna events expressed confidence that the training received at the workshop would go a long way in repositioning their businesses for sustainable growth.