By Bassey Ita
The Medium,Small and Micro Enterprises(MSMEs) Development Program initiated by the Cross River State Government and supervised by the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment to enhance economic growth in the state is receiving more boost with the proposed partnership between the MSMEs Development Consultancy Limited (MDCL) and the Technology Business Incubation Centre(TBIC) in Calabar.
The MDCL is the official Consulting firm of the State Government with the mandate to midwife the State’s Economic Growth prospects through the profiling, training, coordination and provision of other professional and ancillary services to Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) in the state as major drivers of the growth process.
The TBIC as an agency of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology has among others, the mandate to facilitate the training and development of the required skilled manpower for industry needs and service provisions.
The partnership proposed by the two organisations seeks to facilitate the training of different categories of Business Operators registered with the MDCL much as it will ensure improved facilities at the centre to optimise the centre’s support services to enhance the State Government’s economic growth projections under the aegis of the MSMEs Development Program.
This development came on the heels of preparations by the MDCL to commence a three-layer training for all Business Management Organizations(BMOs) and their members registered with it.
Managing Consultant/Chief Executive Officer of the Consortium, Ntufam Fidel Ugbo who led a team of other Management Staff of the Outfit on an inspection visit to the Centre on Thursday, initiated the desire for partnership on the training of the Business Operators in the state to achieve enhanced capacity necessary to boost the economic growth projections.
The Centre Director, Dr. Agatha Manfon Effa who was on hand to receive the MDCL team, appreciated Ntufam Ugbo for the visit and expressed the Centre’s readiness to support the initiative by offering the available facilities and services for the training programme.
She however complained of epileptic power supply as the bane of production in the centre reasoning that if the centre was linked to the Export Processing Zone(EPZ) grid,the issue would have been substantially addressed.
Responding, Ntufam Ugbo promised to liaise with relevant Government Agencies to address the problem promptly and adequately.