CEHRD Trains Women On Entrepreneurship

Identifying bright business ideas to invest in, preparing and implementing good business plans, record keeping and separating business from family expenses were some of the factors identified as requirements for business growth and success.
Speaking at an entrepreneurship training organized recently by the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, CEHRD in conjunction with the Embassy of Netherlands,Nigeria for zero to low income women in Ahoada, Rivers West senatorial district in Rivers State, an entrepreneurship development expert, Dr. Joseph Etang noted that small businesses can grow big and successful if these are adhered to strictly and failure develop the tips easily lead to business collapse.
He said while business idea gives the prospective investor a clear sense
of the type of business to embark on, business plan provides strategic
direction and guide on how to run the business profitably.
Dr Joseph Etang who, anchored the training, said discipline
and good characters are required to succeed as an entrepreneur. He noted that
through entrepreneurship training, skills required to become a successful entrepreneur could be acquired. Such skills include,hard work, planning, human relations, leadership and research skills, among others.
The trainer advised participants to study the environment where they intend to establish their business to enable them identify thetype of business suitable for the area.
According to him, a good business idea must be business or profit oriented, realistic or achievable, innovative, capable of fulfilling identified needs, honest
or non-fraudulent and timely.
Co-facilitator of the training, Nelson Franklin noted that cleanliness and safety consciousness also help businesses to succeed. He said it will be difficult to get serious customers to continually patronize a business if their safety could not be
guaranteed and if the business environment is dirty.
He introduced participants to some basic health and safety needs important
for the overall health of the business.
Declaring the training open earlier, David Vareba, Head, Human Rights
Program of CEHRD disclosed that the training was part of a human rights project
aimed at empowering women to begin to assert their socio-cultural and economic rights.
He recalled that some women had earlier been trained on women participation in politics and in the course of the training, Women In Governance Network was formed to encourage women to participate in governance at all levels.
Vereba explained that the entrepreneurship training was incorporated in the project to empower women to enable them acquire the economic strength required to pursue political power.
He urged the participants, who were mainly peasant farmers, artisans and petty traders drawn from the Women in Governance Network, WIGN, to take the training, serious, stressing that there may be opportunities to link those who may want to invest in business to some funding sources.
The participants described the training as coming at a right time and thanked CEHRD and the facilitators. They promised to step down the training to other women in their areas who were not opportune to attend the training.