Entrepreneurship growth: DBN offers free training programme for MSMEs - Tribune Online

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THE Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) Plc. has announced that it is offering free entrepreneurship training to thousands of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.
According to a statement, the free training programme is part of the Bank’s efforts toward achieving its core mandate of building the capacity of small businesses to enable them formalise and upscale towards addressing the funding and other challenges confronting businesses in the country.
“The training will be held on the DBN Learning Management System (LMS), a free learning portal with carefully curated self-paced courses that are open to all Nigerian MSMEs who are interested in acquiring the right knowledge needed to succeed in business,” ‘the statement read in part.
While speaking on the free learning programme for MSMEs, DBN Managing Director, Anthony Okpanachi, said the Bank is interested in honing the skill set of MSMEs to transform the economy.
“As part of our plans to strengthen our catalytic role in the Nigerian economy, we are expanding our reach to MSMEs and inviting interested Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises to take advantage of our free entrepreneurship training programme to upscale their skills.
“Consequently, DBN is investing a lot of resources in driving skill acquisition across the different aspects of managing and sustaining a successful business across sectors.
“I am confident that MSMEs who take advantage of this opportunity will gain critical business skills that will pave the way for higher earnings, capacity, increased innovation, self-reliance, and most importantly, improve their ability to access funding for their businesses,” Okpanachi said.
At the end of the online training session on September 23, 200 businesses would be selected for a physical session scheduled for October 17 to 21, 2022 in Lagos and Abuja.
It is expected that the programme would provide an opportunity for businesses to practically learn and apply important principles from online training to their various businesses. They would also have the opportunity to network and cross-sell their ideas with colleagues.
Businesses and participants are also expected to be able to pitch their business ideas and value proposition to a carefully selected professional panel and successful pitches would be selected to receive grant funding to kick start their journey into the entrepreneurship space.
Interested participants and businesses are requested to apply online and register by visiting appropriate links provided by the bank.
Participants are required to complete a minimum of four mandatory courses on the DBN BizAid Learning Management Platform and obtain an average score of 70 per cent to be eligible for the in-person classes in Abuja and Lagos.