The Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Malam Jibrin Ndace, says the aim of partnership with Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) is to promote and propagate positive narrative from the sector.
Ndace stated this when he paid a courtesy visit to his SMEDAN counterpart, Mr Charles Odii, on Tuesdays in Abuja.
Ndace said his team had particular interest in what the SMEDAN boss and his team had been doing in the Agency.
“VON is older than 1990; it was established as external arms of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria in 1960 and later became independent in 1990.
“I am determine to build on the past legacies of my predecessors and founding fathers of the organisation. We broadcast in eight languages which include English, French, Arabic, Swahili, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and Fulfude.
“I also look at the global trend to our position in the African Region. Therefore, we are looking to add other foreign languages like Mandara, Portuguese other languages from Asia and Pidgin English,” he said.
According to Ndace, VON is keen to partner with the agency in telling the positive things it has been doing, especially in the area of SME, adding that no country in the world grows without a robust SME.
He said that VON was promoting and propagating SMEDAN programmes through its various programmes that focused on SME and Poverty alleviation since Odii assumed duty.
The VON boss promised to be consistent and truthful in creating timely and positive narrative of events happening in Nigeria.
He said the world needs to know that good things are happening in Nigeria through SMEDAN and other organisations in spite of our challenges.
“We shouldn’t be shy in telling our stories. When we have organisation like SMEDAN doing the right thing, it is easy for us to broadcast it, to put Nigeria on the world map.
“We also want to partner with you in the areas of capacity building and provision of opportunities, particularly for my staff so that when they leave office, they will have something to retire into,” Ndace said.
Responding, Odii described Ndace as like minds, adding that they did not spend much time to blend and strike a relationship.
“However, the reason we are going the extra mile to cultivate this kind of relationship with VON is because, we can be winking in the dark and nobody will know.
“One of the reason we will continue to be partners with VON is because, we cannot do it alone and we need the structure of VON both inside and outside the country to continue to amplify all the works we are doing at SMEDAN.
“In the last four months, I came to realise that the government is doing a lot of things, but people are not informed; so the biggest issue is communicating all the things that government is doing to the people.
“I think that the role of VON is to bridge the gap between the government and the audience because what use to happen is that people hoard information,” Odii said.
He said the agency adopted proactive strategies to equip people in clusters to enable them to come together and access the right guidance, resources, opportunities and support inline with its theory of GROW.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ndace and his management team conducted a facility tour and inspected Furniture Multipurpose, Textile and Garment Workshops during the visit. (NAN)