The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has launched a new entrepreneurship initiative designed to support more than 100,000 young Nigerians annually as the Federal Government seeks to strengthen youth participation in the economy\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
The initiative, known as the Building Resilient Young Nigerian Entrepreneurs Project (BRYNE), was unveiled as part of SMEDAN\u2019s activities to mark International Youth Day 2026.\n<\/p>\n
The programme will combine enterprise training, incubation, mentorship, access to finance, market opportunities and business development support through physical and digital platforms.\n<\/p>\n
SMEDAN said the initiative was developed to address a major challenge facing young entrepreneurs: difficulty accessing appropriate support at different stages of building and growing a business.<\/p>\n
The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of SMEDAN, Charles Odii, disclosed this in a statement issued by the agency\u2019s Corporate Affairs Unit on Friday.\n<\/p>\n
Odii said the programme would provide practical pathways for young Nigerians with business ideas as well as those already operating businesses.\n<\/p>\n
He said the initiative would reach more than 100,000 young Nigerians annually through a combination of physical and digital interventions.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross the country, we meet young people with ideas, skills and businesses that can grow, but many still struggle to find the right support at the right time.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cBRYNE brings several of those opportunities together, from training and incubation to finance, markets and mentorship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want more young Nigerians to have a fair chance to build businesses that can survive, grow and create jobs,\u201d Odii said.\n<\/p>\n
The Head of SMEDAN\u2019s Women and Youth Unit, Deputy Director Bimpe Fawale, said the programme would be implemented through four major channels designed to take enterprise support closer to young Nigerians in communities, tertiary institutions and online.\n<\/p>\n
Under the SMEDAN Incubation Programme, 600 young entrepreneurs will receive annual support in sectors including fashion, woodwork and agriculture.\n<\/p>\n
The initiative will leverage SMEDAN\u2019s network of Industrial Development Centres across the country to provide beneficiaries with enterprise development support.\n<\/p>\n
The Campus Enterprise Engagement Platform, which will be implemented in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Education, will take entrepreneurship support directly to tertiary institutions.<\/p>\n
The platform will provide practical business workshops, advisory sessions, networking opportunities and exhibitions for student-owned businesses, with up to 3,000 participants targeted per participating campus.\n<\/p>\n
Another component, BRYNE Digital Connect, will provide entrepreneurship education through digital platforms while promoting innovation, youth-led businesses and grassroots enterprises.\n<\/p>\n
The digital platform will also seek to connect entrepreneurs with wider markets and build online enterprise communities.\n<\/p>\n
The programme will further feature a weekly startup hackathon targeting 5,000 young entrepreneurs.\n<\/p>\n
Under the initiative, 52 winners will be selected, with each receiving N250,000 in seed funding to support their business ideas.<\/p>\n
Fawale said the programme had been structured to accommodate entrepreneurs according to their specific needs and stages of development.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cSome need help turning an idea into a business. Others already have businesses but need finance, mentorship, better market access or the right information to take the next step.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cBRYNE is designed to meet young entrepreneurs at those different stages and connect them to practical support,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
SMEDAN said beneficiaries would also be connected to business formalization opportunities, funding, mentorship, investors, markets, business information and export opportunities through the agency and its partners.\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The agency said the programme formed part of its broader efforts to equip young Nigerians to establish sustainable businesses, expand existing enterprises and create jobs.\n<\/p>\n
With the initiative targeting more than 100,000 young entrepreneurs each year, SMEDAN said it expects BRYNE to strengthen youth-led enterprises and contribute to broader economic participation and job creation across the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has launched a new entrepreneurship initiative designed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[280483,138,28706,253070,231668,20905,129178,336,219953,17644,280484,111,139,280485,69,217967,9649,48990],"class_list":["post-569481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-bauchi","tag-business","tag-business-development","tag-business-support","tag-digital-entrepreneurship","tag-digital-marketing","tag-digital-skills","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-entrepreneurship-training","tag-financial-literacy","tag-kano","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northern-nigeria","tag-nz","tag-women-and-girls","tag-women-empowerment","tag-women-in-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}