ITF, NECA Train 30 Entrepreneurs to Turn Business Stories into Economic Value

…Eight-week programme targets weak business positioning, funding challenges

By: Michael Olugbode

The Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) have trained 30 entrepreneurs to overcome one of the major obstacles to business growth— the inability to communicate their value, attract customers and position their ventures for funding.

The intervention, delivered through an eight-week skills and storytelling programme, was designed to help business owners move beyond possessing technical or creative abilities to effectively presenting their products, services and economic contributions.

At the graduation ceremony in Abuja, the Executive Director of Mswitch Creative Hub and Mswitch Media, Zainab Salami, said the programme was conceived after the organisers identified storytelling and business positioning as persistent challenges among entrepreneurs.

She said many business owners had viable products and services but struggled to explain their value to customers, clients and potential investors, limiting their ability to grow and secure funding.

“When we were picking the participants, we wanted to make sure that we picked business owners. And we know that one issue they had was telling their stories and positioning themselves for customers, for clients and also for funding,” Salami said.

She explained that the training was intended to equip participants with practical tools to articulate their business journeys, demonstrate their impact and communicate the value they create for the economy.

“We wanted to make sure that they were able to position themselves, also talk about their value, talk about how they are also creating impact for the economy and make sure that they are able to tell their stories and become better storytellers that can improve Nigerian economic value basically,” she said.

The programme’s focus on storytelling reflects a growing recognition that business survival depends not only on the quality of a product or service but also on the ability of entrepreneurs to make their ventures visible, credible and attractive to the market.

Salami disclosed that the training featured mentors from Nigeria, the United Kingdom and South Africa, who provided practical frameworks on storytelling and business development.

She added that finance experts, including PhD holders in the field, also helped participants understand how businesses could combine profitability with value creation and economic impact.

“We had mentors across board. We had mentors from United Kingdom, we had from South Africa that were experts in storytelling and they were able to give them practical frameworks for them to be able to properly articulate what they were doing, their businesses,” she said.

Salami further explained that the financial component was designed to help participants appreciate the relationship between sustainable business growth, profit and wider economic contributions.

“We even had people from finance, PhD holders from finance that they were able to let them understand how your business can create impact, make profits and also provide value,” she added.

According to her, the organisers received 100 applications but selected only 30 participants to preserve the specialised nature of the programme and ensure that beneficiaries received adequate attention and practical guidance.

“We had 100 people, we had 100 applications but because we wanted to make it niche, we picked 30 participants for this cohort,” Salami said.

Representing the ITF-NECA Technical Skills Development Programme (TSDP), the Training Manager, ITF Modern Skills Training Centre, Abuja, Hayatu Abubakar Tamgol, said the initiative formed part of efforts to build a pool of skilled Nigerians capable of contributing meaningfully to the economy.

Tamgol said the ITF’s mandate was to encourage skills acquisition within Nigeria’s industrial and commercial sectors and develop indigenous manpower capable of meeting the changing needs of the economy.

“The Industrial Training Fund is a human resource development organisation that is empowered to encourage the acquisition of skills within the nation’s industry and commerce with a view to generate a pool of indigenous manpower sufficient to meet the needs of the economy,” he said.

He added that the organisation was committed to developing the competencies and capabilities of Nigerians to ensure that the country had sufficient skilled manpower to manage its economy.

“And in order to do that, the ITF needs to develop competencies and capabilities of Nigerians so as to have an adequate pool of Nigerians that are capable to manage the nation’s economy,” Tamgol said.

The ITF official said the organisation’s participation in the programme was aimed at ensuring that the skills acquired by youths and entrepreneurs could translate into employment, self-reliance and economic development.

Expressing satisfaction with the outcome of the training, Tamgol said the participants had demonstrated that the programme achieved its learning objectives.

“I’m coming in at the graduation time, and from what I have seen, and from the success stories that these trainees were able to share, I’m very satisfied that learning has taken place here,” he said.

He said both the ITF and NECA were satisfied with the results recorded during the programme, adding that skills development remained essential to tackling youth unemployment and promoting self-employment.

Tamgol also disclosed that the ITF, under the leadership of its Director-General, was implementing its flagship Skills of Artisans programme, which provides Nigerians across the country with opportunities to acquire practical skills.

He said the initiative was designed to enable beneficiaries to become self-employed, earn a livelihood and contribute to a stronger economy.

“The ITF presently, under the leadership of our Director General, is implementing her flagship programme, which is the Skills of Artisans programme. And this programme is giving Nigerians the opportunity, all over the country, for them to acquire skills, so as to be able to be self-employed, for them to be able to take care of themselves, so that Nigeria will be better off,” he said.

For one of the beneficiaries, the training offered a new understanding of the importance of deliberately communicating her personal and business journey.

She said the programme taught her that entrepreneurs risk losing control of their narratives when they fail to explain their experiences, vision and value effectively.

“Because one of the things we learn in class is, if you don’t tell your story, somebody will tell it for you and they will tell it wrongly,” she said.

The participant added that technical or creative ability alone was insufficient if customers, partners and investors remained unaware of the person behind the work or the value being created.

“One thing that I’ve learned is that no matter how good you are as a creative, if nobody knows you, it’s like a waste,” she said.

She said the training had equipped her to communicate her work more effectively, explain her vision and position her creative enterprise for greater visibility.

“For me now, learning the story now, I’m not just being a creative, I’m able to let people know what I do and my vision as a whole,” she added.

ITF, NECA Train 30 Entrepreneurs to Turn Business Stories into Economic Value