On Wednesday 8th May 2024, winners of the 2023 cohort of MTN ICT equipment grant from Enugu State presented an award to Enugu SME Center led by the Director General & Special Adviser to the Governor on Digital Economy and MSMEs Honourable Arinze Chilo- Offiah.
The Award presented to the Enugu SME Center depicted gratitude and appreciation from the equipment grant winners from Enugu State or living in Enugu State. The winners deemed it necessary to embark on the thank you visit to show their joy in receiving the equipment grant from MTN Foundation which the journey started from Enugu SME center in 2023 where participants in Enugu passed through physical interview at the Center leading to their eligibility to participate in the MTN ICT training.
The MTN ICT training was concluded in 2023 with a graduation ceremony on 12th October 2023 where participants in the training from Enugu State followed a live streaming of the graduation in a physical ceremony organized by the Enugu SME Center at Amadeo Event Center where the top three hundred winners were announced by MTN and people from Enugu State made the list of top three hundred equipment grant winners.
During the thank you visit to the SME Center, Hon. Arinze welcomed the representative of the MTN ICT equipment grant winners in Enugu and had a good business discussion or interaction with them to inquire how the equipment grants are impacting their businesses positively and the challenges they are facing in their entrepreneurship journey.
He encouraged them in ways he motivated them with good counsels in line with various niches and sectors in value chain that are unique to each of the top winners in the equipment grants that introduced to him their businesses.
The winners of the MTN ICT equipment grants from Enugu State or living in Enugu during the program application last year, disclosed how the knowledge gotten from the training and the equipment support from MTN sings a song of progress in their business journey though they also noted certain external and internal factors that pose threats to their business pursuit.
Director General of Enugu SME Center shared the commitment and dedication of the center in supporting the development of businesses in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise for the growth of Enugu State in line with the vision of Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah vision to grow the economy of the State.
He expressed his gratitude to the winners of the equipment grant for deeming it necessary to return to the center to say thank you after their success in the MTN ICT training in partnership with Microsoft, Meta and others.