The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has officially assigned Enviable Group to manage its Keke Tricycle Empowerment Scheme, marking a major step toward promoting innovation, opportunity, and sustainable economic growth across Nigerian communities.
The new partnership brings together the leadership of SMEDAN’s Director-General, Dr. Charles Odii, and the Enviable Group management team led by its Chairman, Dr. Obinna Iyiegbu, and Managing Director/CEO, Chief Chukwuemeka Ituma.
In a joint public statement, both organisations described the collaboration as “a new milestone that will redefine grassroots empowerment and expand economic opportunities for Nigerians.”
According to the statement, the initiative is designed to create jobs and empower entrepreneurs through accessible transport-based business opportunities.
“With this collaboration, the stage is set for an empowerment programme unlike any seen before — one that promises to drive innovation, opportunity, and sustainable economic growth across communities,” the statement read.
However, SMEDAN and Enviable Group cautioned the public against fraudulent individuals and groups attempting to exploit the scheme through fake online materials and registration links.
“It has come to our attention that some fraudulent individuals and groups may attempt to take advantage of this partnership by circulating fake digital materials, false registration links, or requests for personal information and payments,” the organisations warned.
They further clarified that participation in the scheme is free of charge, stressing that no one should pay money or disclose personal bank details to any unofficial source.
“Please note that neither Enviable Group nor SMEDAN will ask for your personal details, bank information, or any form of payment in exchange for empowerment or participation in the scheme,” the statement added.
The two partners urged members of the public to remain alert and rely only on official communications from SMEDAN and Enviable Group.
“We urge the general public to remain vigilant and properly informed. All verified updates and official information regarding this initiative will be communicated exclusively through the official channels of SMEDAN and Enviable Group,” they stated.
The statement concluded with a call to the public to “stay informed, stay empowered, and stay safe.”
Northeast Nigeria in struggle to Annihilate the shadow of Boko Haram Terror
By Fatima Danjuma
In Nigeria today, you don’t need to carry a weapon to be seen as a threat. Sometimes, all it takes is to say you are from Borno, Yobe, or Adamawa. In the eyes of many, those names have become shorthand for terror, a cruel irony for people who have lost everything to the very violence they are now blamed for.
I remember the first time someone called me a terrorist.
It was in a Classroom, a Secondary school in Abuja. It was a time when our Teacher was asking everyone the University we all intends to attend. When the teacher asked me the question, I replied Proudly without realizing what will happen next; “I would like to attend the University of Maiduguri to study Mass Communication”. The Classroom became quiet and everyone was staring at me furiously, with many questions running through their minds. A guy suddenly replied, “Ah, Boko Haram people,” he said half-jokingly. Everyone laughed except me.
That moment has stayed with me. Not because of the words themselves, but because of what they revealed: a quiet, growing prejudice that now shadows millions of Nigerians from the North East. My close Friends then commented” Fatima, we have many Universities in Nigeria and all are performing well then why University Of Maiduguri?.
The teacher interrupted and wished me luck. Though, the teacher encouraged me, I suddenly lost interest of Studying in that region. I returned home and told my Mom that I really don’t like the University anymore and would like to attend Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. I didn’t tell her my reason when she asked “Why”?. I replied ” I’m just scared “. My Mom Comforted me ” Don’t worry, always pray and we will also pray for you always”. She reminded me of my Elder Brother and cousins who were Studying various Fields in the University Of Maiduguri.
For many of us, being from the North East feels like carrying a mark we did not choose. Our accents, our names, even our traditional clothing can draw uneasy glances across the country. Some people step back subtly, others make awkward jokes. The unspoken question lingers: “Can we trust you?”
It’s painful because those of us who come from this region have suffered the most from the violence that birthed these stereotypes. Boko Haram have destroyed our towns, burned our homes, killed our families. Many fled with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Yet, outside our region, we are often seen not as victims, but as potential threats.
I’ve met countless people who share this experience.
A young lady in my hostel room named Jamila, who grew up in Lagos told me how she was termed a terror in her class anytime she mentioned Borno as her state of Origin.
Imagine carrying that kind of suspicion everywhere you go while knowing many were killed in the region by the same terrorist people associate you with. It’s a deep and quiet kind of pain. We hide our state of origin because, we just want peace.
But the North East is not a land of terror. It is a land of endurance.
I think of the region as a region of Fortitude. I think of the region as a region of Tenacity. I think of the region as a region of steadfastness, Patience and Strength. I think of Maiduguri the city that refuses to die. I think of the harmony in Yobe state. I think of the laughter in Yola’s markets. I think of the students at the University of Maiduguri who study late into the night, even when the hum of distant gunfire echoes beyond the campus walls.
We are more than the headlines. We are farmers, teachers, engineers, mothers, poets, dreamers. We are Nigerians who want peace just as much as anyone else.
Stereotyping an entire region doesn’t make Nigeria safer; it only deepens the wounds the insurgency has already caused. When people from the North East are isolated, distrusted, or mocked, it weakens our national unity the very thing terrorism seeks to destroy.
We need more compassion, not suspicion. We need to hear the stories of those who lived through the violence and survived it. We need to see the faces behind the statistics the mothers searching for missing sons, the children who still go to school in IDP camps, the fathers rebuilding their homes brick by brick.
I do not write this to deny the pain the insurgency has caused across Nigeria. Many lives, from soldiers to civilians, have been lost in the fight against terror. But I write this because I want my fellow Nigerians to see us the people of the North East as part of the same struggle, not as its cause.
When you meet someone from Borno, Adamawa, or Yobe, please remember: we are not terrorists. We are survivors of terror. We are Nigerians just like you trying to rebuild our lives, to belong again, to be seen without fear in your eyes.
Fatima Danjuma
Department of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri