United Nations Nigeria Empowers on PPEs Production
Zucchini Fashion Center was among 174 MSMEs selected for the United Nations project – Strengthening the Capacity of Nigerian MSMEs and Manufacturers to meet the demand for quality healthcare products and Personal Protective Equipment – a COVID 19 Response Project – spanning more than two years, between November 2021 and February 2024.
The project, funded by the European Union through the UN Basket Fund, and coordinated by United Nations Agencies – led by UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and jointly implemented by International Labour Organization (ILO), World Health Organization (WHO), UN Women, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – in collaboration with the Nigerian Government.
Zucchini Fashion Center participated in the robust, practical and enterprise focused, capacity building project, gleaning from different business and technical trainings, including hosting one of the training sessions for selected participants in Oyo State at our Center. We also received production equipment, as well as product certification sponsorship for our medical scrubs with the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON).
About the UN Covid-19 Response Project
The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic led to a global health emergency, disrupting human activities, including trade and economic slowdown. The effects of the pandemic necessitated preventive measures while promoting social and economic activities. The United Nations agencies in collaboration with the Nigerian Government jointly implemented a project to enhance the capacity of local MSMEs / Manufacturers to produce quality Personal Protective Equipment and other health related products to meet both domestic and foreign demand.
The pandemic disrupted global supply chains, forcing many countries to focus on meeting their domestic needs. Many MSMEs – factories, and local manufacturers, including tailors – shifted from their regular production activities to the production of PPEs to take advantage of the economic opportunity. However, UN saw an opportunity to enhance the capacity of MSMEs to strengthen their businesses and facilitate the production of quality PPEs, complying with market requirements, standards and technical regulations. This is to ensure that the production of PPEs and healthcare products meet local demand and export to the ECOWAS sub-region.
Project Objective: to contribute to increasing the resilience of Nigerian MSMEs in the context of COVID-19 pandemic, support the creation of decent jobs/employment, improve supply chains, and promote transformative economic recovery and growth.
Expected Outcome: To strengthen the capacity of selected local MSMEs / manufacturers, including at least 30% women-led and 20% youth-led businesses, to upgrade the production processes and adopt standards and technical regulations as a reference for production of high-quality PPEs and healthcare products to meet local demand and for export to ECOWAS sub-region.
The areas of intervention of the project includes:
- Quality management, Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs)
- Production, equipment management
- Strategic marketing
- Financial management, access to finance, business planning
- Groupings, clusters, business linkages
- Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), labor standards, HRM
- Women and Youth mainstreaming
- Business registration
It is expedient to note that the project was originally conceived and designed as a COVID-19 emergency intervention, however, it turned into a private sector development support programme for MSMEs to face a number of challenges in quality management, groupings/clustering, production management, marketing etc. As such, the project succeeded to introduce new business development models applicable as a possible reference for other health and industrial productive sectors in Nigeria.
It is estimated that jobs have increased by more than 30% and revenues by 25% in the beneficiary MSMEs as a result of the project´s interventions.
Our Participation, Benefits & Initiatives
We can confidently say that this United Nations project is one project we are priviledged and grateful to have participated in. The project was carefully planned and well thought out to cater for the needs of participating MSMEs. The robust and encompassing nature of the project covering every aspect of the production high-quality PPEs and healthcare products makes it unique and truly empowering for participating businesses.
At Zucchini Fashion Center, having thought of establishing a medical fashion brand – MEDFASHION by Zucchini – as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and our involvement in the production of PPEs, majorly facemasks, scrubs, and coveralls. our participation on this project provided us the needed impetus to consolidate on the establishment of the medical brand wears.
On the project, we benefited from different business and technical trainings, such as Occupational Safety and Health for Enterprises; Access to Finance for MSMEs; Roadmap to SON Product Certification, Financial Management and Business Planning to mention a few. This impacted positively on our business as we improved on our key business systems and processes. We also hosted one of the training sessions for selected participants in Oyo State at our Center.
Through the project, we received production equipment as Industrial Buttonhole Sewing Machine, Industrial Straight Knife Fabric Cutter and Industrial Steam Iron from UNIDO. The World Health Organization (WHO) also sponsored a product certification for our medical scrubs with the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON). We are also honoured to use the Federal Government of Nigeria, European Union, and United Nations logos on our brand products.
Read about SON Product Certification.
We express our appreciation to the Federal Government of Nigeria, European Union, United Nations (UNIDO, UN Women, WHO, ILO, UNDP) for their contribution to our business through this project and to better position us for the execution of our medical fashion brand – MEDFASHION by Zucchini – in particular, and the entire Zucchini Fashion brand in general.
We will continue to collaborate with all the United Nation agencies on the project, our initiative and many more as we continue to positively impact lives, communities and Sub-Saharan Africa.
