My Experiences With Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria YouWIN! Training Programme

I had always believed that our government does not have any plan for the thousands of youth in Nigeria, but the present government with great power changing team, has proof me wrong!

 

Recently, the federal government launched an innovative programme, tag, “Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria YouWIN!”. The laudable programme, with the aims and objectives of empowering young entrepreneurs by providing funds (grants) to fund their business so as to empower a lot of us to create job opportunities for others, entered second phase where successful entrepreneurs with cleared business ideas and visions where shortlisted and invited for training at Canton Concourse, located in the heart of Victoria Island in Lagos, Nigeria and other centres in different zones.

 

The programme entered its second stage, where 6,000 entrepreneurs were further trained in business management, finance, tax, business proposal and cashflow among others by renowned and seasoned investors, investment bankers, managers, tax consultants, marketers among others. Am so happy I was among the potential young CEOs, and I was totally transformed. I learned a lot about management, finance, marketing, product creation etc.

 

The training was aimed at imparting the needed knowledge to 6,000 youth so that with the knowledge they have acquired, they will be able to setup, manage their business without waiting for paid employment and also provide employment opportunities to others to help reduce the rate of unemployment in the country and also reduce crime rate and other ill acts.

“You are not lucky, you merit it because your business ideas and visions were well defined” according to Peter Bamkole, Director, EDC (Enterprise Development Centre ) Pan-African University who spoke at the programme.

The following courses were taught:

Financial Planning,

    Business Plan,

    Business Plan Financials for Manufacturing Company,

    Business Plan Financials for Service Company,

    Financial Technical Note,

    SME Toolkit,

    Marketing,

    Online Presence,

    Entering the Competition,

    Operations Management,

    Opportunity Road Test,

    Presentation skills,

    Strategies for Growth,

    Tax & Regulatory Matters and

    Legal and Regulatory Matters.

Honestly speaking, the four days training programme for potential young CEOs with innovative ideas was awesome! I was amazed when I heard about the statistics, and at the same time felt happy and fulfilled for being among the few that were chosen.

 

About 110,000 registered users for the programme,

24,000 applicants successfully submitted their application (business ideas),

6,000 out of 24,000 entrepreneurs, with cleared and well defined business ideas, in 6 Geo-political zones were selected to advance to the second round which was proceeded by 4 days entrepreneurship trainings in different centres in Nigeria before submitted their final business plan and proposal .

 

Out of the 6,000 that were selected to advance to second round, 1,200 finalists will be selected and their project got funded up to the tune of N10,000,000 depending on what you requested. Of the 1,200 finalists that will be selected, 300 entrepreneurs will be selected based on merit, each Geo-political zone (6 zones) is guaranteed 150 slots.

Submission of 2nd stage business plan entries start on December 16, 2011 and end on January 15, 2012. Only entries from candidates who attended the training and had their biometrics information collected that are eligible and will be reviewed. Thursday January 26 2012 is the date fixed for notification of winners.

 

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