The Nation Newspaper

Category: Small Business and Entreprenuership

  • 10 successful entrepreneurs who started in college

    The common line of thought is that a career does not start until after college. Many college students have summer jobs and work study positions, but very few consider these careers. While graduation is traditionally the time in which people start discussing careers, many individuals have successfully begun their careers in the midst of their academic pursuits at college.

    Some of the most successful entrepreneurs throughout history began their business ventures in the dorms and classrooms of colleges and universities. With some of the most intelligent and creative individuals all thinking within four brick and mortar walls, universities are bound to turn up some ingenious entrepreneurial notions. These are 10 of the most successful entrepreneurs in history who started their companies in college.

    • Larry Page and Sergey Brin: While these two names may not sound immediately familiar, the company that they founded certainly will. Larry Page and Sergey Brin are the founders of Google. They met in college while pursing their PhDs in mathematics and computer science. Becoming fascinated with search engines and data mining, the rest will go down in history.
    • Mark Zuckerberg: While many expected this name to top the list, I just could not bring myself to put The Zuck above Google. However, with his story now widely known after a major motion picture, various documentaries, and several biographies, Zuckerberg is nonetheless phenomenal. Founding Facebook as an Undergraduate student at Harvard, Zuckerberg revolutionized social interaction in our society today.MarkZuckerberg, Facebook
    • Michael Dell: While in college as a pre-med student, Michael Dell started his small business Dell Computers. This small business soon became the personal computing giant, Dell, worth billions of dollars. Dell was named the youngest CEO to ever have his company ranked in the Fortune 500 in 1992 and has a net worth of over 13 billion dollars.
    • Bill Gates: Widely known as one of the smartest and richest men in the world, Gates was once a brainy college undergrad at Harvard. Gates has founded various super companies, including Microsoft, Apple, and others. But it all began when he was in school, messing around with computer interfaces and processors.
    • Frederick W. Smith: Though he did not actually launch his company while he was in college, Smith wrote a paper as an undergraduate at Yale detailing the future of delivery service. Smith’s paper was the young skeleton of the later uber successful package carrier FedEx.
    • Marc Andreessen: At one point, Netscape was the dominant web browser on the market. Andreessen was a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when he developed the concept for the browser. Andreessen fully released Netscape after he graduated when he was only 23 years old.
    • Steve Wozniak: Known as “the other Steve” of Apple, Wozniak co-founded Apple computers with Steve Jobs when he was a student at the University of California Berkeley. Apple Computers became one of the largest and most successful computer companies in history. What began as a product to impress members of the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, California would soon take the world by storm.
    • Bo Peabody: As students at Williams College, Bo Peabody and Brett Hershey, began their design for what is known today as Tripod.com. This site was dedicated to web hosting services for college students and young adults.
    • Shawn Fanning: As a student at Boston’s Northeastern University, Shawn Fanning developed the file sharing system Napster while working at his uncle’s internet company. Though Napster ran into several legal issues, the company was still hugely successful and revolutionary for its time.
    • Zach Kaplan and Keith Schacht: Though not as widely known as the other names on this list, these two entrepreneurs founded two companies as students at University of Illinois. Inventables creates “how-to” materials for entrepreneurs, inventors, and engineers and Lever Works, Inc. develops internet applications.

     

    •Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges . She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @ gmail.com.

  • ‘The best is being your own boss’

    ‘The best is being your own boss’

    Awareness of beauty products, treatment and grooming is at an all-time high. This has created opportunities for small business operators to design products that cater for people with low disposable income. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    Mrs Anthonia Oshi, Chief Executive, Kentonia Ventures, discovered a strong passion and desire to become an entrepreneur. She was always interested in beauty and in making others beautiful. The desire sprung from her immense passion for beauty, a factor that influenced her choice of vocation- hair dressing.

    After the successful completion of her training, she was to open a salon, where she practised her vocation and seeks a living. Along the line, Mrs. Oshi, who said running a salon was time consuming for a housewife, soon opted to do something that would give her time to take care of her children. Therefore, she decided to produce hair products that catered to all women. Armed with an initial capital of N50, 000, Mrs. Oshi forayed into the world of entrepreneurship.

    The experience of launching a product into a crowded market was especially challenging for her, as she suffered initial rejection of her products from established retailers, who were not keen to take a risk on new products. But she was undeterred as she managed to gain the market confidence by maintaining quality product.

    According to her, the biggest benefits of having her own business are the flexibility and the fact that one is her own boss. However, there are some obstacles, such as strong competition in the market. Although she’s yet to make a fortune from the venture, she is happy that it has provided enough money to pay her bills.

    The decision to become an entrepreneur gave her the opportunity to live out her dreams while helping others and multiplying her income. Her growing business is providing critical financial support for her family. So far, she’s grown the customer base, and boosted revenue. Her personal gratification has skyrocketed. She feels really good about each new customer she gets.

    The promotion of the hair product is mostly carried out by word of mouth, due to the huge referrals that come her way. The main benefit of being an entrepreneur is the control she has over what she does for a living as she says it is entirely up to her how hard she wants to work.

    On the sort of incentives to induce or enable entrepreneurs to achieve greater productivity and success, Oshi emphasized that there must be a holistic approach to solving the problems of micro entrepreneurs.

  • The making of a business icon

    The making of a business icon

    Cutting her teeth early in the business world, Nancy Ndukwe, Chief Executive, Chaurme Signature, has built a successful network of businesses in sales, wellness, make-up and other body care endeavours. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    As a nine year old, spending time in her father’s pharmaceutical store, obviously had an impact on her-albeit, unconsciously. And as she helped her father with his sales, Nancy Ndukwe, Chief Executive, Chaurme Signature, recalls being fascinated by fragrance and beauty, attracted to wellness, making up people, while attending to clients that thronged her dad’s pharmacy. This fascination inspired her to want to start her own business.

    Depsite bagging a degree in microbiology from the Ogun State University, the entrepreneurial desire in her did not wane. She continued to explore different ways to achieve her goals, which led to the birth of Chaurme Signature.

    Ably complemented by the extensive marketing experience she acquired during her trading days as a student in her father’s pharmaceutical store, Miss Ndukwe soon realised that there was increasing focus on healthy living, including balanced nutrition and exercise.

    For the unrelenting young entrepreneur, the saying that in every adversity is an opportunity, aptly applies. This is because, after her personal struggle with skin sensitivity problem, Ndukwe  later discovered that there was a need for her services as her friends battling with similar skin problem consulted her for solution, wanting to use everything she used to cure hers.

    Ndukwe, whose business antennas don’t miss any opportunity, immediately launched into skincare and wellness business. Today, Ndukwe is into big time business, selling pharmaceutical products and found great demand.

    As an entrepreneur of many parts, Ndukwe is also a makeup artist. She helps clients look their best for weddings or other special events, give beauty tips to people who want to update their everyday image. “I have ability to switch off when I want to or be more aggressive when I choose to. It also gives me more time for family issues,” she said.

    Her success in getting clientele came largely from word-of-mouth. However, it is also a lot of marketing effort – a lot of letters, a lot of phone calls, she said. Her skills at networking has also helped increase her customer base.

    It has however, not been all rosy. She has had to improve on working capital, debt management, time management, managing demand and keeping clients happy. Making her clients to feel completely pampered, even as she focuses on their wellness and natural beauty needs remain her priority.

    One excitement for Ndukwe is the desire to always support women who would like to start their own business and creating something for them while nurturing others and enhancing their well-being and natural beauty. She reckons that women experience a transformation through technologically advanced, nutrient-rich, and high performance formulations. These improve their appearance, overall skin health, as well as provide environmental protection.   As the business grows, she now pays more attention to acquiring tools for the business. “Now I have a consultation room,  planning to get a store front with my partner.  I have considered partnership as a way of injecting further capital into the business,” she said excitedly.

    Some entrepreneurial lessons from this astute business woman includes personal attitudes or characteristics for success, which should be in the form of patience and prayer. Ndukwe believes that any business dealing especially with women, requires loads of patience.

    And what gives further satisfaction to this entrepreneur, she said: “Seeing a woman smile and exude much confidence, excites me and that is what I want to create in every woman. For me, success is to be able to find balance, time for family, be able to give without having to worry,” she said.

  • Start small, grow big

    Start small, grow big

     An entrepreneur, Alhaji Lukuman Garu, has many businesses. But, it was not a bed of roses at the beginning. He shares his story with Daniel Essiet.

    He started his company Garu Technologies Nigeria because nobody gave him a chance as an Islamic graduate in  the labour market. Alhaji Lukuman Garu  wanted to study law, but ended up studying religious studies.

    After graduating from the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), he came up with the idea of opening a  tutorial centre. It did not work. But when the Federal Government  liberlaised the telecoms sector in 2001 and issued the Global System of  Mobile  Communication (GSM) licences to operators, an opportunity  opened  for mobile  phone repairs. Garu grabbed the chance.

    To hone his skills, he planned to attend a two-day seminar on GSM phone repairs. But he couldn’t afford fee. He later received assistance from his brother who  gave him N7,500 and his mother who made up the balance  of N2,500 which completed the N10,000 charged by the ‘engineer’ that will train him.

    After  the training, Garu set out  immediately to practise what he learnt. But he had a challenge: inability to a buy a computer and other tools he needed for the business.

    Despite this problem, he went  into research  on mobile  phone repairs and found a lot of things online that helped him to solve the problems that many technicians were finding difficult to address.

    One of the solutions, he discovered,  was a software for unlocking phones which he got from a business partner in Holland. It was a money spinner for him because people were coming from the Computer Village in Ikeja to see him at Egbeda, a suburb in Lagos.

    While working, he planned for expansion. He veered into training  on how to fix GSM problems.

    Suddenly, he found himself in a new generation of homegrown entrepreneurs who serve the multi-million GSM market.

    These include mobile hardware and accessories, installation of telecom infrastructure, maintenance, services and repairs are a few of the avenues small businesses are exploring and exploiting to make money in the market.The opportunities in the sector are astonishing as they are endless.

    Garu’s story and that of others like his demonstrate the  frustrations but also the small rewards young entrepreneurs get after a hard struggling to make their way. His story also underscores the critical importance of basic training opportunities needed to sustain their efforts. The mobile phone revolution created  unparalleled opportunities for digital entrepreneurship.

    Not done, Garu also availed himself  of new knowledge to  play a very big and exciting role in the emerging market. Sooner than later, the  GSM business   nosedived. With his savings, he launched a second business – car diagnostic software which was beginning to make waves then.

    In all these, starting young have certainly helped him. He has a series of successful projects on his profile and more under his sleeves, thereby overcoming the odds that have push aside many of his  peers.

    Garu has gained a  foothold in the sector, and remains optimistic about the future. He has exhibited new technology at fora, attracting responses from users. He  has been able to build a clientele of loyal customers.

    He has had  a chance to show his  car diagnostics products to an audience of users and investors in Lagos.

    Garu, a passionate young entrepreneur, believes Nigerians   possess great business energy.

    Obstacles come in business, but he has tried to see them as challenges. With the  determination, will and sheer hard work, one can overcome.

    He added that one should never stop trying.

    His experience is a life school for him, instead of sulking. It was at the moment of failure, he said, that he realised to achieve success, one  has  to put in more effort.

    On the tips for success, he advised new entrepreneurs to study hard and keep their eyes open for opportunities.  He also advised them to swap ideas on how they can improve and deliver a better product.

    He said he spends a lot of time studying different businesses and learning from entrepreneurs.

  • Entrepreneurs who made a fortune before under 18

    Ashley Qualls

    Ashley Qualls set up whateverlife.com 2004, when she was just 14 years old. It was originally a portfolio site for her design work, but she soon branched out into offering Myspace layouts that appealed to girls in her age group. The layouts were free, but Ashley offered advertising space for companies that wanted to target her millions of visitors (7 million a month in 2007). Before she was 17, Ashley had bought her own house and turned down a $1.5 million offer to acquire her company.

    Farrah Gray

    From just six years of age, when he started selling body lotion, Farrah Gray tried to make his own money. At the tender age of 13, he founded a specialty food company, Farr-Out Foods, and just one year later, orders of over $1.5 million made him a 14-year-old millionaire. Gray holds the record as the youngest person to have a Wall Street office. At 15, he set up the Farrah Gray Foundation, using some of the income from his speeches and best-selling books to fund literacy programs and scholarships for inner-city youth. He’s certainly a fitting role model.

     

    Abbey Fleck

    In 1993, Abbey Fleck was just eight years old when she witnessed her mother chastising her father for using part of a newspaper to soak up bacon grease. Her father maintained that without paper towels, the newspaper was the next best solution. After all, he couldn’t simply let it drip. That was all the inspiration that Abbey needed to invent the Makin’ Bacon Dish, which would hang bacon in the microwave so that fat could drip off. She and her father founded a company, and in 1996, Walmart placed their first order: 100,000 cookers. Not bad for an eight-year-old!

     

    Richie Stachowski

    When he was just eleven, Richie Stachowski found his family’s holiday to Hawaii frustrating as he couldn’t speak to his father while they were snorkeling. That evening, he began drawing designs and ended up spending his $267 of savings to build a prototype underwater megaphone. He took a few days off school to present Toys “R” Us with his idea and was rewarded with an order for 50,000 units. Other retailers, including K-Mart and Walmart, soon followed, and his Water Talkies™ were the hit of the summer of 1997, netting Richie’s company $500,000 in revenue.

     

    Kelly Reinhart

    Kelly Reinhart’s parents had an innovative game they used to entertain their children: draw an invention. Kelly took inspiration for her sketch from cowboy holsters. She came up with the idea for the Thigh Pack, a product that would help kids carry video games and similar items.

  • Reducing unemployment via youth entrepreneurship

    Reducing unemployment via youth entrepreneurship

    Youth unemployment is on the rise in the country and it is a dangerous trend. Experts believe entrepreneurship will tackle the problem. This was the focus of the Youth Connect Programme held in Lagos, last week. Daniel Essiet, who was at the forum, reports.

    For  aspiring  entrepreneurs, a new dawn is here. For them, the ‘Youth Connect 2014 Forum’could not have come at a better time.

    Organised by Business Impact Limited and Strategy for  Mentoring Initiative and  Leadership Empowerment (SMILE), the forum  brought together successful entrepreneurs who are having a profound impact on uplifting and economically empowering women and men.

    The event, meant to bolster economic renewal, job creation and innovation through youth entrepreneurship, held at the University of Lagos.

    A motivational speaker at the ceremony, Fela Durotoye listed the  characteristics of an entrepreneur to include vision, hard work and focus.

    For him, one must be focused to be the best in the market. With a good vision and great execution, one’s  dreams can come true.

    He started his firm in the consulting industry.

    The crowning achievement of the consultancy is that by now his offer is very advanced and very interesting for potential clients. The main goal of the company is to be perceived as an efficient and goal-oriented consultancy, with the possibility of entering other markets.

    According to him, entrepreneurs need to be  open-minded, ready to  adapt to the market and the clients’ needs. One must maintain good relationships, be hard working, and ready to learn new things.

    The fundamentals that every entrepreneur should follow when starting a business is, start slow, take time and plan how to live the dream.

    According to him, young Nigerians are emerging as the greatest hope for renewed economic and social progress.

    Often struggling, he said a growing number of determined and innovative entrepreneurs are demonstrating they can have a positive impact on their communities.

    Durotoye said it was time  young people rose to achieve their full potential and shape the future with power and confidence.

    Durotoye said Nigerians need to think about more than employment to address this problem, adding that there are so many opportunities for young people to start their own businesses.

    For him, having started  early  set young  people  off on the most incredible journey to make  money.

    His advice: “When you are young, you have nothing to lose. No responsibilities, no mortgages, no  bills and literally everything you do will always be a step forward rather than a step back. So, if young people have an idea and what to get started, the only obstacle you face is you telling yourself that you can do it.”

    He  stressed the need for creativity among youths and pupils  to transform the economy and create jobs.

    Durotoye believes the younger a person gets to set up a business and see opportunities that are outside the norm of society, they will be considered different and extraordinary.

    His advice to young entrepreneurs is that they should begin to build their competencies while in the university and specialise their business so they can take it to scale.

    Chief Executive, Business Impact Limited, Mr Olatunde Samson,  said the forum was created to engage leaders in youth entrepreneurship, share best practices, affect positive policy change and create a network of young entrepreneur advocates.

    He  said it was to prepare  young people to productive and engaged citizens.

    At this critical point of the economy, he said young people need to deploy their unique talents and innovative ideas to address their nation’s challenges, urging the government to support young people  access opportunities to realise their potential and revitalise their communities.

    With nearly 45 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population  under  15, and that youthful population will not even peaking for another 15 years, he noted a lot of youths wouldn’t be able to find a job, and many more who are working unable to climb out of poverty.

    He reiterated that there’s also an ever-growing band of young entrepreneurs who are demonstrating that when given the chance, even those from the most marginalised communities can launch their own businesses and in the process, create jobs, and help fuel growth and progress in their communities.

    With nation looking for an effective response to the economic  crisis, the Founder, SMILE, Mrs. Bimpe Martins,  said  youths  could  stand up, to promote a new entrepreneurial spirit, develop sustainable businesses, to massively create new, quality jobs.

    To her, supporting women entrepreneurs to further grow their business is key to positively impacting the country on both social and economic levels.

  • ‘Learning helps me to grow in online freelancing’

    ‘Learning helps me to grow in online freelancing’

    A young Nigerian Adetunji Gbolagade, has through hardwork, made a success of offering freelance services on the internet, reports Daniel Essiet

    AN Ibadan-based internet entrepreneur,Adetunji Gbolagade, is putting his name in gold in the subsector.

    Gbolagade, a freelancer on the internet, also  runs a training  centre to assist young Nigerians begin a business with small capital.

    He started with N10,000, which he borrowed from a friend in 2012. To hone his skills, he attended a workshop on internet marketing.

    Various studies have shown that parental success in self-employment is more likely to influence their kids to have their own entrepreneurial interests. Gbolagade comes from a family of entrepreneurs; his parents run their  own  businesses.

    Gbolagade’s interest in internet business started as far back as 2003, when his brother, Adekunle brought home a copy of Success Digest, devoted to online business. After reading it, he picked interest in the business. It wasn’t until 2008,  his final year in the university, that he became serious with Internet business.

    He started reading some good eBooks he bought online. It took him four years to launch his freelancing internet business on a site called fiverr.

    At the beginning, he manged to break even. But as far as business relationships are concerned, he built  good clientele that have resulted in long-term relationships.

    Like every entrepreneur, he was ready for challenges.

     

    Challenges

    Among some of his early challenges was lack of personal access to the internet. It was even worse when he  was in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State during his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme.

    He travelled over 100km to and fro Tafawa Balewa and Bauchi Town to visit the State Library to have access to the internet. The  fare  then was six times  what he would have spent on browsing. “There was no single cyber cafe in Tafawa Balewa LGA back then,” he said.

    Another issue was the public opinion that every young person doing internet business was a “yahoo yahoo” boy, a palance for internet fraudsters. But his case was different because he had declared to his parents that he was into a legitimate online business and not scam.

    Also, his inability to afford a laptop was another problem. To overcome it, by the end of his youth service in 2009, he had invested N15,000 of the N20,000 that he saved in a multilevel marketing scheme.

    The reward was that he would be given a laptop if he could recruit three people to join. He couldn’t, so he lost  his  money and  the laptop.

    Eventually, his dad bought him one.

    He says he is successful because he is marketing information on the internet. “I organise seminars, create video tutorials, step-by-step ebooks and provide one-on-one trainings to individuals who are ready to learn how to run internet based businesses.”

    He has trained people on profitable internet businesses.

    On some of the most effective strategies that has helped him  grow, Gbolagade said he never stopped learning.

    He said: ”I have people I look up to in this industry and never let the opportunity to learn from them pass me by. I understudy some of the successful guys inNigeria and try to emmulate the good stuffs they do. I have foreign guys too that I learn from and this really help me  a lot.”

    But for those wishing  to start  a business, he has an advice. Many people think that they must have several thousands or millions of naira before they can start something. One  can start internet based business, with as low as N10,000.

  • Budgeting training for small businesses

    Diamond Bank Plc has through its Diamond BusinessXpress seminar trained entrepreneurs.on cash budgeting.

    In a statement, the bank said the exercise was part of efforts to increase the capacity of Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSME) to run profitable businesses.

    The seminar, which held in Owerri, Imo State, was the 40th edition of the monthly workshop aimed at building managerial capacity and institutionalised processes within the sector.

    It said the topics discussed included: Failing to plan, Finding and retaining customers, Strategic planning, What is business really about? and Zero one.

    The bank’s Regional Manager, Owerri, Stanley Akwara, represented by Mr. Charles Oguibe, Business Manager, Waast Avenue branch, said the bank remains a partner with the subsector.

    Continuing, the lender is not just providing financial services to MSMEs, but creating value for them. “When we help MSMEs build their capacity, they will be able to run their organisations better, make profit and do more business with us. That way we can jointly impact society more effectively,” it said.

    “Diamond Bank has heavily invested in the MSME sector and we are among the few banks that support small businesses with loans. Till date, we have given out about N120 billion to 60,000 customers and most of these loans were given without collateral. We are about the only bank doing this,” he added.

    Speaking on the impact of the BusinessXpress seminars, Adaeze Ume, Segment Head, Micro Enterprises and Business Development Services, Diamond Bank Plc, explained that capacity building has been a strong focus of the bank in building value for MSMEs and that customer feedback has been commendable.

    According to her, “Different circumstances drive entrepreneurs to start-up their businesses. Some attend top institutions like the Lagos Business School while many others do not have such opportunity. The BusinessXpress seminars are designed to build managerial capacity and institutionalised processes within the MSME sector.”

  • BoI urged to set target for SMEs growth

    The Bank of Industry (BoI) has been urged to set  a yearly target of increasing the number of small businesses.

    In a congratulatory message to BoI Managing Director, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, the President, Association of Micro Entrepreneurs of Nigeria (AMEN), Prince Saviour Iche, described small businesses as the backbone of the economy.

    Individually, he said, small businesses may not have a large impact, but collectively, they are a major driver of job creation.

    He explained that retaining and growing early-stage and existing businesses was the most effective way of supporting entrepreneurs and economic growth.

    To achieve this  goal, Iche said  the bank should be ready to support  small businesses to access capital, adding that the high failure rate of small businesses – especially early-stage start-ups – demonstrates a need for more investments in their long-term success.

    To leave a legacy, the AMEN chief said the bank should look at their services through small business owners and determine how to improve their experiences. While entrepreneurs develop new businesses, he said the government should encourage their growth through logical, but not excessive, regulation.

    He explained that a supportive small business system connects entrepreneurs to technical assistance, streamlined regulations, industry-related resources, mentorship, funding opportunities and other tools.

    The challenges faced by self-employed business owners, he explained, revolve around ensuring the survival of the business as well as the ability to develop assets and build a marketing strategy.

    He said AMEN was ready to provide training for new entrepreneurs, and support the 774 local governments to establish local business incubators in their domains by offering support  to small businesses.

    Iche said local governments can help the economy by establishing incubator spaces, which are shared working spaces made available at low or no cost to entrepreneurs working on start-up projects.

    In addition to providing affordable office space, where start-ups can grow, incubators also provide access to business mentors, potential investors and other networking opportunities that help an early-stage business to scale up. At the same time, incubators deliver trainings and seminars designed to help enhance the skill sets of business owners and strengthen their business plans.

  • ‘How small firms can survive’

    House of Representatives  aspirant, Prince Oyewole Oyewunmi, has promised to assist micro-business operators in the state.

    Speaking at the Ogbomoso South Local Government secretariat in Arowomole in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Oyewunmi said there was need to support youths and women  involved in small firms to grow the sector.

    Praising the Ajimobi- led administration for making youth employment a priority, Oyewole said  he would continue to support government activities aimed at providing jobs for the teeming youths and reducing poverty.

    He raised concerns over the increasing rate of poverty and unemployment in the country.

    He said: “For almost a decade, Nigeria has been recording consistently high economic growth rate that has not produced commensurate employment opportunities and reduction in poverty among its citizens. Similarly, the available statistics suggest that the incidence of poverty in Nigeria had, indeed, worsened.

    ‘’Unemployment figures also indicate that the number of unemployed members of the labour force continues to grow geometrically.’’

    The number of youths roaming  the streets, he noted, means that there is need to help them get jobs.

    He  urged  the government  to  use  all its “resources and powers” to support business and economic growth by measures, such as boosting capital investment, improving access to finance and encouraging new private-sector investment.

    He announced financial assistance to help people in the area set up their own business.

    Oyewunmi said the gesture was aimed at supporting  micro-business operators as against the usual search for office jobs.

    He urged  the government  to  look at the barriers small business face and target its support to ensure firms can get off the ground.

    Beneficiaries of the succour, which include market men and women and artisans, were drawn from Ogbomoso North, Ogbomoso South and Orire Federal Constituency.

    In his message, Oyewole’s father,  Oba Jimoh  Ajagungbade, described the gesture as timely and laudable.The paramount ruler eulogised his son for being pro-active, assertive, and for his sense of belonging, saying his commitment to the well-being of the people is  worth emulating.