MANY were excited to see Nollywood actress, Bimbo Akintola, who was moderator at the second edition of the ‘Attack Young Empowerment Seminar Series’, an empowerment project of the Uche Ahubelem Center for Human Development, UACHD which held at the Skyline Hall of the Oriental Hotel, Lagos, last Saturday.
The winsome University of Ibadan trained theatre artiste was also excited about the opportunities being laid bare for the youths that came for the seminar. Typical of her on-screen effervescence, Bimbo was at home in the midst of the myriad youths bristling with ingenious business ideas and felicitated with those whose business ideas got the commendation of the judges and cash prizes. “It is really heartwarming when you see young people who want to do well on their own; who are not waiting for government or white collar jobs; going all out to achieve their dreams; this is really commendable. And for the organiser, I say thumbs up,” said the actress.
Said Uche Ahubelem, the convener of the bi-monthly programme which aims to empower and enrich Nigerian youths with the potentials and attributes needed for them to excel in their various fields of interest.
“I want people to be impacted. I want them to have a paradigm shift. I also want to let them know that it is not great teachings that make men, it is great decisions. I am here to let them know that they have known too much and they have known a lot. All they need to do is to start to put into practice what they have known. So, I’m expecting to see men that will fly out today to achieve something great because I have seen great potentials here. There are some people here that if you don’t talk to them, they will end up being nobody but I believe that great men will emerge here today.”
Among the hundreds of youths that came with different business proposals, three of them; Gerald Nonso, Precious Unu and Michael Balogun were selected as having the best ideas. Nonso got N700,000 based on his unique idea of having an air pollution-free mobile ad while Balogun, with an innovative idea of having a mobile app that will take tourism to a whole new level in Nigeria, got N500, 000. Precious was awarded N300, 000 for her ‘mama put’ canteen innovation.
Speaking further, Ahubelem said that the winners didn’t just emerge easily as seven of them were shortlisted and interviewed by series of judges about what they intend doing with the money if they won. According to Nonso, “This money will help me start my business conveniently although I had already started before now. But when the competition came, I had to key into it and see how it goes and I’m very grateful to the organisers,” he said.
In all, the seminar, according to the organisers, recorded over 12,000 registrants with fantastic business ideas as against the first edition with over 6, 000 registrants. 400 people were chosen among the 12,000 participants to attend while 20 were selected by the panel of judges to make five minutes presentation of their business proposal.
