The Nation Newspaper

Tag: entrepreneurs

  • 10 entrepreneurs get N3m grant

    Ten entrepreneurs in Nsukka, Enugu State  have received cheques of N300, 000 each to boost their businesses.

    The grants totaling N3 million for the 10 recipients were received at the Life Progress Booster Show, an initiative of Life Lager Beer, a brand committed to supporting small and medium scale entrepreneurs in South-East Nigeria.

    Presentation of cheques was done last Sunday by managers of the brand at Golden Valley Hotels and Suites, Ugwuawarawa, Nsukka, Enugu bringing the number of entrepreneurs who have benefited from the grant in 2017 to sixty.

    Addressing the audience at the presentation ceremony, Portfolio Manager, Mainstream Lager and Stout Brands, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Emmanuel Agu, said the brand had increased the grant from N250, 000 in 2016 to N300, 000 and will support 200 entrepreneurs through the Progress Booster platform in 2017.

    “Progress Booster is a programme with the sole aim of supporting the people of the South-East who have innovative business ideas to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of the people. This is the third set of entrepreneurs we are supporting this year, and we look forward to empowering other innovative business men and women,” Agu said.

    Agu also noted that Life Progress Booster Show is a platform for budding businessmen and women to present their proposals and transform their ideas to reality.

    “The Progress Booster Show was initiated to raise more entrepreneurs and self-dependent individuals in South-East Nigeria”.

  • Entrepreneurs: Create processes to protect your startup- Jumia Travel MD

    Entrepreneurs: Create processes to protect your startup- Jumia Travel MD

    The managing director of Jumia Travel  Nigeria, Omolara Adagunodo has said creating processes that will protect a business and its owners is one of the crucial ingredients necessary for the survival of a start-up. Adagunodo made this remark during a fireside chat on the opportunities and challenges of running an e-commerce business in Nigeria at the just concluded CEO Apprentice Africa programme organised by the digital arm
    of Business Day tabloid.

    The Business Day CEO Apprentice boot camp focuses on equipping teenagers; ages 15 and up with the skills required to set up a business. The program features the use of the latest technology in training,including the use of a workbook, which becomes a functional business plan, teaches young entrepreneurs how to come up with a business idea, how to structure their company, how to price their products, product testing and market validation, customer segmentation, competitor analysis and go to market strategies.

    At the event which held at Microsoft office in Lagos, Adagunodo emphasized on the importance of creating processes that will ensure the survival of the business and cater to the untold challenges that will arise in the lifespan of the business. “Often times,” she said, “a lot of entrepreneurs overlook the relevance of putting processes that will guide the business to its future. Some often realise this when it becomes too late and perhaps damaging to the business.”

    Adagunodo also listed some of the challenges facing small businesses (SMEs) in Nigeria to include, cash flow management, incomplete documentation, lack of access to funds, limited human capital, poor data/information management and government regulations.

    In a similar vein, the co-founder of Jobberman, Lekan Olude who interacted with Omolara on the challenges of e-commerce in Nigeria, said the survival of a start-up, to a large extent, is dependent on its workforce. Hence, he encouraged aspiring business owners to always look out for people who believe in the company’s vision and can give constructive criticism.

    Olude also stressed the importance of partnerships with bigger brands. He mentioned that one of the partnerships that turned around the fortune of his company was with the telecom company, MTN. He encouraged the young teenagers at the event to always trust their instincts and their
    staff.

  • Two Nigerians, 13 others in race for Young African Entrepreneurs prize

    •$100,000 up for grabs

    Fifteen young African entrepreneurs have emerged finalists from more than 800 applicants for the seventh annual Anzisha Prize, Africa’s premier award for young entrepreneurs.

    Supported by African Leadership Academy (ALA), in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, the Anzisha Prize celebrates and cultivates the next generation of young African entrepreneurial leaders who are creating jobs, solving local development problems and driving economies.

    Selected from 14 countries, nearly half of candidates are young women representing diverse sectors, such as clean energy, agriculture, waste recycling and youth empowerment. For the first time, candidates from Angola, Liberia, Mauritius, and Sudan entered the competition.

    “We are excited by the number of young women finalists and thrilled that the prize is contributing to their economic empowerment,” Anzisha Prize Associate Melissa Mbazo said.

    She said the success of these women-led businesses would be accelerated by access to Anzisha’s financial and mentorship support.

    Among the young innovators is 15-year-old Nigerian Victoria Olimatunde, the founder of Bizkidz, a board game designed to teach children about financial literacy and the rudimentary aspects of starting a small scale business in a fun and interactive manner. Olimatunde, 15, has also been encouraging young people to create jobs as entrepreneurs, not just seek jobs as employees.

    She will be joined by her compatriot Ajiroghene Omanudhowo, the founder of 360 Needs, which is a social enterprise created to identify and solve logistical problems in his community. Omanudhowo, 22, one of  the 2017 finalists for the Anzisha Prize, is the founder of three businesses operating under the parent company 360 Needs.

    While ASAFOOD delivers food to universities, ASADROP is a logistics company specialising in parcel delivery and Beta Grades helps students prepare for their exams by providing computer training.

    Both Nigerian budding entrepreneurs’ businesses have been impactful and transformative. They are billed to fly to Johannesburg to attend a 10-day entrepreneurial leadership boot camp where they will be coached on how to pitch their businesses to a panel of judges for a share of the $100,000 prize money and support.

    The grand prize winner will receive $25,000, while the runners-up and third place winners will receive $15,000 and $12,500 respectively. The remainder of the prize will be divided among outstanding finalists, including a $10,000 agricultural prize funded by Louis Dreyfus Foundation, as well as four $5,000 challenge prizes to bolster initiatives led by past Anzisha Prize finalists.

    Other entrepreneurs include Liberian Satta Wahab, founder of Naz Naturals, a cosmetics company that creates organic hair care products that empower young girls and women to feel beautiful and confident with their natural hair, and Thowiba Alhaj, the founder of Work Jump-Up Sudan, an organisation empowering university students by linking them to job opportunities.

    “The calibre and diversity of the young men and women competing for this year’s Anzisha Prize is impressive and improves each year,” said Program Manager, Youth Livelihoods at the Mastercard Foundation, Koffi Assouan.

    According to him, as the pool of Anzisha fellows continues to grow, so too does their impact and influence on local communities and economies.

    All other finalists will each receive $2,500 prizes. They will also benefit from ALA’s Youth Entrepreneur Support Unit (YES-U), which provides consulting and training support to Anzisha finalists. This includes the Anzisha Accelerator boot camp, mentorship and consulting services, travel opportunities to network, and business equipment, valued at $7,500.

    Finalists will be evaluated by a panel of five experienced judges who have contributed to building youth entrepreneurship in Africa, such as Wendy Luhabe, a pioneering social entrepreneur and economic activist.

    Laureates will be announced during an inspiring gala evening on October 24, which will include a keynote address from serial entrepreneur Fred Swaniker, founder of both the ALA and African Leadership University.

  • Entrepreneurs get N3m grant to boost businesses

    Ten new entrepreneurs have received cheques of N300, 000 each, making a total of N3 million to grow their business at the Life Progress Booster Show, an initiative of Life Lager Beer.

    The beer brand is committed to supporting small and medium entrepreneurs in South-East Nigeria.

    The entrepreneurs were at the weekend, presented with the cheques by managers of the brand  2017 at West Point, Answai Road, Government House, Asaba, Delta State.

    While addressing the audience at the presentation ceremony, Portfolio Manager, Mainstream Lager and Stout Brands, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Emmanuel Agu said the brand had increased the grant from N250, 000 in 2016 to N300, 000 and will support 200 entrepreneurs through the Progress Booster platform in 2017.

    “Progress Booster is a programme with the sole aim of supporting the people of the South-East who have innovative business ideas to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of the people,” Agu said.

  • Fidelity empowers entrepreneurs in Onitsha

    Fidelity empowers entrepreneurs in Onitsha

    Fidelity Bank Plc held a four- day empowerment workshop for unregistered small business owners in Onitsha, Anambra State. The exercise was in furtherance of its commitment to continually support and grow the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

    Appropriately themed “Gaining Financial Freedom through Profitable Small Businesses” the workshop was organised to create requisite awareness on entrepreneurship and provide unregistered businesses with useful financing tips which will spur business growth.

    The initiative which is in consonance with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) financial inclusion strategy, seeks to increase the penetration of financial services amongst the vast majority of Nigerians, particularly the unbanked, under-banked and micro business sectors.

    At the event, representatives from the Bank’s retail division participated in various awareness sessions to showcase the broad spectrum of products and services offered by the Bank. Some of these sessions included market storms and engagement exercise where notable clusters in Onitsha and its environs were visited.

     

  • Nigerian Breweries partners entrepreneurs

    Nigerian Breweries partners entrepreneurs

    Nigerian Breweries (NB) Plc  has deepened its partnership with indigneous entrepreneurs and farmers to harness the huge value chain from its backward integration policy, its Corporate Communications and Brand Public Relations Manager, Mr. Patrick Olowokere, has said.

    Speaking during a tour of Psaltry International Limited, one of Nigerian Breweries’ major raw material suppliers, in Alayide Village, Ado Awaiye near Iseyin in Oyo State, he said the company was consolidating its local sourcing of input for its operations.

    He said the company has fast-tracked its plan to attain 60 per cent local input sourcing  by 2018 as against the initial 2020 target.

    Olowokere said the strategy was to identify organisations that could produce raw materials and ancillary products as input for its business.These organisations, Olowokere explained, would be  provided with a market for their products.

    He said the value chain model has been experimented in packaging material, sorghum and cassava development models.

    Olowokere  said the company had increased the supply of sorghum used for some of its beverages as more than 100,000 metric tonnes of the cereal are sourced yearly.

    “Over 250,000 farmers spread across agronomic zones in the North have been impacted by our sorghum value chain programme as at 2013,” he said.

    The company’s brands are packaged using locally-sourced packaging materials, such as bottles, cans, crates, cartons, crown corks, and labels. As at last year, 99 per cent of these packaging materials were locally sourced, opening opportunities to indigeneous entrepreneurs.

    Similarly, the company has since 2015 been working with Psaltry International, a local cassava processing company, to optimise the cassava value chain by providing industrial quality cassava starch to extract maltose syrup for use in its brewing process.

    NB, according to Olowokere, would strengthened local ancillary businesses, particularly the  procurement of raw materials, such as starch input and identify Psaltry, as a supplier of high-quality cassava starch.

    He maintained that the initiative was part of the company’s corporate philosophy of “Winning with Nigeria” and in line with its backward integration.

    The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Mrs. Oluyemisi Iranloye, said the company has created a supply chain of 5,000 farm families, which included more than 2,000 outgrower farm families, marketers, transporters and retail input suppliers.

    She added that the company has saved the nation more than $7 million in foreign exchange in the past two years through local provision of processed cassava starch for industrial use.

    The deal between the firms is also impacting socio-economic development of small scale farming communities in Nigeria. For instance, Chief Busari Amusa, Baale of Alayide, the host community of Psaltry International Limited, was full of gratitude for the new infrastructural transformation that had come to his community. “It is a dream come true. We have electricity, boreholes for water and the roads are also opening up for accessibility between our farms and the factory. My story has changed.”Today, and less than two years of this cassava business, I have a new house, a car and four of my children are in higher institutions of learning. This is unbelievable,” he revealed during the tour of the community,” he said.

  • 110 entrepreneurs empowered in Oyo

    The Bank of Industry (BoI), in conjunction with the Oyo State Rural Finance Institution Building Team (RUFIN), has empowered 110 entrepreneurs with N5 million loans in Kajola Local Government, to boost businesses and improve rural dwellers’ living standard.

    RUFIN Coordinator Comrade Olusola Ogundiran, who spoke while launching the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) at the Rural People Development Initiative office in Isemi-ile, said the

    programme tagged: ‘Market Moni’, would support market women and others financially, to reduce poverty, enhance food security and make rural, poor people self-reliant.

    He said N5million was disbursed to 115 participants at Atisbo and Iseyin local governments under the same scheme, adding that the gesture would be extended to other parts of the state.

    Hailing Governor Abiola Ajimobi for releasing the fund, which enabled people to benefit from the project, Ogundiran enjoined the beneficiaries to be good ambassadors of the state.

    The Coordinator of Rural People Development Initiative (RUPENDIN), Princess Victoria Adetona, stressed the need for the beneficiaries to keep record of their businesses and cooperate with their group leaders, to enable them participate in subsequent ones.

    Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Chief Obadara Isaac and Mr. Adebayo Mumini hailed the government for its role and promised to abide by the rules and regulations.

  • Entrepreneurs, students get fresh challenge

    A contest for startup entrepreneurs and students across the country will hold on April 24, 2017 at Oriental Hotel, Lekki Expressway, Lagos.

    The contest which  is organized by FinTech Associates, a Nigerian FinTech solution provider, the Digital Finance Institute, a digital finance think tank based in Canada and Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria Centre for Financial Studies is part of the First National FinTech Conference.

    The Startup Pitch Challenge invites startups entrepreneurs that are involved in financial technology to apply for a chance to pitch their solutions before a panel of expert judges at the FinTech Nigeria Conference event.

    “The challenge allows startups to have some stage time to showcase their innovative technology and receive valuable feedback to refine their solutions and scale, as well as to join in growing the ecosystem in Nigeria,” the Executive Director and Founder of the Digital Finance Institute, Christine Duhaime, said.

    The  Knowledge Events Executive of Fintech Associates, Detan Akinhanm, said: “This initiative is planned to tap on the creativity of the Nigerian youths and we look forward to product pitches that have the potential to change the financial services landscape”.

  • Online series to showcase women entrepreneurs

    Metrowoman Limited, a media outfit that celebrates successful women, has come up with a business showcase series designed to promote products and services initiated by women entrepreneurs.

    CEO of Metrowoman, Chinenye Nnoli, said in a press statement that the five-minute video interview series to be called “The Metrowoman Marketplace”, would tell the stories behind emerging brands founded by Nigerian women on digital platforms.

    She said the programme would provide immediate opportunity for viewers to access the brands at a discount using dedicated codes generated on the show.  In her words “the target is to interview 100 female entrepreneurs and the top five entrepreneurs with the most comments, likes and feedback on their product offerings will be rewarded.”

    “In a country that has the highest percentage of female entreprenuers at 41 per cent, the show seeks to showcase and celebrate women who are thriving despite the harsh business climate and are undeterred in their resolve to build their businesses. A lot of these women have unleashed their creativity in the marketplace and are unstoppable.  They are invaluable assets to the economy. They deserve all the support they can get,” she said.

    The first episode of The Metrowoman Marketplace is scheduled to premiere online on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 at 6pm on Guardian TV (m.tv.guardian.ng) and the Metrowoman Website (www.metrowoman.ng).

  • Plateau churns out 2889 youth entrepreneurs

    Plateau churns out 2889 youth entrepreneurs

    Plateau State has tapped into the axiom of teaching people to fish rather than giving them fish. Thus, there was a sense of fulfilment and relief when 2889 youths completed a six-month entrepreneurial training and were given tools to kick-start their trades. The new entrepreneurs will no longer need to look up to anyone for food and sustenance; they will not only feed themselves but also start helping others in need.

    The training was captured under the Simon Lalong Empowerment Scheme (SLEMS), an empowerment programme coordinated by the Plateau Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (PLASMEDA).

    In his welcome address, Director General of PLASMEDA, Mr. Hagai Gutap said, “This number of 2889 represents the first batch of youths trained on business enterprise for them to attain economic independence from this moment on. This is a deliberate poverty reduction policy of the Governor Simon Lalong administration; we want to reduce poverty through skill acquisition. That will also reduce youth restiveness in the state which will have the goal of consolidating on the ongoing peace building.

    Speaking further, Gutap said, “Plateau is on its way out of poverty and to economic prosperity. This government is matching words with action, the governor promised to take the youths out of the streets and make them contribute to the economy of the state in a positive way; this graduation therefore is a partial fulfillment of campaign promises. Governor Lalong is desirous to make every segment of the population across the state feel the positive impact of government. As we are graduating this first set, we are also using this very occasion to flag off the training for the next batch.

    In his remarks, one of the training facilitators, Mr Solomon Chika, founder of Plateau Entrepreneurial Academy, said, “This project is not only about poverty reduction, it is also wealth creation, a very major boost to the growing economy of the state. Because this set of trained entrepreneurs are going to be self-employed having been trained and government has provided them the necessary tools to start business immediately.

    The state chairman of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Hon Steven Jings confirmed that all the 2889 trained entrepreneurs were carefully selected from all the 17 local governments of the state, and the governor has also directed that for the next batch, there should 200 youths from each local government to also be trained. He acknowledged that the 5-pillar policy of the rescue administration of Governor Lalong is working.

    Project Manager of Apurimac Onlus, Mr. Godwin Okoko who trained the beneficiaries gave the breakdown of the beneficiaries thus; 25% of them are mothers while the rest are teenagers.

    Governor Lalong, in his remarks, said, “Today’s gathering is another step in the avowed demonstration of Government’s resolve, to strategically empower her citizens through entrepreneurship training and the provision of Business Support Inputs.

    He said, “The commitment of our Rescue Administration to Small and Medium Enterprise Development is what led to the immediate establishment of the Plateau State Micro-Finance and Enterprise Development Agency (PLASMEDA), so that as an institution of Government, it will coordinate and stimulate entrepreneurship and business development, for the socio-economic advancement of the State.

    “I am happy that PLASMEDA has hit the ground running by collaborating with APURIMAC Nigeria and a Consortium of Six (6) other Non-Governmental Organizations, to swiftly recruit and train youths of the State, in a Four (4) months intensive skills acquisition training in various enterprise areas that include; Aluminium Works, Catering, Computer, Decorating and Event, Management, others are Fashion Designing, Hair Dressing and Beauty Therapy, Beats Making, Knitting, Leather Works, Welding and Metal Fabrication.

    “These 4 months intensive skills training under the first phase has produced 2889 trainees, of what has been Christened the Simon Lalong Entrepreneurship Scheme (SLEMS), and for which we are sending-them off today, to become self-reliant entrepreneurs. You will agree with me that as these new entrepreneurs contribute their quota in growing the business industry in the State, they will serve aseconomic backbones to their respective families, while also providing the opportunity for others whom they will be engaging, to be trained and supported to develop their own small businesses. This is the multiplier effect we seek to achieve as the trainees become trainers themselves.

    “Let me thank our partners, Apurimac Nigeria and the network of NGOs that provided the training, for taking their time to impact entrepreneurship skills on the graduands. I am confident that the same zeal and commitment you have put to train the 2889 trainees, will be passed on to the second phase of trainees who we are lining up for training, in the various skills enhancement and trade areas we have outlined for their economic empowerment.

    For the second phase of the Skills Acquisitions training, I have directed the PLASMEDA to ensure that we are training a minimum of Two Hundred (200) People per Local Government Area, in three batches spread across the three (3) Senatorial Zones of the State.