BOF Foundation at its eighth yearly Lecture and Awards with the theme: “AI and ICT – Empowering the next generation and transforming the society” empowered ten petty traders with N55,000 each to upscale their businesses. Others were given big umbrellas to shade them from the scorching sun and rainfall.

The event ,which took place at Rotary Centre in Lagos, also featured free prostrate cancer screening.

The Founder, Bola Oyebade, said it was in line with his practice of holding a yearly lecture, giving awards and empowering the less privileged to mark his birthday.

He said: “I’m excited about it. We are growing by the day, and I just hope we’ll be able to get more partners so that we can give much more. This year, we are giving our beneficiaries N55,000 to augment whatever they have to expand their businesses.  Our focus is to empower petty traders to upscale their businesses using the age of the founder to determine the number of the beneficiaries and I believe we will get there.”

About our agricultural project, we will execute that when we are able to get good funding. We are actually doing a couple of things. We have the land already, but we still need capital so that we can fund all the specific capital intensive projects we have” he said.

The Guest Speaker, a Chartered Accountant, Sunmola Olalekan David, admonished students to key into Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a view to enhancing their learning and do a lot of things.

Anything that is complex, you can use AI to explain to you. You can even simulate AI to say, oh, give me seven examples of this, 20 examples of that and all sort of things. You can interact with AI as if you are interacting with an expert” he said.

He added that the youth should just be very happy now. They should be happy and they should know how to make good use of their time.

He said that all they just need is to concentrate and avoid looking at what does not make sense and would not add value on the internet.

BO Foundation has steadily built a reputation as a grassroots-driven platform for economic and social empowerment across Nigeria. Over the past eight years, the Foundation has impacted lives through practical interventions, including the donation of industrial sewing machines to budding fashion entrepreneurs, pepper-grinding machines to women traders, and the establishment of barbing salons for young men. It has also supported pensioners and petty traders with micro-funding, provided school uniforms to pupils, and equipped media practitioners with laptops and cameras. Several beneficiaries now run sustainable businesses that support their families and communities.

Looking ahead, the Foundation is expanding into agriculture, vocational training and ICT. Plans include empowering rural women through agro-processing clusters, training youths in digital skills such as data analysis, design and AI, and introducing micro-credit schemes for small businesses. With a long-term vision of building a cooperative society and microfinance institution, the B.O Foundation is positioning itself as a catalyst for inclusive growth and community transformation.

One of the beneficiaries, Esther Ekuwgha said the N55,000 given her would go a long way to moving her business of roasting plantains, others forward.