NGF, others endorse Naija Entrepreneurship Academy

With the endorsement of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, a social development consultant, Fatima Sadiq Mohammed, has announced the launch of an entrepreneurship initiative – Naija Entrepreneurship Academy (NEA), as part of the efforts to curb youth unemployment.

The project is an online portal that hosts free learning courses for prospective business owners as well as those already managing small businesses.

According to the lead champion of the initiative across West Africa, Poncelet Ileleji, the training content, which covers subjects relevant to starting and growing small and medium-scale enterprises, was packaged by world-class and experienced business owners.

Ileleji said with almost 48 per cent of Nigeria’s national gross domestic product (GDP) and over 85 per cent of all employment created by SMMEs, the need to support more people to start local businesses and reduce the risk of business failure was imperative considering that SMMEs are the backbone of society.

“Small businesses are essential to innovation and jobs, support for budding entrepreneurs must be tangible and cognizant of their reality. As such, the courses on the learning portal are designed for mobile devices, making them ideal for individuals with few resources at their disposal across all 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory.

“The academy is an example of the power of partnership as The Start-Up Tribe, a global initiative that is already active in 451 cities and communities across 27 countries of the world, providing necessary assistance to people to start and grow their businesses, will administer the platform in partnership with Crystal Hands Empowerment Initiative (CHEI) and with a strong support and collaboration from the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF)”, the organisers assured.

Ileleji added that the Start-Up Tribe initiative has gained international recognition for addressing unemployment and promoting economic growth by providing valuable resources and educational opportunities to entrepreneurs.

NEA, which kicks off on Monday is accessible through the Start-Up Tribe Academy website with links for each state academy on the Nigerian map, offering a user-friendly platform for easy access to educational resources. Through periodic data analysis and support from the Start-Up Tribe team, the learning progress would be monitored and impacts measured for each state.

“Importantly, the implementation of NEA incurs no financial cost to anyone accessing the learning platform as it is fully funded by the Start-Up Tribe. With a customized syllabus and comprehensive back-end support, the Academy represents a valuable resource for local entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses.

“The academies are customized for each state and offered to each governor as a powerful tool to assist their communities grow local economies and tackle unemployment, support micro and small businesses and improve the quality of life of the millions of Nigeria.

“The NEA initiative aimed at providing additional tools which will enable access to lots of free education in different sectors of the Nigerian economy, including education, agriculture, livelihood as well as digital economy,” Ileleji said.