Church tasks youths on entrepreneurship, provides support

The Pastor in charge of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Lagos Province 70, Pastor Femi Olunuga, has called on Nigerian youths to take advantage of great opportunities in entrepreneurship rather than chasing white collar jobs that are not available.

Olunuga gave the advice at a press briefing in Lagos held to announce the celebration of the 17th Anniversary of RCCG Province 70, Headquarters Parish commencing April 18, 2021, which will run for seven weekends with the theme: ‘Divine Impartation for Supernatural Exploits’.

Olunuga at the briefing disclosed that the province has set up Covenant Seed Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society to support young entrepreneurs with low interest, with a view to encouraging young Nigerians and make them embrace entrepreneurship, which remains the backbone of any successful economy anywhere in the world.

Asserting that great economists round the world depend more on small and medium scale enterprises to grow their economy, he lamented the spate of unemployment across the country made many young people depend on white collar jobs.

He noted that the cooperative society was being set up to serve Nigerians irrespective of their religious or tribal affiliation, emphasising that the goal of the Church was to open the eye of the youth to great opportunities that are beyond paid employment.

“We are helping startups with proper record keeping process to instill corporate governance from day one. This will enable them not to have a single account for housekeeping and business activities as business accounts should be made separate from other household accounts.

“We are doing this to ensure that whoever applies for loan from this entity will know how to run a business as we are not just interested in the loan being repaid but that the business should be a going concern,” he said.

He called on the government to create conducive environment for business to thrive such as adequate security, hands-on education system, infrastructure and support system for exceptional entrepreneurs.

Olunuga lamented government’s inconsistency in handling economy of the country despite having worldclass economy recovery and developmental reports at their disposal, which unfortunately are gathering dusts in different ministries and departments.

He charged the federal government to revamp the country’s educational system, as the present system only produce administrators and bureaucrats and not hands-on technicians and professionals.

The cleric implored the youths to take advantage of the programme, which would empower them with entrepreneurial skills with resource persons in place such as the Assistant General Overseer, Admin and Personnel, RCCG, Pastor Johnson Odesola; Rector, Redeemed College of Technology and Management, Dr. Stella Mofunaya; President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Mrs. Toki Mabogunje; Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Pastor Oluwole Adeniyi, among others.