The Masterpiece Resource Development Centre (MRDC) has empowered over 10,000 entrepreneurs and provided a platform for more than 500 businesses to showcase their innovations over the past decade.
Chief Executive Officer and Founder of MRDC, Modupe Oyekunle, said this during a pre-conference press event, where he mentioned that the organisation was also marking its 18 years of transformative impact in entrepreneurship development across Nigeria.
Oyekunle traced the organisation’s journey from its humble beginnings in 2007 to becoming a recognised hub for entrepreneurial development in Nigeria.
A significant milestone in MRDC’s growth, she said, was its partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) through the globally recognised Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) and Training of Trainers (ToT) programmes.
Between 2024 and 2025, she said MRDC trained over 20 certified ILO-ToT trainees, who are now equipped to deliver the SIYB curriculum across the country. She said through the ILO-SIYB programme, the organisation has successfully trained and empowered more than 200 SMEs, business owners, and entrepreneurs.
Oyekunle shared insights from a recent trip to China as part of a delegation from the Office of the Ministry of Women Affairs, emphasising the need for Nigerian entrepreneurs to think beyond their immediate environment.
The founder highlighted how the conference and trade expo format encourages entrepreneurs to elevate their standards, recounting how one exhibitor changed her branding after seeing other displays at a previous event.
She said its upcoming 10th yearly entrepreneurs’ development conference and trade expo, scheduled to be held on November 27 to 28, 2025, in Lagos, has the theme ‘R.I.S.E. – Reinvent, Innovate, Strategise, Expand’.
The CEO and founder of CELTRON Group, Dapo Adelegan, delivered the keynote address, sharing candid insights from his 36 years as an entrepreneur.
Adelegan, who began his entrepreneurial journey in 1988 at age 25 during his youth service, painted a realistic picture of the entrepreneurial path.
“There’s no better life than being an entrepreneur,” Adelegan said, before outlining what he termed “hazards” of entrepreneurship: being a jack-of-all-trades and master of all, being the last to get paid, losing friendships due to business pressures, being the first to arrive at work and last to leave, and experiencing poverty before wealth.
However, he emphasised that successful entrepreneurship requires an open hand. “An entrepreneur that will succeed and grow must have open hands, share, give, be kind,” he stated, focusing his remarks on “business sustainability in the new normal” and the transformative role of technology in 21st-century enterprise.
