Osinbajo to mark birthday with entrepreneurial support, education access

Group celebrates VP, urges him to declare for president

Friends and associates of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, have announced plans to mark his birthday with an initiative dubbed ‘Project 774’, which aims to offer funding support to promising young entrepreneurs and researchers in the country, as well as a learning solutions programme designed to offer quality access to basic education to children, particularly in rural communities.

SIMILARLY, a female support group, ‘S.M.A.R.T WOMEN FOR PYO’, while celebrating Osinbajo on his birthday, urged the VP to use the opportunity of the celebration to declare his intention to run for the highest office in the land.

According to the co-conveners of the group, Bunmi Oke and Folake Aina, it is time for Osinbajo to speak out, as the women are ready to roll out the drums in his support.

The duo in a statement jointly signed in Lagos expressed the desire of Nigerian women in ensuring that the VP makes an open declaration to put pay to speculations about his ambition.

Project 774 is the latest edition of a series of efforts by the ‘Friends of Prof’ under the ‘March 8th Initiative’, which was organised to inspire and promote communal, entrepreneurial and public-spirited endeavour within Nigeria and in honour of the Vice President.

Its previous two editions have proved highly impactful as thousands of young people and other professionals received recognition for their excellence and needed support to achieve desired career growth. Last year, the initiative rewarded health professionals who put their lives on the line and displayed high professionalism in the country’s drive to manage the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Building on the success, this year’s edition, Project 774, will receive proposals from young people between the ages of 18 and 35 in all local councils of the country on innovative business ideas meant to spur communal growth and development by leveraging local opportunities and advantages. At least, two candidates from each council will receive N100,000 in funding to execute their ideas.

Announcing the Business Plan Competition, organisers of the March 8th Initiative explained that youths population compels the need to identify and support diverse prospects present in all the local councils as “potential growth and entrepreneurship opportunities.”

The competition will “identify entrepreneurs that recognize the opportunities with a plan to harness them.”

In addition to this, the March 8th Initiative also announced plans to deliver access to quality basic education to Nigerian children with a partnership with Codextel Limited, a private Edutech company with expertise in the design of tailor-made learning solutions, on a ‘Classroom’ project.

Codextel’s pioneering product, The Codex Learning Solution, will be utilized to provide curriculum-based and animated tutorial videos to children on key subjects such as Mathematics, English, Basic Science, and Civic Education.

To deepen equitable access and extend reach, the Classroom Project will include a Hausa specialized version dubbed ‘Makaranta’ for the northern region of the country. Marakanta, which is Hausa for classroom, will feature the broadcast of video tutorials on terrestrial TV stations and a special focus on out-of-school children in the north.

The initiative is expected to have a profound impact on the quality of basic education in Nigeria, notably in bridging the gulf in learning opportunities available to children resident in rural, underprivileged communities.

Initiatives under Project 774, the Business Development Plan competition and Classroom Project, reflect Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s commitment to identification and promotion of talent and innovation across the country, alongside his devotion to transforming Nigeria’s population into a literate workforce powering breakthrough achievements across all human endeavours, beginning with the training and education of young children.