Youth Empowerment Necessary to Attain Economic Destiny –Entrepreneurs

Some entrepreneurs have advocated the support and empowerment of young people if Nigeria and Africa as a whole, want to rise up to attain their social, economic and political destiny.

The entrepreneurs made the call at programme for young people organised by a group, African Social Innovation Fellowship (ASIF) held on Thursday in Lagos.

ASIF Executive Board President, Mr Dennis Akin, said that funding remained a challenge for young people in Africa and Nigeria.

Akin said, therefore, it was important that stakeholders galvanised and harnessed capital for those who have promising ideas.

He said that the aim of the programme was to serve as a bridge between the Africans in diaspora, who want to support motherland and for young entrepreneurs who need mentorship, capital and coaching.

According to him, this is to ensure that Africans can make the continent a great place and hub for economic development.

“You do not need to convince a young entrepreneur, change maker in Africa about being resilient; that is their daily venture.

“What is important is how do we harness people from the African diaspora, who gives three times foreign aid investment on the continent, to fund ideas beyond the remittances they bring?

“ How do we have a structured way, such that we can commit some percentage of their earnings back home and in the long run, really not have to send money back home, “ he said.

Also, Mr David Lanre Messan, said there was need for the democratisation of entrepreneurship in Africa and Nigeria because over 45 per cent of Africa’s population comprises young people, who were at a very high level of productivity.

Messan is Managing Partner, First founders Venture Studio, a Nigerian-based company.

“First is for us to be able to create an enabling ecosystem that fills the issue of the skills, where we empower people with the requisite skills around to maintain operational efficiency, capital efficiency for their businesses.

“I also believe that to solve our problems, we have to be able to create room for what I call patient capital that can come in as a grant or any form of early investment in the experimentation of these ideas.

“So that being said, I think it is not just only a government thing; I think everybody should come together to be able to democratise entrepreneurship.

“Also, to be able to drive entrepreneurship from a skill point of view, policy support point of view, patient capital investment point of view, “ Messan said.

In his remarks, another entrepreneur, Mr Gerald Konwea, said that government’s role was to create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Konwea is the Chief Executive Officer, Smart Business Hub and Managing Consultant at Spotter, a marketplace to accelerate small businesses.

“Government has a lot of role to play as an enabler for businesses, whether small, medium or large scale business.

“One of the ways that government can help is to continue to engage stakeholders, right, the organized private sector, “ he said.