A non-governmental organisation, Connak Foundation Entrepreneurship Initiative (COFEI), has trained about 150 entrepreneurs across Nigeria.
The young entrepreneurs, after going through rigorous training for about 12 weeks at various boot camps in Abuja, Lagos and Abia and online intensive training, 50 got start-up grants of $5,000 totaling $60,000.
Addressing newsmen at the award ceremony during the weekend in Abuja, the chief executive officer, Carole Emeka-Sunday, said the initiative was targeted at raising more economically independent youths in the country.
She said the foundation had designed modalities and mechanisms to check the progress of those that would be receiving the grants.
“We want to raise more Dangotes. We want to see economically independent youths, economically independent Nigerians. It is not just one person, we want to actually replicate more CONNAK foundations,” she said.
She called on the federal government to prioritise entrepreneurs and ensure more funding to develop their initiative.
Lead facilitator for the CONFEI programme, Dr. Emeka Onachukwu, said: “After training, they were actually given an opportunity to defend their business plans and business plans and relate it to what they were asking for as grants.
“Everybody was given a fair opportunity. Then at the end, the few you see here today are the ones we chose. The few are 50. The grant will be a maximum of $5,000. So, the minimum is $1000. So, everything depends on the business plan and everything in total is $60, 000,” he said.
Stressing the need for government to prioritise entrepreneurship in the country, he said: “The issue is, first of all, the government needs to realise that every economy in the world today can be considered healthy and is driven by SMEs.”
One of the beneficiaries, Engr. Chigozie Aka, said: “My heart is very, very delighted to be here today. It’s been a long time since I graduated.”
