‘Youth Entrepreneurship Will Unleash Nigeria’s Untapped Potentials’

Stakeholders in the Nigeria’s business sector have identified how the nation can unleash untapped economic potential through youth entrepreneurship and sustainability.

Disclosing this at a programme in Abuja yesterday tagged: ‘Celebration of Seplat Youth Entrepreneurs 2023’ which was a collaboration between Seplat Energy Plc and Conversations for Change (C4C), former director general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Arunma Oteh, stated that the nation’s economic potential would be realized if people in business could embrace sustainability.

Speaking further in her keynote address titled: Unleashing Nigeria’s Economic Potential, Oteh, stated that any country that values Small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurship is a country that understands the formula for success in the future.

She said, ‘‘Nigeria is nation where many of us are entrepreneurs by virtue of our vibrancy. For the nation to focus on its entrepreneurs, it needs to create an enabling environment which means that all of the logistics, infrastructure to start a business must be made available. We need to sort out the issue of erratic power supply and the issue of high cost of doing business. 

entrepreneur, you have to provide your own electricity, your own water, and your own logistics. So, hopefully, I think the country will start to do something about these.’’

On Seplat Energy’s partnership with C4C which has supported about 55 young entrepreneurs who are thriving despite the odds, Oteh commended Seplat Energy and C4C for the initiative and for teaching the entrepreneurs business skills.

Also speaking at the event, the director, External Affairs and Sustainability, Seplat Energy Plc., Dr Chioma Nwachuku, said that monitoring the entrepreneurs and measuring the programmes impact are important to the partners. She also said that beneficiaries who were trained from 2019 to 2022 were brought together during the programme to attest to the fact that Seplat and C4C do monitor and measure the impact on them.

A board member, C4C, Bello Rabiu said that Nigeria is blessed with unique opportunities but decried the problem of poor leadership facing the country.