Naija Entrepreneurship Academy Launched to Address Youth Unemployment.
An entrepreneurship initiative – Naija Entrepreneurship Academy (NEA), has been launched to curb youth unemployment nationwide.
The launch, initiated by Fatima Sadiq Mohammed, a social development consultant, followed the endorsement of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.
The project is an online portal that hosts free learning courses for prospective business owners and those already managing small businesses.
According to Poncelet Ileleji, the lead champion of the initiative across West Africa, the training content, which covers subjects relevant to starting and growing small and medium-scale enterprises, was packaged by world-class and experienced business owners.
Ileleji noted that with almost 48 percent of Nigeria’s national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and over 85 percent of all employment created by SMMEs, the need to support more people starting local businesses and reduce the risk of business failure was imperative, considering that SMMEs are the backbone of society.
He said small businesses are essential to innovation and jobs, and support for budding entrepreneurs must be tangible and conscious of their reality. As such, the courses on the learning portal are designed for mobile devices, making them ideal for individuals with few resources at their disposal across all 36 federation states, including the Federal Capital Territory.
He assured that: “The academy is a further example of the power of partnership as The Start-Up Tribe, a global initiative that is already active in 451 cities and communities across 27 countries of the world, providing necessary assistance to people to start and grow their businesses, will administer the platform in partnership with Crystal Hands Empowerment Initiative (CHEI) and with a strong support and collaboration from the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).”
Ileleji added that the Start-Up Tribe initiative has gained international recognition for addressing unemployment and promoting economic growth by providing entrepreneurs with valuable resources and educational opportunities.
The Naija Entrepreneurship Academy (NEA), which kicks off on Monday, is accessible through the Start-Up Tribe Academy website ( https://www.thestartuptribe.org/pages/nea ), which offers links for each state academy on the Nigerian map. This user-friendly platform offers easy access to educational resources. Through periodic data analysis and support from the Start-Up Tribe team, learning progress will be monitored, and impacts will be measured for each State.
“Importantly, the implementation of NEA incurs no financial cost to anyone accessing the learning platform as it is fully funded by the Start-Up Tribe. With a customized syllabus and comprehensive back-end support, the Academy represents a valuable resource for local entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses.
“The academies are customized for each state and offered to each governor as a powerful tool to assist their communities in growing local economies, tackling unemployment, supporting micro and small businesses, and improving the quality of life of the millions of Nigerians.
“The NEA initiative aimed at providing an additional tool which will enable access to lots of free education in different sectors of the Nigerian economy, including education, agriculture, livelihood as well as digital economy.”
“Our mission is to help Nigerians realize their business dreams, elevate people from their current socio-economic status, and create more job opportunities,” Ileleji said.
