Group Unveils Business Directory to Support Artisans

Omolabake Fasogbon

As part of efforts to develop the youths and drive innovation among them, Our Lady Mother of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, OLMPH, Ajah, Lagos,has challenged its youth arm, Young Catholic Professionals(YCP)  to productivity, ahead of its 2022 harvest of  transformation programme. 

According  to OLMPH, the move was necessary to enable the  youths harness their  talents towards self productivity and church’s growth ,while also  preparing and positioning them as tomorrow’s leaders. 

The call led the YCP’s  mobilisation sub-committee  to come up with  several initiatives, Including a business directory service that aimed to  support artisans in the building and construction industry. 

Specifically, the  mobilisation sub-committee  would see to promoting   parishioners’  businesses and services, while ensuring financial independence.

Speaking further on the initiative, a  YCP Ex-officio and  committee’s Head of Business Unit, Maryam Owunene Umar commended the parish priest of OLMPH for giving the youths an opportunity to serve and express their talent, adding that it was a step in the right direction.

She stated that the directory, which is a corporate page for catholic professionals, offers seamless market place for buyers and sellers, and enhance visibility of vendors.

She said that the platform would service the needs of parishioners in a conversational way and ease operational delivery.

She added, “The idea basically is to create a networking platform whereby parishioners operating in the building industry i.e. painters, electricians, tilers, carpenters, building materials suppliers, e.t.c are captured in a singular parish database. 

“Most times, parishioners go outside to get service right within their nose because there was no system in place to identify and connect vendors to end users. 

“We want to harness this platform to build up each other and connect service providers to people that needs it in the church, and in the process foster togetherness, trust and a sense of community for the parishioners.”

She explained that the service, will be subscription based for as low as N5000, while money realised from the platform will be ploughed back to the church for developmental purpose. 

In another development, the group revealed that it is offering  a discounted summer travel package for  long standing parishioners to  visit Dubai, Mombasa, Singapore and Nairobi. 

Support Lead of the group,  Amaka  Okekeze explained that the move aimed  to reach out to long standing parishioners, who are still active and willing to support in developing the church. 

She said, “The approach is to use the our novel Alumni, Business and Pioneer’s card which comprises of emerald, gold, bronze and silver group. This  will run for a period of six months where they can either decide to do a one-offpayment or stretch it for six months. Each of the group comes with a benefit”.

To complement the directory service, Umar said a fair and skills acquisition programme would be held annually, where service providers can interact more and share knowledge with end-users for their empowerment.