Naija Entrepreneurship Academy Launched to Address Youth Unemployment

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

An entrepreneurship initiative – Naija Entrepreneurship Academy (NEA) has been launched as part of efforts to curb youth unemployment across the country.

The launch which is an initiative of a social development consultant, Fatima Sadiq Mohammed, followed the endorsement of Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

The project is an online portal that hosts free learning courses for prospective business owners as well as those already managing small businesses.

According to the lead champion of the initiative across West Africa, Poncelet Ileleji,
the training content, which covers subjects relevant to starting and growth of small and medium scale enterprises, was packaged by world class and experienced business owners.

Ileleji noted that with almost 48 per cent of Nigeria’s national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and over 85 per cent of all employment created by SMMEs, the need to support more people to start 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, support for budding entrepreneurs must be tangible and cognizant 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 states of the federation 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 Start-Up Tribe initiative has gained international recognition for addressing unemployment and promoting economic growth by providing valuable resources and educational opportunities to entrepreneurs.

The Naija Entrepreneurship Academy (NEA), which kicks off on Monday is accessible through Start-Up Tribe Academy website ( https://www.thestartuptribe.org/pages/nea ) with links for each state academy on the Nigerian map, offering a user-friendly platform for easy access to educational resources. Through periodic data analysis and support from the Start-Up Tribe team, the learning progress would be monitored and impacts 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 grow local economies and tackle unemployment, support micro and small businesses and improve the quality of life on the millions of Nigeria.

“The NEA initiative aimed at providing additional tool which will enable access to lots of free education in different sectors of Nigerian economy, including education, agriculture, livelihood as well as digital economy.”

“Our mission to help Nigerians realize their business dreams, elevate people from their current socio-economic status and create more job opportunities”, Ileleji said.