Empowering young women with entrepreneurship skills

Vera Jude had planned to spend the last summer or long holiday on frivolities. She would travel to meet an uncle of hers, go to cinemas and hang out with friends in order to make good use of the long school holiday.But an invitation from Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN)  to attend Girl Enterprise Programme altered […]

Vera Jude had planned to spend the last summer or long holiday on frivolities. She would travel to meet an uncle of hers, go to cinemas and hang out with friends in order to make good use of the long school holiday.
But an invitation from Junior Achievement Nigeria (JAN)  to attend Girl Enterprise Programme altered the Model Secondary School, Maitama student’s plan.
Apart from Vera, 549 other female students from secondary schools across Nigeria were trained by experts during the last summer holiday on how to set up private enterprises after completing their studies.
They were chosen from private and public secondary schools in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt to get trained on some skills that may make them employers of labour after their university education.
Oti Mercy of Government Secondary, Tundun Wada told the Home Front she was highly enriched by the various entrepreneurial skills taught by experts. “We were taught how to set up business, they simplified for us how to woo clients, how to make business plans were also imparted in us; and I can go on and on”, Oti said.
Shakirah Abu, another student said, “I have learnt how to manage my time and money; and how to relate with clients. I believe this programme is capable of making Nigeria a country with a lot of industries like China.”
 Though doing business in a country like Nigeria requires much more than money  and money management, many other students spoken to also shared Shakirah’s belief.
National Coordinator of JAN Franca Thomas told the Home Front in Abuja that the GEP programme, which was sponsored by MasterCard Company with the Federal Capital Territory Administration’s Agency for Science and Technology as the implementing partners, would reduce unemployment rate in the country.
She said JAN believes employment can’t be created if the youth were not nurtured from secondary school on how to set up business. Many youth, she said, grew up with the mindset that graduates can’t engage in buying and selling.
“Now, we have to change this mindset. We have to tell them that not only whitecollar jobs can make them comfortable; they can actually setup their businesses and make it in life”, Thomas said.
With many of its youth roaming the streets looking for scant white-collar jobs, Nigeria may soon get a little relieve from its unemployment burden if programmes like GEP are sustained, said the JAN coordinator, who commended the American electronics card company for sponsoring the programme.
“Let’s say we have five or even three of these programmes set up for students during every long holiday; and they are sustained Nigeria will surely reap bountifully from it. Our unemployment level will reduce”, she said.  
Thomas said students were trained on how to write business plan, how to carry out research, how to get funds, financial management and general skills acquisition. They were equally empowered on makeup artistry, bead making , computer appreciation and pastry making, she said.
According to her, 250 were trained in Lagos, 180 in Abuja and 120 in Port Harcourt.
The programme would be taken to other geopolitical zones of the country next summer, she added.   
She also said that over 400 female students that received similar training in 2013 were doing fine with the skills acquired.
 The Director of Federal Capital Territory Administration’s Agency for Science and Technology, Mrs Rosemary Umana said at the training that Nigeria has a very bright future, especially in science and tech.
She said with the way youth are now taking to sciences, Nigeria is on its way to become an industrialised nation. With training of this nature, she said, problems of unemployment will soon be a thing of the past.