Economy
A consulting agency, Ijida Communications, has called for deliberate measures that will help inculcate business ideas in children from childhood.
Mrs Chivegunum Okparaolu, the Lead Strategist for the agency, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
Okparaolu said there was need to teach the younger generation to identify and develop business ideas in them to accelerate Nigeria’s entrepreneur base and economic development.
She said many Nigerian children possessed business ideas with commercial viability that should be harnessed for self-employment, job creation and economic development.
“These basic skills are yet to be tapped in the lives of the younger Nigerians and proper attention was needed to give to achieve the laudable project.
Okparaolu said that some grey areas had been identified as challenges that had hindered the needed attention to business ideas in children.
She said that institution has started a project known as “The Emerging Africa (TEA) competition as tool to achieve the grooming of business ideas among children.
According to her, TEA is an entrepreneurship competition aimed at nurturing entrepreneurship skills, business management skills, production skills in children between the ages of 10 and 17.
She said that the focus was to build true Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in children; not just to drive private sector in Nigeria but also in African continent.
“We foresee that there is a lot of emphasis on the private sector because it is the sector that determines policymaking, it determines the entire GDP of the economy and a whole lot.
“However, we have left the educating, the building and the foundational structure for private sector development. That is what we want to address with the emerging Africa competition.
“We have entrepreneurship competitions, we have business schools, all of which are geared towards the age range of 18, 35 and above.
“However, we have realised that there is a gap, which starting with 18 years and above, which is a bit too late.
“Why don’t we begin to take financial literacy, financial intelligence from a younger age? Why not start teaching entrepreneurship skills, business management skills, production skills from the younger age?
“After all, we want them to grow. So what we want to do with in TEA competition is to begin at the age of 10.
“I started selling groundnut at the age of 10, not because my parents could not provide for me but because I just realised that I wanted to do business and make money for myself.
“That learning process taught me quite a lot. It helped me to pay my bills in university. It gave me the strength to look beyond being employed, to working for myself.
“Our young people definitely have ideas but are we paying attention to these ideas? How are we moulding these ideas? How are we directing these ideas? ‘’
Okparaolu said that the competition was about identifying the lofty business ideas in children and nurturing them to reality.
She said that the competition is in three stages – the entry stage, followed by selection stage and final stage where winners would emerge.
“At the first stage, we expect parents to upload videos of their children, sharing ideas of what business they want to go into, how they want to get into the business and their aspirations.
“Even for those who have already started something, let them upload the videos of what they are doing in the business space, their financial capacity at the moment and where they aspire to get to.’’
Okparaolu said that the entry stage, which started on June 28, would run for two weeks, after which winners would be selected from the different local governments and the state levels.
“The next stage will be at zones, where the two best entries selections and two winners will be selected from each geo-political zone and one from the FCT. This will produce 13 participants for the final stage.
“At this final stage, these 13 participants will be invited to an entrepreneurship boot camp for three weeks training where the winners will emerge.
“Though there is going to be grand prize, but for us the target is not just about the prize, it is about having the time to share and teach them the elementary of business, inventory through experiences.
“And to teach them financial intelligence, leadership and business skills; at the end of the day, we will have encouraged and taught them lifelong principles that should carry them through.’’
She advised parents to key into the competition by uploading their children’s video clip on www.teacompetition.org, or visit facebook:teacompetition, and on instagram: the emerging Africa.
She said that the competition was in collaboration with the partners of the organisation including some federal ministries, the media and others.
“Our partners include few ministries at the moment- Ministry of Trade and Investment, Women Affairs, SMEDIAN and others as well as the media – NAN, NTA, Radio Nigeria.’’
Okparaolu said that the agency had also written to the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN), expecting it to invest in manufactured products.
She, however, called for more support and sponsorship from others interested partners to build consciousness of business in children. (NAN)
– July 5, 2021 @ 13:39 GMT |
Tags: Institution wants deliberate measures to nurture business ideas in children
