PARIS Harris, a seven-year-old author, and Miss Samantha Soje, a 10-year-old chef, were on Monday recognised and rewarded as kid entrepreneurs in celebration Children’s Day in Lagos State.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Harris and Soje were among eight recipients of excellence award  for kid entrepreneurs which were presented at the Little People Big Future Conference.

The conference was organised by a Non-Governmental Organisation, The Amazing Amazon Initiative.

Harris, wrote her first book at five years. It is entitled “The Magic Bird and The Dancing Hen”.

She just completed her second book of short stories and poems called “The Dandelion”.

Speaking to NAN, her mother, Mrs Imma Harris, explained how the child’s talent, which was noticed at three years, was being nurtured.

“We noticed from three years that she loved to read books; we kept buying story books for her; when you ask her to describe something, she does it in an imaginative way.

“At five years,  there was a school project in which children were asked to write any story and submit. She sat down and started imagining things, and we told her to just write down anything she wanted.

“We noticed that what she was writing was interesting, and we spoke to an illustrator, we put some pictures together and published the first book.

“We printed 50 copies at first, and we sold out within a week. We did  1,000 copies and sold out; since then, we kept selling copies of her book,” she said.

Imma advised parents not to ignore any unique gifts their children could possess but to nuture and harness them.

Soje, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer  of @sammyspecial, a pastry outfit that specialises in pancakes and dough nuts.

She was taught how to make the pastries by her aunt, Ms Bisola Babalola.

Speaking to NAN, Babalola said,
“She noticed that I was very good with social media and she asked me to post her work on Facebook and Instagram, and a lot of my followers took notice and always placed orders.

“She participated in a kidprenuer cooking competition in 2017 and won; since then, she started her business which is doing really well.

“She used profit from her business to buy a waffle maker and cake mixer.

”On her 10th birthday, she made over a hundred pancakes to an orphanage. She was recently featured in BBC pidgin.”

Throwing more light on her venture into entrepreneurship, Soje said she started her business at eight years  at the instance of her aunt, Babalola, who  noticed that she liked experimenting in the kitchen.

“My advice to children is to identify what they are interested in and turn them into  businesses,” she said.

Mrs Mercy Makinde, the Founder of the Amazing Amazon Initiative said that the purpose of the awards was to motivate the recipients to be better and to inspire other children.

“The idea is to inspire children to think outside the box and  know that there is more to life than just being a student who goes to school, eat and sleep.

“We want children to aspire to greatness.

”If we say they are the future leaders, we must  train them to be leaders and not wait till adulthood to start going for leadership classes,” she said.

Makinde urged that parents should start preparing their children for leadership early.

She advised parents to pay more attention to their children and not be carried away by other issues.

According to her, children need all the attention they can get.

“We need parents to give  children more love, attention, guidance and direction,” Makinde said.

NAN reports that other recipients of the award include – Solomon Emmanuel, a 10-year-old disc jockey .who goes by the alias DJ Young Money, and Tony Iji, an 11-year-old talented singer, child environmentalist and peace advocate.

The others include Mojoyinoluwa Adeshina, a 10-year-old author, illustrator and on air personality, and Diana Egwuatu, a six-year-old model and actor.

Temidare and Tamilore Oniyitan, nine-year-old twin mocktail entrepreneurs who used proceeds of their business to pay school fees, provide school supplies for children from low income families, also received the award for their work.

-NAN

BE

– May 27, 2019 @ 18:59 GMT |