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The Africa Leadership Forum(ALF), with focus on training the next generation of leaders for the continent has launched a Technology Hub to assist young innovative entrepreneurs to grow their businesses .
The ALFTECHUB , located at the forum’s secretariat in Benja Village, Ota, Ogun State will provide support for young entrepreneurs in the areas of information technology, agricultural technology ,Health Technology and oil and Gas technology as well as Transportation .
Speaking with newsmen, Executive Director, ALF, Olumide Ajayi said the TECHUB is one of the projects of the forum to assist young people to convert their innovative ideas into business and taking them through the process of development, pro development, incubation, acceleration and helping them get exposed to investors who can invest in their business and be able to stand on their own.
Ajayi noted that the Techub will also provide a co- working space saying “you know when young people are about to start their businesses, they do not normally have the resources to rent an office, get a generator, so this Techub will give them the space to come and use our facilities for a token to start their businesses”.
According to him,we will likewise expose them to mentoring, we get them a lot of mentors to investment .
On the Lifting Youth and Fostering Entrepreneurship(LYFE) camp at Ota , he stated that 50 young entrepreneurs were selected all over Nigeria to participate in the programme.
Ajayi who is also programme director of Central Bank of Nigeria CBN – Entrepreneurship Development Centre EDC initiative mentioned that the aim was to allow them develop further their business ideas and” present to us which one are good for investment and we select 20 of them which we will incubate”
ALF,he stressed, would give facilities and expose them to investors so as to get their products to the market.
While saying the forum intends to do this regularly, Ajayi appealed to young people to come to Ota and exhibit their innovative ideas to reality.
Since 2008,,he revealed that over 22,000 entrepreneurs had been trained saying many of them are now in their businesses creating jobs and wealth.
Oyo State Govern ment, under the leadership of Senator Abiola Ajimobi,he disclosed,, facilitated N120 million as business loans to 100 trainees of the Centre who are both indigenes of the state and have their businesses domiciled in the state.
He stated that more than half of these trainees have accessed this fund and have started paying back to the bank,” which, we believe, will create opportunity for other trainees to access the fund”.
Olufemi Adebiyi, Business and development services Manager for ALF and South West EDC, said the LYFE camp initiative is a platform for participants to pitch their various ideas and bring mentors and counsellor to educate the participants.
According to him, we may say your idea is good but subject to this adjustment or your idea is not good except you do this or your idea is good,ready for launch but you must take this step,so these are the kind of things,we are trying to do here.
He said the move was to educate them on what to do to translate knowledge into money, how they will commercialise the innovation they have come up with and we guide them through.
ALF,he pointed out, has an arrangement of stimulating entrepreneurship development globally saying “one of the ways to do so,is to target the youths,now we are targeting the youths and now what are the things the youth needs to do to make it in today’s market, it is innovation, they must be able to creatively come up with new business ideas and see how they can translate those business ideas into realities”
The 50 participants at the LYFE camp presented their business ideas for scrutiny among them were Abiola Ajala,CEO, AROJINTECH Nigeria Ltd which presented idea on financing options to access Solar Energy.,Akintola Adenike Chiamaka, CEO Bella 94 – Fashion Designer and Aderemi Abiodun, CEO Helpmum .
Akinremi Feyisipo
