By Uthman Salami
The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has initiated an entrepreneurship and empowerment programme for members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) posted to carry out their national service with AMCON.
The scheme, which is tagged the “Managing Director’s Annual NYSC Entrepreneurship Competition,” is a scheme introduced by AMCON to encourage the Corps members to come up with business plans as entrepreneurs and contest among themselves by making presentations before a panel set up by AMCON to select the best three realistic business plans that will stand the chance of winning the MD’s cash reward.
At the end of the maiden edition of the initiative, three of the fifteen contestants came tops and were presented cheques of Five Hundred Thousand Naira each at a ceremony held at AMCON head office in Abuja. The corps members who emerged victorious include Joanna Jewel Adamu (FC/21A/1265), Umar Aliyu Gosta (FC/21A/1251) and Abdulsamad Saidu Usman (FC/21A/1046) whose business proposals centered on online art and fashion business; poultry production; and technological innovation respectively.
AMCON Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Mr Ahmed Lawan Kuru while addressing the participants at the ceremony noted the high rate of graduate unemployment, and the need for stakeholders to work towards steering the mindset of the youths from that of seeking white collar jobs to that of entrepreneurial engagement must be encouraged by institutions both private and public.
Kuru who extoled the empowerment programmes of the Federal Government, practically started a campaign for the incorporation of functional entrepreneurship training into the nation’s education curriculum. According to him, AMCON initiated the entrepreneurship programme for Corps members in appreciation of the invaluable contributions of NYSC to national development.
The AMCON boss said the intervention began with the conduct of Entrepreneurship training for the Corps Members with some members of Staff of AMCON volunteering as resource persons. The Managing Director explained that the introduction of the business plan contest was aimed at providing funds to enable the winners actualise their business dreams and, in the process, contribute to the economic development of the country.
He further stated that aside the winners, many of the other competitors came up with excellent business ideas, adding that the latter group will also be supported with some token. He did not state what that token will be. He expressed determination not only to sustain the programme, but also increase the number of winners in subsequent editions. Kuru used the occasion to assure of AMCON’s readiness to go into broader partnership with NYSC in the area of entrepreneurship and empowerment.
In his address, the NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General Shuaibu Ibrahim, said the Scheme had been assiduous in the implementation of its Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development programme (SAED), adding that many ex-trainees of the programme were now owners of flourishing businesses. He said Corps members had enormous potentials for self-employment, but added that the challenge was always that of access to fund to actualise their business plans.
The Director-General said this informed the proposal for the establishment of NYSC Trust Fund, which would not only make the SAED training more functional, but also serve as sustainable source of funding for the Corps entrepreneurs.
On that note, the NYSC boss thanked AMCON management for joining the league of partners that are supporting NYSC in the empowerment of Corps members and assured that the scheme would effectively partner the agency for the continued success of the new initiative. He also assured that the scheme would strictly monitor the beneficiaries of the programme and provide feedback to AMCON on their business progress. The Director-General congratulated the winners of the competition and enjoined them to make judicious utilisation of the funds given to them.
Joana Jewel Adamu one of the winners who spoke on behalf of her colleagues, thanked AMCON for availing them the opportunity for empowerment, which she described as life changing. She assured that they would justify the confidence reposed in them through judicious utilisation of the funds as expected.