BusinessDay holds ‘My Business Nigeria Summit’ to empower entrepreneurs

BusinessDay Media Limited in collaboration with Innovate One Company and Mara Mentor has concluded plans to hold ‘My Business Nigeria Summit’.
The summit, which is a maiden edition, is scheduled for Friday, July 23, at the Landmark Centre, Water Corporation Road, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The essence of the summit is to create an avenue where entrepreneurs and businesses can engage in an all-inclusive reorientation with a view to navigating Nigeria’s peculiar business environment.
The event also presents an opportunity for corporate bodies and entrepreneurs to showcase goods and services which they think small businesses can leverage to gain competitive advantage in their various sectors.

My Business Nigeria is also targeted at tackling the root of the problems faced by entrepreneurs, which border on ignorance of simple business principles and lack of entrepreneurship education.
“Entrepreneurs make up almost 80 percent of the Nigerian economy, and informal trade makes up over 85 percent of the economy. With those statistics, it is wholly in our best interest as a country to develop these micro, small and medium enterprises. More than that, it is our civil duty to give back, and that is what My Business Nigeria is,” said Kelechi Dozie, managing director, I-One-C.

Frank Aigbogun, BusinessDay publisher, said: “From the onset, we have believed in a learning community. We believed that if every entrepreneur could be taught the basics of business, if they could be given a platform to build on, we truly would have achieved a perfect success. We would have truly empowered them. It is not about the big names, or the party lights. This is for those willing to put in the hard graft. This is yours and My Business Nigeria!”

Hetal Shah, director, Mara, said: “Mara Mentor is always excited about projects that focus on capacity building for young and emerging entrepreneurs in Nigeria, and My Business Nigeria represents such.

“The Summit is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn the dynamics of what makes a business tick. It is for anyone who is ready to fold his/her sleeves and work on the dream of running a business.”

My Business Nigeria is designed to create an atmosphere for networking amongst business leaders, business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs that would foster the development of innovative paradigms with focus on best practices and the most applicable skills for business, while concentrating on certain key areas of business operations such as finance and accounting, marketing and branding, and operations management.

The summit, which would subsequently be hosted annually, would be in workshop and exhibition format.
The workshops are designed to prime entrepreneurs on requisite competencies and skills that are essential to business operations – from conception of the need it will satisfy to the scaling capacity, and, invariably, its sustainability.

A web portal and a mobile application for registration and interaction amongst attendees and speakers will also power the summit. With estimated 3,000 SMEs attending, the event will, no doubt, start a revolution within the country.

Some of the partners and sponsors include Siemens, Jobberman, Jovago, Domino’s Pizza and WhoGoHost, among others.

ODINAKA ANUDU