Heritage Bank, BoI promote youth entrepreneurship
Heritage Bank Plc and the Bank of Industry (BoI) have taken a step towards economic recovery through support and promotion of youth entrepreneurship.
This will translate into wealth creation and the curbing of unemployment among the youth which will lead to the recovery of the Nigerian economy.
“Heritage Bank and BoI’s Small and Medium Enterprises supported programmes would take the country through the looming recession”, Ifie Sekibo, managing director, said in Lagos at the official Live Well Bia Foods Outlet.
Represented by Raliat Oyetunde, consultant for the bank on SMEs, who is also the Chief Executive of Prinsult Consulting, Sekibo said, “It is in time of recession that new millionaires emerge. This is an opportunity for the young ones between the ages of 18 and 35 should key into the various financing channels provided by Heritage Bank and BoI.”
According to him, the documentation and financing of this project was concluded with due diligence within six weeks which is a big feat. His words: “We need more young entrepreneurs like the managing director, Bia Live Well Outlet, Fadesola Adedayo, to take Nigeria to the next level because the outlet will be opened in 47 other locations across the country before the year ends.”
He said that passion, mentorship and finance were critical to budding entrepreneurs. In his own contribution, Waheed Olagunju, acting managing director, BoI, , affirmed that the support of BoI and Heritage Bank to further empower young entrepreneurs will lead to the recovery of the Nigerian economy.
Olagunju said that improved investment will activate a quick recovery of the economy of the country that has been in a state of decline. According to him, supporting young entrepreneurs through funding is necessary to improve the quality of life of many Nigerian youths with desire to be self reliant. He said “BoI will continue to support youth with innovative projects like this venture because he has not just created a job for himself but for many others in the value chain”.
He stressed that visionary and talented youths with viable business plans would be supported by the bank to drive the industrialisation of the country. “This is a BoI supported project through Prinsult Consulting, one of the 200 Business Development Service Providers (BDSP) of the bank,” Olagunju added.
According to him, the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) and the Youth Entrepreneurship Support Programme of BoI were some of the initiatives of the bank targeted at financing young entrepreneurs. Olagunju urged parents to support their children in their quest for success in their entrepreneurial ventures.
It would be recalled that Heritage Bank in partnership with the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) recently graduated 100 young entrepreneurs in the CVL Young Entrepreneurship Training Programme (YETP) in Ajegunle, Lagos. This is in addition to other youth entrepreneurship programmes that Heritage Bank is involved in like Central Bank of Nigeria backed Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development (YIEDP) and the YES Grant Initiative.
The YETP is aimed at identifying young people, especially youths in densely populated communities and putting them through a 6-month training programme in small business management.
These young entrepreneurs who have been trained in various skills such as catering, bead making, event management, fashion design, arts, hair dressing, shoe cobbling among others have also imbibed comprehensive business management and entrepreneurship skills that would equip them to be successful business owners.