LCCI Mentoring Programme has set us on right path— Mentees
The 2018 mentees who graduated from the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Mentoring Programme have recounted their experiences, saying that the programme has not only set them on the right business path but also enabled them to understand the economics of business management.
The LCCI, through its Business Education Services & Training (BEST) unit, brings entrepreneurs together each year, putting them through the rigours of business success for eight weeks or more.
Bukola Baruwa, CEO of Yembar Ventures, who was the head of the 2018 class, said the programme met her expectations.
“When we came here in April, we all came with different mind-sets. We weren’t sure why we came in, but we all had expectations. For me, my plan was to come in, sit down and just listen. But today, I can tell you I have achieved a lot. We started a cooperative society, which is undergoing registration process. We attended various trainings through our network. We have also had good mentoring. I have learnt that it is important to create the market, manage the market and sustain the market,” Baruwa said.
Another mentee, Tubosun Adelatun, said the programme afforded the mentees the opportunity to have access to people they would not have met, saying that it broke barriers.
Other mentees, who run different businesses, told Start-Up Digest that they were able to network even as each person monitored the success of another.
During the programme, experienced mentors were attached to mentees.
One of the mentors, Victoria Onafowokan-Obadina, advised mentees to buy right in order to sell right, saying that profits are often found in buying. She encouraged mentees to maintain a good relationship with their mentors even beyond the programme.
Hebert Ajayi, former president of LCCI and the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), told the mentees that they must know enough to be able to stabilise and make profits. Ajayi urged them to hold onto the virtue of integrity while ensuring they do not open businesses they will not be available to run.
On his part, Michael Olawale-Cole, chairman of BEST unit of the chamber, said the LCCI would continue to wax stronger in its corporate social responsibility, especially in the development of youths and small businesses through its mentoring programme, which started in 2013.
“For us at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, focusing on developmental initiatives of the youth is a means of investing in their future, thereby guaranteeing better tomorrow for our country,” Olawale-Cole said.
ODINAKA ANUDU