Creating student entrepreneurs – The Enactus model
As part of its contributions to the development of a virile self-sustaining young population of entrepreneurs in Nigeria, Enactus, an international organisation that brings together a diverse network of university students, academic professionals and industry leaders, says it plans to build systems and establish partnerships that would develop and export transformational innovations of undergraduate students in Nigeria in five years using the Enactus annual challenge.
Adesuwa Ifedi, country director, Enactus Nigeria, disclosed that Enactus annual competition strengthens students who are grouped into teams to engage in the process of identifying possibilities where others have seen challenges, creatively working together in teams to design a line of action to unleash these possibilities and transform the lives of people in their communities.
The 2014 edition of the competition in Lagos, Nigeria provided the platform for students in 44 tertiary institutions to showcase innovative impact made by them in communities across the country and also give insights into how they applied their passions, talents and ideas to impact as many lives as they can.
Ifedi observes that business has the power to be sustainable provided people through entrepreneurial education make progress and have access to the skills, knowledge tools and information they need to create a better life for themselves.
According to her, “In cities, towns and communities across the country, Enactus’ students have spent the year applying their passions, talents and ideas to impact as many lives as they can.”
To achieve the set objective, the country manager said the training which the students get from the programme prepares them not to go out there to look for jobs but to provide jobs for people. She added that with the training, the students would be heads and shoulders above their counterparts after school.
According to her, “In the past 12 years, Enactus Nigeria’s national champions have done the nation proud at the Enactus World Cup Competition internationally, by show-casing projects that have placed them in the top four out of 45 other Enactus countries around the world.
In her words “the Light-Up Nigeria power challenge was developed to inspire Enactus teams to explore the opportunities in the value chain of providing sustainable power supply in Nigeria.
“Some projects to be showcased in the Light-Up Nigeria power challenge includes innovative projects that are designed to address electrical power shortage experienced in the local communities across Nigeria focusing on wind and solar energy and the creative use of water plants to generate power for rural communities. And these solutions are targeted at solving these challenges in one community at a time.
“My Cashless Campus challenge is an on-campus competition that inspires Enactus teams to develop and implement strategies that will transform their campuses into cashless communities using debit card,” she added.
Ifedi further disclosed that by implementing community projects that help them understand how business works, Nigerian undergraduates have been inspired to become social entrepreneurs.
KELECHI EWUZIE