Nigeria @ 50: CNP considers mentorship with SoTNE

As Nigeria warms up for the golden jubilee celebrations in October, the leadership of Computerize Nigeria Project (CNP) is considering mentoring 1000 budding business inclined candidates with its Spirit of the True Nigerian Entrepreneur (SoTNE).

CNP is a key player in Nigeria’s quest to actively join the information highway and use its knowledge base to bring true prosperity to Nigerians since 2001, by offering the organized sector the opportunity to look inwards, re-assess the efforts at national development and through hindsight add fresh momentum to the national ethical goals.

Chairman of Computerize Nigeria Project, Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe made this disclosure weekend in a chat with newsmen at the Kes Auditorium, Zinox Group headquarters in Lagos.

He said that CNP has done considerably well in speeding up the pace of Information Technology (IT) penetration in the country through the provision and deployment of IT infrastructure and transferred relevant IT skills and processes at subsidized prices through staff and students’ ownership schemes, payment plans for
cooperatives, train the trainer programmes, and numerous media campaigns.

The CNP, he said, believes that the educational sector, both at the formal and informal levels, is not imparting appropriate entrepreneurial know-how to graduates, hence the deluge of unemployed graduates in the country.

And by introducing the SoTNE, Computerize Nigeria considered the lack of entrepreneurial training as an obstacle to the attainment of the millennium development goals in 2015 and the objectives of growth embedded in vision 20 2020.

Hence, CNP has concluded plans to host Nigeria budding entrepreneurs to a one day session to be facilitated by chairman, Zinox Group, Dr. Leo-Stan Ekeh with support of Mr. Walter Kny, Director, World e-Books Library as the special guest, among other notables in the entrepreneurship in the country, to be held in Abuja come October 12 and subsequently across the geo-political zones.

The idea, he said, is to do something productive and entertaining to inspire the true Nigerian cloned on the youths and any budding entrepreneur.

According to him, a mixture of socio-economic and sometimes cultural factors like the inequitable distribution of the oil boom, corruption, ethnicity and religious bigotry have been responsible for the severe challenges in the area of entrepreneurial development.

He pointed out that while a significant number attempt to start businesses, less than a fraction have actually succeed in building viable, structured, productive and sustainable organizations.

“As Nigeria celebrates its 50th Anniversary, the need to encourage a fresh drive towards indigenous businesses as a foundation for the next move of national development has become imperative, giving birth to ‘The Spirit of the True Nigerian Entrepreneur’, sponsored by the Computerize Nigeria Project,” he said.

Prof. Ibidapo-Obe noted that SoTNE seeks to promote this imperative by presenting a step by step study of how few selected Nigerians built their integrated companies.

“This year, we will present Africa’s no.1 digital entrepreneur, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh as the lead facilitator of the Spirit of the True Nigerian Entrepreneur,” he asserted.

SoTNE, he said, has been designed to harness the strategy, experience, challenges, work ethics, and decision making process of a successful Nigerian Entrepreneurs.

“Our focus is on those Nigerians who made it Nigeria with all the challenges. Leo Stan Ekeh, Chairman Zinox Group shall present to over 1000 budding or prospective entrepreneurs a viable and credible template for achieving the truly Nigerian successful integrated companies,” he said.

According to him, SoTNE would attempt to ‘clone’ Leo Stan Ekeh’s successes in the ICT sector, across various sectors of the economy by sharing the principles he learnt and employed to overcome the peculiar Nigerian challenges.

“It will also help refocus Nigeria towards entrepreneurial development as the much needed foundation for growth and youth unemployment. Project SoTNE will promote practicable entrepreneurial principles for enterprise,” he said.

On the event, the consultant to the project, the chief executive officer of Purrples Consult Limited, Mrs Sola Salako, said that the summit is now accepting application for the budding 1000 budding entrepreneurs to be part of the session in Abuja.

“it’s a free summit and we intend to use the number of registration to categorize how CNP could assist them to become entrepreneurs like Ekeh,” she said, stressing that the database of the registration would equally determine where individual applicants would prefer to attend the summit being slated in other parts of the country.

She did not disclose the manner of assistant to be offered to applicants, but assured that based on their needs; assistance would be proffered, while urging Nigerians to take advantage of this forthcoming summit by ensuring that they are actively part of it.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D