BY: Nwokedi Nwanneka A. and Maureen Agbala :
In a bid to drive socio economic development in Nigeria, MasterCard Foundation in partnership with United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) organized a four-day in-house training tagged “Young Africa Innovates” for young Anambra youths between the ages of 18-35 years in the state.
The training which started on Monday 14th October, 2024 at ASSU Hall, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka was aimed to strengthen the capacity of innovation hubs and local institutions as well as support young innovators from all works of life.
Speaking during the training, the Focal Person United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP), South East, Chiwetalu Okosi stated that Young Africa Innovates ethos is rooted in inclusivity and to ensure that innovators from all works of life are empowered to bring their vision to life.
She also said that at the core of the programme, innovators will be provided with technical support to test, validate and scale up their solutions.
According to her, Anambra is the pilot state for South East and the focus is on Commerce because of the state’s peculiarity on entrepreneurship, so there is need for innovative ideas under the value chain for commerce to find out how we can find new ways of doing commerce to improve. Once we have something new and innovative, the idea will be refined.
“Out of 3000 youths that applied, 300 was selected, there was no academic restriction and the programme was conducted in two batches. After the training they will pitch their ideas and best 30 will be selected and scaled up into incubators stage after which they will be given all they will need to refine these ideas like; seed money, mentorship etc and the refined ideas will further be developed and established,’’ she said.
One of the participants, Mrs Okonkwo Patience Onyinyechi, a fashion designer expressed joy to be selected for the programme, stating that she has learned a lot of new ways to help boost her business.
‘’This is a life changing opportunity, I have learnt so many new things that will help improve my business and also in other fields of works, even if am not selected at the end of the day, my life has richly been impacted positively’’.
Idika Chidimma, one of the resource persons commended the organisers of the programme as it will empower the young innovators and help them address the challenges in the commerce sector.
‘’These young innovators are local talents, they are residents in the state so they know the challenges in the commerce sector, they have been equipped with new ways to address these challenges and also to improve their skills,’’ she said.
* Nwokedi and Agbala are of the Ministry of Information, Anambra State *