Gabriel Ogbechie, the group CEO, Rain Oil, says Nigeria’s population presents greater opportunities for young entrepreneurs to create value and scale their businesses.
The country’s youthful demographic, with a median age of around 18 years, is driving innovation and change, which analysts believe offer a fertile ground for business growth.
Currently, entrepreneurship in Nigeria is a fast-growing ecosystem dominated by Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), which account for the vast majority of local employment.
Driven by resilience and a youthful population, founders thrive in high-growth sectors like fintech, e-commerce, agritech, and the creative arts.
“A country of 200 million people, it means 200 million mouths to feed, 200 million people to move around, 200 million people to grow, 200 million people to house,” Ogbechie said, reiterating that the opportunities within the ecosystem are humongous.
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He made this known during the recent
Dr. Gabriel Ogbechie’s Entrepreneur Symposium with the theme, ‘Resilient Entrepreneurship: Building in an uncertain economy.’
According to him, the symposium is an avenue to reflect on his life at 60, from humble beginnings to where he is today, and disclosed that the entrepreneurship journey is a sure way of adding value to society.
“Use this session to encourage our younger ones to take the entrepreneurship journey because that’s a sure way they can create value for themselves, add value to the society, create jobs, and create wealth, not only for themselves but also for the larger society,”
Ogbechie also presented grants of N50 million to 10 young entrepreneurs to help scale their businesses. According to him, 100 entrepreneurs applied for the grant, which was shortlisted to 26, before the 10 eventual winners were selected.
Austin Avuru, CEO, AA Holdings and chairman of the occasion, said that the key pillars of entrepreneurship are innovation, risk-taking, and value creation. “Innovation is critical to entrepreneurship. Innovation is what defines capitalism.”
Tope Shonubi, keynote speaker and co-founder and executive director, Sahara Group, said humility is the greatest asset any entrepreneur should ever have.
According to him, entrepreneurship is not only about running successful businesses, but involves creating opportunities for others to climb up the entrepreneur ladder.
Shonubi added that entrepreneurs must continually update their knowledge, embrace agility, and stay relevant in the marketplace.
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