FATE Foundation has hosted its 2021 Annual Celebration and Awards Ceremony. It was a hybrid event that was themed, “Celebrating Grit, Resilience and Innovation”. The Keynote Speaker was Wole Abegunde, Group Managing Director, Meristem Securities Limited.
Since its inception in 2000, our annual celebration ceremony is a yearly commemorative program celebrating all the entrepreneurs, who have entrusted us with their entrepreneurial journey over the course of the calendar year. Through the program, we celebrate the spirit and drive of entrepreneurship and also partnerships that have been critical to enabling us to support aspiring and emerging Nigerian entrepreneurs across the country.
The Founder and Chairman of FATE Foundation, Fola Adeola, who was physically in attendance said in his welcome speech, “FATE Foundation was born 21 years ago, to harness the strong entrepreneurial culture of Nigerians by providing aspiring entrepreneurs with the business incubation, growth and accelerator support required to fully explore their innovative potential, to start, grow and scale their businesses. Fast forward to now, through our track record and commitment to our mission, we have maintained and solidified this position for over two decades as an enabler of entrepreneurship.”
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At this year’s celebration, FATE Foundation graduated 743 entrepreneurs from its various programs. Most of the graduands joined virtually and expressed their utmost happiness as they had a loved one present their certificates to them.
Also at the event, FATE Foundation presented seven different categories of awards and the recipients are: Monalisa Abimbola Azeh: FATE Alumni Model Entrepreneur Award (FAME); Tayo Oviosu: FATE Model Entrepreneur Award (FME);
Seye Olurotimi: FATE SME Journalist Award; Enyinnaya Iroadumba FATE Volunteer Faculty Award; Kalada Apiafi: FATE Volunteer Advisor Award; Edmond Idokoko: FATE Volunteer Mentor Award; and Busola Boyle-Komolafe: FATE Volunteer Content Contributor Award.
Also, in attendance were the entrepreneurs of our Aspiring Entrepreneurs Programme Centenary Class), a special set of Twenty-Five (25) entrepreneurs who make up the 100th class of our Aspiring Entrepreneurs Programme (AEP), which started in 2000 and has now become Nigeria’s longest running and largest pre-incubation programme for early stage entrepreneurs.
In the bid to make their programming more agile, accelerate innovation and build resilient leadership, Mr Fola Adeola launched three (3) operating program units of the Foundation: The FATE School, The FATE Institute and The FATE Giving.
The Executive Director, Adenike Adeyemi said during the launch of the FATE Foundation’s 2021 Impact Report, “2021 is a particularly special year for us as we celebrate our largest reach this year with over 74,897 aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs and we won’t stop. We will continue to extend our reach. We look forward to an impact filled year in 2022 across all states through our various programs, workshops, online learning and platforms”.
