No fewer than 12 Nigerian businesses have benefited from the Entrepreneur Empowerment Initiative of the Wisdom Ezekiel Cares (WECARE) Foundation as they emerged winners of a N1.2million business grant.
The beneficiaries were awarded the sum of N100 thousand each, during The Empowerment Summit organized by the Foundation and tagged “Roadmap to Success in Entrepreneurship held in Lagos recently.
The 12 startups emerged winners out of over 100 registered businesses that applied for the grant. Some of the beneficiaries were Trashbank Recycling, Royal Totebags, Quickcart Africa, BrandHead Footwears, CrownArc, among others.
Wisdom Ezekiel, Chairman of the foundation said although this is the first edition of the empowerment summit which is part of his 40th birthday anniversary celebration, it will be extended to different states across Nigeria. Including Abuja, Port Harcourt, and with time, it will be hosted in several cities and countries across Africa.
“The people who got our empowerment fund today were people who we have verified that they are really into business and that the sum of N100,000 can make an impact in their business,” he said.
Read also: DSCHC, PharmAccess call for public-private partnership to improve healthcare in Delta
He said the foundation will keep encouraging businesses by giving seed funding that could help them thrive which will push the continent to take its position in the global market.
The Chairman who owns several businesses and mentors young people under several platforms, said the beneficiaries had automatically become eligible for his mentorship series. “We have also formed a team that will be doing the necessary follow-up on the businesses to give them other assistance that they need beyond money,” he said.
Abiodun Olatubosun, founder, Trashbank Recycling, who was one of the grant winners appreciated the foundation, noting that the fund will go a long way in improving his business.
“I am into the recycling space, and have a factory where we recycle plastics with this grant, I will be able to do more recycling activities, I’ll be able to reduce waste from the community and also get more materials to boost the production operation of plastic manufacturing companies,” he said.
Similarly, 40 secondary school students were given free registration forms for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) which was part of the foundation’s initiative to promote academic excellence in the society.
