Babcock University promotes entrepreneurship mind-set in students

…collaborates with the University of Glasgow to host Entrepreneurship Week

Babcock University, a private Christian co-educational varsity is fostering entrepreneurship and innovation mindset among students and the university community.

Ajibade Ayodeji, the director of Babcock Entrepreneurship Development Centre (BEDC) in his opening address at the Entrepreneurship Week, said the event which was being organised in collaboration with the University of Glasgow (UK) is meant to provide participants with practical insights and tools to help them develop their entrepreneurial skills and mindset.

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“The essence of Babcock Entrepreneurship Week is to inspire and encourage students to become innovative thinkers and problem solvers who can create new businesses, products, and services that address the needs of society.

“The event provides a unique opportunity for students to learn from successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, who share their experiences, challenges, and successes in starting and growing their businesses,” he said.

In addition, he said; “BEW also encourages students to develop their entrepreneurial ideas and provides them with the resources and support they need to turn their ideas into reality.”

To get the best out of students before graduation, Babcock University has different ways of preparing its students to explore entrepreneurship and innovation and become job creators and not job seekers.

Oludele Awodele, the director for academic planning at Babcock University who is representing Ademola Tayo, the president and vice-chancellor at Babcock University encouraged the participants to maximise the opportunities offered by the week-long event (April 2-5, 2024) to add value to their lives.

“The Babcock Entrepreneurship Week is a platform that enables students to add value to their lives irrespective of academic level.

“We have had a student who used courier services, just to deliver food to other students on campus to pay her school fees. The programme is to impart knowledge and show people the right course to succeed in life,” he said.

The university tweaked its learning approaches to inculcate entrepreneurship in students which is yielding positive results so far.

At Babcock, students are actively encouraged and supported by their project supervisors to carry out problem-centric research and/or final-year projects that can lead to products or services that solve real-life problems.

“This way, the students can see themselves as solution providers who can earn a living by producing/providing these solutions, and even becoming job creators by employing people who can help them achieve their aims and objectives, rather than seeking to go work for someone else who is also earning a living by producing an identified product/solution,” the organisers explained.

Joy Ilabija, the winner of the Babcock innovation challenge pitch competition during last year’s BEW, whose innovation was an organic insecticide named PURGE.

Ayodeji said, “The institution encouraged her by giving her seed funding to continue her innovations.”

Some students in this year’s BEW innovation challenge shared their experiences.

David Ezeh, a Computer Science 400 level student, and the leader of the Light group said he is confident his team’s ‘Ease’ product will emerge winner at the grand finale.

“Our product is called ‘Ease’; the product aims to transform commerce across the various channels of distribution.

“Across Africa, the commerce landscape is not what it should be, we believe the entrepreneurs can begin to use m-commerce as against the popular e-commerce.

“We are using product intelligence that leverages artificial intelligence that helps business owners to know what to stock per time,” he said.

Adams Bello, an alumnus, who is currently working with the university said his group ‘AdamBell Recycling Limited’ is working on how to recycle the waste in society.

“Our innovative idea is on waste management, plastic bottles are a problem in our society. And to solve this problem we believe recycling is the way, hence the reason for the idea,” he said.

Bello applauded the management of Babcock University for the entrepreneurship idea that has exposed him and his fellows to the ‘why’ for every invention.

Besides the BEW, the institution facilitates other programmes like periodic enterprise colloquy series (ECS) where different facilitators are invited from the industry to sensitise the Babcock community on industry practices and requirements to bridge the gap between industry and academia.

The university held a boot camp on ideation on campus in collaboration with Interswitch Group.

The director of BEDC said the camp was a mind-blowing experience for participants who were engaged in design thinking and were able to come up with solutions which they pitched on the last day of the boot camp.

“That boot camp served as a feeder in this BEW as some of the teams that will pitch in the innovation challenge pitch competition emanated from that boot camp.

“Babcock University also promotes entrepreneurship mindset in students by collaborating with institutions that share the same entrepreneurial mindset vision with us,” he said.