In a giant stride of contributing to the national development and as part of its yearly Youth Leadership Series (YLS), Stanbic IBTC has trained and inspired over 1,000 youths on business leadership skills and entrepreneurship.
The event, which was conducted to rouse the entrepreneurial spirits in young Nigerians while building the next generation of leaders, took place at Yaba College of Technology and had over 1,000 undergraduates in attendance.
“The Stanbic YLS is fashioned deliberately after our annual business leadership series to inspire younger people to become future business leaders,” said Demola Sogunle, chief executive, Stanbic IBTC.
“We understand the future of any business lies with the youth and we need to help them get closer to the future that they desire,” Shogunle said.
He stressed the need for young people to be constantly motivated and inspired to enable them achieve their potential, saying that they account for about 60percent of the country’s population.
He added that the theme, ‘TechCulture,’ which is the fusion of technology and agriculture, is very apt considering the opportunities that abound in both sectors.
“The tech and agricultural sectors are vibrant and profitable on their own but when you add tech to agric the outcome becomes excellent,” he said.
Also, successful young entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector, spoke on how they individually leveraged technology to build their agribusinesses, urging young people to see problems as opportunities to create wealth.
Samson Ogbole, CEO, Soilless Farm Lab, spoke on his adoption of hydroponics technology to grow his agribusiness.
He said he currently grows different crop varieties without the use of soil by simply leveraging technology.
He advised the youths to focus on proffering technological solutions to some of the challenges in the agricultural sector, while noting that opportunities still abound in agric.
Similarly, Yewande Kazeem, founder of Wandieville Media, shared her experience on how she has leveraged technology to build her agric communication business.
Similarly, Seyi Abolaji, co-founder of Wilson’s Lemonade, advised the youths to always start small and grow their businesses gradually.
He spoke on how he failed in his initial business because he lacked the required skills needed to succeed in that space.
Abolaji advised the youths not to abandon their business idea owing to lack of sufficient capital but to start with whatever they have, saying that if the business is good enough to address problems, it will eventually attract its own capital.
In a recorded video, Sunday Dare, minister of youths and sports development, said that the government is ready to uplift the youths and set them on the path of progress and support them to embrace and seize opportunities.
“YLS is providing the young people the platform to equipped themselves with the needed skills and right information,” Dare said.
Josephine Okojie
