To support Nigeria tackle its high youth unemployment, the Pro-Poor Growth, and Promotion of Employment (SEDIN) – a programme of the German Development Agency (GIZ) is equipping secondary school students with entrepreneurial skills.
SEDIN through its Student Entrepreneurs Activities- Hub (SEA-Hub) has trained 30,000 secondary school students on entrepreneurial skills needed to run successful businesses in its six partner states – Niger, Ogun, Edo, Lagos, and Plateau.
The SEA-Hub training provides education, mentorship, and practical entrepreneurship experience and activities for students. It has birthed the SEA-Hub club which has been inaugurated in 342 secondary schools in FCT and 10 other states.
Markus Wauschkuhn, head of the cluster, sustainable economic development, GIZ Nigeria, in his welcome address, said SEA-Hub is an intervention program funded by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ to help Nigeria curb its high youth unemployment.
According to him, SEA-Hub is targeted at inculcating basic entrepreneurship training in secondary schools to prepare students for the future.
Since its launch, it has covered 64 Local Government Areas (LGAs) across the active states, and over 300 student graduates are now running their businesses that have created a job or two.
Also, it has impacted over 700 teachers directly or indirectly with a number of them now running their businesses.
The program was piloted at the federal level with 18 Federal Unity Colleges across the 6 geo-political zones. Students of the program now implement community projects from their business proceeds as CRS projects.
Adetola Salau, senior special assistant to Lagos state government on education, said in Lagos state the SEA-Hub started with district one in Agege with 24 secondary schools, adding that more schools are calling for the inauguration of SEA-Hub in their schools.
Salau, who was represented by Lucy Emike Omoaka, director of the Lagos state comprehensive schools program, said the initiative has driven entrepreneurship in the state and is helping secondary school students secure their future.
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Also, Babafemi Oyediran, project lead, SEA-Hub, noted that to further drive innovation and critical thinking, SEA-Hub introduced an annual National Competition in 2018 for student entrepreneurs.
The 2022 edition is the second which was held in June across five states producing three winners in each partner state.
The three winners in each state will compete at the grand finale scheduled to be held in Abuja on the 24th of October 2022.
Olusanjo Egberanmi, a beneficiary of SEA-Hub in 2021 has developed an app – My Idea Africa, which creates a marketplace and connects professionals and artisans to those who require their services and help them analyse and manage risks better with the help of the training gotten from SEA-Hub.
“The project has exposed me to the rudiments of setting up a business; it has also taught me how to provide basic solutions to problems within the community,” Egberanmi said.
Journalists were taken on a tour to see some of the student entrepreneurs. They visited Alimosho Senior Grammar School and Abesan Senior High School to inspect students’ SEA-Hub activities.
At Alimosho Senior Grammar School, Boluwatife Akinfenwa, the SEA-Hub’s managing director, said her team developed a learning app for students to access academic resources.
She stated that the app serves more or less as a virtual class, where users can interact with teachers and fellow students.
The club uses rabbit urine to make mosquito repellent. “We source the urine from a nearby school that has a rabbit farm,” she said.
Also, Olawaiye Oladoyin, component lead of Economic Education and Entrepreneurship, GIZ-SEDIN said the SEA-Hub initiative has added students with disabilities to its training programs.
According to Oladoyin, the pioneer school, which is the school of the deaf in Plateau State where the SEA-Hub club was implemented, has produced a great result and GIZ-SEDIN is encouraged.
“Teachers will impact knowledge through sign language with the available resources.”
She added that GIZ-SEDIN plans to pilot to clearly understand the approach of reaching People With Disabilities with the same product as other students.
