Capacity building: CNP votes N500m on knowledge economy

The Computerize Nigeria Project (CNP) has voted the sum of N500 million on capacity building of budding entrepreneurs on knowledge economy by 2015, reports REMMY NWEKE.

CNP is a non-profit organisation set up by Information Technology (IT) technocrats led by the chairman of Zinox Group, Dr. Leo-Stan Ekeh in 2001 with the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe currently as chairman.

This, CNP said, would create affordable access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools and processes for budding entrepreneurs in the country.

Disclosing this recently at the one-day seminar on the Spirit of the True Nigerian Entrepreneur held in Abuja, the chairman of Zinox Group, Dr. Leo-Stan Ekeh, said that the vote would pave the way for shaping the future through a digital revolution.

“The Computerize Nigeria Project is set to invest N500m on capacity building in the knowledge economy in the next five years,” he said.

Ekeh explained that this intervention would come phases including conducting of a yearly entrepreneurial conference and an annual award of 25 post graduate scholarships to deserving Nigerian youths.

The annual conference, he said, would still be organized under the aegis of the Spirit of the True Nigerian Entrepreneur, while the scholarships would be delivered under the Computerize Nigeria Fan Club to be established at States and National levels with a membership drive of over 4 million within the next two years country-wide.

He pointed out that each year; the Spirit of the True Nigeria Entrepreneur would bring in renowned world-class resource persons to train a new generation of Nigerian entrepreneurs.

“Entrepreneurship training would continually seek to address the felt needs of the economy in the area of capacity building,” he said.

According to him, the objective of the Spirit of the True Nigeria Entrepreneur conference is to produce, in ten years, over 10,000 entrepreneurs who will help to achieve the objectives of Vision 20 20:20.

The first SoTNE attracted over 500 participants in the rationalization of CNP that entrepreneurship training was at the peak of the aspiration pyramid of the typical Nigerian.

CNP, he said, has conceptualized to train 1,000 entrepreneurs in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, to celebrate Nigeria’s 50th anniversary, the Spirit of the True Nigeria Entrepreneur Conference surpassed the expectations of all by the quality, comportment and contributions of the dignitaries, participants and resource persons at the event.

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