Estimated one
hundred aspiring entrepreneurs would
commence Thursday, April 13 in Warri,
Delta State a year-long training in
entrepreneurship in the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme of the
Centre for Values in Leadership. The 100 young people emerged from a pool of
726 candidates, reports ITRealms.
Warri
is the third of four cities where the Centre for Values in Leadership is
conducting the training for 400 would-be
entrepreneurs in Delta State. Other cities are Ibusa, Agbor, and Ozoro.
Training has commenced at Ibusa and Agbor while it would take off at Ozoro on
Tuesday, April 18 at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
Participants for Warri and Ozoro training come from local
governments in the area. They include Warri South, Warri Central, Warri North, Udu,
Okpe, Uvwie, Ughelli North, Ughelli South, Isoko South, Patani, Burutu, Sapele
and Bomadi.
Under
the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme, the Centre for Values in
Leadership (CVL) would partner several organisations and individuals to teach,
mentor and guide the participants. A further 200 persons would participate in a finishing school.
Prof
Pat Utomi, the CVL founder, said the 400
participants would receive training valued at N3.5m per head over the period.
Their curriculum would include Self Mastery, Pedagogy of the Determined,
Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Finance and Operations. There would also be
Vocational Skills Training. The training is free.
Participants
would intern in organisations in Onitsha, Benin and Asaba. They would also
deploy the vocational skills developed in their training in a community service
project to construct prefabricated houses
from kits imported into the country. CVL would donate the homes, valued at N2m each, to widows and elderly females with housing challenges.
Participants would leave with a starter pack comprising tools of the business
in which they are majoring and links to funders.
Utomi
said the goal of the Youth Entrepreneurship Training Programme is to combat
violent extremism and youth unemployment through entrepreneurship, agro-processing and ICT engagement for young
people. The programme targets people ages
18 to 40 years from the local community of the intervention.
Participants
would pursue innovative ideas in
agriculture and agro-processing including fish farming, piggery or poultry.
They would consider the Creative Economy,
covering fashion, photography, creative arts, music and film or invest in Information
and Communications Technology or Retail.
The CVL founder also indicated that the
empowerment programme at the end of the year
would bring in sponsors to provide starter packs to participants, in addition
to grouping interested graduands into cooperatives with access to loan schemes
of participating banks. He said those interested in Agriculture would get land
and be part of the out grower scheme of
the Integrated Produce City in Edo State.
CVL
trained and equipped 100 participants in Ajegunle, Lagos in the first run of
the programme in 2016. CVL says the plan
would extend to more states, with Adamawa as next destination.
The
Centre for Values in Leadership is collaborating with international and local agencies to deliver the training aimed at
equipping young people with the skills and attitudes to take on life’s
challenges. Partners include The Art of Living Foundation, India, and the
Central Bank of Nigeria.
The
Art of Living is an educational and humanitarian movement engaged in stress-management and service initiatives. The
organisation operates globally in 155 countries and has touched the lives of
over 370 million people. Gurudev Sri Sri
Ravi Shankar founded the organisation in
1981 with a guiding philosophy of
enthroning peace and a violence-free society.
The Art of Living movement has
spread peace across communities through diverse humanitarian projects,
including conflict resolution, disaster relief, sustainable rural development,
empowerment of women, prisoner rehabilitation, education for all and
environmental sustainability. Leadership development is one of the core areas of
The Art of Living Foundation, holding a Global Culture and Leadership Festival
in India in March 2016. The Art of
Living sent two facilitators.
Uj. N. Dominic/GEE
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