By Agency Report
The Ugwumba Center for Leadership Development in Africa (UCLD) has said that over 5,000 Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have benefitted from its Ugwumba Enterprise Challenge (UEC) since its inception in 2018.
Dr Uche Nwosu, the Chairman of the Center said this in Abuja at the Grande Finale of the 2022 Ugwumba Enterprise Challenge.
Nwosu said that since inception in 2018, Ugwumba had supported the birth of over 5,000 SMEs and startups across the 36 states including the FCT.
Accordingto him, we are glad that the 5,000 SMEs have continued to recreate additional jobs for youths and women across the country based on the regular feedback we keep getting from them.
.”For us at Ugwumba, we understand that there is an ever-growing concern over the unemployment crisis ravaging the youth population in Africa.
Therefore to contribute to the job creation and economic development policies of the Government of Nigeria and those of other African nations.
“We develop a number of enterprise development programs targeting unemployed youths and women in Africa,” he said.
Nwosu said that for the 2022 empowerment, a pitching and grant competition was designed to assist young people between the ages of 18 to 40 years to turn their skills, ideas and passions into profitable business ventures or social enterprises.
He added that the competition sought to empower the youths to launch and grow their ideas through an intensive business development support Boot Camp and a Pitching Competition that challengeed their creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving potentials.”
Every year we gather these young people, equip them with business development skills and reward the best ideas with various startups grant prizes that enable launch out or scale up of their business ideas.
“This year over 700 Nigerian youths participated in the startups challenges and after the three preliminary pitching competitions, ten startups emerged as top finalist.
“These top 10 finalist shall be competing for our star prizes of N1,000,000, N700,000, N500,000, N300,000 and N200,000 respectively as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th position winners, while others will get consolation prizes,” he said.
He urged winners of the competition to ensure efficient use of the monetary rewards and ensure their businesses gets registered with the Cooperate Affairs Commission and to explore all available support provided by the Abuja Enterprise Agency.
Mr Shehu Abdulkadir, Managing Director of Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA), said it had gotten approval from the Cooperate Affairs Commission (CAC) to register 2,000 businesses with 50 per cent discount in the First Quarter of 2023.
Abdulkadir said that all the 2022 participants of the UEC would be given an extra 25 per cent discount in addition to CAC’s 50 per cent discount to facilitate their business registration in 2023.
According to him, we asked the CAC to give us some discount towards facilitating the formalisation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria and we are privileged that we got an approval of 50 per cent discount.
“And we will be giving an additional 25 per cent discount to all the participants of the UEC in addition to what the CAC has given them,” he said.
He said that the discounts would go a long way to boost interest in business registration for young people and also encourage the youth to embrace enterpreneurship.Mr Remy Chukwunyere, the
Executive Director of the Center, said that the center was non-discriminatory as it ensured that its enterprises and leadership development programs benefitted everyone regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity or political affliations.
“The center is governed by a Board of Trustees, an International Advisory Council and a Management Committee that comprise well experienced professionals, technocrats and development experts.
“Their beliefs, orientations and passions coincide with the mission, vision and objectives of the center which is non-discriminatory.
“In 2020 we celebrated a milestone in covering the 36 state of the country including the FCT and before then it was difficult for us because we usually would have participants from the South, but in 2022 we entered into a partnership with Sir Ahmadu Bello foundation.
“It helped us to reach out to the core North and now we have participants from Kebbi State, from Zamfara, and the core north which is a milestone stone that we are so proud of.
“And in 2020, we had a Muslim winner from the North in person of Ms Bilkisu Garba who won the star prize of One Million Naira.
“This shows that we are non-discriminatory and we dont care about your religion or your ethnicity all we are interested in is the idea you have and how we can make it the best Innovation from Nigeria and from Africa,”he said.
The winners of the contest were the Lightning Artz by Obanijesu Francis clinging 1st position, Venn Biscuit by Venn Theophilus in 2nd position and Early Child Tech Hub by Umar Hassan in 3rd position.
Highlight of the event was the unveiling of the Ugwumba Fund for Women, a microgrant scheme targeted at women traders in the rural areas.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the unveiling was done by Former Minister of Transport and Aviation, Dr Kema Chikwe, who lauded the initiative and the initiator of the scheme.
Chikwe said that the Ugwumba Enterprise was a very special program with a vision that would fill a gap and live up to its responsibilities in the private sector.
“I am impressed with the founder of Ugwumba Enterprise Challenges, Chief Uche Nwosu who is a very dynamic young man.
“When he was commissioner in Imo State, i got closer to him through my husband and my husband had challenges with bringing and attracting shoprite to owerri.
“But because Uche is a man with a vision, he worked closely with my husband and removed all obstacles to establish Shoprite in owerri and it is the only foreign direct investment in Imo state,” she said.
She said that the Ugwumba women fund program would be successful for the benefit of women to boost leadership participation, financial autonomy , boost confidence and create a mass of empowered women.
