British Council, NGO Empower 8 Youths With N2.4m In Enugu

The British Council and a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Entrepreneurial Development Initiative (ENDIP) have empowered eight youths with N2.4 million to support their businesses.

The beneficiaries were the finalists selected from 70 youths including Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Enugu trained on “Enterprise Development and Employability Skills” by ENDIP.

It is funded by the British Council in partnership with Kings Trust International under the Sustainable Enterprise Challenge Programme (SECP).

This initiative is part of a broader strategy to scale up youth-led business enterprises and designed to equip participants with the education, skills, and knowledge necessary to navigate challenges and thrive in the business world.

As part of the closing ceremony, ENDIP, the implementing partner awarded grants totalling N2.4 million, with eight finalists receiving N300,000 each.

Speaking at the business pitching and closing ceremony, the Executive Director, Mrs Lilian Ari, represented by the Programme Coordinator, Mr Godsgift Sunday, underlined the objective of the initiative to empower youths in scaling their business ideas and acquiring essential entrepreneurship training.

“Currently, we are implementing the Sustainable Enterprise Challenge Programme (SECP), in Enugu, where we have trained 70 participants in enterprise development and employability skills.

“We are witnessing the final day where 8 participants have emerged from a competitive process to be awarded grants of N300,000:00 each to support their business growth and expansion.

“This is the second training programme that we have done. We trained 60 participants and empowered 8 finalists with N250,000 each grant during our pilot phase, and now, we trained 70 participants and awarded N300,000 grant to each of the right participants.

“I am very sure we are going to scale up the programme because we are seeing success and there is need for the programme to spread here in Enugu, so they should look out for social media because there will be a lot of communication when that programme is out for them to apply,” she said.

She explained that the programme was funded by the British Council in partnership with Kings Trust International while ENDIP, were the delivery partner.

“The purpose of this training was to ensure the youths scale up their business ideas and gain entrepreneurship training.

“It does not end there, because we empower them and follow it up to ensure they succeed and thrive in their business as they have been trained on skills, entrepreneurship and so on,” she said.

Earlier, Director of Programmes, British Council, Mr Chikodi Onyemerela, said that the Sustainable Enterprise Challenge Programme was one of the British Council’s non-formal education portfolios aimed at supporting young people’s aspirations and forging a course in their livelihood.

Onyemerela who is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors, British Council, Nigeria, also said the programmes were aimed at meeting the very needs of young people in terms of career aspirations and as well as social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

“Helping young people to attain self-fulfilment to sustainable livelihood, equipping them to be agent of social inclusion and change and also giving them the necessary skill to address the challenges of 21st century.

“British Council and Kings Trust International are partners who have come together to maximizing resources to help young people. We started in Nigeria to help spread across sub-Saharan Africa to help young people achieve their life expectations and career aspirations,” he explained.

While calling for more partnership from corporate organisations, he said, “To see this capital intensive programme continue as we have expanded it to 5 states, we need corporate organisations to join British Council and Kings Trust International”.

One of the beneficiaries, Ozor Nnamdi, commended ENDIP for giving them extensive training, describing it as an eye opener.

Nnamdi, who is a visually-impaired piggery farmer, promised to deploy the grant funds given to him judiciously, saying it’s now easy for me to invest money and make more gains.

“I went into business thinking that I know what I was doing, but when I started the training, I found out that I don’t know anything. In the process, I learnt about smart goals and SWOT analysis.

“I realised that as a blind farmer, I’m supposed to put down every activity on my farm to allow me to know if I am making progress or not. This training opened my eyes, and now I am a new businessman,” he said.