 |
Ruqayyattu and Aganga | credits: File copy |
Increasing graduate unemployment spurs the Federal Government to start a scheme to encourage student entrepreneurs, SEGUN OLUGBILE reports
BONAVENTURE Ashio’s parents are retired teachers. So, getting funding for his higher education at the Kaduna State University, where he was admitted to run a degree in Philosophy, was tough. When he was resuming school, his parents had to sell some of their prized property to pay his tuition, registration, accommodation and to offset other sundry expenses.
Living daily on campus was difficult for the young man, who was third in the family of six. He could also not buy prescribed textbooks, let alone have a three square meals on campus. Ashio always depended on friends and course mates for books.
But, determined to beat poverty and make a success of his academic pursuit, he decided to start a book-selling business. Yet there is a snag. He had no money to really push the enterprise.
“I just walked to a bookshop one day and made enquiries about how to start a bookshop. The cashier – or maybe the storekeeper – just laughed at me, saying ‘It’s capital intensive. I don’t think you can raise such money.’ I felt bad,” he says.
Luckily for him, a sales representative of a thriving book firm offered to help him. “If you have integrity, I’ll help you. I’ll give you some books, you go and sell and pay me,” the man told him.
Ashio did and since then he has not looked back. He has now become a major supplier of books to students and lecturers at KASU. Now in 300 Level, the young man has two young school leavers in his employment. “Thank God, I’ve stopped bothering my parents about money,” he says.
His story is also similar to that of Adedeji Ifeoluwa, a 400 Level student of Political Science at University of Ibadan. Though not from a poor home, Adedeji has started a business fashioned after his passion for writing and, particularly, note-taking in class. Called Pay As U Learn (PAUL), the initiative is a new cutting-edge student resource network allowing students to exchange course contents (online).
The overriding aim of PAUL, the 19-year-old boy says, is to create a collaboration tool through which students, lecturers and professionals are able to share, produce, download and contribute to the knowledge economy.
Students taking notes in class can upload relevant course contents specific to their university and share with others. This social exchange not only allows students to gain valuable notes that they do not have, but also allow good note-takers to be paid for their efforts.
“PAUL is on the forefront of an academic revolution in Nigeria and Africa at large, allowing a social atmosphere of shared learning. This project will be a “dream come true” for Africa’s university students. With this platform, university students will be able to make quick cash just by going to class, taking notes, and contributing additional materials. The premise of this idea is to create a social learning network whereby courses are like groups in which students can share information with one another. For example, as a student taking Chemistry 157, you can write your (own) notes, study guides, book summary and put them up for sale. Other students will buy into a virtual currency and purchase these documents,” he says.
He does it in partnership with a 500 Level Law student, Godswill Oyor.
Other students, including Abibat Bello of Covenant University; Seun Adeboro of the University of Lagos; Zechariah Yerima and Glory Ijeoma of KASU, are some of the student entrepreneurs making waves in tertiary institutions across the country. What may, however, worry observers is that most of the students who developed similar ideas in the past dropped their passion after graduation for – paid employment or as a result of their inability to fund them.
But worried by the increasing graduate unemployment across the country, the Federal Government, on Tuesday, inaugurated the University Entrepreneurship Development Programme to encourage more undergraduates to start their own businesses even while in school. With it, the likes of Adedeji and Ashio could now attract fund to drive their businesses.
Known as UNEDEP, the initiative is the brainchild of the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education, National Universities Commission and the Network for African Student Entrepreneurs. The idea, Aganga says, is part of the measures being taken by the FG to promote self-employment and eliminate graduate unemployment in the country.
According to him, the Federal Ministry of Education will collaborate with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency to make the scheme work. The project, he adds, will provide a mentoring platform for students reduce poverty and re-orientate undergraduates toward the right values.
“UNEDEP’s mission is to ‘catch them young’. The programme focuses on entrepreneurship development of undergraduates and aims to create future entrepreneurs and encourage self-employment and reduce poverty. We will achieve this by using the existing Network for African Student Entrepreneurs club structure and derive standard schedule of activities for all members across all universities,” he says.
Aganga, who identifies the global economic recession as one of the major reasons for unemployment in the country, calls on the undergraduates that attended the inauguration of UNEDEP in Abuja to look inwards and create jobs for themselves, rather than hunting for employment.
“As as a nation, we must move away from that frame of mind and regard self-employment as a first choice and not an alternative. We must move away from the dependence on government for jobs and lean more towards being the creators of jobs and wealth. You (undergraduates) are the future leaders of Nigeria and investing in your generation is the ultimate investment we can make in our dear country,” he says.
This, Aganga adds, is the reason why UNEDEP is established. He notes that through it, undergraduates will create more micro-small medium scale enterprises already put at 17.2 million in the country. According to him, this will be achieved as UNEDEP will focus on entrepreneurship development of undergraduates, encourages self-employment, engender business ethics among the youth and consequently reduce the incidence of poverty.
On the challenge of start-up capital, Aganga says that the ministry, through UNEDEP, will increase access to finance for young entrepreneurs by exposing them to panels of investors. There will also be road shows to a selection of university campuses to further enlighten them on the programme and to give them the opportunity to ask questions.
The Executive Secretary, NUC, Prof. Julius Okojie, reminded the crowd, made up of vice-chancellors, students and the Chairman, NASE Board of Trustees, Prof. William Barnabas, Director-General, SMEDAN, Alhaji Bature Masari, and lecturers, that the agency had, since 2006, introduced a compulsory entrepreneurial studies into the curriculum of the nation’s universities. He argued that entrepreneurial education was needed to impart students with skills needed to be gloabally competitive.
Though most of the students describe the idea as welcome, they call on the government to ensure transparency in its administration. They also say that any student entrepreneur that does not win the contest but that has a feasible business plan should be supported by the government.
“The idea is great but I’ve seen a lot of my colleagues with brilliant business ideas frustrated because they lack the fund to start their venture. I will therefore call on the FG and even state governments to support any undergraduate that has a brilliant idea that can lead to job creation,” Adedeji says.
However, Yerima, a student of KASU, says as good as the scheme is, “Nigerian factor” of nepotism, corruption, ethnicity, tribalism and religious affinity can truncate it.
He adds that apart from undergraduates, creative and enterprising youths who have shown enough seriousness and ability in their vocation should be supported.
On her part, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayyatu Rufai, argues that unemployment will be drastically reduced when the culture of entrepreneurship is promoted among undergraduates in the country.
She expresses optimism about the success of UNEDEP, saying it will assist the nation to achieve sustainable economic growth and development. --> Source: Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment