Zenith Bank Plc, one of Nigeria’s Financial Power Houses has, for the second year, thrown its weight behind the global carrier, Virgin Atlantic Airways on the promotion of entrepreneurship among Nigerian youths with the launch of ‘The Enterprise Challenge’, a competition to promote entrepreneurship among young Nigerians.
Speaking yesterday in Lagos, at a press briefing which coincided with the opening of a 3-day Boot camp to horn the entrepreneurship skills of the 20 shortlisted participants of the competition, Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said the competition was organized to test the business skills of young Nigerians aged 18 – 35 years.
She disclosed that the 20 participants were drawn from over 11,000 entries from the heavily advertised competition across 22 states of the federation. The shortlisted candidates are partaking in a 3-day Boot Camp under the mentorship of trainers/resource persons from the Richard Branson Centre in South Africa, with the first three finalists to be sent to London where they will meet with the maverick Richard Branson for further mentorship.
Explaining Zenith Bank’s involvement in the competition, the Executive Director of the Bank, Sola Oladipo said it was part of the bank’s strategic vision to partner with any initiative that is targeted at developing the Nigerian youths.
Throwing more light, the Executive Director said that the bank already has a number of initiatives targeting the Nigerian youths and as such they, at Zenith Bank, were only too happy to sponsor the competition since it was aimed at positively channeling the energies and talents of the Nigerian youths towards nation building.
He said further that for a country like Nigeria that is struggling with worsening unemployment, The Enterprise Challenge is an initiative that should be encouraged as it has the potential to address graduate unemployment.
Besides gaining through the mentorship programmes, the first three winners will go home with a seed grant of N2m, N1.5m & N1m being first, second and third place prizes respectively, courtesy Zenith Bank Plc.
This year’s competition, the second in the series, received further boost from The British Council and Samsung Electronics. Winners are expected to be announced in the next few weeks.
