Ekiti State government will invest in no fewer than two thousand young entrepreneurs in order to ensure that youths in the state are given a new lease of life.
The commissioner for Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr. David Olusoga, gave the indication on Monday while briefing journalists on the maiden edition of the Ekiti Entrepreneurship Week commencing in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday.
He said the programme was centred on young entrepreneurs across the sixteen local government areas, adding that about 5,000 youths with interest in entrepreneurship would be participating in the programme.
According to the commissioner, the essence of the programme was to inspire the youths by unleashing their latent entrepreneurial skills and ideas for the benefit of Ekiti in particular and Nigeria in general.
He added that the goal was to motivate youths into a pool of individuals who would conceive business ideas that would create employment opportunities and great wealth thereby making them employers of labour instead of being dependent on government jobs which he said were not readily available.
The commissioner stated that the programme would show the world that Ekiti was conducive environment for investments.
He said the state was ready to domesticate Global Entrepreneurship week in the state as Governor Kayode Fayemi had consistently declared its interest in the growth and sustainable development of entrepreneurs based in the state.
Olusoga highlighted the features of the entrepreneurship week to include among others, re-igniting the spirit of entrepreneurship and rebuilding the almost dying commerce and industry in the state; focusing on the garment and fashion industry and showcasing Ekiti fashion signature to the world; youth empowerment through capacity building business solution; promote interactions among fashion designers, tailors, trainers, merchants and beauticians for integrated business links and building a hub around the industry and enhance dignity in labour and productivity.
As part of the corporate endeavours to ensure that youth get it right, the commissioner said successful entrepreneurs had been invited to mentor, train and inspire the youth.
He explained further that the week with theme “Enterprise and Creativity meet Opportunity” would ignite the expected spirit of entrepreneurship in the youths to enable them meet their potential and achieve their life goals.
One of the successful Ekiti indigenes in the fashion industry, Mrs Funmi Ajila-Ladipo, a native of Ado-Ekiti who spoke at the event said she had been in the industry for 36 years and had been able to grow a lot of very young people who had all made their marks in the industry.
Mrs Ajila-Ladipo used the opportunity to advise the youths to develop attitude of wealth creation by being enterprising because a lot of people were making it in fabrics and other industries.
She assured that Ekiti was a ready place for entrepreneurs because industries would easily grow in the state.
She added that instead of going into fraud, they could help them to develop the passion that they had in doing some things that would improve their lives.
