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By Paul Williams
The governorship candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM) in Rivers State, Amb Sobomabo Jackrich, and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Comr Beatrice Itubo, on Saturday took turns to groom young and budding entrepreneurs at a summit aimed at tackling the soaring unemployment rate in the country.
Other speakers at the AsabaKP Mindshift Summit, held at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni, include Dr Stephnie Oarhe; popular comedian, KO Baba, who spoke on ‘Power of Collaborative Entrepreneurship;’ motivational speaker, Victor Okoro and Joshua Meeting.
The summit, tagged ‘The CEO’ and organized by the Throne Magazine, was “initiated to establish business-oriented minds to proffer solution to unemployment and societal crimes.”
According to the chief executive officer of the Throne Magazine, Asaba KP Asaba, who delivered a paper on ‘How to Fund Your Ideas,’ most students and young graduate build their hopes on working for a big establishment after graduation. This has led many to become jobless and frustrated, and oftentimes manifest in the rising crime rate in the society.
To this end, he said, ‘The CEO’ Summit was initiated to achieve a mind shift among young people, getting them to understand that they can be job creators instead of job seekers.
“It’s the gathering of young entrepreneurs and intending prospective entrepreneurs. The CEO is the first in the series of AsabaKP Mindshift Summit, and is a project planned to tour across all tertiary institutions in Nigeria and Africa at large,” Asaba KP said.
He noted that the summit at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education is the first in the series, and “will continue to other institutions.”
Also among the papers presented at the summit were those by the governorship candidate of the NRM, Amb Sobomabo Jackrich (‘The CEO’), and Labour Party, Comr Beatrice Itubo’s ‘Entrepreneurship and Mind Shift.’
Amb. Jackrich, represented by the vice chairman, Young Lawyers Forum, NBA Okrika Branch, Barr Tannita Gambo, in an explosive presentation took the summit participants on ‘How to start and manage a business, Branding, Business Name Registration and Business Financing among others.
Represented by the director-general of her campaign organization, Mr Confidence Eke, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party described the organized private sector and SMEs as net creators of employment opportunities, noting government alone cannot employ the huge population of young graduates that join the labour market every year.
She emphasized the need for young people to being to explore their talents towards creating jobs for themselves and others, while lamenting that Nigeria is saddled with an aging workforce that have refused to make way for the young and upcoming.
“All over the world, the people that are causing change in the economy and commerce are the young people. The advantage of young people is that they can take risks that older people cannot take. It is through these risks that you witness changes, innovation and growth in new businesses.
“Unfortunately in Nigeria, you see that a lot of older people want to continue holding on. You see somebody at 70, 80 still want to be in the board and management, and still want to contest for governorship. If you go to the secretariat, you see that there are very few young people in the civil service within the age bracket of 35, 40 and 45,” she said.
Some student participants at the event, Egbuluka Favour Cheta, Diepriye Emmanuel and Ugochukwu Anita, were full of praises for the organizers of the summit. They said the lectures presented at the summit offered them a bright hope for the future.
