Nigerian youths and graduates of higher institutions across the country have been urged to develop skills in entrepreneurship and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), to advance their job opportunities.
The Founder, Ajayi Polytechnic, Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Dr. Busayo Ajayi, who made the call during the institution’s maiden inaugural lecture on Entrepreneurship and Basics of Business skills, said the country must imbibe the global and modern ways of running businesses through ICT.
He expressed concern that most Nigerian youths and graduates are jobless and unemployable because they lack the necessary skills and training, adding that the polytechnic is a platform designed to equip them with the required entrepreneurial skills to set up businesses of their own.
“Innovativeness, being proactive and ability to take risks are some of the attributes the youths must have. It has to do with creating businesses and becoming an employer of labour in the larger business world but within an organisation it is called entrepreneurship. Apart from creating businesses and being employable through the entrepreneurial training, the ICT knowledge will help them to secure jobs in other countries while in Nigeria because we are now in global world.â€
He said the institution is partnering with Samsung and British Computer Society to enhance its training scope and confer international recognition on the institution.
The Director of Learning of the institution, Mr. Tolu Fagbola said it will to help the students know the practical realities of businesses and entrepreneurship skills as a major factor in how businesses thrive globally.
According to him, “In doing business in today’s world, we have moved away from the traditional way characterised by trade by barter over a thousand years ago to the new age of internet-enabled businesses.â€
He added that the biggest businesses in the world today such as Pay Pal, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Uber , among others, do not have physical infrastructure, but are operated using the power of internet.
Fagbola, said 60 percent of Nigerians are connected to the internet, noting that there are real opportunities there to help people understand how business are run.
“ It is to teach them about how to connect business and entrepreneurship with ICT so that they can be globally competitive and introduce them to businesses they can set up in their rooms and trade internationally so that they can make the most of business opportunities and other available profitable platforms here in Nigeria and on the global scale,†he stressed.
