Osinbajo’s Associates Unveil Initiative to Boost Enterpreneurship, Education

Raheem Akingbolu

Friends and associates of the Vice President(VP), Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, have announced plans to mark his birthday with an initiative dubbed ‘Project 774’ which aims to offer funding support to promising young entrepreneurs and researchers across all the local governments of the country. The initiative will also include a learning solutions program designed to offer quality access to basic education to children across the country, particularly in rural communities.

A statement signed by the Project Coordinator, Mr. Nduka Enweliku, said: “Project 774 is the latest edition of a series of efforts by the ‘Friends of Prof’ under the ‘March 8th Initiative’ which was organised to inspire and promote communal, entrepreneurial, and public-spirited endeavor within Nigeria and in honor of the birthday of the VP.”

According to the statement, its previous two editions have proved highly impactful as thousands of young people and other professionals received recognition for their excellence and needed support to achieve desired career growth. Last year, the initiative rewarded health professionals who put their lives on the line and displayed high professionalism in the country’s drive to manage the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It explained that building on the success, this year’s edition, Project 774, will receive proposals from young people between the ages of 18 and 35 in all local governments areas (LGAs) of the country on innovative business ideas meant to spur communal growth and development by leveraging local opportunities and advantages.

“At least two candidates from each LGA will receive N100,000 in funding to execute their ideas.  Nigeria’s thriving youth population compels the need to identify and support diverse prospects present in all the LGAs as “potential growth and entrepreneurship opportunities.The competition will “identify entrepreneurs that recognize the opportunities with a plan to harness them,” the statement added.

In addition to this, the March 8th Initiative also announced plans to deliver access to quality basic education to Nigerian children with a partnership with Codextel Limited, a private Edutech company with expertise in the design of tailor-made learning solutions, on a ‘Classroom’ project.

The promoters of the project further stated that Codextel’s pioneering product, The Codex Learning Solution, will be utilised to provide curriculum-based and animated tutorial videos to children on key subjects such as Mathematics, English, Basic Science, and Civic Education.

To deepen equitable access and extend reach, the Classroom Project will include a Hausa specialised version dubbed ‘Makaranta’ for the northern region of the country. Marakanta, which is Hausa for classroom, will feature the broadcast of video tutorials on terrestrial TV stations and a special focus on out-of-school children in the north.

According to the statement, the initiative is expected to have a profound impact on the quality of basic education in Nigeria, notably in bridging the gulf in learning opportunities available to children resident in rural, underprivileged communities.