Firm Launches MINE 1000 Entrepreneurship Drive

A Nigerian entrepreneurship-focused firm has announced the launch of MINE 1000 (Made In Nigeria Entrepreneurs 1000), a nationwide initiative aimed at profiling 1,000 small business owners annually and building a structured archive of entrepreneurial activity across the country.

The initiative is being driven by media entrepreneur Tito Phillips Jnr , founder of Naijapreneur, a business media platform focused on Nigeria’s SMEs and entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Phillips said the MINE 1000 initiative is designed to address what he describes as a long-standing gap in the documentation and visibility of Nigerian entrepreneurs operating across different sectors.

According to him, millions of small business owners remain largely undocumented despite their contribution to the economy.

“Nigeria’s entrepreneurial spirit is one of our greatest untapped national assets,” he said. “Across cities, campuses, and communities, millions of small business owners are building and creating value without recognition or visibility. This project exists to change that.”

He added that entrepreneurship remains central to economic transformation, stressing the need for structured visibility and consistent documentation of business owners driving growth at the grassroots level.

Unlike conventional entrepreneur features or ranking lists, MINE 1000 is structured as a data-driven documentation system. Each selected entrepreneur will have a detailed profile capturing over 180 data points, including business origin, funding, growth trajectory, challenges, milestones, and operational structure.

The project is designed to cover 24 industries across Nigeria’s 36 states, with a target of profiling 1,000 entrepreneurs annually. Organisers say the long-term goal is to build a publicly accessible national archive that can support investors, policymakers, researchers, and development partners.

Phillips described the initiative as an attempt to build economic intelligence around Nigeria’s informal and formal business ecosystem.

“This is about building economic intelligence,” he said. “For the first time, we are creating a system where entrepreneurship is not just celebrated but properly documented in a way that can inform investment and policy decisions.”

The first cohort of the 2026 edition includes emerging founders such as Marvellous Bolarinwa, who built a beauty business from limited startup capital; Eloho Zoe Tanho-Attah, who left a corporate recruitment opportunity to build a multidisciplinary creative enterprise; and Kehinde Ajose, a media strategist and author who founded his communications firm without initial startup funding.

Phillips said the broader objective is to reshape how entrepreneurship is documented in Nigeria, particularly at the grassroots level where many businesses operate without formal records.

“For too long, Nigerian entrepreneurship has been told through fragmented narratives,” he said. “We want to create a system where entrepreneurs are visible, their journeys are preserved, and stakeholders can access real data on how businesses actually grow.”

The firm says the initiative will remain open to entrepreneurs across sectors, with selections rolling out nationwide throughout the year.