Hamid Ayodeji
As part of its contribution to economic growth, Heritage Bank Plc has continued to support ‘The Next Titan’ season six.
The competition is to support the entrepreneurial spirit among Nigerian youths.
The Next Titan entrepreneurial reality TV show sponsored annually by the Heritage Bank Plc recently unveiled the top 16 contenders for the season-6 of the competition. The 16 lucky candidates were selected from among 50 contestants who made it to the Bootcamp after the auditions that saw thousands of Nigerian young entrepreneurs jostle for selection at the audition centres in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu and Abuja.
A statement revealed that the contest was for the N7 million cash prize staked for grab by the chief sponsor, Heritage Bank, and a brand new Ford car donated by Coscharis Ford Motors. The cash prize was increased to N7 million from the N5 million it was in the last five seasons.
Speaking at the Premiere Night in Lagos recently, where the top 16 were unveiled, the Regional Executive, Lagos and South-west, Heritage Bank, Dimiri Dike, said the programme was one of the ways the bank drives social and economic change as a responsible corporate citizen.
Dike said: “On the economic level, you know that entrepreneurship drives employment, it drives social change, so we are really doing it for both social and economic change. And also, time it was in the past when a lot of people entered entrepreneurship without proper training. This platform, the Next Titan, offers you a very good beginning.
“Some of the advantages and benefits that entrepreneurs in the past never had are what these ones are enjoying. So this is an opportunity for them to be schooled and at least stand the fighting chance from the perspective of knowledge and experience of those that had gone before them to succeed”.
Advising the top 16 contenders, Dike said: “First, be yourself, you have to be humble. The fact that you made it to the top 16 doesn’t mean you are better than those who didn’t get here. It could have been just one thing or another. So, if you now go and be thinking that you have now arrived, that lack of humility could be your undoing.
“And more importantly, enjoy the experience because even after you have won; it is the memories of your journey to victory that will keep you going, long after you have become a successful entrepreneur.”
