Anambra, UNIZIK to Train, Empower Youths

Anambra State Government has brokered a partnership with the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Business School in Awka to train and empower 300 youths in the state. The Commissioner for Youth Empowerment and Creative Economy, Afam Mbanefo, stated this in a joint press briefing with officials of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Business School in Awka yesterday.

He said, “Under the Youth Entrepreneurship Start-Up (YES) programme 300 youths will get the opportunity to be trained by the UNIZIK Business School, while the Anambra State Government will empower them to start up their various businesses.” Mbanefo said, “The Anambra State Ministry of Youth Empowerment and Creative Economy has the mandate to ensure that every Anambra youth has at least one skill or the other. 

The YES program is specifically designed to create on annual basis, 300 youth entrepreneurs who will be employers of labour. The core objective of this programme is hinged on assembling 400 creative and innovative youths with business potentials and prospects. We’ll train them in core business principles to identify viable businesses, good business plan, how to sustain and nurture good business, exposure to various donor agencies, locally and internationally and others.” On his part, the Director of UNIZIK Business School, Prof Au Nonyelu while speaking at the conference said, “As a business school, we impart knowledge and skills that will help the youths become employers. We try to do this by getting youths to embrace creativity. This will certainly be the best partnership that would happen between government and our institution.

We have a target of 300 for this year. We will also be letting them know what is involved in terms of the teaching and what they should know, but the most important is the financial support that can help them to kick-start their own businesses. Our concern is how to help them sustain their businesses when they start, because it is not about starting a business but about sustaining it. We will help them sustain it through mentorship. This will be a yearly thing, and through it, we will lift youths off the streets and take them to wealth,” Nonyelu said.

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