By Adedapo Adesanya
The Chief Executive Officer of Red Circle Digital Agency, Mr Emmanuel Dairo, has been awarded the winner of the 25under25 entrepreneur in the professional services category.
The 23-year-old digital marketing maven was awarded the prize at the 25under25 Awards held on Saturday, October 29, in Lagos, going home with a N100,000 cash prize as well as becoming a Fellow eligible to benefit from a Forbes Africa mentorship programme, which will help him and other nominees and winners to explore opportunities including making a list of Forbes 30 under 30.
The award also opens priority access to venture capital partners to explore funding opportunities for businesses.
Speaking exclusively to Business Post, Mr Dairo said, “This is a dream come through for me and by extension my generation. The world is changing from the way we think and who are the best people to lead this but the young minds.”
The Red Circle CEO edged out seven other competitors to claim the spot, to which he said, “I am really happy to have won this, the other nominees are doing great things in their respective fields and I must commend them for this. We are all winners in our rights.”
He started out as a graphics designer and right now, has impacted a lot of lives with the learner initiative, where he trains youths for free on graphics design, digital marketing, and many more. He graduated from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) and 02 Academy Lagos.
Red Circle Digital Agency is a Digital Marketing and Public Relations agency with the sole aim of exposing and connecting brands to their audiences, through strategic ideas and innovations.
Nigeria’s 25under25 awards provide Fellows with a stipend, access to finance, 12-months incubation, one-on-one leadership coaching, and access to a diverse network of technical advisors, mentors, and potential investors for young entrepreneurs.
The under-25 Incubator program equips early-stage entrepreneurs with the support they need to transform audacious ideas into scalable and sustainable ventures.
For this year, there were 5,000 nominations, but only 127 entrepreneurs made the shortlist into which 25 winners emerged in the 25 categories.