By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Future Project in collaboration with Microsoft Nigeria has announced the call for application for accelerate the Economy through Youth in Enterprise (Accelerate LABS).
Accelerate LABS is the activation of Small and Medium Scale Business Engines to accelerate economic development through enterprise development and technology.
Through this intervention, the initiative will equip 2,160 youth across the six geo-political zones in the country to build socially inclined, high profit, and highly competitive enterprise capable of impacting the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.
“Microsoft, through our YouthSpark initiative seeks to empower the youth population of Nigeria to imagine and realize their full potential by connecting them with greater opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship, helping them create a real impact for a better tomorrow,” said Olusola Amusan, Citizenship Lead, Microsoft Nigeria.
“We are delighted about this partnership with Microsoft Nigeria, it will serve as part of our mission to build a network of empowered citizens through jobs, entrepreneurship, and active citizenship which is in line with the Microsoft YouthSpark mission to increase access for all youth to learn,” said Bukonla Adebakin, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, The Future Project.
“By the end of one year we would have empowered young people to develop empathy, find clarity of purpose and the needed resources to build socially responsible enterprises in their communities. We will have youth across Nigeria leading the frontiers of change in various disciplines,” she added.
Each geo political zone would be represented by a host state that will serve as a hub to incubate these businesses.
Accelerate LABS will be in three streams with each stream running for 3 months. Each stream will include 3 weeks training session, 4 weeks mentoring session, 3 weeks research and practice and a demo day for pitching of business ideas to prospective investors.
The call for applications is now open, and will run from August 7 to August 24, 2017 via http://thefutureafrica.com/acceleratelabs/register/
Adedapo Adesanya