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| Some participants at PIN event recently |
In his
opening remark, the Executive Director, PIN, Mr. Gbenga Sesan said the purpose
of TENT is to expose Nigerian students to technical, business and leadership
requirement for Information Communications Technology (ICT) innovation.
TENT, he
said, would help jumpstart the culture of innovation and enterprise in the
mould of global companies that started from the university walls of their young
founders.
Sesan
also revealed that TENT@GreatIfe programme at OAU’s Computer Science and
Engineering department has introduced Year 1 Computer Science and Engineering
students to the concept of tech entrepreneurship.
The
introduction, he noted, challenged the students to start out with an idea they
would implement as a business, or for an existing corporation, on graduation
from school. With the belief that TENT would build a long-term manpower for the
technology industry, PIN boss said the initiative would also change the face of
education by bridging the gap between the classroom and the workplace.
The
founding Managing Director, Future Software Resources Limited, Ms. Nkemdilim
Uwaje said youths need to be innovative to be successful as young
entrepreneurs.
Uwaje listed
the necessary ingredients of being a successful entrepreneur to include
discipline, sacrifice, self-endurance, self motivation, focus, humility,
entrepreneurial skills among others. She also noted that a potential
entrepreneur needs to posses visionary skills, time management and
organizational skills, accounting and administration skills, training and
knowledge transfer skills, and business and strategy development skills.
According
to her, being a good programmer does not make one successful as programmers
would need branding, marketing as well as strategic partnership to be
successful. She equally said business model should be designed in such a way
that it would add value to the life of the buyer of such an idea.
Citing
one of her favourite quotes she said, “Being an entrepreneur means, living a
few years of your life like everyone else won’t so that you can live the rest
of your life like everyone can’t,” maintain that an entrepreneur is not
innovative until he creates value.
The
Chief Operating Officer, PIN, Ms Tope Ogundipe disclosed that the gathering was
meant to serve as an exposure ground of business leadership requirements for
participating students.
For
Manager, Youth Segment, Etisalat Nigeria, Idiare Atimomo, potential
students-entrepreneurs should look out for products and or services, followed
by a market segmentation by knowing the particular market segment or a set of
people that the product or service would be targeted at.
Atimomo
advised potential entrepreneurs never to ignore strategic partnership as most
start-ups are trying to do everything by themselves which is the reason why
most of them fail.
He also
recommended putting in their best in anything they do, this he stressed with
one of Oprah’s quote “Doing your best at this moment, puts you in the best
place for the next moment.”
Further,
Atimomo said ideas do not rule the world, but business models do, emphasizing
that an idea without a concrete business model outlining the sustainability of
such an idea might not see the light of the day, and business model need not be
too big.
“Look
for people who are not big and do great things with them,” he said that big
people would come looking for such person.
He defined value as ‘a tangible benefit that helps a person, group or
organization succeed in their goals.’
Atimomo
also implored the students never to stop learning, “An entrepreneur never stops
learning. An entrepreneur constantly needs new inspiration, new knowledge and
new goals.”
An
Information Technology professional and Manager of Blue Identity Nigeria,
Edward Popoola called on higher institution lecturers to groom problem solving
students and students should also not run away from big problems.
Popoola
said students need to be creating solutions that solve problems rather than waiting
for the problems to find its own solution. “People pay money for problem
solving,” he said.
He
further urged students to focus their energies and talents on one thing in
order to build something great, stressing that having focus on more than one
project at a particular time would only leave such a person to be good at all
and not being the best in one or all of it.
“Don’t
waste energy and time jumping from one queue to the other,” he advised.
He
further said there are no chances that Usain Bolt, the Olympics medalist will
win a Nobel Prize in theoretical physics and also win Federation of
International Football Association (FIFA) World footballer of the year, that
students should not waste their time trying to be the best on every ground.
He
advised them to change the way at which they think about tech-entrepreneurship,
adding that living large does not make one an entrepreneur if not finding a
problem to solve. “Find a problem to solve,” Popoola said conclusively.
Staff writer/DSBNews
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