MasterCard and Junior Achievement
Nigeria (JAN) through its Girls’ Enterprise Programme (GEP), have
proclaimed a joint collaboration to provide experiential education and training
on financial literacy and entrepreneurship to Nigerian youths.
DigitalSENSE Business News
gathered that 600 secondary school students across 20 schools in Lagos, Port
Harcourt and Abuja will benefit from the programme.
The GEP is a part of JAN’s Leadership Empowerment Achievement
and Development (LEAD) camp which recruits and trains senior secondary level 2
(SS2) students on different aspects of setting up and running a business,
including writing business plans, selling shares to raise capital, electing
officers, managing a business and financial records as well as returning
profits to shareholders as dividends.
Further to the LEAD camp, 40 volunteers and 60
small businesses have been deployed for practical sessions to fully implement
the program. Ten participants will be assigned to each partner with small
businesses for two weeks on internship, and afterwards undergo a one day
interactive session with the Microfinance institution. At the end of the
exercise, 100 "girlpreneurs" will assess resources and loans to
start-up their businesses. All the 600 participants will also form peer support
groups based on their locations.
Speaking about
the partnership, Omokehinde Ojomuyide Vice President and Area Business Head for
MasterCard in West Africa, said MasterCard has the privileged to work with
Junior Achievement Nigeria to turn around the lives of young people in the
country.
“We fully
stand behind the youth, the future of this country, and gladly support this
initiative to build capacity in entrepreneurship, which is a crucial component
of financial empowerment. The partnership between MasterCard and Junior
Achievement is ideal because we both share a passion for educating youth as
they become financially active in society” she said.
According to the Central
Bank of Nigeria, the unemployment rate in the country stands at 23.9 per cent,
a worrisome trend that CBN agrees poses a negative impact on the economic
development of the country. Furthermore, the youth unemployment rate is
recorded at 46.5 per cent. Entrepreneurship caters for the creation of
opportunities for large and small-scale employment, resulting from the setting
up of business units. In this way, entrepreneurs play an effective role
in reducing the problem of unemployment in the country which in turn clears the
path towards economic development of the nation.
Commenting on the
partnership with MasterCard, Junior Achievement Nigeria Executive Director,
Mrs. Kumbi Wuraola said: “We are excited about this collaboration that will see
entrepreneurial skills and a new breed of financial literacy delivered to Nigerian
youths. The LEAD camp is designed to empower girls in secondary schools to
become young leaders and achievers, as they prepare to commence their dynamic
career futures.”
For over a decade, MasterCard has partnered with Junior
Achievement to provide financial empowerment education to young people across
the world. MasterCard's partnership with Junior Achievement began with the
Junior Achievement—Young Enterprise program which stresses entrepreneurial
thinking among youth as well as featuring entrepreneurial opportunities for
them.
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