Nigeria's Entrepreneurship Development Program to target college graduates

Olusegun O. Aganga

CC Global Business Desk

Nigeria’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment recently inaugurated the University Entrepreneurship Development Program (UNEDEP) in the capital Abuja, to promote self-employment among youth, particularly college graduates.

According to the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, the program is part of the government’s proactive strategies to tackle graduate unemployment.

UNEDEP will be implemented by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education.

The program was created to enhance and re-orientate the values of undergraduates while providing a mentoring platform for students, with a view to reducing poverty and youth unemployment in the country.

Speaking during the unveiling of the program, Mr. Aganga, said it would give students the opportunity for practical hands-on-experience to enable them start and successfully  manage their own businesses.

"UNEDEP’s mission is to catch them young", he said. The program focuses on entrepreneurship development of undergraduates and aims to create future entrepreneurs by encouraging self-employment. 

“We will achieve this by using the existing Network for African Student Entrepreneurs club structure and deriving a standard schedule of activities for all members across all universities. Part of our strategy is to assess existing scalable student businesses, to determine ways to enhance these, and then create a platform for student mentoring by successful entrepreneurs. Our goal is for students to receive the necessary capacity building as part of the activities of the entrepreneurship clubs”, he opined. 

Also present at the event was Nigeria’s Education Minister, Prof. Ruqayyah Ahmed Rufa'i. In her speech, she also stressed the need for the country to promote the culture of entrepreneurship among students, to reduce unemployment.

“All over the world, entrepreneurship has been identified as the major driver of economic growth and development… The success of many economies can be traced to entrepreneurs who started small and then grew to become multinationals”, she said.