If we combine our thoughts, start business ventures, poverty ’ll end – Bello
Ismail Bello popularly known as Baba Ila, from Kankara LGA of Katsina state, is an ICT consultant, business developer and an adviser. The Computer Science graduate of Al-Qalam University, Katsina also holds a Masters in Information Technology. In this interview, he shares his views about youth empowerment.
What’s the story behind your motive to champion a progressive forum?
We started our organization in order to help our youths become self-reliant and job creators so as they can contribute their quotas to the development of my state. The motivational threshold of YES-Hub is our current youth unemployment status, thus, inspiring them towards Social Entrepreneurship practices. Our purpose is to interpret and brainstorm the concept of Social Entrepreneurship among the graduates from the core of education system. We believe if we combine our thoughts and commence business ventures, surely poverty will take its place in the museum where it belongs for the sake of whole humanity.
As a young empowerment pusher, do you face challenges in your initiatives?
I started the NotTooYoungToRun campaign back in June 2016 and since then it has been success at through, I came up with a strong team of committed and dedicated young minds who were very instrumental in ensuring the successful passage of the bill at state level. The challenge we faced was from
our religious leaders who were insisting that you can contest for election only from 40 years because there is a saying that life begins at 40, but we were able to overcome those challenges because we remained committed to our campaign and we remain apt in our advocacy.
What projects are you working on?
Currently I am busy setting up a Global Initiative for our young people, i am also beginning to write my first novel. I stared Youth privy, an online platform for profiling opportunities for African youths. We acknowledge that the challenges facing youth inclusion in Nigeria are enormous but by no means insurmountable.
We have barriers upon barriers we must remove, some of which are the issue of financing for young aspirants, we cannot fully participate until we can sponsor ourselves. The plan is to populate the legislature at both state and federal levels and we have recorded success even though there’s much more to be done many young people have won their party tickets in the primary elections. We will continue with our work so that by 2023, Katsina State can produce a youth as governor.
What is your current membership strength?
The NotTooYoungToRun campaign at my state level ushered it over 10,000 youths, women and people
with disability. We unite and came together under one umbrella and we were able to bring change into our political system. Our organization have touched over 200 lives from inception in 2015 to date.
How do you source your fund?
We get our funding from donor agencies at home and abroad and sometimes we do tax ourselves. The YES-Hub Accelerator/Incubation is a Three-week programme that runs after every Four-month in Nigeria. Our team and panel of judges select promising civic-minded startups for this business boot-camp, in which entrepreneurs/Innovators receive access to business support, mentorship, and our investor network to better grow their businesses/ Ideas and be positioned to receive investment.
What is your advice to youth, many of who are still unemployed?
They should start something, the world have changed and it is now focusing on entrepreneurship. The jobs are very scarce and with our number, we need to do something to support our fellow youths. We believe if we combine our thoughts and commence business ventures, surely poverty will take its place in the museum where it belongs for the sake of whole humanity.