Ikeja Electric Trains 40 Youths on Culinary Entrepreneurship
Solomon Elusoji
As part of its corporate social responsibility role within the communities it operates in, Ikeja Electric recently organised a two-weeks long youth empowerment programme to train 40 young people on culinary entrepreneurship.
The programme was held at the Community Vocational Centre in Oshodi, Lagos, and participants were taught how to make varieties of plantain chips, chin-chin and ofada stew. They also received business management trainings and, at the end, were each given a start-up toolkit with which they could effectively start up a small business with the skills acquired.
At the training's closing ceremony held recently in Lagos, Head of Corporate Communications, Ikeja Electric, Mr. Felix Ofulue, said the training was designed to empower young people and reduce the level of unemployment across the country.
“At Ikeja Electric, we are deeply passionate about providing opportunities for Nigerian youths to hone their entrepreneurial skills through various platforms, because we believe that there are millions of youths out there who need the right opportunities and support to develop,” Ofulue said. “That is why we will continually strive to create the avenues for youth empowerment.”
Representative of the Lagos State Government at the event, Mrs. Joyce Onafowokan, thanked Ikeja Electric for caring enough to empower people in the communities in which they operate. “Beyond the moral bearing of social responsibility of this project, it is the genuine thought of providing low-entry skills to youths in our communities that matter,” she said. “This reveals the quality of thought behind the initiative. And I do hope that you beneficiaries will immediately set sail and become productive citizens of Lagos State – part of which is the responsibility to set up your business and pay taxes.”
She further charged the beneficiaries to use the knowledge they had received from the training to empower themselves economically.
“Knowledge is power,” she said, “but knowledge by itself cannot be power, because it is what you do with it that makes it powerful. So it is my hope that this knowledge you have acquired here will be turned into power. You have been empowered. If you do nothing with this new information, you will remain economically powerless.
“Do not despise the days of little beginnings. The sky should be your limit. What you need to do is to bring somebody else along with you. That's how to spread the knowledge and power. Don’t ever think that whatever you have is too small. This century is about entrepreneurs. So you need to position yourself properly. Remain consistent in your enterprise and be very disciplined in your finances. You will experience growth and satisfaction beyond your dreams.”