Accenture to Empower 3 million Youths Globally by 2020
Accenture, a management Consulting company said it is targeting to empower at least three million youths globally with entrepreneurial skills by the year 2020.
As part of measures to achieve this feat, Accenture has partnered the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), in its six months mentoring program for young entrepreneurs in Nigeria.The partnership was also driven by the need to help promote and protect the business community at large through public advocacy, creation and facilitation of commercial and industrial opportunities.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the 2015 LCCI mentoring program held at the LCCI Conference and Exhibition Centre in Lagos, Marketing Communications Lead, Accenture Nigeria, Segun Olalandu, said Accenture started with a vision to empower 250,000 people globally and have achieved that, adding that Accenture now aims to empower three million people by 2020 globally by helping them get a job or start a business.
He further explained that as at 2015, Accenture had empowered over 800 thousand people globally and now it is enabling 50 people and helping them grow their businesses through the partnership.
According to him, “We partner significantly with anybody who will help us achieve that goal of getting people employed, by providing the requisite skills that will make them employable and also people who will help us get people to start their own businesses like LCCI is doing.”
“To reach the world, we do a reporting line which is based on the UN type reporting for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and it is based on this we know how many people we have reached. We have regular meetings with the people from various regions. We have people in European region, Asian region, and American region among others, having their meetings which will combine to a single report,” he added.
Speaking on the performance of entrepreneurs, he said the magic that makes Nigeria what it is, is the entrepreneurial spirit as a people, as we have so many examples of our people doing incredible things out of nothing and if given the opportunity, they will do much more.
President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Remi Bello, who was represented by the Vice President of the Chamber, Gabriel Idahosa, described the partnership as a great one. He said focusing on this developmental initiative on the youth remained a means of investing in their future, thereby guaranteeing a better tomorrow for the country.
He therefore invited every well-meaning Nigerian to support the initiative and enjoined the trainees to make the best out of the opportunity and be good ambassadors of the program so that millions of other youths can be encouraged to benefit from the program.