Africa's largest economic group;Africa'sYoung Entrepreneurs widely known
as A.Y.E headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa last year launched
an entrepreneur empowerment program that is set to identify and tap
into the creative intelligence of exceptional innovative African
entrepreneurs in Africa. The inaugural conference and empowerment
program for young entrepreneurs titled AYEEN
2014 kicked off in November last year.
The organization with over 12 million members spread across the continent brought the event to Lagos ,Nigeria as its flagship country.
The program hosted over 4000 young entrepreneurs from all over Nigeria and boasted of a successful event. Hundreds of these entrepreneurs were given a platform to pitch their business/ideas to the A.Y.E delegates and international business experts.The participants also went through the WBC (Web Business Campaign) a platform to expose their business/ ideas to international investors across the globe. They were taken through different business workshops, free websites were developed for several businesses and a business recognition certificate was issued to facilitate intra-trade and enhance trust in their business relationships.
The recipients of these funds expressed gratitude and joy for this unbelievable empowerment program. They thanked the organization for their relentless work across Africa towards empowerment of the youth and they encouraged other entrepreneurs to partake of the upcoming in June 2015 program
The organization with over 12 million members spread across the continent brought the event to Lagos ,Nigeria as its flagship country.
The program hosted over 4000 young entrepreneurs from all over Nigeria and boasted of a successful event. Hundreds of these entrepreneurs were given a platform to pitch their business/ideas to the A.Y.E delegates and international business experts.The participants also went through the WBC (Web Business Campaign) a platform to expose their business/ ideas to international investors across the globe. They were taken through different business workshops, free websites were developed for several businesses and a business recognition certificate was issued to facilitate intra-trade and enhance trust in their business relationships.
The AYEEN program went on for 3 days and
was a breakthrough for thousands of entrepreneurs in Nigeria. The event
was broken into sections, at the upper level of the venue was the
conference where speakers such as Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, who is the
Chief Executive Matron of the organization, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
(Chief Patron of the organization), Jason Njoku, MI Abaga, Senator
Babafemi Ojudu, Sunday Dare, Babajide Otitoju and many others spoke to
the participants on different experiences in and the opportunities
available for entrepreneurs.
80 candidates were shortlisted from the AYEEN
2014 program out of which 23 was selected for funding. The organization
set aside 50Million Naira to go towards funding these selected
entrepreneurs and are planning to invest three times more in their forth
coming event scheduled to hold in June this year. The funding
presentation was held at the Sheraton Hotel Ikeja on February 11th 2015,
where the organization's president, Mr. Summy Smart Francis emphasized
the organizations commitment and his commendation for the outstanding
business ideas and innovations that was revealed during the program. The
empowerment program will take place in selected African countries over
the next 7 years. Mr. Francis stated that with such initiatives, Africa
can become self sustainable and doing so, will create wealth and job
opportunities in our beloved continent.
The recipients of these funds expressed gratitude and joy for this unbelievable empowerment program. They thanked the organization for their relentless work across Africa towards empowerment of the youth and they encouraged other entrepreneurs to partake of the upcoming in June 2015 program