‘Days of bagging university degrees, landing white-collar jobs are over’

Dr Sunday Ojo is the acting director of the Centre for Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training of Kwara State University (KWASU). In this interview with ABDULLATEEF FOWEWE and JOSEPH ILUGBO, he speaks about the activities of the centre, achievements and rationale for establishing it. Excerpts:

WHAT are the factors that necessitated the creation of a Centre for Technical, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training in KWASU and how has it fared?

The university had established the centre in a bid to produce graduates who are job-creators and not job-seekers, with its management team drawn from the five colleges of the university.

Members of the management team of the centre were strategically chosen for proper grooming and mentoring of the students because there was no public university in Nigeria then that had a centre for entrepreneurship.

The model of KWASU as an institution is very unique, hence the need for the leadership of the centre to emerge from within. In the long run, I became a member of the centre as a nominee of the faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences. Two years later, some of the nominees from the colleges withdrew because they could not cope with the sacrifices and work demands of the fast-growing centre, all we were doing then was without financial rewards. We had to push  the Senate of the university to get approval for the programmes that have made us an international brand today as a centre approved.

Considering the economic situation of the country, what is your take on the youths focusing on education alone?

The days of bagging university degrees and landing white-collar jobs are over for graduates. There are no jobs anywhere. Government can no longer create employments and to make the matter worse, institutions are not training the youth for the few available jobs that are created by the private firms. I am sure that you know scores of individuals who have graduated many years ago without being gainfully employed. KWASU saw this trend and from inception, dared to do things differently by creating enterprise and skill acquisition programme for the undergraduate students of the institution irrespective of their courses of study.

The sole aim of this is to re-orientate the students and expose them to entrepreneurship as a viable career option and an antidote to joblessness and life devoid of crime.

Students have been compelled to register their businesses with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and obtain a certificate, do you think that is really necessary at this level?

I told you that our vision is to make every KWASU graduate a job-creator and not job-seeker by making entrepreneurs out of them irrespective of their courses of study. You can’t claim to be an entrepreneur without a registered business of your own. So, one of our courses as designed by our board members, who are all seasoned entrepreneurs and approved by the university senate is GNS 204 – Enterprise Creation and Development. As the title of the course suggests, any student who is taking this course must register his or her own business with the Corporate Affairs Commission. This is unique to us as an institution; other universities produce entrepreneurs without enterprises, but we produce graduates who are enterprise creators. We have recorded over 18,000 students’ enterprises since inception. No university in Nigeria has been able to match this feat.

Any student who keys in to the teachings and trainings of the centre can begin to run his or her business while in school and garner experiences that will help him or her later. Our belief is that the earlier you start your personal business the better. Entrepreneurship is the way to go.

What are other achievements of the centre so far?

Just recently, a colleague of mine was relating to me the appreciation of a parent of one of our alumni. He said the parent was thanking KWASU for the orientation and entrepreneurship mindset her daughter got during her undergraduate education. The lady after two years of graduation  with no hope of employment, requested a loan of N2m from her father to expand her baking business which she had started while in school. Six months after, she has three employees and has paid 50 per cent of the loan. This is just one of the many testimonies we receive on a daily basis from parents, alumni and even relatives of our old students.

Many of KWASU students and alumni are out there doing excellently well in their businesses. Currently, the centre has created a poll of KWASU alumni as mentors for students who are under the entrepreneurship mentorship programme. It is the alumni who train and mentor our 300 level students in the various hands-on activities of the centre.

You need to see the designs and quality of shoes and sandals made by our leather works mentor, an engineering graduate of KWASU. True to the vision of the centre, which is to produce global business leaders, some of the brands built by some of our alumni are already global-oriented. In early 2020, the business outfits of two of our alumni that run an agricultural investment firm were invited by MIT in recognition of their contributions to the economy of the nation.

The centre, in collaboration with the alumni office will soon commence documentation of ‘KWASU Alumni Entrepreneur’s. We want to create a network of KWASU alumni entrepreneurs to foster synergy among them so that they can help one another in developing their businesses. I make bold to say that the great businesses of the next decade will be owned by KWASU students and alumni. On the achievements of the centre, I am beginning to lose counts of the various ground breaking achievements of KWASU Centre for Entrepreneurship.

We have trained and certified well over 15,000 entrepreneurs through our enterprise creation and skill acquisition programme. More than 50% of this number are either full time business owners or those run their businesses along with other jobs, the first of its kind in the nation. The implication of this is that, KWASU, though a relatively young university is positioning its students and alumni to take over the economy of the nation in the nearest future. We have helped the government in training more than 5,000 The centre is obviously doing very well. Youths on entrepreneurship are under various programmes like Youwin, Quickwin, etc. The centre has consistently organised entrepreneurship conferences thereby providing a platform for idea generation and dissemination for the growth and development of entrepreneurship education in Nigeria.

Consistently, KWASU has been one of the very few institutions in Nigeria that participates in the activities of Global Entrepreneurship Network, the biggest network of entrepreneurship educators, policymakers, business leaders and the industry. We consistently celebrated Global Entrepreneurship Week, a festival of entrepreneurship in the last 11years.  Besides we are the only public University and one out of the only two Nigerian Universities that have ever attended the Global Entrepreneurship Congress. We have won several awards both nationally and internationally in recognition of our contribution to development of entrepreneurship in Nigeria.

The centre was instrumental to the creation of KWASU Microfinance Bank, the first and only Microfinance bank in the entire Kwara north senatorial district of Kwara State. The centre, in collaboration with Alhaji Dr Kamoru Yusuf, the chairman of KAM Holdings, has set aside a pool of funds given to our students and alumni as interest free loan to help them grow their businesses. Many students have benefited from this revolving loan. The centre has mentored more than 20 much older universities in setting up or reviving their Entrepreneurship Centres. No doubt KWASU centre for Entrepreneurship is well ahead of the park. Through the venture arm of the centre, many of our students are trained.

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