GEN celebrates 10 years of connecting global entrepreneurs

Come November, the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) will celebrate 10 years since it began connecting millions entrepreneurs with the hopes of helping them “unleash their ideas to start and scale new businesses” through the annual Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW).

It will be recalled that the GEW campaign in 2008 with an emphasis on “inspiring young people to make their mark”, according to Jessica Wray, a formal journalist who now works for the GEN.

In the years since the campaign began, thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, researchers, have been pulled together to engage and support organisations and “others collaborating to advance economic growth and innovation in more than 170 countries around the world.”

Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, speaking on the 10 years of numerous achievements, he was quoted to have said: “While we see nationalism on the rise in different parts of the world, we are reassured by the fact that entrepreneurs are not constrained by geographic boundaries.

“This initiative continues to bring together a broad array of individuals and organizations who are passionate in their belief that entrepreneurs make our world a better place—and I look forward to 10 more years discovering the best ways entrepreneurs can succeed in any culture and in every economy.”

Entrepreneurship+ can confirm that an approximate of 35,000 events and competitions will take place during #GEW2017, staged to connect nearly 10 million participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors.

This year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week will trace its origins back to a launch announcement in London where then-UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged the support of the British government alongside a multi-year commitment from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Wray said.

According to her, in celebration of GEW’s 10th anniversary, GEN plans to highlight individual stories and moments from Global Entrepreneurship Week events and activities from the past decade.

In the years since GEW has been observed in Nigeria, the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) has used the week to provide vocational training for entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

It will be recalled that the EDC, in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), hosted a Vocational Training for Youngsters (Secondary School Students) in Calabar State.

In addition to that, the vocational training was also inculcate entrepreneurial lifestyle in the Secondary School Students “through experiential and practical skills learning that can be commercialised.”

Forty-two students from four different schools were thought Ankara crafts, facial makeup, shoe and hat making and confectionaries, among others, at the event.

Last year, the GEW host organisation in Botswana, Ngwana Enterprises, led a VIP delegation of businesses, investors and entrepreneurs from Botswana to participate in a collaborative impact forum for developing an entrepreneurial partnership between Botswana and Angola, with quite a number of events and competitions where the selection process takes places months before GEW, and then the finalists compete at the national finals during GEW.

Nawah is one such event organized by Egypt’s GEW host organization, Middle East Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (MSCBE).

entrepreneurship play in the economies of developed countries, and taking into consideration the massive opportunities in the agricultural sector and the need for young people with innovative ideas to take advantage of such opportunities, necessitated this event.” That statement was credited to Simon Adeba, who represented the South South EDC Manager, during his welcome address at the agripreneurship and innovative thinking conference held in Cross River State.

The centre organised the conference in its efforts to “drive entrepreneurship within Africa” towards “joining the global entrepreneurship community.”

The conference discussed challenges in the agribusiness sector, the “potential of self-sustainability thereby providing income for local farmers and reduced importation” and the need for accurate database of organisation of farmers, among others. Other highlight of the occasion was a panel session on innovative thinking and access to market.