Govt approves N15.5m for student enterpreneurs

Lagos State government has announced the approval of the sum of N15.5 million grant for final year students of higher institutions that enrolled for  the Ready.Set.Work programme.

According to the state government, the N15.5 million is a seed funding and grants donated by the state government, to help prepare about  500 promising final year students, from Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), and Lagos State College of Health Technology (LASCOHET),  enrolled in the  various rigorous curriculum  tracks in June, last year.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Obafela Bank-Olemoh, explained that the initiative was meant to provide such students in the state with the tools, knowledge, and know-how  on  becoming effective employees or job creators.

About 500  final year students from  LASU, LASPOTECH and LASCOHET,  were said to have  enrolled in  rigorous curriculum, under the scheme.

About 90 successful students that participated in the employability scheme would  have the opportunity of being placed in six-month internship positions with organizations like PwC, SystemSpecs, FCMB, GTBank, Access Bank, TOTAL, Jobberman, Stutern, among others.

Obafela noted that with the recent grant, about 80 students in the entrepreneurship track will likewise have the opportunity to partake in three to six-month entrepreneur apprenticeships, where they will have the opportunity of  deepening their knowledge on how to develop processes for various business functions, and build a network of vendors, industry peers, and mentors.

He added that the grant  would also provide seed funding and working capital for the top three teams to emerge from the  Business Pitch Competition, scheduled to  hold in the state on September 3.