Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said his administration through the State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) has funded over 21,000 businesses, 90 per cent of the beneficiaries being young entrepreneurs.
Governor Sanwo-Olu made this known while speaking at an event organized by Impact Tour 2025 in Ikeja, themed “Transgenerational Connection, Building Alliance and Leverage for a Sustainable Business.”
According to the organisers, the initiative focuses on visiting 10 states in Nigeria in two months, guiding people on how to dominate the sector by collaborating with people within the sector to grow their businesses and, importantly, contribute to the governance of the day.
The governor, who was represented by the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, said beneficiaries were those who are tech space innovators, and society developers in area of science and technology, among others, adding that young entrepreneurs who have business ideas can go to the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund to get their businesses funded.
“Lagos State Employment Trust Fund has funded 21,000 businesses 90% of these businesses belong to young entrepreneurs who have business ideas.
“We have a special committee that looks at such ideas and proposals, you are a movie star, you are an instrumentalist and if you are in the creative sector, you can apply for the funds.
“We have about 21 vocational centres in Lagos which you don’t have to bother yourselves about the money for equipment and there are testimonies of young people who said the money they use came from the Trust Fund,” he said.
Governor Sanwo-Olu, while noting that the State Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is going up, making Lagos the second biggest city economy in Africa after Egypt, emphasized the significance of the session for entrepreneurs to ensure their businesses do better.
He further highlighted that the strategy session was needed to serve as a place where young entrepreneurs can be told what to do for them to achieve their goals, and gain a lot of insight on how to organize themselves to excel in their businesses.
Patience Olusuyi, a global synergist and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Portal Limited, highlighted that entrepreneurs needed to be thinking about sustainability and legacy and not running the business for the purpose of survival, saying that such had accounted for the collapse of some businesses, which she said were no longer in existence.
Olusuyi, while citing economic inflation and lack of proper guidance as other factors that had contributed to collapse of some businesses, said the organization under her leadership was out to give entrepreneurs “proper guidance to education and introduce them to our mentorship platform they should undertake to be better in their business to help them know system and structure of their businesses.”
“Our decision to go on a bigger scale, we come up with what we called: “The Convergence Africa” to bring over 1000 CEOs under one roof from the hospitality, food, fashion and fitness businesses.
“The impactors are focused on visiting 10 states in Nigeria in two months guiding people on how to dominate in their sectors, collaborating with others to grow their businesses and also contributing to the governance of the states,” she said.
Olusuyi commended the Lagos State Government for its support to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) within the state, saying that It is a journey that is bridging the gap and converging people that would transform the business narrative of Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
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