The Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) Thursday empowered three youths with cash prizes, technical and mentorship support.
This was done in Abuja at the 2022 Youth Empowerment Conference organised by the association. A total of N2.25m was given out as cash grants, with the top three young entrepreneurs awarded N1m, N750,000 and N500,000 respectively.
The beneficiaries also got business development support for bankable business plans and became NASME youth ambassadors with one-year free membership subscription to the association.
President and Chairman of the Council of NASME, Dr Abdulrashid Yerima, said the event was to provide an interactive forum for dialogue between young entrepreneurs representing the youth business community and policymakers as well as development organisations.
According to him, such an interactive forum is to discuss the need to invest in young people’s transition, work and citizenship, given the significant roles of young people as agents for positive, social and economic change.
He said the association was worried about the high unemployment rate in Nigeria and vowed to leverage the conference to proffer solutions to it.
The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Yalwaji Katagum lauded NASME and its partners for actualising the conference.
Katagum, represented by the ministry’s deputy director, Industry and Development Department, said the timing of the event was apt, “particularly now that government at all levels in Nigeria is making efforts to ensure recovery from the economic shock occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
