Earlier this year 2022, FATE Foundation entered a partnership with Youth Business International (YBI) to implement the Futuremakers Project that will run for two years (January 2022 – January 2024), with 8 Cohorts across four states in Nigeria: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, and Ekiti.
The Futuremakers Project is a global initiative, supported by Standard Chartered Foundation to tackle inequality and promote greater economic inclusion for young people in underserved communities, most especially females and the visually impaired, and to build their capacity to access jobs and opportunities that will close the inequality gap.
At the end of the first year, 2022, FATE Foundation implemented four (4) cohorts of 40 entrepreneurs each across three states (Lagos, Oyo, and Ekiti), and the key activities that were implemented during this programme are Enterprise trainings; Business Formalisation, Mentoring Support, Advisory, Business Support and Placement for youth entrepreneurs with already existing entrepreneurs/ businesses in their respective field for a 4-12-week period to get a firsthand experience of running a successful business.
Adenike Adeyemi, Executive Director, FATE Foundation said,
“The Futuremakers Programme was developed as part of the FATE Foundation’s Aspiring Entrepreneurs Programme (AEP) to enable aspiring entrepreneurs to transition from the Ideation stage to the start of their business with practical enterprise development knowledge, skills and support needed. Also, to ensure inclusivity in this project, we collaborated with other partners, SightSavers Nigeria and Project Enable Africa to provide business and entrepreneurial support to Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) but not limited to those with visual, hearing, and physical impairment and those with developmental disabilities”.
The four cohorts had a total of 160 entrepreneurs across three states in Nigeria; Lagos, Oyo and Ekiti, 40 of which were people with disabilities from different clusters which include, the visually impaired, those with hearing impairment, the physically challenged, Persons with albinism, Sickle cell carriers, and dwarfs. The entrepreneurs, 70% of which are females, were from the University of Lagos, Lagos State University, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos State Polytechnic, Obafemi Awolowo University, and University of Ilorin, the University of Ibadan, The Polytechnic Ibadan, The Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho and Ekiti State Polytechnic.
YBI’s Director of Development and Programmes Emilia McElvenney said.
“YBI is delighted to see the huge impact our member FATE Foundation is having through our Futuremakers programme in Nigeria, and in particular their support for traditionally underserved young female entrepreneurs.
YBI is about to enter our third year of partnering with Standard Chartered Foundation on projects across eight markets globally, including Nigeria. We’ve so far provided in-depth support to nearly 20,000 entrepreneurs to start, strengthen and grow their businesses, and we look forward to reaching many more over the next year.
FATE Foundation is Nigeria’s foremost enterprise development organisation that seeks to harness the strong entrepreneurial culture of Nigerians by providing aspiring entrepreneurs with business incubation, growth, and accelerator support required to fully explore their innovative potential, to start, grow and scale their businesses.
Youth Business International (YBI) is a global network of expert organisations helping young people around the world to start, grow and sustain businesses, leveraging entrepreneurship to create decent work and drive inclusive economic growth, whilst transforming livelihoods and strengthening communities.
Our efforts are particularly focused on disadvantaged young people, equipping them to build the skills, confidence and connections they need to beat the odds and become successful business owners. By operating at the crossroads of business and social development, we support the entrepreneurs that are shaping the future, working to solve some of the greatest challenges of our time, and creating opportunities – not just for themselves but for us all. www.youthbusiness.org
Call for Applications for the next cohort starting in January 2023 will commenced this month, December 2022. For more information, please visit https://fatefoundation.org/project/aepfuturemakers/
