Ifeoma Okafor-Obi discusses opportunities for Nigerian SMEs at the 5th NESH-NXT Annual Conference for Young Entrepreneurs
On November 26, 2020, the Director of Operations of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ifeoma Okafor-Obi represented the CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu in a plenary session at the 5th NESH-NXT Annual Conference for Young Entrepreneurs.
The webinar themed ‘SME Industrial Investment Opportunities for Nigerian Entrepreneurs in 774 LGAs in Nigeria’ focused on ways to catalyse increased local production of quality goods with high local content for in-country consumption and export and ideas on how to urgently establish viable SME industries in every Local Government in Nigeria.
Okafor-Obi highlighted the importance of enabling small businesses to scale, the impact of the Tony Elumelu Foundation over the last ten years, the importance of public-private sector partnerships in empowering entrepreneurs.
“In 2014, our founder, Tony Elumelu announced the Entrepreneurship Programme which has been running for about six years now, and over those six years we have empowered, in Nigeria, almost 3,700 entrepreneurs,” she said.
“We are trying to start-up entrepreneurs and businesses that can stand the test of time, survive the founders, can compete anywhere in the world, and is a testament to the strength and versatility of Nigerians, and of course, Africans,” she concluded.
NESH Nigeria & Entrepreneurship Summit & Honours, is an indigenous platform that provides an avenue for thought leadership and appreciation of the contribution of entrepreneurs to national development.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation begins applications for the 2021 edition of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme on January 1, 2020.
