By No fewer than 41 persons graduated from the Business 101 Programme for artisans and creatives under the Senator Abiru Innovation Lab (SAIL), an initiative of the Senator representing Lagos East Senatorial District, Tokunbo Abiru.
SAIL, a dedicated innovation & tech lab, was conceived by the Tokunbo Abiru Constituency Team (TACT) in partnership with Co-creation Hub (Cc-Hub), a renowned technology and Social Enterprise company based in Lagos.
For the Business 101 for Artisans and Creatives, 47 individuals were amongst the 150 selected out of over 4,000 applications for five pilot programmes at SAIL, while 41 successfully completed the programme. The participants were drawn from the Sixteenth (16) Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Areas in Lagos East.
The closing ceremony for the pioneer cohort of the programme was held on Friday, in the Ikorodu area of Lagos.
Speaking at the event, Abiru who chairs the Senate Committee on Industries noted that Creatives and Artisans class is one among the five pilot programmes at SAIL, saying others include Tech Talent Development, Lagos East Teachers Fellowship, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Café for Secondary School Students, and Start-up Accelerator for Businesses.
He noted that SAIL is in line with his mandate to empower young people in Lagos East with human capacity to enable them tap into enormous opportunities available in the innovation and digital age.
“So I knew, when I became Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that the most enduring empowerment I can give to young people and entrepreneurs, in my constituency is to leveraging my global exposure and experience to make them globally competitive by equipping them with premium digital, innovative and technological skills which are in high demands globally,” Abiru said.
The Senator urged the graduating class for the Artisans and Creatives programme to make the best use of the knowledge and skills they acquired in the course of their 3-month training.
“The best you give back to me for this modest investment in your future is for you to be the next business success story that will shake the world. You have been empowered to empower others. That is how great societies of the world have evolved,” he admonished.
The event also featured a pitch session of 10 persons in the graduating class who had the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a panel of business professionals for seed funding and mentorship.
As a demonstration of support, Abiru also doled out a business grant worth N3m to the top three business pitches — the first place got N1.5m, second place got N1m, while the third place went home with N500k.
