Vice-President,, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, is set to mark his birthday today with an expansive business empowerment and basic education scheme designed to spotlight and offer funding to promising young entrepreneurs across the country and provide easy access to quality basic education to young children.
The plan, which will see over a N100 milliom in funding go to entrepreneurs across Nigeria, is organised and sponsored by ‘Friends of Prof’ under the ‘March 8th Initiative which they founded to honor the Vice President’s birthday with notable investments and empowerment efforts that mirror his ideals and values, including the inspiration and promotion of communal, entrepreneurial, and public-spirited endeavor within Nigeria.
A statement by the Project Coordinator, Nduka Enweliku said, “Vice President Osinbajo has been at the forefront of efforts by the administration to engender business and economic growth with the creation of an enabling environment through sweeping reforms, some of which have earned him global commendations from respectable agencies and organizations focused on the attraction and growth of private capital in Africa.
“This is in addition to his drive to cut down poverty figures through careful management of the administration’s social investment programs and relentless contribution towards the improvement of basic education in the country.
“Likely to amplify efforts and inspire new success, the ‘friends of Prof’ have focused on these two areas in this year’s edition of the March 8th Initiative dubbed ‘Project 774’ which represents Nigeria’s 774 local government areas.
“Two participants in all the LGAs of the country will receive N100,000 grant in the Business Development Plan competition. Winners will emerge following a process that will check for the identification of peculiar opportunities and advantages inherent in resident LGA and clarity of purpose and vision in harnessing these advantages in a way that will instigate communal growth and development.
“The competition is open to Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 35 and the timeline for submission of the proposal is between the 8th of March to the 30th of March. Other relevant details and the application portal are available on a dedicated website.
“On the education side of things, Project 774, with a program called: ‘Classroom’, will partner with leading Edutech and learning solutions agency, Codextel Limited, to deliver simplified and curriculum-based lessons to Nigerian children on major subjects, including English, Mathematics, Basic Sciences, and Civic Education.
“To ensure inclusion, the program, built on Edutech’s innovative learning solutions product ‘The Codex Learning Solution’, will include a Hausa version called ‘Makaranta’ which will focus on school-aged children in the northern region of the country, particularly those who make up Nigeria’s alarming out-of-school children figures.
“Expectations are that the program will meet two key goals: the provision of cheap and equitable access to quality basic education, thus helping millions of young children scale the hurdles of geographical barriers and circumstances of birth, alongside the preparation of future drivers of growth and Nigeria’s stability.
“Both goals, crucial to Nigeria’s search for prosperity, are in keeping with Prof. Osinbajo’s lifelong commitments as a public servant. Through policies and unprecedented public engagements, he has rallied the nation and underlined the importance of education, as well as entrepreneurial support for youths, as the panacea to poverty and other social tensions,” he said.
Source: The Sun
