By Uchenna Eletuo
The Ikoyi Baptist Church(IBC) Lagos, on Saturday, trained youths on business initiatives and management to arm the young ones with skills and intellectual empowerments to identify, utilise and manage business opportunities within and outside their surroundings.
The two days training, held at the church, tagged IBC Business and Career Fair, began Saturday, ends Sunday with a thanksgiving service.
It has the theme “Maximise Your Ground”
The youths were trained on digital solutions in the financial market, telecom, solutions in the courier sector and others.
The event, that aimed aside other things to discourage the Japa syndrome, trained people on career master classes with themes such as Starting Out on Your Career Journey, Navigating To the Top in Your Career, Preparing for Business Leadership or Entrepreneurship to aid people actualise self and positively contribute to society.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that, the event drew facilitators from the faith, private and the corporate world.
Speaking at the event that drawn youths from other provinces of the Church in Lagos, the Keynote Speaker, Pastor Niyi Adekunle, urged the participants to have faith in God and besiege Him for His grace to ignite ones latent potential.
Adekunle who doubles as the Lead Pastor of the Helpers House, Lagos, said that, opportunities abound in the informal sector that could be groomed into the corporate segment with improved branding.
Another Resource person at the event, Mr Samson Olusina-Isola, said that, the programme was to assist youths identify their inherent business endowment and ways to mainstream those into business entities.
Olusina-Isola, also the General Manager CBC Surveillance and NetCOMMS, anchored the Masterclass for the Teenagers, charged the teens to hold on to their passion and grow it to business.
According to him when one is able to groom his or her passion into a business concept the drive to manage and sustain it will not be in lack.
“Such will be easy for the owner to advance its brand and much easier for the person to put up an attractive business structure that can aid him or her pitch for sponsorship or investment into the business,” he said.
Another Resource person, and a management consultant, Mr Charles Okeibunor, encourage youths to seek out for what he called “fruits of others operational gaps in the service sectors and improve and use as a launchpad into the sector.
Okeibunor, who thought youths on the masterclass tagged “Winning With Exceptional Operations and Customer Service, said that, loopholes existing in businesses that could be identified to earn fortune.
“Strive for operational excellence and business acumen to ensure your business objectives are met.
“Seek and sustain customer loyalty by not taking for granted little customer service relations such complements, exchange of pleasantries and greetings to attract patronage,” he said.
Okeibunor said that, he tailored his career course to stir up entrepreneur quest in the prospective small business owners and to give competitive edge to those already working for others
One of the participants at the event, Mr Oladejo Olurinola, said that the training has expanded his business scope in the digital space. The ICT student, said that he has identified a business solution he will leverage on in the courier service sector to earn living from(NAN) www.nannews.ng
