One hundred aspiring entrepreneurs would commence today, Thursday, April 13, in Warri, Delta State a year-long training in entrepreneurship in the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme of the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL). The 100 young people emerged from a pool of 726 candidates.

Warri is the third of four cities where the Centre for Values in Leadership is conducting the training for 400 would-be entrepreneurs in Delta State. Other cities are Ibusa, Agbor, and Ozoro. Training has commenced at Ibusa and Agbor while it would take off at Ozoro on Tuesday, April 18, at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church.

Participants for Warri and Ozoro training come from local governments in the area. They include Warri South, Warri Central, Warri North, Udu, Okpe, Uvwie, Ughelli North, Ughelli South, Isoko South, Patani, Burutu, Sapele and Bomadi.

Under the Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme, CVL would partner several organisations and individuals to teach, mentor and guide the participants. A further 200 persons would participate in a finishing school.

Prof Pat Utomi, the CVL founder, said the 400 participants would receive training valued at N3.5m per head over the period. Their curriculum would include Self Mastery, Pedagogy of the Determined, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Finance and Operations. There would also be Vocational Skills Training. The training is free.

Participants would intern in organisations in Onitsha, Benin and Asaba. They would also deploy the vocational skills developed in their training in a community service project to construct prefabricated houses from kits imported into the country. CVL would donate the homes, valued at N2m each, to widows and elderly females with housing challenges. Participants would leave with a starter pack comprising tools of the business in which they are majoring and links to funders.

Utomi said the goal of the Youth Entrepreneurship Training Programme is to combat violent extremism and youth unemployment through entrepreneurship, agro-processing and ICT engagement for young people. The programme targets people ages 18 to 40 years from the local community of the intervention.

Participants would pursue innovative ideas in agriculture and agro-processing including fish farming, piggery or poultry. They would consider the Creative Economy, covering fashion, photography, creative arts, music and film or invest in Information and Communications Technology or Retail.

The CVL founder also indicated that the empowerment programme at the end of the year would bring in sponsors to provide starter packs to participants, in addition to grouping interested graduands into cooperatives with access to loan schemes of participating banks. He said those interested in Agriculture would get land and be part of the out grower scheme of the Integrated Produce City in Edo State.

CVL trained and equipped 100 participants in Ajegunle, Lagos in the first run of the programme in 2016. CVL says the plan would extend to more states, with Adamawa as next destination.

The Centre for Values in Leadership is collaborating with international and local agencies to deliver the training aimed at equipping young people with the skills and attitudes to take on life’s challenges. Partners include The Art of Living Foundation, India, and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Art of Living is an educational and humanitarian movement engaged in stress-management and service initiatives. The organisation operates globally in 155 countries and has touched the lives of over 370 million people. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar founded the organisation in 1981 with a guiding philosophy of enthroning peace and a violence-free society. The Art of Living movement has spread peace across communities through diverse humanitarian projects, including conflict resolution, disaster relief, sustainable rural development, empowerment of women, prisoner rehabilitation, education for all and environmental sustainability. Leadership development is one of the core areas of The Art of Living Foundation, holding a Global Culture and Leadership Festival in India in March 2016. The Art of Living sent two facilitators.

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