No fewer than 60 young people have been trained in Jama’are Local Government by the Job Placement Information Services (JOPIS) unit of the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) to become next Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs.  The training took place Tuesday, 9th February, 2021 at CITAD Training Hall, Jama’are Local Government, Bauchi State, and has been tailored to educate youth in order to start or grow their businesses to overcome the challenges faced by entrepreneurs. The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africa’s leading philanthropy dedicated to empowering African entrepreneurs, opens applications on its TEFConnect digital platform (www.tefconnect.com) in January 1, 2021. This year’s intervention prioritizes the economic recovery of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and young African entrepreneurs, following the Covid-19 disruption to economic activities. To address the unique challenges arising from the pandemic, lift millions out of poverty and create sustainable employment across the continent, the Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme will empower 1,000 young African entrepreneurs, selected from the 2020 cohort.  The Foundation will also open applications to an additional 2,400 young entrepreneurs in 2021, in collaboration with global partners. Successful applicants receive a world-class business training, mentorship, non-refundable seed capital up to $5,000, and global networking opportunities.  The Programme is open to entrepreneurs across Africa, both new start-ups and existing young businesses, operating in any sector.

Earlier, the secretary Jama’are local government, Alh Abdullahi Danbaba in his opening remarks thanked CITAD and said that it is always good to have organization such as CITAD in our midst for economic well being of our communities. The secretary strongly advised the participants to listen attentively and try their best. He described Tony Elumelu Foundation as good venture to interact with for the fact that the organization is universally accepted as an economic empowerment foundation that facilitated various skills acquisition in Nigeria and abroad. Malam Ibrahim Aboki, a business consultant and an alumnus of TEF urged the participants to endure the TEF processes. He recalled how he spent sleepless nights trying to develop a winning proposal. He said that there are guidelines for applying for TEF grant that will make you win it. First of all, applicant must apply online through tefconnect portal (www.tefconnect.com) and must complete all required information and upload documents and identification materials. According to him, TEF engages the services of Accenture Development Partners to review the applications and make the final selection of 1000 entrepreneurs. To ensure that the selection process follow a robust, rigorous, and transparent selection process developed by TEF. They prioritize four critical factors: project management discipline, evaluation process, quality assurance, interpretation and application of evaluation criteria and the selection and training of the Evaluators.

Malam Sagiru Ado Abubakar, the coordinator JOPIS unit, practically demonstrated the tefconnect portal from registering of personal details, psychometric test and financial knowledge assessment. While Kamal Garba Alhassan made his facilitation on the problems of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship in Northern Nigeria and the way forward.