Fountain University Don on Beyond Rhetorics about Youths SkillUp in Osun

Rasheed Adebiyi

In a post announcing the StartupOsun Conference in 2019, Dr. Ayo Olu Ayoola made some revealing and scary revelations about the fate of startups and small businesses in Osun as far as funding is concerned. He noted “In 2018, a total sum of $334.5 million was pumped into the Nigerian Startup Ecosystem, none of these startups are affiliated to Osun State.

Again, he observed that the Q2 Report of 2019 for Startup funding revealed that $73.68 million, that is approximately N26, 524,800,000, was pumped into the Nigerian Startup Space, and yet again Osun Startups were not represented.

This statistics is enough to send concerned Osun Eggheads some disturbing signals as to the state of the State Economy. Strong economies are built on the power of small and medium enterprises.

The questions are what factors are responsible for this appalling performance of the Osun startup sub ecosystem within the larger Nigerian Startup architecture? The answers were provided by Dr. Ayo who reeled out the stats in the first place. He posited and I agreed that it was obviously not for the lack of ideas but for the lack of information and guidance.

Osun youths have the energy and the ideas to power the state Economy but with little or no support. There is a dearth of opportunities to learn business management skills, how to access funding and leveraging on funding opportunities, designing successful business models and others. 

This spurs this idea of a year accountable mentorship and training for Osun youths who have the ideas but lack the required skill sets and knowledge to run a successful business enterprise. 

And I wondered just like Dr Ayo on the ripple effect of say a quarterly private funding of N10 billion comes into Osun Startup ecosystem armed with the right know how of business development and management.

That is one part of the story. Last Thursday 26 December, 2019, I was at the Youth Camp organized by the NASFAT Osun Youth Wing to talk on Leading an Impactful Life in 2020. 

In the midst of the presentation and at a point when I alluded to the possibility of foreign education some one in the audience exclaimed " èèyàn máa ni owo gan o" (You must have huge fund). I quickly digressed and addressed   the issue. Whether the young girl was confused by or convinced with my explanation, I may not be able to say.

But, the interruption, in a way was an eye opener. It clearly shows a lack of information or awareness that seems prevalent among our youths in Osun on how to secure foreign scholarships, fellowships, student exchange programmes  and so on. And if we want a higher Osun, the quality of thinking must change.

So, the Osun SkillUp MeetUp is meant to serve as a platform to bridge this gap. I intend to hold the hands of the selected applicants together with my high net worth of friends spread across Nigeria and who have agreed to volunteer to go down this land with me to train, advise and mentor this young generation of entrepreneurs, change makers and aspiring career men and women.

For the first cohort (start up), there is going to be a six-month schedule of meeting spanning January to June. For the second cohort (undergraduate and post graduate scholarship seekers), July to December is their own period. We would have trainings that cover seeking scholarship opportunities, applying for student exchange programmes, writing winning letters of motivation and proposals as well as guiding them through the process of applying for one or two scholarship opportunities.

It is a big dream. A tall one at that. But, I believe strongly it is achievable. I am open to partnership, sponsorship and funding ideas too. It is not a personal project. It is a call for our state to rally these youths and ensure we have a better society. The alternative to this is frightening. We will continue to battle with toxic conversation of online fraud and other creative financial crimes. 

Infoprations’ Note: Rasheed Ademola Adebiyi is a lecturer at the Mass Communication Department, Fountain University, Osogbo, Osun State