From Uche Usim, Abuja

Inspired by the urgent need to grow the economy and close the unemployment gap, the Executive Producer of MoneyLine, a business and economy television programme, Mrs Nancy Nnaji and Jaiz Bank Plc are set to empower young Nigerian entrepreneurs with the requisite skills and funding to excel in their various fields of endeavour.

The partnership was cemented at the maiden edition of the Personal and Business Acceleration Masterclass (PABAM), an initiative of Mrs Nnaji meant to produce entrepreneurs and leaders in the corporate world.

In his remarks at the event, attended by the Managing Director, Cowry Asset Management Ltd, Johnson Chukwu; the Chief Operating Officer of Cosgrove, Elizabeth Taylor; Chief Executive Officer of Brave Icons Global Ltd, Fife Banks and a former Presidential Candidate, Dr Tope Fasua, the Executive Director, Business development (North), Jaiz Bank, Dr Sirajo Salisu described PABAM as a great idea that needs all the necessary support to bloom.

Salisu noted that the bank understands the importance of entrepreneurship to the Nigerian economy, adding that it would provide the required technical and financial support to graduates of the Masterclass programme with a good business plan.

On a personal level, Suraju who is also the Managing Director-designate of Jaiz Bank Plc, said he would take over the mentorship of five of the graduates of the Masterclass.

He commended the organisers of the programme for coming up with the initiative and assured them of the bank’s continuous support in other editions.

In her welcome address, Mrs Nnaji said that the objective of the Masterclass programme was to empower Nigerians with business insights and better wisdom to thrive.

She added that the future of the world belongs to great thinkers and entrepreneurs and such, concerted efforts must be made to groom future leaders of Nigeria.

She said, “This conference is an idea whose time has come. I am poised to help you through taking action beyond today.

“We are grateful to Jaiz Bank for making that commitment at assisting people both technically and financially. So, my vision for this is that beyond the conversation, we want to see businesses that will be assisted so that in a year’s time when we have this programme, we will be able to guage and measure that these are the businesses that we have been able to assist since the last Personal and Business Acceleration Masterclass.

“Going beyond television where we speak about the economy, business, finance and the rest, we want to hand-hold people and teach them what they need for their businesses to grow.

She said through the Masterclass Programme, experts would be able to provide entrepreneurs with the required knowledge to make their businesses bankable.

Nnaji added, “It’s like me giving back after so many years. I created this because many of us don’t focus on the bottom of the pyramid, a lot of us focus on the big people.

“Banks don’t assist MSMEs as they should, you will see a lot of stringent collateral conditions and some of these businesses don’t have enough information to equip themselves.

“They don’t have simple record keeping, you can’t just go to the bank to borrow loans, you must be able to have adequate record keeping, put fundamental business processes in place and that is why I am also doing this.

“We want to teach the small business people how to put this in place.

“The Jaiz Bank MD-designate has said that even in his own personal capacity, he would like to mentor five businesses and that is very commendable coming from Jaiz Bank MD.

“This is apart from what they would do as a bank for the businesses they would be introduced to here. They would hold their hands and assist them.”

In his goodwill message, Mr Tope Fasua hailed the creation of PABAM as it is at the core of entrepreneurship and assured of his support to ensure the growth of the initiative.