Kickstart, a brainchild of International Breweries Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of International Breweries Plc, a part of the world’s largest brewers- AB InBev awarded N60m to 50 entrepreneurs chosen from across the country.
A statement said this was done during the 7th Awards ceremony in Lagos. It noted that the scheme was aimed at promoting and empowering youths in Nigeria between the ages of 18 to 35 years to embrace entrepreneurship through intensive business training, mentorship, and the award of grants. The Kickstart initiative has recorded over 1608 direct beneficiaries.
The process shortlisted 400 young entrepreneurs to proceed to the online training phase based on their innovative ideas, economies of scale, and opportunities to create jobs. 70 entrepreneurs emerged tops and proceeded to the bootcamp phase eventually culminating into 50 being finally selected as awardees following a keenly contested pitch for capital.
The Managing Director, International Breweries Plc, Hugo Rocha, said, “The idea behind Kickstart is to raise entrepreneurs with thriving businesses who will become employers of the labour themselves, thereby acting as agents for taking other people out of the unemployment market in the country.
“The success stories we have recorded inspire us to do more. Kickstart is an intervention that contributes to Goal 1 (no Poverty) and Goal 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) of UNSDGs.”
Speaking, the Chairman of the Advisory Board, International Breweries Foundation, Peter Bamkole, he said, “We envision that Kickstart will be the nursery of innovation in business, where we plant, nurture, and transfer through training, granting, and mentoring.”
According to the statement, Babatunde Adebayo, who won the grand prize of N3m said, “Winning the grand prize of N3m gives me great joy. The funds will enable us at our company, eco-circular solutions provider to automate the process of converting materials into building such as eco-ceiling tiles which are made from wastepaper, rubber, plastic, and others. We have been doing it manually but with this timely grant, we will increase our production capacity and employ more hands which will take more young people out of the unemployment market.”
Senator Babafemi Ojudu, who represented the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, at the event said “I encourage those who benefit from it because it is through entrepreneurial activities like Kickstart that Nigeria can become great. There is a limit to the jobs the government and its agencies can provide. Our youths can only be engaged through the collaboration of the private sector and the government to empower them for wealth creation and nation-building.”
The Keynote Speaker and Chief Executive Officer of Reel Fruit, Affiong Williams, shared some of her decade-old experience with the successful Kickstart entrepreneurs.
“It was opportunities like this provided by Kickstart that motivated me to build my business, and today, we have our products in over 800 stores, and I am launching my new factory in Ogun State next year, the largest of its kind in Abeokuta,” she said.
Speaking also, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, said, “This seventh edition of Kickstart could not have come at a better time because I am sure you saw the report released just a few days ago that we have 133m poor Nigerians. This is the time for us to put on our thinking cap and begin to think out of the box on how to address this very serious problem of unemployment in the country.”