Entrepreneurs get N8million grant for businesses No fewer than 10 young entrepreneurs across Nigeria have received N8 million grants at the CrossPoint Innovate Pitch and Grant Conference to spice up their businesses
Get 8 million grant for businesses
The grant initiative, in its maiden edition, was birthed from CrossPoint Innovate, a training, mentorship, and empowerment platform for children and entrepreneurs.
The initiative had 1,000 entries for the pitch competition from which 10 businesses were selected to pitch for grants to support their business’s growth.
Get 8 million to grant for businesses
Speaking at the event, the convener of the initiative and Lead Pastor of CrossPoint Church, Ladipo Soyombo, said the grant process arose out of his growing concern for children and entrepreneurs struggling through the global pandemic and looking for opportunities to thrive.
“Since the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore the social unrest that came in the aftermath of the #endsars, we saw that many of our young people are eager to express themselves and be productive members of society, but the opportunities in Nigeria are few. We decided to interact with people to discover what to do and then embarked on pieces of training to help unleash people’s potential,” he said.
Speaking on the grant for businesses, Soyombo said the sum of an N8million would tend to the 10 entrepreneurs with the first three who pitched the most outstanding idea getting more funds to boost their businesses.
After a series of spirited pitches from the highest 10 competitors, Emergency Station by Elcutiee, Maximus Recycling Solutions, and Keramel Naturals emerged as first, second, and third place winners for the CrossPoint innovate grant of N2 million, N1.5 million, and N1 million respectively, while the opposite seven runners up received a grant for businesses of N500,000 each.
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The keynote speaker, director, of AIICO Insurance, Babatunde Fajemirokun, who spoke on “Building a Thriving Business in Turbulent Times,” said Nigeria is at a crossroads with a high misery index quiet high, which may be a combination of a high unemployment rate, inflation, poverty among others, with people leaving the country in their numbers a day.
He said the disruptions caused by the pandemic have caused a rethinking of the economics of business models, as depression, government policies, and changes in consumers’ taste and appetite, which occur more frequently can cause an operating environment that is more volatile.
He noted that the goal of doing business should be to unravel consumers’ problems in a way that generates profits and provides a return on the investment required to start that business.
Fajemirokun further stated that the simplest leaders create an environment where ideas can be shared freely, and assumptions challenged with capital allocated efficiently.
He, however, urged entrepreneurs to utilize grants for businesses to grow their businesses and aspire to be among the highest businesses in the world.