A leading Nigerian youth-driven entrepreneurship and capacity building center, SME100 has rewarded 25 young Nigerian entrepreneurs under the age of 25 at a ceremony in Lagos.
The award derives from a selection process in which organisations from different sectors, set up by young entrepreneurs under the age of 25, recorded impressive growth within two years of establishment.
The Executive Director of SME100, Charles Odii said that the awards recognize, celebrate and encourage some of Nigeria’s most innovative entrepreneurs under the age of 25.
According to him, “The goal of this award is to stimulate an entrepreneurial culture among our youths. We identify young people doing phenomenal work across the country, shine the spotlight on them so that all others can see them and aspire to set up businesses as well”.
Odii said that the SME100 scheme is a social enterprise that helps Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) to succeed by making provisions for requisite skills and orientation to young entrepreneurs.
After the finalists have been selected and the number decreased from 3,500 nominees to 100 for the different categories of the award, the organization’s board of trustees made the final decision in choosing the 25 winners that emerged based on the criteria requirement and also on the online votes. The nominees were selected for 25 different categories.
Recipients awarded include Gidado Yushau Shuaib of the Youths Digest for Media and Communication Category; Abiola Chris-Amusan of RingsNG for E-commerce; Chibuzo Aloizeuwa of ACE Palace Farms on Agriculture; Georgette Monnou for Creative Writing & Content Creation and Aliyu Abubakar of QuickShake for Food.
Buogo Obi received recognition for contribution to Environment/Housing; Maryam Laushi for Active Citizenry and Engagement and Garos Bot for Beauty and Makeup.
Other winners that were acknowledged are: Stephanie Eze of Mintville for Professional Services; Precious Obiako of Spotlight Skincare for Health and Skincare, Joshua Chibueze of PiggyBanking for Finance and Fintech; Sikemi Ifederu of Tambollo for Tourism and Hospitality; Natalie Obi of Ethereal Olores for Manufacturing and Logistics, amongst others.
