Aspire Educational Foundation Empowers Cross River Youths to develop Entrepreneurial mindset
Calabar, Cross River State
The Aspire Educational Foundation recently hosted the second edition of its annual "Enhance" Seminar. This event aimed to inspire and equip young individuals in Cross River State to embrace entrepreneurship as a viable career path or as a ‘side hustle’.
The seminar attracted a diverse group of aspiring entrepreneurs, undergraduates and graduates from tertiary institutions, as well as interns. It featured insightful sessions led by sector experts, covering various elements of entrepreneurship, like business planning, financial management, marketing strategies, and innovative thinking.
The event kicked off with opening remarks by Mr. Kasi Usani, the Chairman and Founder of Aspire Educational Foundation. He welcomed attendees and emphasized the importance for young people to acquire knowledge and skills beyond their formal education, and to embrace opportunities for personal development and capacity building.
Mr. Kenneth Asim Ittah, the Executive Secretary of the Calabar Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (CALCIMA), delivered the keynote address titled "Activating an Entrepreneurial Mindset." He urged participants to take calculated risks aimed at providing solutions to societal problems. Mr. Asim Ittah elaborated on the key elements of entrepreneurship and stressed that a positive entrepreneurial mindset is a key determinant of business success.
A key feature of the event involved participants working in groups to develop a given business proposal and then coming up to pitch their business plans to the audience and a panel of Assessors, after which the Assessors provided critical and positive feedback on each presentation.
The feedback focused on improving participants' pitching abilities and incorporating structure and organisation in the development and delivery of their proposals.
The event also afforded the young participants an opportunity to interact and network with the experienced professionals who were in attendance, thus fulfilling one of the Foundation’s aims and objectives for the event.
Apart from Mr Kenneth Asim Ittah, the keynote speaker, other experienced professionals and sector players in attendance at the event (who mostly served as the Assessors) included: Mr. Emmanuel Monn, a Development Consultant in Agri business & MSME Development; Mr. Benedict Usang, Coordinator of NGO’s and civil society organisations in Cross River State; Wilfred Usani(Esq.), Managing Partner of a law firm and Mr Eta Ndoma-Egba, General Manager of Emostrade Nigeria Ltd based in Calabar.
About Aspire Educational Foundation:
Aspire Educational Foundation (AEF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to developing competence and capacity among young people through education and skills development. The Foundation offers scholarships to various categories of young people, in secondary schools and tertiary institutions as sell as vocational education (through apprenticeships,) whilst also providing opportunities for developing extracurricular competencies and soft skills through events such as the Enhance event, and other activities and programmes, including counselling and mentoring, etc.
AEF's mission is to inspire, mentor, and financially support young individuals to pursue and achieve their life goals through academic and/or vocational education.
Our vision is to create a future generation of roundly educated and skilled young people who would not only be successful adults, but can become leaders and change agents in society.
Mr Kasi Usani, the founder and chairman of AEF, is a UK based engineering consultant from Cross River State in Nigeria.
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