Nigerian Bottling Company Mentors Youth on Entrepreneurship, Financial Literacy & Life Skills at UNILAG

Dayo Oluwole, Kasher Consulting; Ifeoma Okoye, Sustainability & Community Affairs Manager, Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC); Dr. Lawrence O. Osoba, Sub-Dean, Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos; Abiodun Peters, Legal Director, NBC; Shina Matti, Youth Empowered Training Facilitator, and Nwokeji Ikenna, a participant, at the Youth Empowered Campus Workshop organized by NBC at the University of Lagos recently

The Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) has reiterated its unwavering commitment towards empowering the nation’s youth, through programs that enable them to thrive and also contribute meaningfully to economic development.

The Manager, Sustainability & Community Affairs, NBC, Ifeoma Okoye reaffirmed this at the campus edition of the company’s youth empowered programme tagged #DiscoverDevelopSucceed held on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, at the University of Lagos.

In her opening remarks which centered on intentional mentorship and bridging skills gap, Okoye noted that Youth Empowered is designed to set the youths on the right path to success by providing them with sustainable life and business skills. According to her, there is a gap between the skills that employers look out for, and the skills that many job seekers possess. This disparity, she said, makes it difficult for individuals to find jobs and for employers to find appropriately trained workers. “At NBC, we are committed to empowering youths across the country with trainings that help to bridge this skillset gap.

The Nigerian edition of the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (CCHBC) Youth Empowered, was launched in 2017. In its various forms ranging from the free online training platform, three-day workshops and one day campus workshops, Youth Empowered has reached over 21,000 youths who are positively making impact and building the society.

This UNILAG program was facilitated by the Chief Executive Officer of Uno Casa, Ekundayo Odele; Chief Operating Officer of Shallem Consultants, Sola Ayo-Soyemi; Principal Consultant of Kasher Consulting, Dayo Oluwole, and Shina Matti, UnoCasa; all expert trainers that took the participants through the rudiments of life and business skills, CV and interview leveraging, business planning, financial literacy, and networking strategies to navigate life after graduation.

In her keynote talk at the program, Legal Director, Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC), Abiodun Peters, extolled the unyielding Nigerian spirit, especially among the youths, to succeed despite the current unemployment situation and other economic challenges in the country.

She strongly advised the Nigerian youth to be very deliberate about self-development,

“Today, you are empowered because you have made a decision for yourself to take your future, your career into your hands, and you are empowered because you have the Nigerian spirit in you.”

A Abolarin, a student of the Electrical Electronics Engineering department of the University of Lagos, and a participant of the program, commended the organizers saying,

“This was a very fantastic initiative and an opportunity to learn new things that may not have been readily available to me otherwise. It was also a great opportunity to meet people and learn the path to get the things I really want. We need more initiatives like this to show the youth the way and how to get our act right.”

Deputy Managing Director, PS Offshore Nigeria, Micheal Oyewo, commended the Nigerian Bottling Company for the initiative, saying that in running a graduate trainee scheme such as Youth Empowered, NBC is demonstrating that it is a good corporate citizen.

A free online version of the Nigerian Bottling Company (NBC) Youth Empowered program is also available in collaboration with IBM at https://www.ptech.org/open-p-tech/youth-empowered-nigeria/

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