YOUTHVILLE ISSUE #111
Friday, December 30, 2016
08078068532
youthville@dailytrust.com
To stay youthful, stay useful. - John Keats
...young at heart
Honeywell training, 403 are now master bakers By Bamas Vctoria @BamasVictoria
Young CEO, Chafe: Private sector employing more youth, driving economy I dd Izaddin di Kabiru K bi Chafe Ch h f from f Zamfara Z f State is a young CEO who runs the XChafes Collectibles (XC) in Kaduna metropolis. The graduate of Civil Engineering from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in this interview said he is expanding his Made-In-Nigeria fashion line to employ more youth. By Simon E. Sunday @Simonechewofun
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hat is the story behind your local fashion outfit? It is a well-known fact that government cannot employ everybody as such people, especially the youths must venture into other legitimate means of sustaining a living. Most advanced countries of the world has been propelled by young entrepreneurs, who by virtue of their entrepreneurial skills and innovations improve the standard of living of their people through wealth creation, job opportunities and the conditions for a prosperous society. I became inspired and motivated by the present administration policy of encouraging the patronage of made in Nigeria goods by being less dependent on foreign-imported goods which to a very large extent will ease our present economic challenges, increase our GDP, empower the youths and challenge their creativity with a view to ensuring self-reliance and sustainable economic development in our country. Your firm, Xchafe’s Collectibles (XC) is growing. How do you operate? My vision is to create a world class fashion design outfit that will stand the true test of time and competes favourably with other brands at the international level. Our intention is to engage in manufacturing all sorts of fashion designs, but at the moment we only produce clothing line designs and manufacture all types of footwear. In an effort to achieve our goals, the XChafes Collectibles (XC) assembled a team of six graduates and 10 supporting staff with vast knowledge and experience in several field in order to ensure efficiency and maximum output. As a young entrepreneur, what are the challenges you are facing? Challenges in every business are certainly inevitable. Well I faced a lot of challenges ranging from dealing with clients down to my staffs. Another great challenge is the lack of sufficient power supply which hinders our ability to operate at optimum level coupled with our inability to procure some sophisticated finishing machines that would
have made our job much easier. However in every challenge comes an opportunity to be more creative in meeting the taste of our existing and potential clients. I am quite impressed with the role Government is playing in bringing schemes aimed at boosting small and medium scale enterprises. Recently, the Senate also amended the public procurement act to encourage the patronage of local goods. This will create a positive market for young entrepreneurs to which I believe will greatly enhance our productive base as a country. More importantly, it will help to address some of the challenges we are facing like the current economic recession. What are the platforms you are creating to empower others? Firstly, we decided to come together as a team to employ ourselves by not relying on government for jobs. We went further to employ 10 people who assist us in production and manufacturing of our designs, in so doing we have contributed our own little quota at alleviating the problem of unemployment ravaging our country. As we expand, we intend to employ more Nigerians to reduce the burden faced by government. I am a firm believer that the private sector is the driver of the economy and with good government policies has the potentials of re-engineering the economy, boosting growth and ensuring a sustainable economic development. What is your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs? My advice to young entrepreneurs is to first and foremost challenge yourself on what you have passion for by boldly taking the risk, have total believe in yourself with a vision and focus. Face your fears and learn from past mistakes, build a great team through good working relationship and mutual understanding and finally deliver to your clients more than expected. As for the unemployed youth, don’t wait for the government to employ you, find that one thing that you are very good at and put in all your best, strategize and know your strength, weakness, opportunity and threat by effectively taking actions that will enable you compete and excel in life.
Honeywell Flour Mills Plc said it has trained 403 bakers on modern techniques and has turned them into master bakers to improve their production and maximise profitability. A statement from the firm said 14 bakers randomly picked nationwide were recently turned into certified master bakers as they successfully graduated from its baking school. The school has so far, trained and graduated 403 master bakers in 31 regular courses and one executive course, it noted. Presenting certificates to the Regular Course 31 graduands, the Managing Director, Mr. Lanre Jaiyeola
said the school strives to empower bakers by equipping them with modern baking skills and flour handling procedures to help them maximize yield from flour and run their bakery operations more professionally and profitably. “Our vision is driven by the understanding of the impacts small and medium scale businesses can have in our country as engine of job creation and enablers of wealth distribution,” he said. During the three weeks training period, he said the students were thought the science of baking ingredient, common bread fault, and how to solve them, how to maximize baker output through the production of different bread varieties among others.
Foundation gives scholarship to 7 students From Abdullateef Aliyu, Lagos Seven candidates have been awarded scholarships in the 2016 edition of the Yomi Otubela Foundation Scholarship scheme. The scholarship initiated by the owner of Lagooz schools in Lagos had had over 200 candidates that sat for the examination on June 18, 2016 at designated centres nationwide including Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu, Rivers, Abuja, Gombe and Kano. At a press conference in Lagos announcing the 2017 edition of the scheme supported by Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust, the Founder, Chief Yomi Otubela said 25 students were shortlisted for the second round of the examination conducted at the Lagos centre. He said the successful candidates were then shortlisted for oral interviews of which seven students eventually emerged for the awards. He said the foundation had equally awarded scholarship to two beneficiaries- Miss Basirat Usman, Mr Timilehin Isaac Idowu, Economics undergraduate at the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. Otubela admonished the scholars not to be distracted in their academics so as to take the full benefits of the scholarship. For those who did not make it, he urged them to make early preparations for the next examination in April 14, 2017. He said registration commenced since 21st of December, 2016 and will be on till February 24. The YOF team he said has put some checks to prevent any hitch as experienced during the last examination. “For instance, some features have been added to the portal to prevent multiple registrations. The website address is www. yomiotubelafoundation.org”, he added. The Coordinator, Shodiya Ololade said the scholarship targets abandoned orphans from IDPs, and the specially gifted children with excellent academic performance.