Minister of Industries, Trade and Investment, Mr. Adeniyi Adebayo, inaugurated the Nigerian Board of Advisors for the African Enterprise Initiative. According to a statement, the Board inaugurated recently include Dr. Nicky Okoye, who is the founder and Executive Chairman of the African Enterprise Initiative.
Chief Executive Officer of SMEDAN, Managing Director of Bank of Industry, Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, and Country Director for the African Development Bank are also members of the board.
The African Enterprise Initiative was designed to provide the capacity, drive, funding and platform required for Nigerian enterprises operating at all levels, especially, the micro, small and medium businesses, to penetrate global markets, expand their product and service offering base as well as attract investment capital from local and international sources.
According to the statement, “A major intervention of the African Enterprise Initiative is a strategic intervention designed for Nigerians at the grassroots and for the nation’s community based entrepreneurs and micro enterprises. These micro community enterprises will have the direct access to African Enterprise Initiative’s community enterprise clinics, which will be sited in over 500 many communities across Nigeria.
“The African Enterprise Initiative will also create strategic platforms and interventions for the sustainable growth of Nigerian enterprises across the board working closely with the Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment, local and foreign development partners, state governments and other Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
Adebayo said, “We are proud to partner the Nicky Okoye Foundation to implement the African Enterprise Initiative, which has major impact implications for Nigeria’s youth employment situation as well as for growth in the capacity of Nigerian businesses.”
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation of the African Enterprise Initiative was signed by Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment and Okoye.
