JA strengthens entrepreneurship drive among students

Junior Achievement as part of its drive to encourage students aged 15 -19 across the country to demonstrate their business acumen and spirit of entrepreneurship in a competitive environment is set to organise it annual Company of the Year (COY) competition.

The programme which teaches senior secondary level students how to start and run their own businesses, develop and market a product or service with the support of a volunteer trained by JAN.

Franca Thomas, JAN National Programmes Coordinator disclosed that JAN created the competition to leverage on the creativity and innovation of students in all regions.

Thomas while commenting about the competition said that students are selected to form a company, chose a business name and elect a board to oversee the company for the programme duration. The offices include: The Chairman of the Board (President//CEO), Director of Production, Marketing, Finance and Human resources. They create a company; raise capital by sales of shares; decide on what to produce; the market to sell their products; pay dividends to investors and use about 10percent (10 percent) of their profit for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity of their choice.

According to her, The National Company of the Year Competition will take place on 14th October 2015, Lagos. The winner of Stage Two will represent JA Nigeria in Gabon, where they will compete amongst 18 African Countries for the title of 2015 JA Africa Company of the Year in December 2015.

She further disclosed that through a variety of hands-on activities, these young entrepreneurs develop a better understanding of their role in a global economy. At liquidation, all proceeds from sales of products or rendering services is channeled towards Corporate Social Responsibility and dividends for shareholders.

According to her, JAN’s annual Company of the Year Competition (COY) with the theme Product of the Year takes place both at nationally (stage 1) and regionally (stage 2).

“At each stage of the COY competitions, JA student companies proudly present the results of their enterprise and learning experience before a panel of independent judges who determine company performance against the competition criteria as compared with other JA companies at each stage of the competition process. Participants must present the business achievements of each team as a whole, and each team member’s contribution”.

“For a team to win this award, it is not sufficient just to run a financially successful JA company or create an exciting product/service. They must also demonstrate an understanding of how and why the company performed as it did. Judges also look for evidence of innovation and application of new ideas in all aspects of a company’s operations”. She said

JAN is currently working to impact the lives of 1 million students by 2020and will be holding a 5km Fun Run/Walk fundraiser November 14th, 2015 at BICs Garden, Lekki Phase One.

KELECHI EWUZIE