University of Lagos has trained and financially supported more than 1,000 students through its Entrepreneurship and Skills Development Centre as part of efforts to nurture young entrepreneurs and encourage job creation among undergraduates.
The initiative is designed to move students beyond traditional career expectations and help them build businesses while still in school. By equipping students with entrepreneurial knowledge, mentorship, and funding opportunities, the university is positioning them to create startups that can contribute to economic growth.
According to Sunday Adebisi, director of the university’s Entrepreneurship and Skills Development Centre, the programme is already producing tangible results. He revealed that the centre has trained and supported hundreds of students who are now exploring business opportunities and developing startup ideas.
“We’re grooming young CEOs out of these people, and we’re creating startups that will create jobs,” Adebisi said.
The programme forms part of the institution’s broader entrepreneurship drive, including the Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Business Certification (EIBIC) programme, which exposes students to practical business education and startup development.
Adebisi explained that the university is also providing platforms that allow students to formally establish their businesses and connect with industries.
“We’re creating a platform for them where we can help them to register their businesses, and also a platform where they can connect completely with the industry,” he said.
The initiative is attracting increasing student participation. According to Adebisi, about 13,000 first-year students are currently enrolled in the compulsory entrepreneurship programme introduced by the university.
The goal, he noted, is to transform the institution into a major innovation hub in Africa.
“The aim is to build the University of Lagos into Africa’s Silicon Valley,” he emphasised.
The centre also creates opportunities for students to learn directly from experienced entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. Through a mentorship initiative known as Fireside Chat, students interact with leading chief executives and industry experts to understand how businesses are built and sustained.
According to Adebisi, exposing students to real-life business experiences helps them develop resilience and understand the realities of entrepreneurship.
Many students, he noted, begin university without a clear understanding of business or risk.
“At that young age, many of them do not even know their rights from their left. They do not realise that failure can be part of business success,” he said.
Industry partnerships are also playing a significant role in supporting the initiative. Some companies have provided internships and other opportunities that help students gain practical exposure.
“Sahara has given opportunities to many of our students, and many other companies have given internships straight away to many of those students,” Adebisi added.
The impact of the programme is already visible in the success stories of students who have launched ventures after participating in the centre’s activities.
One such entrepreneur is Johnson Samuel, co-founder of WalterSam Technologies, who said his journey into entrepreneurship began while studying at the university.
“I came into UNILAG in December 2017, and immediately after my 100-level exams, I realised there were many problems around me,” Samuel explained.
“I started asking myself how these problems could be converted into opportunities to create an enterprise.”
Samuel identified accommodation as a major challenge facing students on campus. With more than 40,000 undergraduates and only about 8,000 bed spaces available in school hostels, the majority of students had to find housing outside the campus.
“We started by solving accommodation problems for students in the university by connecting students with private hostel owners,” he said.
As the business grew, Samuel and his team discovered other challenges affecting students, including overcrowded classrooms and limited access to study resources.
This led them to expand into educational products and services designed to help students prepare better for examinations.
Samuel said the support provided by the university’s entrepreneurship ecosystem played a critical role in helping the business grow.
“In 2021, at the maiden edition of the University of Lagos Business Innovation and Talent Expression Competition (BITES), I happened to be the winner of the grand finale,” he said.
Winning the competition earned his startup a N2 million equity-free grant, which enabled the company to invest in equipment needed to produce educational materials.
“With this N2 million equity-free grant, we were able to buy a multifunctional printer that helped us produce our books by ourselves,” Samuel explained.
The Entrepreneurship and Skills Development Centre is also attracting students who want to expand their professional horizons beyond traditional academic paths.
Ndumele Favour, a postgraduate student in the centre, said the programme stood out because it focuses on practical problem-solving and business creation.
“I have a background in education, but I needed something else,” she said.
“Entrepreneurship is one aspect that many people fail to realise has so much potential.”
According to her, the training has helped students understand how to identify problems within their environment and turn them into business opportunities.
“One of the things I have learnt is that when you find yourself in an environment, you have to find the problem and create a solution,” she explained.
She also noted that the programme emphasises resilience and the willingness to learn from setbacks.
“When you’re diving into business, you have to have the notion that you’re going to fail,” Favour said.
