ENACTUS Nigeria Pushes For Utilisation Of Young Talents For National Development.
By Ferdinand Olise
The ENACTUS Nigeria, an organisation focused on empowering undergraduate students across Nigerian universities on skill acquisitions and entrepreneurial development, has underscored the importance of leveraging the strength, innovation, the drive, and passion of young people in Nigeria to support the development of Nigeria.
The organization is also leading the implementation of the Nigerian Engineering Olympiad, with the tittle “inspiring Engineering solutions’.
Speaking in Abuja on Thursday, at the 2025 Nigerian Engineering Olympaid Official Launch, the Country Director for Enactus Nigeria, Mr Michael Ajayi, said the Nigerian Engineering Olympiad provides them the opportunity to inspire young Nigerians, noting that, the young people are the lifeline of a nation.
He stated that not withstanding whether the young people are undergraduates, or postgraduate engineering students, the aim is to develop innovative solutions that are driven by engineering principles.
“Solutions that address real-life problems, whether everyday problems or industry problems, and the hope is that by the time we inspire these innovations and enable them to succeed and thrive, what will then happen is that, you have young people driving businesses or entrepreneurial ventures that are also creating job opportunities for other people, and opening doors for other people and inspiring other young Nigerians from across the country to also do that”, he said.
Mr Ajayi stated that this will in turn enhance national growth by pulling down the inflation rates, and supporting the economic growth of the nation. He stressed the importance of collaboration from relevant stakeholders, or institutions towards achieving this goal.
“So in this program, we have pulled in the Nigerian Society of Engineers, we have pulled in NASENI, and other government agencies that are dedicated to be providing such skills and resources that will support the young people that are going to be part of this. Indeed this program cannot succeed without technical support.
One of the elements of the program is the technical mentorship that will be provided by professionals in the business, development professionals, and engineering that will help literally hold the hands of the participants along that journey, and ensure that they have the necessary support, technical support, financial support, business development support that they need to succeed in this journey”, he said.
He added that participants are drawn from all fields of engineering as long as it is from a Tertiary institution.
“Whether University or Polytechnic, all fields of engineering strictly for engineering students at
this time, perhaps in the future it will be open to Science-based students as well”, he added.
On her part, the General Manager for Integrated Gas at First Exploration and Petroleum Development Company, (FIRST E&P), Yetunde Taiwo, said their core value revolves around fostering talent, innovation,
entrepreneurship, noting that the Olympaid is and all these three things we see that the Olympiad will promote, these three areas, especially in young Engineers in the Universities today.
“We have an interest in education in the company. We sponsor young students in the Secondary School, but this is another level for FIRST E&P where we are collaborating with other stakeholders in nurturing engineers in the Tertiary University.
She said some of the challenges they see that are perennial to the industry can be solved with this very bright young minds.
“Taking them out early, introducing them to practical experiences of what the industry looks like, and even in engineering field generally within the country, starts making them think outside the box. It starts making them prepared, you know, after they are out of the university to start attacking some of these challenges that we see.
And we think that it is an initiative we are extremely proud to be part of because we can tie it directly to some of the core values that we see in our company today”, she said.
“If you think about why most of the brain drain happens, it’s because there is no sustainable employment for some of these young people. I believe through this Olympiad, once that collaboration has been established with these young minds, they have something sustainable to look forward to. They can continue to work on some of these ideas that they have started”, she said.
The Enactus Nigeria has overtime carried out much capacity building programme for undergraduates to empower them on technical skills besides their B.Sc knowledge.
