N8 million Loan Grant for Entrepreneurs -Free Interest Loans. Entrepreneurs receive an N8 million grant to help them grow their businesses. Ten young entrepreneurs from across Nigeria received N8 million in grants to help them grow their businesses at the CrossPoint Innovate Pitch and Grant Conference.-N8 million Loan Grant for Entrepreneurs to Help them Grow their Businesses. Free Interest Loans
CrossPoint Innovate, a training, mentoring, and empowerment platform for young people and entrepreneurs, inspired the grant initiative, which is now in its first year.
The initiative received 1,000 submissions for the pitch competition, from which 10 businesses were chosen to pitch for grants to help their businesses grow.
Ladipo Soyombo, the initiative’s convener and Lead Pastor of CrossPoint Church, said at the event that the grant process arose out of his growing concern for young people and entrepreneurs struggling through the global pandemic and looking for opportunities to thrive.
“Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the social unrest that followed the #endsars, we have seen that millions of our young people want to express themselves and be productive members of society, but opportunities in Nigeria are limited.” “We decided to engage with people to figure out what to do, and then we embarked on training to help people realize their full potential,” he explained.
Speaking about the grants, Soyombo stated that N8 million would be given to ten entrepreneurs, with the first three who pitched the most outstanding idea receiving additional funds to help grow their businesses.
Following a series of spirited pitches from the top ten competitors, Emergency Station by Elcutiee, Maximus Recycling Solutions, and Keramel Naturals took first, second, and third place for the CrossPoint innovate grant of N2 million, N1.5 million, and N1 million, respectively, while the other seven runners-up received grants of N500,000 each.
The keynote speaker, Babatunde Fajemirokun, Managing Director, AIICO Insurance, who spoke on “Building a Thriving Business in Turbulent Times,” said Nigeria is at a crossroads with a high misery index, which is a combination of high unemployment, inflation, poverty, and other factors, with people leaving the country in large numbers every day.
He stated that the pandemic’s disruptions have caused a rethinking of the economics of business models, as economic crises, government policies, and changes in consumer taste and appetite, which occur more frequently, can lead to a more volatile operating environment.
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He stated that the goal of doing business should be to solve consumers’ problems in such a way that profits are generated and a return on investment is provided.
Fajemirokun went on to say that the best leaders foster an environment in which ideas can be freely shared and assumptions challenged, with capital allocated efficiently.
He urged the entrepreneurs, however, to use the grants provided to them to grow their businesses and aspire to be among the top businesses in the world.
God should help me and those who applied