Mixta Africa and Junior Achievement Nigeria (a British Entrepreneurial programme) yesterday announced plan to train 300 students of public secondary schools to be selected from Lagos, Oyo, and Rivers States, on basic financial literacy tools.
Disclosing this yesterday at the Junior Achievement Nigeria Virtual Stakeholders Engagement Session, Mixta Africa’s Chief Commercial Officer Mrs Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani, said beneficiaries would be taken through basic tools such as business planning, savings, investments and more.
The Mixta chief said the training is conceived to give young people entrepreneurial skills and an opportunity to be in charge and to plan their own destinies.
Reeling worrisome statistics, Akinkugbe-Filani said an approximately 767 million girls worldwide had been forced out of school due to COVID-19 pandemic while 60 percent of Nigeria’s out of school children are girls.
She said: “These girls as a result, are exposed to the risk of exploitation, a surge in child marriage and early pregnancy. These are the people Mixta Africa wanted to provide with sustainable support in partnership with Junior Achievement Nigeria BE-Entrepreneurial Programme.”
She said Mixta Africa with its partner is stepping up its community engagement and would be setting a long term focus on girl empowerment.
“Even if they don’t start a business, youth involved in entrepreneurship programmes gain skills and become more innovative and effective employees and managers,” adding that educating and empowering the youth, especially girls would help prevent economic stagnation.
Akinkugbe-Filani pointed out that sustainability and the future of work are only possible through digitization and youth empowerment, adding that at Mixta Africa, “our key focus areas are Sustainability, Innovation, and Empowerment and we believe that young people are at the heart of that.”
Speaking on the partnership, JAN’s Executive Secretary Foluso Gbadamosi, said the organisation has built a track record of success in delivering high-quality experiential hands-on programmes under the three pillars of financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship, to young people between the ages of 5 and 27. She added that Junior Achievement Nigeria which has partnered with companies like Mixta Africa, Facebook, Google, Mastercard, Central Bank of Nigeria, Sigma Pension, among others, has reached over one million students since its inception and targets reaching another one million students by 2025.
