John Davis, Arcadia Rotary, John Frykenberg, past president of Altadena Rotary, and 3 Nigerian-American ladies comprised a team that put forth a two week Entrepreneurial Education training program in the State of Ogun, Nigeria.. Sarah Philips, Rancho Cucamonga, was the point person for the team and made all the arrangements. She was formerly chief legislative officer of the Parliament in Kaduna State of Nigeria. Nigeria has a population of 174 million. One out of every four Africans is Nigerian.
More that 1,500 university students in two universities spent 5 full days in intensive workshops learning the basics of entrepreneurship and how to write business plans based on their own ideas. The goal is to provide students with the skills to start a business that will employ others. College graduates in Nigeria face an unemployment rate of 50 percent or more, so interest in the workshops is great.
A grant from the Rotary Foundation covered the costs for team travel, lodging, meals, manual printing, promotion and lunches for the students
The team traveled despite the Ebola crisis and avoided the mega-city Lagos, center of the first cases of Ebola. In previous workshops more than 9000 university students have been trained in Nigeria. The goal is to impact all 36 Nigerian states by 2020.