The ALF Centre for Entrepreneurship & Digital Empowerment
The Centre for Entrepreneurship & Digital Empowerment’s objective is to enhance entrepreneurship development in Nigeria by training individuals in starting, managing and expanding businesses, and assisting in the facilitation of MSME loans from Commercial Banks and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs).
672 Training workshops have been conducted between Jan 2008 – Dec 2022
Some of the projects under the ALF Centre for Entrepreneurship & Digital Empowerment includes
- ALF Tech Hub:
The Tech Hub is targeted at small tech-based businesses to enable them to overcome the challenges of starting up – in terms of workspace, equipment and initial operational costs. Currently, the hub has incubated several start-up businesses of which one of the incubators, HelpMum, won first place and the best performance award with a cash prize of $3000 and a 3-month acceleration programme. HelpMum was also one of the 1000 awardees of the 2017 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur, which comes with a business grant of $5000 and mentoring.
- ALF Launched Digital Business Operation for SMEs:
ALF capacitated hundreds of young Nigerians through the support of UNIDO and Hewlett Packard HP “Graduate Entrepreneurship Training through IT” (GET-IT) programme in Africa. The programme provided young unemployed people across Africa with ICT training to help them start their own businesses. The initial roll out in six African countries (Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, and Uganda), ALF continues to be one of the Implementing Agency for the UNIDO entrepreneurship programme in Nigeria.
- GOOGLE CS FIRST WORKSHOP:
The Africa Leadership Foundation through it’s Digital Empowerment Centre conducted CS First workshops for 391 beneficiaries including 361 pupils (161 boys and 199 girls) and 31 teachers selected from19 schools within local communities in Oyo State Nigeria. The workshop aims to build the coding skills of school pupils and teachers, and to teach the how to build projects from “Scratch”.
The training was done within April and June 2023 in collaboration with Cape Town Science Centre and funded by Google.
- Agribusiness Small Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme:
ALF’s consistency in the pro-poor advocacy ensured that government sustained the entrepreneurship development project, the introduction of the Agri-business Small Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme by the government became a springboard through which ALF assisted unemployed graduates and micro businesses operators secure over 1-billion-naira soft loans to start and/or expand their businesses.
- LF Partners with Lagos State APPEALS on Export Readiness Programme for Lagos Farmers:
In recognition of ALF’s impact on entrepreneurship and empowerment programmes, the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, under the aegis of World Banks Support Project titled Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement, and Livelihood Improvement (APPEAL), sought for ALF to assist in training the Lagos Farmers on 2nd Level Funding for business expansion, and the possibility of capacitating farmers on export readiness programme. One major aim of the implementation is to seek how ALF can assist SMEs to utilize agricultural value chain to gain competitiveness and prepare SMEs for export readiness.
- CBN- Entrepreneurship Development Project, Phase I (2008-2013)
The Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC), Lagos is one of the three Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Entrepreneurship Development Centres, originally located in Lagos, Kano and Onitsha for South West, North West and South East Geo-political zones. The one for the South West located in Lagos is managed and operated by the Africa Leadership Foundation to provide training, strategies and certification programmes that will assist young Nigerians to embrace micro, small and medium scale enterprises as alternative employment options. It was established in 2008 and by 2013 it has trained 18,167 young men and women, created 222 new enterprises, expanded 869 existing business enterprise, created 3,356 jobs and facilitated ₦205.470 million as business loans for the EDC trainees.
- CBN-Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Phase II (2015-2017)
In the second phase of the EDC Project, which commenced in 2015, a total of 5500 entrepreneurs have been trained as at December 2017. Over the same period, 150 new small businesses started; 1136 existing businesses expanded; 1886 jobs created; and 342 clients accessed more than ₦241 million business funds.
- ALF’s Advocacy in Export Promotion for the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act AGOA
ALF organized and coordinated the Nigeria’s Chapter of AGOA CSOs and Stakeholders’ workshop. The workshop which is the first since AGOA was launched, took place on the 11th of June 2018 at the CIPE, Lagos. The outcome of the AGOA CSO meeting was tabled at the 17th edition of AGOA Forum in Washington in July 2018. ALF further spearheaded the team that discussed with the Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) on Nigeria’s implementation strategy of AGOA. In November 2018, ALF with the supervision of USAID, prepared the first Nigeria National AGOA Strategy Document. The document has since been delivered to USAID for onward presentation to the Federal Government.
- Medical Entrepreneurship Programme
The Africa Leadership Foundation in partnership with the Ace Medicare Clinics Limited with the support of YASHODA Hospital in India in 2013 initiated the medical entrepreneurship programme where medical doctors will be trained on how to apply entrepreneurial and business management principles into medical practice as a way of promoting sustainable and world class health delivery services.
- ALF Agroprenuership Programme
The programme was a specialised agricultural value chain scheme linking young farmers, agricultural experts, finance and output off-takers. ALF trained over 100 young people as Agricultural Service Providers in Ekiti State to use Power Tillers in providing land cultivation services to farmers and link the farmers to industries that would off-take their farm products.
- ALF & Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YEDP 2016)
ALF in collaboration with the CBN set up the Youth Enterprise Development Programme (YEDP), jointly implemented by Heritage Bank and The National Youth Service Corps. The YEDP was an intervention programme set-up to urgently address youth unemployment, and embrace entrepreneurship as an alternative employment option. The project aims to set up successful candidates with a soft loan of three million naira, at single digit interest rate, payable within three years. A total of 484 youths received three days impactful training in three different locations in the Southwest. A total of 92 persons from the 484 trained by ALF were among the first batch of youth granted a minimum of ₦3million each to start up their businesses.
- OYOABLE and Oodu’a-OYSG-ALF Vocational and Skills Acquisition Centre, Ibadan
A public- private partnership between the ALF, Oodu’a Investment Company Limited (OICL), and the Oyo State Government (OYSG) to facilitate vocational and entrepreneurship training focusing on carefully selected trade lines with higher multiplier effects in terms of employment and income generation.
- ALF Partners Nigeria Diaspora Direct Investment Scheme (NDDIS)
The NDDIS is a public space for many Diasporas to actualise their dreams through trusted information on investment portfolios, on-the-spot interface with trusted Nigerian institutions and confidence building on their investment pursuits in Nigeria. ALF in partnership with the NDDIS organised a summit aimed at providing exhibition spots to companies in Nigeria where Diasporas can seek first-hand information about the companies. Deal-Rooms were provided for immediate contacts, negotiations, appointments, and networking between business groups in Nigeria and Diasporas. Solicitors and Business Managers were also available to drive such immediate deals and provide timelines to ensure that every deal works.
- ALF Partners Universities to Capacitate Penultimate Students on Entrepreneurship Development Training
In its quest to expressly address youth unemployment in Nigeria, ALF partnered a number of Higher Institutions in Nigeria to train their students on alternative employment option. Many of the students also showed willingness to set up their own businesses and become their own bosses. These Universities include Redeemers University, Babcock University, Christland University and Leadcity University.
- ALF Partners State Governments to Train Residents and Indigenes
A number of states in Nigeria saw the benefits of equipping their citizens with entrepreneurship skills, hence they consulted ALF to assist with the facilitation, these states include Ekiti, Osun, Lagos, Kwara, and Oyo States.
- Junior Business Seminar (JBS)
This programme was initiated in 1991 for final students of Nigerian Universities. The main objective of JBS is to sharpen awareness and create interest in self-employment, self-reliance, and private initiatives; expose participants to a wide variety of techniques of managing business enterprises and also to inculcate the culture of entrepreneurship in young graduates of higher institutions. The success of this programme was attested by Frederick Neumman Foundation which adopted it as its flagship programme in Ghana, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Benin Republic.
