10th Edition: Tush Awards hold youth conference

10th Edition: Tush Awards hold youth conference, select top 10 businesses to win 1 million naira business grant and solicit support for the tenth successive edition

As part of the lined up activities to celebrate the decade edition of the annual Tush Awards, the organizers staged a youth conference August 31st, 2018 at the Landmark Event Center in Lagos ahead of the 10th year celebration of the event in December. The conference with theme ‘Youths in Business: Fund, Run and Grow your business and Ideas’ offered a sum of one million naira as business grant to young entrepreneurs. One of the important reasons for staging this conference is provide an avenue for the youths in business to interact with the key players in the business world and also learn several ways to access funds to grow their businesses even in the face of peculiar situations. Basically, it was an event organized as a bridge to the knowledge gap for youths that are in business on how to grow, fund and run their businesses.
Some of the panelists who spoke at the Conference are Mr. Steve Babaeko, CEO, X3M Ideas Group; Mrs. Kemi Aina, Group Head, Customer Service Management, Wema Bank; Mrs. Ezinne Okoroafor, Group Head, SME Banking, Sterling Bank represented by Mr. Fatai Jelili, the MSME Officer; Mr. Gbenga Aiyeremi, The President & CEO, Workbay Co-Space Nigeria; and Mr. Goodness Morakinyo, Founder, Valencia College, Ibadan.
The SME Business Pitch Competition was held at the Conference and 10 businesses were selected from the total of over 70 entries gotten over the period of two weeks after they pitched to the team of Board of Judges. In her words after the event, Mrs. Kemi Aina, the Head Customer Experience Management, Wema Bank said “it was an honor to be part of such an engaging and inspirational event. I was overwhelmed with the passion and talents of bright young minds. I want to say well done to your team for coming up with such a laudable event”.
Mr. Fatai Jelili of MSME Banking, Sterling Bank said “It was a great privilege engaging those young and great minds with enterprising ideas and solutions. MSME is a space we are never tired to be involved. Thanks for the opportunity.”
The Sponsor of the Youth Conference, Workbay had its President Mr. Gbenga Aiyeremi, present as one of the Panelists and was impressed with the turn out of the event even with limited budget. He promises to further support this initiative. Mr. Steve Babaeko impressed it upon the attendees to be creatively insane and to never give up in their pursuit in life.
The founder of Valencia College, Mr. Goodness Morakinyo shared his experience as to how he has been able to build and sustain one of the best educational institution in Nigeria operating in Ibadan, Oyo State. The Tush Awards grand finale which doubles as the decade edition of the annual event would hold in December, 2018 and the organizers hereby call for more corporate support towards upping the standards and also, reaching out to more people.