JA BE ENTREPRENEURIAL

JA BE ENTREPRENEURIAL

Junior Achievement Nigeria (JA Nigeria) is poised to empower more Senior Secondary School students across in Lagos with the knowledge necessary to start an entrepreneurial venture while still in high school. The students will be taught using the JA Be Entrepreneurial program with support of the UPS Foundation which has partnered with JA Nigeria for the past four years with this program.

JA Be Entrepreneurial aims to help students recognize characteristics and practices of successful entrepreneurs, evaluate an entrepreneurial idea based on product, customer, and competitive-advantage criteria, and demonstrate business-planning skills for venture start-up, marketing, financing, management, and ethical decision-making.

The objectives of the program include:

• Help students understand Business ethics.
• Help students develop critical thinking, speaking, and leadership skills.
• Introduce students to various ways of creating a niche above their competitors.
• Foster a positive relationship between youth and the business community.

 JA BE Entrepreneurial enhances students’ learning of the following concepts and skills:

Concepts– Advertisement, Business plan, Competitive advantages, Customer, Demographic, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial spirit, Ethical dilemma, Ethics, Financing, Franchise, Long- vs. short-term consequences, Management, Market, Market needs, Marketing, Nonprofit business, Product, Product development, Profit, Social entrepreneur, Social responsibility, Stakeholder, and Voting.

Skills– Analyzing information, Business planning, Categorizing data, Decision-making, Evaluating alternatives, Expressing multiple viewpoints, Graphic presentation, Oral and written communication, Presenting information, Reading for understanding, Weighing consequences, Working in groups, and Working in pairs.

At the end of the program, participants will develop their own business plan for a competition where the best three business plans will be shortlisted for awards. Last November, the best business plan was awarded to Dada Oyidamola from Apostolic Faith Grammar School Ketu, whose great idea was to create an information blog that would have a large audience; it would be an avenue for people to market their products and services. This year, we are looking forward to more excellent business plans and the kickoff of entrepreneurial ventures.