Company Program 2015 Lagos: The Winners

JAN Company of the Year competition takes place annually and is open to public and private secondary schools. Company Program teaches students in SS1 & 2 how to set up and run a start-up company ad it truly puts the three (3) pillars of Junior Achievement (workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy) into action Programs- . The activities includes selling shares, conducting elections for key officers who will handle the affairs of the company ranging from marketing, production, HR, Finances and the positions of CEO & CFO. Upon liquidation of the start-up, proceeds from sales of products or rendering services are channeled towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and dividends for shareholders.

This year's theme: "Product of the year."

 

Sponsors of this years Company Program included Citi Foundation, Abraaj and First Bank Nigeria Limited. Our judges for the Lagos Edition were Mr. Tunji Eloso, Director of Business Advisory and Strategy, CoCreation Hub; Mrs. Obianuju I. Akanabi, Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability, First Bank of Nigeria Limited and  Mr. Summy Francis, President, Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs.

The following schools participated in the Lagos Edition and 127 students were in attendance:

• Aunty Ayo Girls Senior Secondary School
• Kuramo Senior College
• International School, Unilag
• Akande Dahunsi Memorial Senior High School
• Government College Maroko
• Caro Favoured College
• Girls Senior Secondary School'
• Fountain Heights Secondary School
• Liberty Bells College
• Day Waterman College

The private schools had a slight advantage by  having access to more resources for their presentations and were able to make better presentations that the public schools, however their judges were impartial to this and judged all schools equally. JAN is working towards offering more support to our public schools, and all participating schools in presentation readiness.

These are the winners of the 2015 Lagos Company Program:

1st Place: Ex-Nihilo Company, Day Waterman College, Ogun State.

"Ex nihilo is a Latin phrase meaning "out of nothing". It often appears in conjunction with the concept of creation, as in creatio ex nihilo, meaning "creation out of nothing"—chiefly in philosophical or theological contexts, but also occurs in other fields"

Ex nihilo made a gaming PC called the Cortex. The system offered 1 Terrabyte of space, with room for hard drive expansion. It also featured a powerful AMD R9 270 x Graphics card which supports full HD, 3D, 60 FPS gaming and high quality videos. In layman's terms, the graphics were amazing. Ex Nihilo made the only technology based product in the competition, and with the booming gaming/tech market they were spot-on.

For their CSR they visited an all boys orphanage 'Street Child Care & Welfare Initiative. They volunteered with the kids and bought food and provisions for the facility. In their experience, they expanded their leadership, teamwork and communication skills and learnt start-up costs and basic business procedures.

2nd Place Winners: Black Diamond PLC, Fountain Heights Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos.



 

Black Diamond Plc, provided goods and services from locally sourced materials and recycled products. They made beads, knitted bracelets (shambala), purses from recycled jeans, hand sanitizers in customized pouches and loom bands. They had a vibrant display of goods and services with their customer base in mind during production and marketing. They credit JAN for teaching them how to make good decisions, take calculated risks, time management and how to create a conscious brand through Company Program.

 

 

 

 3rd Place Winners: Trill Recycling Plc, Fountain Heights Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos

Trill Recycling Plc provided goods and services ranging from homemade Zobo drinks; slippers from recycled tyres; Ghana-must-go bags, and fast-food items. True to their brand, they cooked the food using biogas from animal dung, how resourceful! The judges questioned the price of their slippers, which they set at N3,500. However, these young entrepreneurs were not phased and reminded the judges," You get what you pay for." They defended their price point based on the strength and durability of their product. Through this experience they learned how to work as a team, the art of customer engagement and the ups and downs of starting a business. At the end of the experience they came up with another idea to recycle gas cookers into incinerators.

 

 

 

 

Photography and Video by Tobe Ifeanyi.