Determined to groom the needed generation of business savvy graduates, BIC, a world leader in stationery, lighters, and shavers have partnered Enactus, the world’s largest experiential education platform to train Nigerian students at the just concluded Mentor Me programme.
The programme which is business skills-building workshop in its fourth year, exposed participants which included 15 Enactus Nigeria students from the University of Lagos; Bayero University in Kano; and the University of Port Harcourt to the inner workings of BIC’s operations while teaching insightful lessons on how to achieve personal and professional success.
Guillaume Groues, general manager, BIC Nigeria, said the Mentor Me programme is a beneficial practical exercise which complements the Enactus National and World Cup events, while giving them a taste of the real business world.
Groues said this programme is part of BIC’s commitment to improving learning conditions for 250million students by the year 2025, adding that these programmes allow students to think outside the box and find creative solutions to societal challenges facing their communities.
According to him, the students shadowed BIC team members, as they took part in tasks including product innovation, negotiation, branding, and sales and marketing campaign planning. Students also interacted with BIC distributors and wholesalers, as well as sell BIC products.
Michael Ajayi, country director of Enactus Nigeria, said that for Nigeria to grow her economy and rid the nation of the social crisis currently facing her, the government must make deliberate investments in developing the entrepreneurial mind-set of youths and mentor them to become successful entrepreneurial leaders and social innovators.
“It is by making such deliberate and altruistic efforts that we encourage the youth to make meaningful contributions to the process of resolving the socio-economic challenges faced in our society.
Working with organizations, such as BIC, on programmes to mentor, grow, and develop skillsets of the future generation, through practical work and real-life implementation is essential,” Ajayi said.
We are proud of the generations of Enactus students that we’ve worked with to date and the innovative start-up social enterprises they’ve put forward as projects and implemented and are confident that such initiatives will guide today’s students to become the leaders of tomorrow.”
The programme concluded with the Enactus Nigeria students sharing their learnings and recommending ways to further enhance the pricing and profitability of BIC products.
Commenting further Ajayi, announced that the Enactus Nigeria National Competition 2022 has kicked-off in the country with the opening and semi-final rounds completed.
This provided the opportunity for the competing Enactus Nigeria to present their impactful and revenue-generating community projects to a panel of judges, including those from BIC and other Enactus Nigeria partners.
“A total of 16out of 35 Enactus teams in Nigeria qualified for the opening round. The four finalist teams will take part in the final round of judging on the 30th of August in Lagos, Nigeria. The winning national team will then represent Nigeria in the Enactus World Cup scheduled to take place in Puerto Rico in October,” he said.
