Committee of Youth on Mobilisation and Sensitisation (CYMS) and Organization of Youths in International Trade and Commerce (OY-ITC), have encouraged entrepreneurial Nigerian youth to participate in 2022 Houston Trade Show.
The Director-General, CYMS, Amb. Obinna Nwaka, and the President, OY-ITC, Mr Chinedu Amadi, while briefing newsmen on Thursday in Abuja, said the trade show would hold from May 30, to June 4, in Houston Texa, USA.
Nwaka said that CYMS and OY-ITC were partnering to identify and mobilise young entrepreneurs as well as scrutinise and create awareness to attract both states and non-state actors.
According to him, OY-ITC is a non-profit organisation that supports the development and advancement of the Nigerian youth in international trade and commerce by providing trading and networking opportunities.
“The OY-ITC created a platform that will showcase and share with the world the creativity and productivity of young Nigerians through trade shows in various countries as the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, South Africa, China, Malaysia and several other places.
“The Houston 2022 is a trade mission to the U.S. designed to share with the rest of the world the creativities and productivities of the Nigerian youth to secure patronage for their Made-in-Nigeria products and services.
“The programme which is facilitated by the OY-ITC will also be implemented in partnership with the BuyNiaja Project of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment,” he said.
Nwaka said the implementation committee of the Houston 2022 had also come up with modalities that would ensure participation of business moguls, organised private sector, philanthropists and multinationals to partake in sponsorship.
He explained that the overall idea was to encourage the Nigerian economic diversification activities from the over dependence on oil into manufacturing, production and exportation of non-oil products to accelerate economic growth.
This, according to him is to reduce unemployment, restiveness among the youth, attraction of international markets and to make Nigeria the commercial hub of Africa.
“This Houston Trade show intends to encourage and see lots of youths in future transformed into the next generation of Aliko Dangote, Innocent Chukwuma of Innoson Motors and Jelani Aliyu of Chevrolet, who have made the country proud.
“Interestingly, Africa, most especially Nigeria has the highest entrepreneurs’ rate in the world by 22 per cent, as stated by the African Development Bank (ADB).
“In other to successfully navigate the future of organisational cultures, the journey has to start as early as possible with those who exhibit entrepreneurial traits or an interest in entrepreneurship.
“Houston 2022 will be a showdown between the Nigerian youth and the world.
“It will culminate in the presentation and appreciation of Made-in-Nigeria products and services that will ensure the international standards for goods and services are adopted by the entrepreneurs,” he added.
A renown global security expert, Prof. Ibrahim Abubakar, said the Nigerian youth had what it takes to excel in all fields of endeavour if given the right environment.
Abubakar said there were too many licensing agencies in Nigeria that did not encourage export of perishable goods from Nigeria unlike other counties such as Ghana.
He said the problem of Nigeria was security which had led to lack of belief and trust in Nigerians because of poor security system.
“If you want to export from Nigeria, within six months you cannot, and some of these products are perishable materials.
“You can do that comfortably in Ghana under 24 hours to 48 hours and that is the bottleneck.
“Until we go back and build the security template, we will still be facing these challenges.
Nollywood star and Mentor/Adviser of CYMS, Kenneth Okonkwo, challenged Nigerian youths to believe in themselves and be ambassadors of made-in-Nigeria products and services.
Okonkwo said he and his colleagues in the entertainment industry were able to make Nigeria a super power entertainment nation because they believed in the country.
He said that there were natural secrets to success such as creativity, commitment, consistency, sacrifice, dedication, determination and discipline to make a difference.
“Look inside of you because there is something God deposited in you which the world is waiting to exploit.
“Look into that deposit and you are the next star that is about to manifest.
“That is why I am grateful to organisations like OY-ITC and CYMS that when you create they can help you to disseminate around the whole world,” he said.
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