Another Road Nigerian Youth and the ICT Entrepreneurship Option ‘Gbenga Sesan U: B: E: me(at)gbengasesan.com Nigeria Internet Group’s Internet for Jobs (I4J) Initiative. Golden Gate Restaurant, Lagos. July 12, 2007

This Road is Too Tight! 10% of graduates hold the chance to get a job upon graduation Even Industrial Attachment placements and Internships are scarce (One IT place available…) That road is too tight, and you want to get off to another road Just like the Citta di Castello in Italy, you can’t get on that road when its occupied This Road: Admission  Lectures  FinalYear Project (Cut & Paste)  Graduation (CV)  NYSC  Job Seeking

The N.I.G. Response The NIG YDC seeks to connect Nigerian youth (regardless of discipline) to ICT opportunities The Youth ICT Roundtables present a unique opportunity to meet with industry champions for learning and mentoring opportunities The School Chapters (FUTA, …) provide an avenue for students within the same community to share ideas on how they can get onto the new road NIG YDC helps connect Nigerian youth with ongoing global ICT processes (e.g. OLPC Discussion – after session evaluation)

That Other Road The Internet provides endless opportunities in communication (e.g. Skype), business (e.g. Google), education (e.g. OCW), relationships (e.g. MySpace), access to information (e.g. Google Alerts), etc That other road doesn’t care about your limitations, it respects your determination to learn and maximize available opportunities Just like the autobahn, that other road has space! That Other Road: Admission  Lectures + Extra Knowledge  Final Year Project (Connecting the classroom to the workplace)  Graduation (Business Plan + Work Experience)  NYSC (Consolidation)  Job Creation (Value Added)

Introducing Y.I.E.R. The Youth ICT Entrepreneurs’ Roundtable (YIER) will provide access to the other road – ICT Entrepreneurship – which takes advantage of the Internet (and allied tools) for value (and job) creation YIER will build staying power for the I4J initiative and the first session will hold after today’s seminar Successive sessions will hold up to twice weekly and each session can only take 20 people Anyone can walk into the NIG Secretariat (7, Olayinka Bamgbose Street, Off Toyin Street, Ikeja) to register at least one week ahead of the next YIER session but all interested youth can write to info(at)nig.org.ng Monthly reports will be analyzed to answer questions, advise on opportunities, etc

The choice is yours!

Another Road Nigerian Youth and the ICT Entrepreneurship Option ‘Gbenga Sesan U: B: E: me(at)gbengasesan.com Nigeria Internet Group’s Internet for Jobs (I4J) Initiative. Golden Gate Restaurant, Lagos. July 12, 2007