Heritage Bank partners EDC on GEW
Heritage Bank Limited has partnered the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) to host the grand finale of the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW).
The EDC is the entrepreneurship centre of the Pan-Atlantic University which was set up in 2003 as the Centre for Enterprise Development Services (EDS).
The centre emerged as a direct response to the dearth of available professional business development and support services to small and growing businesses in Nigeria.
The major objective of the centre is to build a network of entrepreneurial leaders through commitment to continuous learning, process improvement and business integrity.
The Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) is a year-round platform of programmes and initiatives aimed at creating one global entrepreneurial ecosystem.
GEN helps people in 160 countries unleash their ideas and turn them into promising new ventures—creating jobs, accelerating innovation and strengthening economic stability around the world.
Speaking at the grand finale of the GEN held in Lagos recently, Engineer Peter Bamkole, Director of the EDC said the event brought together all entrepreneurs that are alumni of the centre to wine and dine, especially in this year of economic recession.
He said it was also an opportunity to encourage the alumni that despite what has happened to the economy, they could still do better going forward. He said some of the students were sponsored by the World Bank, the Africa-America Institute and other partners.
Bamkole said the huge turnout of entrepreneurs at the event was an indication that there is so much potential and energy in our country that needed to be harnessed for sustainable growth of the economy.
About 421 students graduated from the EDC in the 2016 batch of the GEW while some of them were inducted as life members of the centre.
Research has shown that globalization of entrepreneurship has brought an explosion of programmes, startup communities and investment into a new field where there is a paucity of data around what works and what does not in supporting nascent entrepreneurs and new firms forming and trying to scale.
Traditional business, education and government leaders have been eager champions, but they need more sophisticated tools, programmes and research to help them most efficiently direct their attention and funds to areas that have the greatest impact on future economic growth.
GEN is a compass to help address these needs by identifying effective initiatives that positively impact whole societies, and interventions that target the most critical areas for entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world.
