The South-South Innovation Hub has unveiled free business support tool-kit, including legal and accounting services, for start-ups in Edo State and environs, to help young innovators and entrepreneurs formalise and scale up their businesses. Managing Director, South-South Innovation hub, Oluwatobi Gege, disclosed this during an interview with journalists in Benin City, the Edo State capital. The South-South Innovation Hub is domiciled at the Edo Innovates complex, in Benin City, and is open to start-ups in the South South region. Gege explained that the third-party services will include legal, accounting, marketing and administrative services, to be offered free of charge, noting “First and foremost, we commend the Edo State Government for providing the enabling environment for youth in the South-South region to be innovative and embrace entrepreneurship.”
He added, “The innovation hub is currently mentoring youth who have mind-blowing business ideas that will transform the Nigerian economy. Some of them have already developed business ideas that need to be backed by legal services and managed by accountants, hence the provision of free third-party start-up services to enable them grow their businesses.” The Edo State Focal Person for the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), Ms Osayuwamen Aladesolu, said the Edo State Government has continued to provide the technical support and enabling environment for youth to leverage Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in creating employment in the health, education and training sector.
Chief Executive Officer, CCOG Agro Services, Mrs Laura Okunola, one of the young entrepreneurs at the Hub, commended the Federal and Edo State governments for the opportunity given them to harness their potentials. Okunola said the idea of the free start-up services was commendable as it would reduce the burden of paying for legal and accounting services to manage their businesses. She said her Initiative known as ‘Farm in Schools’ focuses on teaching students in secondary schools how to farm, utilising simple agricultural methods to set-up farms in their school gardens.
