By Kehinde Oluwatayo

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Governments, associations and other spirited individuals have been charged to develop the entrepreneurship ability of young people so that they can develop their talents and impact the society.
A motivational speaker who specialises in entrepreneurship education for children, Pastor Wale Akinyanmi made the remarks at the weekend shortly after he took the students of Aquinas College, Akure through an entrepreneural talk.
The mentoring talk was organised by the old students of the college as part of activities to mark the 70th anniversary of the school.
Akinyanmi who posited that it is time to begin to train young people to become teen and kid entrepreneurs noted that it is impossible for government to provide jobs for the teeming youths in the country.
He defined an entrepreneur as someone who sees a problem or need in the society and attempts to provide a solution by he makes profit in the course of solving that problem.
Akinyanmi who stated that entrepreneurship can be initiated in teens by changing their mindset to become teenprenuers said it is better to start early.
“This is what we do in our academy. We train young people to develop themselves and become entrepreneurs. We show them examples of people in different parts of the world including Nigeria who are doing likewise,” he explained.
The National President of the Aquinas College, Akure Old Students Association ACAOSA, Justice Adesuyi Olateru-Olagbegi said the talk became necessary to prepare the students to be able to look beyond their academic qualifications and think of what they can do to stand on their own.
His words: “We are churning out students from our universities who hold the paper certificate but who cannot really create value by themselves to be self employed or employ labour.
“We are beginning to see that government has limited capacity to employ”.
“They have to be prepared to face the future and be able to stand on their own in addition to whatever discipline they will specialise in. You would have seen that the speaker interviewed about seven of them. One of them is already thinking that he would be a farmer, another said he would be a clock manufacturer among others. So that is the intention,” he said.
Olateru-Olagbegi who noted that the video clip of the event would be watched all over the world assured that the association will continue to follow up on the future of the students so that they can provide qualitative leadership for the country.
Two of the students were given#5000 each for answering questions on the purpose of the gathering.
Olasunkanmi Joshua of Senior Secondary three said he intended to get enrolled in an entrepreneurship school to learn fashion designing where he has talent adding that the programme has opened his eyes, while Yaya Marvelous of Secondary School one said he has been going for training at the stadium to develop himself in running.
They both commended the organisers of the programme.
The students sat in four different locations to ensure social distancing in adherence to COVID-19 protocols and were reached through a public address system donated by one of the old students of the school.
The event marked the end of the first segment of the anniversary while the second segment continues in March where more projects would be commissioned according to the president.