Unity Bank Plc has handed out a total of N10 million in prize money as business grants to 30 NYSC members in the 7th edition of its flagship Youth entrepreneurship and empowerment initiative, Corpreneurship Challenge held across ten states recently.
Thirty winners emerged during the final business pitch for the 2021 Batch C Stream I corps members, which took place simultaneously across 10 NYSC camps in Lagos, Bayelsa, Ogun, Benin, Enugu, Sokoto, Akwa Ibom, Osun, Kano and Abuja.
Conceived as an Entrepreneurial Development Initiative in 2019, a part of the lender’s strategic drive to penetrate the youth market, the Bank doles out cash prizes of N200,000 as a business grant for each of the second runner up, N300,000 business grant for the first runner ups and a star prize of N500,000 for each of the Corpreneurship Challenge winners.
In this latest edition, some of the winners included Madukwe Juliana Uchenna, who claimed the star prize, while Michael Ngbede Barnabas and Akinpelu Fadekemi Itunu emerged as the first and second runner ups in the Bayelsa camp.
In Lagos, Olawale Moshood Mohammed, Ifeanyi David Agwu and Aderonke Victoria Ogunyade emerged winners to claim the cash prizes.
The competition has continued to elicit massive interest among the corps members and attracts no fewer than 1,000 applications on each edition. In this edition, 100 applicants were shortlisted, out of which, 30 emerged winners to claim the various cash prizes.
The contestants’ business plans which ranged from fish production, poultry farming, fashion, soap and cake making, printing, piggery to beverages were assessed on originality, marketability, future employability potential of the product and knowledge of the business.
One of the winners, a graduate of the University of Lagos, whose business plan on fingerlings farming won the star prize in Lagos NYSC camp, commended Unity Bank for the opportunity, as he said the grant will be utilised to expand his business to bridge the growing deficit in fish supply in Nigeria.
