The Junior Chamber International, Obafemi Awolowo University Chapter (JCI-OAU) on Friday, April 1, 2023, held another edition of the Youth Empowerment and Employability Summit. The summit which took place at the Ajose Lecture theatre of the Faculty of Agriculture was graced with the presence of veteran keynote speakers and panellists.
Over 120 students were in attendance as the program kicked off some minutes after 11:00 am. JCIN Amb. Oluwabunmi Stephen opened his keynote address by speaking on “Leveraging Communities as a Stepping Stone for Empowerment”. He charged students on the importance of belonging to communities that add value to their being.
The theme speaker, JCIN Senator Ayo Muritala stated that in building an ecosystem, attendees must reconsider how their learning is structured, while also pointing out that if they don’t begin to unite the system, achieving an ecosystem of employable talents would become difficult.
He further urged the attendees to embrace the 3C’s formula: competency, credibility and connection as they would single them out from others. He also stated that students must build themselves outside their field of study and also feed their minds with relevant information that will allow them to be sought after globally.
Kingsley Ndimele, a Personal Finance and Business consultant, in his interactive session with the attendees, spoke on personal development while leveraging himself as an example. He challenged the attendees to crave knowledge while at the same time developing themselves to be employable.
Also speaking, Bamidele Toyin, innovation strategist, opened his address by identifying how ChatGPT 4 and AI(Artificial Intelligence) have taken over. He further stated that the attendees’ interaction with knowledge will make them valuable in the future because the future of education is learning and they must be boundless in their search for knowledge.
The panel session was an interactive one that sought to answer questions about how some of the panellists started their entrepreneurial journey. Amongst the panellists are, Founder of Green City, Adedeji Olawale; Founder and CEO of Swyft, Clinton Oyelami; CEO of Kitchen Royale Et Al, Oluwafisayomi Oyeyemi; Growth Manager, Olumide Adaramoye.