May i use this medium to implore seun to add a forum dedicated to Entrepreneurs in Nigeria on Nairaland. Nairaland currently only has a forum on Business/Money that tries to cater for entrepreneuship efforts. The Statistics as of today in Nigeria is alarming, officially 23.9% unemployment rate, but of course we all know it is close to 56-60% of the employable population in Nigeria and out of that number a huge percentage say 45-50% are between 20-30years Old and are fresh graduates.The Stats are alarming but not suprising, our govt has failed to diversify it's economic base and still relies heavily on Oil exports, with the crash of the capital markets and the loss of investors confidence in the Financial sector, the percentage of unemployed further soared, that sector(Financial) accounts for at least 12% of new job ooportunities for fresh graduates and of course with the mergers going on and the consequent loss of investors confidence, more and more jobs will be lost.

I am making a case for entrepreneuship drive and development and of course i wouldn't be the first nor the last to clamour for this, but against the backdrop of the current statistic it is imperative that we arm ourselves with the necessary skills and strategy to survive in these times. The cost of credit to business today in Nigeria is alarmingly high, businesses are not growing, most are having a hard time accessing capital and so are not expanding, if businesses are not expanding then that means they cannot be arbsorbing fresh graduates. The solution to the problem is not only entrepreneurship cos frankly speaking not everybody is built to be an entrepreneur, the solution still lies in diversifying our workforce and also diversifying our mindset about white collar jobs and suits and ties.

A forum for entrepreneurs would contribute to the solution by at least spreading information on how to start, build and manage a succesful business, how to invest whateva you have made as profit in your business or in other investment vehicles and also become a melting pot for aspiring entrepreneurs.Let's take a stats of new businesses starting in Africa, South Africa leads the continent with the highest amount of new business started by under 30year Olds. Yes we can whine and say our environment is not accommodating, but let's remind ourselves that the greatest and most succesful businesses where started in unaccommodating environments.

Nice idea. I agree with you.