The Director, Entrepreneurship and Skills Development Centre at the University of Lagos, Prof Sunday Adebisi, has urged the Federal Government to give start-ups a five-year tax holiday to enable them to survive. He gave this advice on Thursday while presenting a paper titled, ‘Entrepreneurship Mindset, a Solution to the Unemployment Rate in Nigeria’, during the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s annual entrepreneurship summit.
“There should be a five-year tax holiday for start-ups to allow them to grow and survive,” he stated. Speaking during the event with the theme, ‘Youth Entrepreneurship and National Development’, Adebisi lamented the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria and stressed that entrepreneurship was the only solution to the trend. He also noted that most of the youths that engaged in kidnapping were the ones that had graduated from school where they were taught logic and science and were applying the knowledge of what they had learned to crime. He called them “educated and smart criminals.” Adebisi advised young people to identify needs in the society that they could provide solution to. He said, “If you create a solution to a problem, somebody will be willing to pay for it. All the problems in Europe have been solved but the ones in Nigeria have not been solved. That is why today, for instance, there are people making millions of dollars through their investment in malaria drugs.” Also speaking, the Chief Operating Officer, A-Mobile, Damilola Oloruntade, said she moved from Europe where she had gone to seek greener pastures back to Nigeria, adding that she decided to invest in sanitation business because of its huge opportunity. She urged the youths to explore opportunities in the Nigerian environment instead of seeking to go out. According to her, refuse litters everywhere and has become big business in Nigeria. She said, “There is plenty of money in dirt. Now, we have moved from picking dirt to recycling and this is the business I started with N25,000. We also have increased the number of people we employ from five to 100.” The President, LCCI, Babatunde Ruwase, said the programme was organised to create awareness among the youths about the essence of entrepreneurship. “It is a way to go, particularly these days where there are little opportunities of getting jobs. They can develop skills, come up with ideas and employ themselves and others,” he stated.

Source: Punch

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Very true. The FG should take note. This will create employment and investment