YouWiN is an innovative business plan competition aimed at job creation by encouraging and supporting aspiring entrepreneurial youth in Nigeria to develop and execute business ideas.
Following a transparent and painstaking process that lasted several months, the final winners for the first cycle of the Youth Enterprise with Innovation (YOUWIN) programme, a Federal Government Scheme to encourage innovation and job creation, have emerged.
The winners are 1,200 youths from different parts of the country whose submissions and presentations were adjudged the best in terms of innovation, job creation potential and relevance to the nation’s economic needs.
A breakdown shows that there are 300 National Award Winners, 180 Zonal Merit Winners (30 per geo-political zone) and 720 Ordinary Merit Winners.
In geo-political terms, this translates to:
• North Central: 204
• North East: 167
• North West: 170
• South East: 184
• South-South: 194
• South West: 281
53% of the winners were existing businesses while 47% are new businesses.
A distribution of the award winners by sector shows that 273 (22.8%) of winning plans came from the agriculture followed by:
• 412 (11.8%) from Services – Information Technology/Telecommunications;
• 117 (9.8%) from Manufacturing – Food and Drinks
• 92 (7.7%) from Professional Services
• and 67 (5.6%) from Media and Entertainment
The scheme was launched by President Goodluck Jonathan with a focus on creating an enabling environment for job creation and innovation by Nigerian Youths.