TheCable

Oak Nation Entrepreneurial Foundation, fondly called ONE Foundation, says it has trained and supported more than 600 Nigerian entrepreneurs in three years. 

ONE Foundation was set up in 2018 with the mission to help entrepreneurs start, build, grow and scale their businesses in an environment like Nigeria.

“Small businesses are powerhouses of socio-economic development around the world,” Oluwatoyin Ajilore, founder of the Foundation, said. 

“According to Nigeria Bureau of Statistics and PWC, MSMEs contribute 48% of national GDP while also accounting for 96% of the businesses and 84% of the employment in Nigeria. Despite, their significant role to the economy, 80% of MSMEs are reported to fail in the first 5 years.”

Ajilore said this, and her own experiences of multiple business failures, were the driving force for her to seek a way to systematically support entrepreneurs in the country.

This led to to the establishment of ONE Foundation in May 2018. Since then, the organisation has provided support for youth-led MSMEs through enterprise incubation opportunities.

ONE Foundation works across four themes: entrepreneurial education, mentoring, collaborative community and financing.

ONE Foundation has directly supported over 600 entrepreneurs through direct programmes, reached over 2000 projects through partnership projects, and provided over N1,000,000 in business financing and business education scholarships. 

ONE Academy, the educational arm of the foundation, provides entrepreneurs with free business development masterclasses, having held about 20 onsite/online masterclasses.

The academy also provides entrepreneurs with short online courses through its e-learning platform.

One such course is the Basic Entrepreneurial Program, a nine-week course that gives insight into creating problem-solving businesses, business strategy, creating a business model, and business accounting.

ONE Academy 2020 Closing Ceremony hosted Karla Trotman (CEO of Electrosoft, USA)

ONE Advisory and Mentoring hosts OneonOne and ONEConsult, programmes set up to freely connect entrepreneurs with experienced entrepreneurs and experts in their industry.

ONE Community is an online community that currently provides over 150 entrepreneurs with peer learning and networking opportunities alongside a safe space through the highs and lows of their entrepreneurial journey.

ONE Foundation is actively supporting more businesses in Nigeria by partnering with institutions, corporate bodies and government agencies in delivering programmatic interventions, resources, policy formulation advisory.

You can learn more about ONE Foundation here.