Nigeria to Host World's Top Young Entrepreneurship Global Challenge

Nigeria is to host the 2013 World Students' Global Entrepreneurship competition in Abuja on Aug. 6- 12. The president of the Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE), Agwu Amogu, said Nigeria edged out Ukraine and South Korea to win the hosting rights.

The competition, now in its 11th edition, is tagged "The SAGE World Cup".

"The SAGE mission is to create the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders whose innovations and social enterprises are to address the major needs of our global community," he added.

"It engages young people in hands-on learning process on how to create wealth and also on how to help others and their communities, " he said.

"This is an honor and opportunity for Nigeria and Africa, as some of the world's brightest young people will come to Nigeria and experience Africa's business environment, culture and hospitality," Amogu added.

He said SAGE was a transnational social movement initiated to create a conscious effort to galvanize the enormous creative energies and resources in the world to eradicate poverty.

The program will also help to make future dreams come true for Nigerian young people by teaching them entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills needed to be successful.

"We are expecting approximately 30 delegates of secondary school champion teams from USA, South Africa, Canada, Ukraine, South Korea, Britain, Uganda, Ghana, and Zambia," he said.

Other delegates being expected are Kenya, United Arab Emirates, Sweden, Russia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, China, Jamaica, Ireland, Burundi and Liberia.

Amogu said the teenage entrepreneurs from across the world would showcase their innovative business and community service projects to a panel that would determine the team most creative in entrepreneurship.

He said the competition would highlight each country's SAGE team culture while their embassies in Nigeria would perform songs, dance and make multimedia presentations and exchange arts and crafts.