LAGOS DECEMBER 11TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Last week, 8th of December 2024 was lit with glitz and glamour as MeTrEds CEOs in training had a classic reunion after one year of their demonstration train experience.

The meeting which was strictly for only entrepreneurs in MeTrEds Rural Incubatory Community, was graced by over 50 participants across diverse businesses. The primary aim of the reunion was to launch the MeTrEds Multipurpose Co-operative, a new initiative established to meet scale-up financing need of entrepreneurs operating in the RIC.

The atmosphere was filled with smiles as various entrepreneurs present narrated the impact of the MeTrEds training on their businesses and how it has helped open doors for them financially.

Shortly after the introductory session, Dr Marcus Ekure’s speech was delivered where he admonished participants to remain steadfast in their quest to becoming successful entrepreneurs and community change agents.

There were also two resource persons who presented very impactful lectures. Mr Michal Atoma, a tech. entrepreneur and business coach who spoke first, exposed participants to useful social media nuggets that they could explore to maximize their entrepreneurial outcomes. He also spoke on the relevance of being part of a co-operative and the importance of character in building and sustaining a successful co-operative society.

Mr Sunny Oyoroko, on his part, spoke on the relevance of diversification in business and secrets to successful multiple income streams where he charged participants to always picture the mindsets of potential customers in their value propositions. Speaking further, he enjoined participants to leverage each other’s space within the ecosystem as a way of circulating wealth amongst entrepreneurs in the RIC.

By this co-operative formation, the rural entrepreneurs would be holding accounts which they are expected to contribute a minimum amount of capital to as they run their enterprises so that after 3 months of active membership, they could have access to loan facility equal to 3 times the amount of capital they have in the system. With this initiative, these rural entrepreneurs would easily have access to funding for scale-up purpose.

This represents a significant stride to MeTrEds evolution as it answers the lingering question of “access to finance”, which has been identified as a major bane to entrepreneurship development, especially in developing contexts.

The unique thing about the MeTrEds Multi-Purpose co-operative is that, its membership is restricted to only entrepreneurs with running enterprises. Recall that the MeTrEds Demonstration Train last had on board about 500 rural entrepreneurs who were duly trained and certified with unique access identification codes. From this number, we have harvested so far, a total of 267 running businesses and over 89 have incorporated at the Corporate Affairs Commission.

Note: At the onset, about 90 percent of participants never knew what registering a business was but today the narrative is changing.

The high point of the meeting was the inauguration of the co-operative executives and filling of the co-operative membership form by all entrepreneurs present. Meanwhile, those who couldn’t make it for the event have been asked to register online via the organisation website as contribution takes effect from January 2025.

Finally after the formalities, the entrepreneurs had a great networking moment with plenty of food and drinks to feast on.

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