The Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) has approved the country’s first indigenous tools for teaching entrepreneurship and skill acquisition at the primary and secondary school levels.
This development follows ongoing efforts to revamp Nigeria’s education system, ensuring pupils gain practical skills and knowledge to boost productivity and compete globally.
The approved tools were developed by Business Matters Incubators (BMI) through its Catch Them Young (CTY) Initiative, led by founder Nnamdi Unachukwu. BMI has been at the forefront of advocating for a curriculum overhaul to include functional entrepreneurship and vocational studies.
The BMI CTY Initiative was launched in May 2024, during a stakeholders’ forum that showcased its learning tools for young entrepreneurs. Following the launch, BMI continued lobbying for reforms, which gained support from the Ministry of Education and the government.
BMI also designed a Train the Trainer tool to equip teachers with the knowledge to teach entrepreneurship in under a month. Additionally, it developed a Skills Lab model that can be implemented in schools and communities, enabling pupils to learn practical skills. This aligns with the National Council on Education’s directive that every child graduating from primary and secondary school must acquire at least two skills.
The organization is currently in talks with several state governments to implement entrepreneurship education across the country.
BMI emphasized that introducing entrepreneurship education in schools will have a lasting impact on Nigeria’s economy by addressing unemployment and reducing youth involvement in crime. “This initiative will end the era of massive unemployment and provide young Nigerians with the tools and mindset to succeed,” the organisation stated.
BMI has called on schools and state governments to adopt its tools, urging them to prioritize entrepreneurship education as a transformative solution for Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges.
This move represents a significant step toward equipping the next generation with the skills needed for self-reliance and global competitiveness.
