INTERVIEW: Project Insight speaks on Entrepreneurship Empowerment

ODUDUWA CREW: Can we meet you?

INTERVIEWEE: My name is Dare Iyilade and I am an entrepreneur, our clans are people who try to engineer business opportunities out of everything they see.
But I concentrate more on the tech aspect. Those called the Techprenuer which is actually a subset of entrepreneurs.

Techprenuers make good use of technology and convert opportunities found in it into a successful commercial reality.

As a Techpreneur, we try to leverage the day to day technology or sometimes high-end technology to create opportunities and make profit. Its so broad and can be broken into different forms.

INTERVIEWER: What is PROJECT INSIGHT all about?

INTERVIEWEE: Well, project Insight came to existence based on a revelation conceived sometime in October.

When you look around, you will see that opportunities are not universal even though there are many creatives all across the globe and all try to demonstrate their ingenuity in ways made available to them. Which sometimes is limiting.

So, this and many other factors made it possible to come together with like minds who are members of Project Insight and contributors in all forms.

So, Project insight was birthed to create broadened scope and enhanced vision, and opportunities to passionate minds in the country who have not been able to harness these available opportunities.

Without the ability to see visions, dreams cannot exist. Also, exposure deficiency betrays purpose.

Project insight is bringing experiential knowledge to people for the birthing of interests in fields that have been made unattractive due to lack of genuine and accessible information.

Through this project, we want light to be shed to the hearts of many people, everyone, but our target are the young ones. We believe everyone should have access to things, the exposure they need so they can follow where their heart leads.

INTERVIEWER: Can you tell us the motive behind PROJECT INSIGHT?

INTERVIEWEE: Like revealed previously, we just want insight & applicable knowledge to touch all the people, especially the ones who could be genius when their interest in these things peak.

The world only shower encomium on the genius they know, but all over the world there are geniuses that are at the crude state. Infact, every person could be a genius if they get exposed early & love something enough to explore everything in such field.

We want to plant some seeds and we believe that it will land on good grounds of the heart of several individuals that yearn for exposure and practicable knowledge and insight.


INTERVIEWER: Tell us its significance

INTERVIEWEE: The significance of project insight is that there’s no better time than now that our world is in dire need of many creative minds. As we proffer solutions to long term existing problems, other problems are surging. And we can not rely on just those people who are well situated & have all they need need at their reach to solve these problems because passion doesn’t often come from there. And without passion and will to solve a problem, the problem will tarry.

People who know they are deprived of something hold it with all their lives when they get access to these things. That is why some of the best inventors and business moguls in this world are people who have a rough start and when opportunity present itself they grab it with all their might. And today, people know their names and appreciate their inventions.

INTERVIEWER: What do you think are the factors that lead to high rate of unemployment?

INTERVIEWEE: This one is very broad, but I’ll just talk based on what I’ve seen and my own personal experience.

Truth is, our system of education is outdated. Solving problem requires new discoveries, no one solves a new problem with an old technology.

The school curriculums are rarely updated and the ones that do not work again are not thrown out and replaced. This makes it difficult to come up with discoveries & solutions.

Lets take this for example, The engineering firms in Nigeria do not have the required space to accommodate every engineering graduate from every school in Nigeria, according to statistics, only One out of a thousand graduate of engineering in Nigeria, will be employed by any engineering company at all. So what are the rest doing? Barely surviving. All these are because of what our brilliant minds are filled with. Old stuffs that cannot solve problems in the community.

Not to even go into government policies and lack of creative minds at the top. Truth is, if we have critical evaluators at the top, we should already start providing structural set up to address these problems because if it gets too late, they can become irreversible.

INTERVIEWER: What do you think could be the way forward to combat increasing unemployment rate?

INTERVIEWEE: Everyone should go the way of self-taught. This is why many people are doing well today. They indulge in self discipline, threw away things that cannot benefit them, even though they had good grades in school. They do away with it and reschool themselves.

Skill attainment. Several skills are attainable in a short space of time. Thanks to the Internet and YouTube. You can learn anything and become an expert with max 10,000 hours of learning and doing simultaneously. But another issue is, the discipline aspect. Many things call for our attention, especially entertainment. Anyone who can deprive themselves of entertainment, and learn one skill per time. They will be self-dependent and job Creators in this situation where everyone is depending on government.

INTERVIEWER: Tell us something about the enterpreneurial skills?

INTERVIEWEE: Yeah, like we said with our vision for the project, to illuminate minds and impact knowledge. We also believe that there are some great minds who are already doing excellently well and have ticked a lot of boxes when it comes to diligently concentrating on something but lack support and funding. So, a conglomerate of entrepreneurs are putting a SUM of 500,000 naira on ground to find people who are worthy of this cash to support what they are already doing that has a long term vision.

INTERVIEWER: Who are those that will benefit from it?

INTERVIEWEE: Anyone who have a great, feasible and marketable idea. Because, we do not want to support something that do not have market value on the long run.

People whose ideas are certainly viable when thoroughly evaluated by the board of project insight.

INTERVIEWER: You talk about raising 500k seed capital, can you tell us more about it?

INTERVIEWEE: Team insight and a conglomerate of entrepreneurs are putting this seed together to assist and foot the best person with a viable business idea.

It might not necessarily be won by a person, for example, we already have two people with awesome business ideas, so, they’ll come down during the program to tell us more about their business ideas and to defend why they should be considered.


INTERVIEWER: Do you intend to monitor what the beneficiaries will use the grant for?

INTERVIEWEE: Yes, we have professionals on ground, a barrister with whom we’ll make available documents. So these beneficiaries can do well with this support fund. They’ll be monitored, so they don’t spend the money on self gratification.

INTERVIEWER: How sustainable PROJECT INSIGHT is?

INTERVIEWEE: Well, we believe that any project that has people vision has the potential to last long. This is not a project to glorify any individual, it’s a revelation conceived and supported by many great minds within the cabinet and even outside.

So, we believe it will unfold into several ways.

INTERVIEWER: What is your vision after the programme?

INTERVIEWEE: To see people do well, not just with what they have learnt. But to even ignite their passion to go after the things they have had in mind to learn or do.

Moreso to be courageous to attempt things, Because when they get seen, you never can tell who will give support. This is a major challenge to many initiatives out there, people are scared to start because they feel there’s no support.

Nothing must be started with support in mind, if your ideas are genuine, push it out there and be sure to have vast knowledge about it. The support will come.

So, we want to impart practicable knowledge into people and we hope they will not just run with it, but they will also be able to create new path for themselves and people around them through this knowledge and exposure.

INTERVIEWER: Thanks for your time.