Leading multinational General Electric (GE) and the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) have announced a partnership that will see up to 25 TEF entrepreneurs participate in a dedicated four-week advanced manufacturing training programme every year at GE’s Lagos Garage.
The partnership between GE and TEF will offer training each year to entrepreneurs from the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) in a wide spectrum of topics that are essential for manufacturing and design.
It will also sharpen teamwork, communication, and creativity skills of participants, promote excellence in the practice of design and manufacturing within and across professions, expose selected entrepreneurs to real-world design and manufacturing problems, and bring concepts to reality.
“We are happy to collaborate with a reputable organisation such as the Tony Elumelu Foundation on this skill building initiative. There is a lot of alignment between TEF and GE’s commitment to the development of Nigerian entrepreneurs and we look forward to seeing some great success stories from TEF participants on the training programme,” said GE director of communications and public affairs Patricia Obozuwa.
“We welcome the collaboration with GE, world’s top 10 most innovative companies, to spur the growth of the Tony Elumelu entrepreneurs, Nigeria’s new innovators. This program will help them to further develop their products and business models as a follow up to the foundation’s entrepreneurship programme,” said Parminder Vir, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.
GE created the Garages programme in March 2012 to reinvigorate interest in invention, innovation, and manufacturing in the United States (US). It went global with two workshops in Lagos in 2014 and 2106, before GE launched a permanent space.
