Lagos March 22, 2010: Nigeria’s most innovative telecom company, Etisalat has been commended for its genuine interest in the development of the youth of Nigeria. Internationally sought motivational speaker, Fela Durotoye gave the commendation at a career summit sponsored by Etisalat for the Batch A corps members of the National Youth Service Corps in Lagos state over weekend.

Commending the telecom giant, Durotoye who was the lead speaker at the forum tagged “9JA career summit” said: “Career talk opportunity like this presents an advantage for the Nigerian graduates. And for a company like Etisalat to channel its resources in this direction, is a strong indication that the company believes in the Nigerian youth and its future. I am more than grateful and on behalf of Nigeria, I say thank you Etisalat”.

Durotoye who is the founder of Visible Impact charged the corps members to create positive change wherever they find themselves and reposition their careers for national significance. In the same vein, Director of Learning and Development, National Employers Consultative Association (NECA); Mrs. Oyegbamgbose Jemeribe in her key note address, enjoined the youth corps members to be focused as they move ahead in their career.

Organized in partnership with E-Green Ltd, a sustainable human capital and corporate investment management firm and executed through Mind the Gap (MTGap), a career mentoring project aimed at improving the leadership and problem solving skills of youth corps members, the summit also had Olumuyiwa Olulaja of KPMG as one of the speakers.

“We are interested in the total development of our graduates”, said the Chief Commercial Officer, Etisalat, Wael Ammar. “The success of today’s event elicits a satisfactory feeling in us. The response of the corps members is indeed overwhelming and is a strong indication that they value what they have gained from the speakers today. We hope that through this summit, the youth will be inspired, motivated and enlightened to create the needed positive change wherever they find themselves, through their chosen career, thus contributing to economic and national development”.

Principal Partner, E-Green Ltd., Tayo Olosunde explained that the objective of the summit is to provide a mainstream platform whereby youths can reposition their careers for national significance. He said: “The call of this generation is the pursuit of greatness by realigning their personal aspirations towards national aspirations. To achieve this, there is need to regroup, retain, retool and refocus this vast manpower into a dynamic workforce that will drive our future economic growth and development. It is a priceless support we are getting from Etisalat for a ground breaking event such as this”.

Etisalat has continued to register its support for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)’s programmes through active sponsorship of major events which had contributed to a successful completion of the three weeks orientation camp for corps members deployed to Lagos state for their national youth service. The telecommunications company sponsored the welcome party for the current batch of corps members and was also a key sponsor of NYSC activities for 2009.