Published on Changemakers (https://www.changemakers.

com)

Home > BENZEFT ENTEPRISE

BENZEFT ENTEPRISE: Media/Entertainment, Leadership and Poverty Alleviation.

Yola, NigeriaYola, Nigeria
Ernest Benson
Year Founded:
2015
Organization type:
for profit
Project Stage:
Start-Up
Budget:
$1,000 - $10,000

Business
Social Investment
Communications
Corporate social responsibility
Employment
Information & communication technology
Social enterprise
Education
Youth development
Youth leadership
Community development
Poverty alleviation
Sustainable development
Environment
Substance abuse
Wellness
Conflict resolution
Intercultural relations
Terrorism
Civil rights
Human Rights
Minority rights
Freedom of Information
Citizen participation
Corruption
Democracy & voting
Ethics
Media
Mentorship
Public policy
Social work
Transparency

Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

BENZEFT enterprise consists of a football viewing/ computer games playing center that has a mini restaurant with a board games playing room
attached. What we are going to sell is essentially services not products as we provide a space for people to relax, unwind and enjoy the most
popular game.

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if Adamawa is known differently, maybe as the Las Vegas of Nigeria instead of as the state ravaged by Boko Haram insurgents.?

About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

The project is addressing the problem of poverty plus decent work and economic growth. A lot of people's meager livelihood has been
destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgency in the north eastern region of Nigeria with my state being one of the states that have been heavily
affected. This project is our own way of contributing to the rebuilding process already going on.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

1
 The solution we are currently working on and with has to do with first providing jobs to reduce unemployment and give the people a decent
means of livelihood through our company which deals with environmental protection/sanitation, ICT services and media and entertainment.

Awards

The Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program Award

Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

As part of our corporate social responsibility, our company organizes free leadership lessons for young people and we have a forum where we
discuss various topics and issues that affect us and the society.

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

We have been able to reach about 200 people with our leadership training and 90 percent of them are doing well today. We have been to a
secondary school where we trained about 150 students and to a university where we trained about 40 staff of the institution.

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

Our strategies have to do with expanding our business frontiers. The more we invest the profit we make, the more we can expand our frontiers and
the more we can employ people and reach out to many who are close to where we are. We currently just have about 4 full time staff but we hope to
employ about 26 more in the next 2 months. Each year as we expand, we hope to have about 30 full time staff for each branch so in five years we
should have about 150 staff working full time.

Sustainability

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

As we have stated, our organization is a for profit organization. We are currently into media/entertainment, ICT services and environmental
protection. These are the areas where we generate our revenue. We hope to also go into sale of diamonds in the near future and agriculture.

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these
approaches?

There are only few individuals who are addressing these problems and the notable one among them is former vice president of Nigeria, Atiku
Abubakar who has opened a university, a juice/water factory and a feed mill here in Adamawa. He is the only individual with investments in the
state.

Team

Founding Story

This company became a reality when the Tony Elumelu foundation selected our business proposal as one of the 1,000 proposals to be given seed
funding to start up out of the 20,000 applications the foundation received. This is our story.

Team

Benson Friday Ernest- CEO/ General Manager (Bachelor of Science, Diploma in project Management? - Full time Sini Yakubu- Business/
Marketing Manager (Bachelor of Science)- Full time Milanks Mako- Operations Manager (Diploma) Eunice Polycarp- Sales Executive (High School
Certificate) We will employ more qualified professionals with time as we begin to expand.

File attachments:
teep_cert.pdf

Source URL: https://www.changemakers.com/uconn-susi-student-leaders-social-entrepreneurship-2015/entries/benzeft-enteprise