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Four finalists of maiden edition of “The Labour Room”, Nigeria’s first reality TV show geared toward national development, are to receive a local-content-driven business venture worth N200 million.

Mrs Obioma Madu-Udealor, National Coordinator of the Show, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.

According to her, the enterprise is the grand prize for the contestants for reaching the final.

“In line with the objective of the show, the prize for the last four winners will be N200 million seed capital for a local-content-driven company.

“Which means that we are floating a company worth that amount for them, which covers the setting up expenses, infrastructure, machines, training and all required technical know-how?

“This includes initial cash impress and allowances for the first few months of operation, which will be made available to them when the company is established and operational.

“They have been given time to make a unanimous decision on which kind of business they want to establish, and they have chosen an agro-allied company,’’ she said.

Madu-Udealor explained that the stakeholders had agreed that the business venture would be established in the state of the overall winner, who also would be the Chief Executive Officer, with the highest share value.

“In this circumstance, the venture is expected to be sited in Plateau State that produced the overall winner.”

She, however, noted that if the supposed state was not suitable for the nature of business the winners have chosen, it would be sited in any other agreed location within the country.

According to her, plans are already in top gear to ensure that the necessary processes are completed to ensure that the company takes-off within the year.

She added that the “young entrepreneurs’’ were already undergoing required training to ensure they strive when they eventually take over the business.

“As soon as we are done with the registration and get a feasible location, we shall finish the establishment and hand it over to them.

“We strongly believe that to start and run a young company successfully, there is the need for training and mentoring because we do not want to float a company that will fail tomorrow.”

The Coordinator further explained that beneficiaries had completed their first phase of capacity building and mentorship  programme with the Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA) .

She said that every contestant in the show was exposed to the first phase of the training to enable them strive in their individual pet projects.

“The AEA said they wanted to train them to ensure they run companies that are viable and can create employments for others.

“The first phase of the training is already completed, which is a Business Development Training to prepare them to run their companies.

“The essence of the whole initiative is to ensure creation of jobs which will I turn and contribute to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product,” she said.

NAN reports that “The Labour Room’’, an initiative of Nigeria Rebirth Foundation, assembled 37 youths, males and females, Muslims and Christians, selected from each state of the federation and the FCT.

The youths, who were christened ‘Governors’ were housed in a mansion for 60 days during which they analysed and x-rayed a myriad of issues bedeviling the nation and articulated recommendations for reform.

During their stay in the mansion, they were mentored by leaders from different backgrounds, technocrats, captains of industries and international organisations.

Contestants were evicted as the show progressed, based on decisions of independent panel of judges and votes from television and online audiences, and at the end of the 60 days, four winners emerged.

The finalists are from Plateau, Sokoto, Bauchi and Oyo States.