With the rising rates of unemployment in Nigeria, the Chief Executive Officer, GMYT Fashion Academy, Princess Kelechi Oghene, has awarded free scholarships to prospective students across the country.

This is coming even as she marks another year to her age on earth.

The scholarship was worth over N10 million, which would be given to 10 students.

Nigeria’s unemployment rate translates to some 23.2 million people, the highest in at least 13 years, and the second-highest rate in the world.

According to her, “It is another amazing year of my life and I am so glad for what I have been able to achieve thus far, though I must say It hasn’t been an easy journey but through God, hard work, determination and the drive to succeed has taken us to where we are today even though I am certain that it’s only just beginning

“In the spirit of my birthday celebration 07/19/21 Gmyt Fashion Academy is giving out free scholarships to 10 prospective students worth over N10 million through our foundation initiative (Gmyt Foundation) as you know we have a goal to train over 5000 youth before 2030, early this year, we gave over 20 scholarships worth over N20 million, this is just our own little way of reducing unemployment through fashion so that our community would be a better and safer place for us all to leave in and we are not stopping anytime soon.

“Excellence they say is the gradual result of always striving to do better. We have indeed worked really hard and it is obviously paying off.”

While reflecting on the academy growth, and value-added to its community, she stated that “It’s indeed amazing, just a snippet on what we have been able to achieve in the last one year is acquire a state of art Fashion Academy with over 10 en-suite well air-conditioned executive classrooms, free wifi for the students, security e.t.c

“Excited to say we just reached another milestone by launching our own penthouse (The Gmyt Apartments). As a way of giving back to society, we specifically provided this free accommodation for our distant students who have no place to stay during their period of learning with Gmyt fashion academy.

“We have also been able to strengthen our online class platform, enabling our distant students to learn from the comfort of their homes and office. The results have been outstanding as our online students all over Nigeria and abroad are doing absolutely well. 

“Aside from all these, we have also added a lot of benefits to our program here in the academy. The aim is to give the best learning experience. Some of these benefits are mentorship, internship, free start-up kits, free textbooks,  free sewing machine, standard learning facility, flexible payment plan, job placement, offline and online learning mode, free Wi-Fi, certification, award recognition, detailed curriculum, flexible program (freezing of account), serene environment, career pivot, alumni community, in-house masterclass, security, amongst others.

“Our students are from different countries but mostly Africa, like Liberia, Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa, as well as Philippine, United States  & United Kingdom, alumni are not left out.

“This year we were honoured as the leading Fashion Academy in Africa and just recently we won another Award on leadership for youth empowerment.

“Change they say is constant, which is why I and my team have been able to improve the teaching structure of the academy and upgraded the curriculum, employed more professional staff to run the affairs of the students, giving them nothing but the best.

“We have also developed more strategic ways to teach our students in other to be inspired by their imagination, create trends and not just follow trends. This is why part of our program is fashion illustration; where our students get to understand the history of fashion and trends, how to create collections, know more about colours and fabrics and also how to create portfolios. We have also been able to add more structures to the academy, thereby creating a suitable learning environment anyone can think of.

“Through God, we will never relent to give back to the society by empowering more men and women, today we can boldly say that we have trained hundreds of men and women for free, who are now doing very well in the fashion industry, we identify unemployment as the constraints in the society hence also tackling this through our Gmyt SME support scheme initiative.

“My advice to young entrepreneurs is this, don’t just go into a business because someone is into it. Have the passion for it first, Start small; just like l will tell our students, you do not need millions of naira to start a fashion business take advantage of socio media platforms and promote your business or go into a partnership if you can’t afford to do it alone.

“Bear in mind that entrepreneurship is not easy, do not assume that just because someone is carrying it well means it is easy. When you finally make it to the top, do not relent to create a sustainable environment through your business by giving back to the society.”