For six months, 73,000 young Nigerians competed for a place in a programme designed to solve one of Nigeria’s most persistent problems: the gap between academic potential and meaningful access to work.
On Thursday, August 13, EnterpriseNGR graduated the sixth cohort of its Youth of Enterprise (YOE) Internship Programme, marking another step in its effort to build a stronger pipeline of young professionals for Nigeria’s financial and professional services sector.
Since its launch in 2022, the programme has recruited, trained and placed university graduates in paid six-month internships with leading organisations at no cost to participants. For Cohort VI, the programme combined workplace experience with masterclasses, mentoring, assessments and a research competition focused on real national challenges.
The graduation ceremony brought together the interns, employer partners, mentors, volunteers and alumni, but its central message was forward-looking: the internship was not the destination. It was the beginning of a professional journey.
EnterpriseNGR CEO Obi Ibekwe urged the graduates to treat the opportunity as a responsibility. She challenged them to keep learning, pursue excellence and create opportunities for others.
