Gtcrea8 2018 Convention: Lessons For Student Entrepreneurs

King’s College London Africa Studentships (2023/24 entry)

GTBeing one of the most technologically advanced and youth oriented financial institutions in the Nigeria, Guarantee Trust Bank seems to be committed to the task of easing lives of their huge and rapidly increasing customer base, most of whom are the youth population.

Perhaps it was this interest in the youths and their development that moved the people at Gtbank to put together an event designed to help undergraduates develop their passions and interests and also provide them with the necessary skills to build successful careers – the gtcreat8 convention.

The maiden edition of the gtcreat8 convention was held at the University of Lagos on March 8, 2018 for students from institutions in Lagos and its environs.

The gtcrea8 convention was delivered through a series of six master classes anchored by captains of industries such as Lanre Dasilva (fashion class), Anita Adetoye (makeup artistry masterclass), Uche pedro (digital/ social media), Lola Shoneyin (creative writing), young john (music production masterclass) and Iyinoluwa Aboyeji (tech master class).

NEWS: OAU Undergraduate emerges finalist of Global Student Entrepreneur Award

All the masterclasses were excellently done justice to. However, the digital media masterclass taught by Uche Pedro of Bellaniaja especially caught our fancy. During this session, there were opportunities for lots of students to learn how to build a career in the digital media space.

However, due to geographical barrier, many Nigerian students were unable to attend this interesting event. If you are one of such, here are the top 10 lessons we learnt from the digital media masterclass at the gtcrea8 convention.

 START IN SCHOOL

Uche Pedro, founder of Bellanaija shared with the lively student audience at the event how she started blogging immediately after she left school many years ago.

According to the media personality, she started the bellanaija idea when there was hardly anything like that in the country.

She encouraged the students in attendance to start now while they are in school because according to her ‘there is no age too young to start a career’.

 BE TECHNOLOGICALLY INCLINED

If there was any salient point students who attended the gtcrea8 convention took home, it would be Uche Pedro’s advice for students to be tech inclined.

Uche Pedro talked about the importance of technology in our age making reference to Facebook’s Zuckerberg and other successful tech business owners. Since the world has moved from analogue to digital, she told students unequivocally, to learn new technologies and embrace new opportunities.

YOU DON’T NEED ANY MONEY TO START

Uche Pedro said she started Bellanaija with “zero naira, zero kobo and zero dollar”! She encouraged students who want to start any career not to wait till they have so much money. She told the in attendance that they can start with just a mobile phone and internet access. Many students were wowed when they learnt about Bellanaijaj’s humble beginning.

BE PATIENT

We all know Bellanaija to be one of the most visited websites in Nigeria today, so it was surprising to hear Uche Pedro, its founder say that she made her first earning from her business after two long years of consistent hard work.

She encouraged the teeming audience to give whatever they are doing enough time to grow without being in a haste to make money. Patience she emphasized is one of the keys to success.

GROW WITH TRENDS

Uche Pedro shared with the audience that when they started Bellanaija, there was nothing like Instagram, YouTube and other social media platforms that are available now but the company has been able to move along with emerging trends and that’s why they are still relevant today.

Uche Pedro advised students who want to build a career in digital media to join the fast moving train of technology and social media and adopt new media innovations.

 FIIND A NICHE

Founder of Bellanaija, Uche Pedro also talked on the importance of creating a niche. Creating a niche according to her means offering something new or unique or doing something that has been done before in a new way.

She said that one of the importance of having a niche is that it stands one out among the thousands of other people doing the business or something similar.

 DON’T WASTE TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA

While some people are productive with their time on social media to build their personal or business brands, others just waste their time by checking random pictures and following random people.

Uche Pedro advised students in audience to use their time and data prudently and creatively especially when on social media.

BE CREATIVE

Uche Pedro also encouraged students to put on their thinking cap on and get their creative juices flowing if they want to develop successful careers.

She said her team have over the years been very creative with Bellanaija and that’s the reason the business is doing fine till date.

 DO WHAT YOU HAVE PASSION FOR

Uche pedro said she has always loved writing and that was why she was able to stick to her blogging even when there were hardly any visitors to her website until the website starting driving mad traffic.

She advised students in the audience who would love to start a career to choose one around what they already have passion for.

 STARTING IN SCHOOL IS ADVANTAGEOUS

The beautiful Uche pedro also mentioned that it is quite advantageous to start in school. She told the students that if they start in school, they may be able to find like-minded colleagues who have different skills they need for their Businesses.

These ones could come together as team members and grow successful businesses.

We hope you were able to catch up with some of the things you missed at the gtcrea8 2018 with these few points.

We sincerely hope that for the sake of Nigerian students who do not live or school in Lagos and its environs, the gtcrea8 convention will be held at other geographical zones of the country come 2019.

Where would you like the GTB people to bring the convention next year?

Join our community of student entrepreneurs.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here