This June, National Youth Corps (NYSC) Members in Abuja and Kano who have successfully completed the WIPO Intellectual Property Skills Acquisition Learning and Youth Entrepreneurship (IP SALAYE) program will showcase market-ready solutions to local problems at two Demo Exhibition Day events scheduled to hold in Abuja and Kano respectively. These events will mark the formal conclusion of the program.
Event details:
Abuja Demo Exhibition Day
Date: Monday June 16, 2025
Time: 11:00am – 02:00pm
Venue: Onsite at the United Nations House, Abuja; and online via Zoom.
Kano Demo Exhibition Day
Date: Tuesday June 24, 2025
Time: 11:00am – 02:00pm
Venue: Onsite at the MysticFalls Event Center, Abuja; and online via Zoom.
About the project:
In October 2023, WIPO launched the IP Skills Acquisition, Learning, and Youth Entrepreneurship (SALAYE) project, specifically tailored for young entrepreneurs currently undergoing the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program.
The project incorporated the WIPO IP Management Clinics (IPMC) and aimed to enhance IP awareness among young entrepreneurs in Nigeria, enabling them to harness IP for business purposes. The pilot phase took place from October 2023 to April 2024 and effectively provided IP and business mentorship to twenty-eight (28) Youth Service Corps Members from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The success of the inaugural phase inspired the development of a scaled-up version to provide training and mentorship to 150 youth service corps members undertaking their national service in Abuja and Kano State. The second phase was launched in November 2024.
Following the launch event, 150 youth corps members were selected from over 400 applicants and onboarded into the program via a virtual event on December 11, 2024.
The project was implemented in two stages:
- Stage one (December 2024 to February 2025): Participants were trained and mentored to identify local problems and provide industrially applicable technological innovations to solve them. In each state, the youth corps members worked in groups of 5 team members each.
- Stage two (March to May 2025): The top fifteen (15) groups, who met the laid-down criteria, advanced to the IPMC sessions, where they received one-on-one mentorship and training on utilizing IP as a strategy for business development and financing.
The closing Demo Exhibition Day events will celebrate the achievements of the young entrepreneurs, who will demonstrate their solutions, IP strategy and the potential impact of their products. Key stakeholders in the Nigerian government as well as the technology and IP ecosystems will also be in attendance.