It Wasn't Easy Because I Had No Sponsors -- TIJESUNIMI POPOOLA (5.7 BATCH)

TIJESUNIMI POPOOLA is a determined, budding entrepreneur whose philosophy goes thus: “whatever it takes to gain a wealth of knowledge should be a priority.” Being a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) holder in Linguistics, she hopes to learn, unlearn and relearn in order to boost her entrepreneurial skills by working with a corporate organization.

Before having a taste of WAVE experience, Tijesunimi used to be a fashion designer and event planner in her own venture. Ultimately, because of her aim to learn soft skills, she heard about WAVE from her cousin who stays in Abuja and decided to join the league of WAVE training. As heard from her cousin, she hoped to cope and graduate, despite WAVE's strict policies such as zero tolerance for late-coming and incorporate dressings.

During our question and answer session with Tijesunimi, she said: “it wasn’t an easy experience but I had to push it till the end. I had no sponsors to support my transport fare and did most of the things by myself.” During the training, she spent one thousand naira daily to transport herself to WAVE’s training centre in Ibadan. Part of the challenges was that she had a slight injury, her motivation for learning made her complete the program. When asked how the program has helped her, she joyously said this: “through wave training, I have been able to broaden my horizon in aspects of managing expectation, communication and negotiation skills.” She further uttered that the training helped in understanding that for one to kick-start a business, “there is a need to work in a cooperate organization so as to learn managerial skills.”

Where she practises all the skills learnt at WAVE, Tijesunimi is currently working at Foodco as a supervisor. She finds enthusiasm in this job because it provides the opportunity to manage the event centre and bar. For her, this role will aid her managerial skills. In this job, she has not only been equipped with managerial skills but also learns the skill of multitasking by combining her fashion design business and a supervisory role at Foodco.

Her advice to self-employed and unemployed youth goes thus: ‘take part in WAVE training and push to the edge of graduate no matter the challenges’