Barry University’s Andreas School of Business and the Miami-based Africa-Diaspora non-profit, ADPED, Inc., recently met with members of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) along with business school faculty at the BICED center on Barry's main campus in Miami Shores. Dr. Adewale Alonge, executive director for ADPED Inc., and Dr. Manny Tejeda, business professor and director for BICED signed into agreement to start the State Department-run, entrepreneurship program.
The Barry-ADPED partnership is one of 11 projects funded in Africa by the U.S. State Department under the Young Entrepreneur Program (YEP) which seeks to promote entrepreneurial thinking, job creation, and business planning and management skills for emerging young professionals worldwide. The Barry-ADPED project brings 20 young Nigerian entrepreneurs to the United States this month, to participate in a four-week training program at Barry.
Each young entrepreneur will formulate a business plan that can be deployed upon returning to Nigeria. They will also visit local businesses and small ventures, as well as organizations that support entrepreneurs such as banks and other financial institutions, venture capitalists, as well as governmental and non-governmental agencies that track and support economic and entrepreneurial activity.
Barry professors will collaborate with their counterparts in the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife to strengthen their entrepreneurship curriculum. The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) will also partner with the project to strengthen entrepreneurship development in Nigeria.
Barry’s business school is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International, the highest standard of achievement for business schools, worldwide.