In five years, the Louis Awode Foundation intends to nurture a generation of schoolchildren who see themselves not as future job seekers, but as future job creators.
The Foundation has unveiled a structured five-year programme that will train 500 children across Lagos and Ogun states in fashion design and allied entrepreneurial skills, equipping them with practical business knowledge while they are still in school.
The initiative, according to its founder, Louis Awode, is designed not merely as vocational exposure, but as an early entrepreneurship pipeline that introduces children to the principles of creativity, enterprise development, value creation and financial independence long before they enter Nigeria’s volatile labour market.
“We are not training children to be dependent on jobs that may never arrive. We are building the hands and minds that will create those jobs for others. Entrepreneurship must begin from the classroom, not after graduation,” the Foundation’s founder said.
Awode, currently completing an MBA at Georgia State University in the United States, said the programme represents a deeply personal intervention. Having grown up in Ogbere in Ijebu East Local Government Area, he understands how quickly childhood confidence can be eroded by poverty, and how rarely disadvantaged children are encouraged to see enterprise as a viable life path. “I grew up in an environment where lack was normal. There were days when something as basic as proper clothing could affect whether a child felt confident enough to go to school. But beyond attendance, children also need to feel capable of building something of their own. That belief is what drives entrepreneurship,” he said. The Foundation’s entrepreneurship-driven training model will combine fashion production skills with lessons in business planning, customer engagement, branding and financial literacy. Participants will learn not only how to make garments, but also how to run micro-enterprises — pricing products, managing clients, marketing their work and reinvesting profits.
This emphasis on enterprise responds directly to the nation’s youth employment reality. With youth unemployment persistently high and the formal economy absorbing only a fraction of new entrants each year, industry observers have repeatedly identified the creative sector as one of the few accessible entry points for young entrepreneurs with limited start-up capital. Parallel to the training programme, the Foundation will launch Cloth-A-Child in May across selected primary and secondary schools in Lagos and Ogun States. While the initiative will provide essential clothing kits to disadvantaged pupils, Awode insists its underlying purpose is also entrepreneurial.
“Clothing a child is not charity. It is restoration — of confidence, identity and the right to belong in a classroom. And once a child feels they belong, they can begin to imagine themselves not just as students, but as creators, innovators and business owners,” he said.
The Cloth-A-Child initiative will be implemented in partnership with ClovisCasuals, an Awode-founded Nigerian apparel brand that has carved a notable presence in the country’s fashion scene through collaborations with music stars Asake and Olamide, as well as influencers Yhemolee and MC Rhelax.
“We want children to leave school understanding that they can create value with their skills. Entrepreneurship is not something they should discover out of desperation later in life. It should be something they grow into with confidence,” he said. The project follows the Foundation’s recent Changing Lives.01 recognition of women sanitation workers of the Lagos Waste Management Authority in Lagos, reflecting a broader commitment to restoring dignity across underserved communities. The first phase of Cloth-A-Child will reach hundreds of pupils in Lagos and Ogun, with plans to expand to more disadvantaged states nationwide.
