Federal government has restated its commitment towards entrepreneurial development in the country.
Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said this while speaking yesterday at a co-creation conference with the theme, ‘Catalyst for Innovation,’ organised by Venial Business Hub in Lagos.
He said, innovators who had taken the risk to invest in providing co-working spaces to spur innovation and ideas that would be commercialised in the country, are contributing to the growth of the economy.
He said: “I want to emphasise that this is an economic and social phenomenon and I say that most profound idea of the industrial revolution was probably the concept of division of labour and am sure many of us are practically familiar with that concept and the government is fully in support of this. In this age, in the knowledge economy, it is co-working and co-creation that would define the way we work and progress.
“But let us first understand that the deconstruction of the conventional work environment as important as it is, is the least profound of the implication of the co-working. As a matter of fact, a lot of people are sharing working space. A lot of us today are sharing working space. That is profound.”
The vice president described co-creation as the process by which groups of people from across boundaries, come together with a shared purpose, to create value through improving or developing services and products.
“The work spaces will be liberating not restrictive, allowing for flexibility, not just in working hours, but in modes that we work. But more importantly, it will allow for collaboration, co-innovation, and co-value creation. It emphasizes the power in the interdependence and cross-pollination of ideas, not as an inadvertent occurrence, not as a mistake, but as a currency, as a way of creating, marketing and selling value. We must prepare for the creative disruption of this phenomenon. It will redefine how we teach in our schools, how the students learn and to some extent, the content of learning in schools.
“The truth of the matter is, the knowledge economy is bound to change everything, co-working is bound to change everything, how we learn and work,” he said.
However, he praised innovators in the country, noting that co-working and collaboration remains important for sustainable development.
Also speaking at the conference, the CEO of Venia Business Hub, Kola Oyeneyin commended efforts of entrepreneurs and innovators in the country.
