Abuja Forum Urges Young Professionals to Communicate Their Value

By Atlantic Reports

Professional competence needs to be matched by the ability to communicate its value to employers, clients and collaborators, speakers at a personal branding event in Abuja have said.

Temitope Jacob, convener of SPROUT, made the case on Tuesday at a BrandXperience event themed “Personal Branding, Identity and the Value You Bring”.

The gathering brought together emerging professionals, young founders and university students to discuss reputation, professional identity and career positioning.

Jacob said skilled people sometimes struggled to explain their strengths in ways that made their contributions clear and memorable.

Personal branding, she argued, went beyond social media visibility or an impressive curriculum vitae. It required clarity about identity, values, strengths and the reputation an individual wanted to build.

“The essence of BrandXperience is to help people become more intentional about who they are, what they want to be known for and how they communicate their value,” she said.

Free conversations and paid programmes

Jacob said BrandXperience had developed a community of more than 5,000 members across Nigeria through physical engagements in Abuja and virtual learning programmes.

She described SPROUT as a quarterly conversation available free to physical and virtual participants. The organisation’s Own Your Name university tour was also free for students, particularly student entrepreneurs.

Other programmes operate on a different basis. BrandUp is a paid personal branding accelerator, while the Resonance Blueprint is a twice-yearly, in-person strategy masterclass aimed at leaders, founders, creatives, teams and institutions.

Jacob said the programmes were designed for people at different stages of professional development.

Community Manager Hannah Famodimu said partnerships and revenue from the organisation’s other programmes helped sustain its activities. She appealed for sponsorship and said further university engagements were being considered.

The community and participation figures were supplied by the organisers. The account did not include independently assessed outcomes across the programmes.

Participant describes clearer career direction

BrandUp beneficiary Emmanuel Ajala said the training helped him connect his pharmaceutical background with experience in cinematography, videography and design.

“Before the course, being a person with skills in different disciplines, it was a challenge for me finding a particular focus or even marrying everything I know to do in one direction,” he said.

Ajala, who received a scholarship for the paid programme, said he subsequently developed a clearer selling point, refined his online professional profile and reorganised his curriculum vitae.

He credited those changes with contributing to his selection for the Lagos Business School Young Talent Programme, where he said he later became the first president of its 11th cohort.

He also said Unilever had approached him about an operations management and marketing opportunity. An interview process was still required, so the approach did not amount to a confirmed job offer.

His experience provides an individual account of the programme’s value, rather than evidence that similar training guarantees employment or career advancement.

Reputation grounded in contribution

The event featured a BrandUp panel discussion and the launch of EVOLVE, a book linked to personal growth, identity and intentional development.

Participants examined how to align their public image with their values and communicate their contributions more effectively.

Ajala urged young people to see personal branding as developing a clear professional identity, rather than simply becoming an influencer or public figure.

For students, founders and workers, the discussion centred on a practical challenge: making their abilities understandable to people who may offer opportunities. A credible reputation depends on both that communication and the quality of the work behind it.

Atlantic Reports: Voices. People. Facts.