SMCS / Entrepreneurship Development

Dangote: A Great Friend of the Nigerian Youth can create 148,600 Entreprenuers through Zakat Akintude Albert Ogoh Across the world , just about one percent of the population holds about 80% of the wealth in any society. In Nigeria one is astonished to find that apart from Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Dangote Group and very few business leaders, most of the people at the priviledge 1% are not passionate enough about solving the issues of unemployment through capacity building to sharpen the skills of youth to make them globally competitive and through entrepreneurship. Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of youth entrepreneurship participation in the world. By economically empowering youth, in a way that makes them consciously opt to take part in entrepreneurship, the effectiveness of this is likely to be strengthened. Much of the discussion surrounding high rate of youth unemployment focuses on boosting Nigerian talent, discouraging secondary school drop-out rates among youth and revamping the education system to better reflect the needs of the job market. However, rarely does the stark issue of youth’s participation in entrepreneurship enter the discourse. Youth comprises more than 68 per cent of the population, with many of them having national diplomas and above in higher education. But statistics from 2010 till date suggest that more and more youth are joining the growing unemployment market, with attendant poverty, frustration and restiveness. Painfully, their participation in entrepreneurship account for very insignificant level. Encouragingly, Aliko Dangote, Nigeria No.1 global champion and the 23rd richest person on earth is making serious attempts to reduce this pains and stem this worrisome trend. People like Dr Mike Adenuga, Femi Otedola, Jim Ovia, Tony Elumelu, Oba Otudeko are also giving some help. However, this should challenge others too. Other Nigerian global champions should join Dangote and the eminent business leaders mentioned above to heel the youth. Not just through job opportunities in their companies, but through mentoring in leadership and entrepreneurship as well. Nigerian based corporations also should learn to specially give back to the Nigerian society, beyond the level of mere donation to charity. MTN is doing some work in this regard through the MTN Foundation, but this is far from being good enough. Airtel is also trying some little things. for instance recouped its investment from the Nigeria economy after just two years of operation in Nigeria. The same MTN spends 30% of its profits after tax on CSR in East Africa while it spends just 1% on CSR in the Nigeria where it makes its biggest profits The task now is to help the youth through the path of entrepreneurship. They need to transform into real drivers of social change in the country to activate Nigerian youth to take action to transform their lives in the manner of Bill Gates. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a driver of social change around the world. It has youth programmes at a center where youth occasionally gather and young people are being thought how they can become the next generation of leaders and social innovators. Factors discouraging Youth participation in Entrepreneursip An October 1st 2014 poll by BRAVO News found that the perceived inability of to raise funds is central in discouraging them from entering into entrepreneurship, rather they prefer to get jobs and earn salaries as members of the labour force. Resolving the dilemma through online mentorship A good place to start is by creating a platform in which these complementary aims can be addressed. An online mentorship programme for tertiary students at the undergraduate level could do just this. It could take place for a few weeks each year or be an ongoing initiative. Students in polytechnic, colleges of education and universities would learn about entrepreneurship, vocational training options, be connected to potential companies and job listings and have a platform in which to network. They could also use the forum to ask questions from mentors about a variety of issues ranging from career aspirations to reconciling the work-life balance. Student queries could then be mapped to see where and how to best direct entrepreneurship efforts. A similar initiative in 2012 encouraged women across the US to enter Stem-related fields. The Ministry of Labour could copy this to promote the Nigeria version of this programme, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, selected federal and state higher institutions as zonal centres, while the University of Lagos, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Nigeria — to name a few — could provide facilitators while Nigeria-based corporation provide mentors and encourage the students to take part. These corporations and the banks could also provide the funding to cater for feeding and toolkits of participating students. The involvement of these organisations could have a ripple effect in shifting perceptions of employers towards appreciating the worth of youth in the productive economy, especially steering them towards entrepreneurship. To attract a wide audience, influential figures should be encouraged to take part in the initiative. These could include Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Dr Segun Aganga , Leke Alder, Foluso Phillips and influential bankers for the field of economics, Dr Adeshina and some players in the field of Agriculture, Chairman and some officers of the General Labour’s Union and the Family Development Foundation, for gender studies, participants in Engineering for construction and the Army Chief of staff for the armed forces. The involvement of these individuals will provide the youth with powerful, high-achieving role models from whom they could draw inspiration. The online mentorship programme can begin as an initiative targeted towards sectors with low entrepreneurship rates and then be expanded to other areas. Construction and real estate sectors were predicted to suffer a combined manpower shortage of 500,000 by 2015. Providing online mentors from these sectors could potentially encourage youth’s entry into paid labour and so help bridge the skills gap and shortage. To be sure, the initiative should be complemented by the comprehensive economic empowerment of youth through giving seed money not less than N250,000. To this end, manpower deepening through vocational training programmes should continue to gather momentum Dangote has been wonderful in helping society through the Dangote Foundation. As muslims are enjoined to pay zakat, which is 2.5% of their wealth, Dangote’s zakat is in billions of Naira. Religiously linking this injunction with his usually burning desire to help the Nigerian youth, Dangote has been fighting poverty and unemployment and trying to give the economy more spring to bounce. And in all the places where Dangote’s companies operate , Aliko ensure the society is given plenty back in terms of road construction, housing and water. This is evident in Obajana, Kogi State and Ilaro area of Ogun state. His services to the youth in the areas of employment and entrepreneurial development in Nigeria are wonderful. To fully encourage the youth, Dangote could make available N1 billion to each of the 36 states and Abuja to push youth entrepreneurship. Such money is not given to the government. By creating a platform- through a reputable human resources firm that will work with youths, screen their proposals, deepen their knowledge of entrepreneurship as well as link with respected stakeholders to administer, Dangote could equitably administer the N1 billion in the state. The strategy is to build on partnerships with the public, private, and nonprofit sectors—including the heads of traditional communities—so that together the influence of politics is removed and level-playing field pathways to opportunity created for young people with college-level education in the state. A kind of workshop is then organized for them to challenge them to see how well they can solve problems in a global competitive world through some problems given them to solve in the seminal. In this way, they will learn to cultivate a drive to persevere through challenges that are presented to them. They will be able to apply these skills to run their businesses and apply them to their own lives, and through their businesses, in turn , inspire more young people to take action to succeed. All participants in the conference must have submitted their business proposals and been given entrepreneurial training and toolkits. At two hundred and fifty thousand Naira (N250, 000) per head, the money will create 4,000 young entrepreneurs immediately. Multiplied with the 36 states and FCT Abuja that adds up to 148,600 instant youth entrepreneurs in just one year from Dangote’s zakat. The money is to provide capital to startup venture, and to support youth with small companies that wish to expand but do not have access to public funding. This will help energise the economy in the absence of venture capitalists who are willing to invest in startup businesses and companies without strong track records. However, without first instilling in youth a sense of self-worth and ensuring that support networks exist, such initiatives are likely to fall short of their intended goals. This is why the time is ripe for Nigeria to launch an online youth mentorship programme. Harnessing the range of e-services and social media towards the economic empowerment of national youth will help ensure the future success of the Federal government transformation agenda and provide a snapshot of a sustainable development paradigm for the West African countries to follow.