How UBA is promoting the entrepreneurial spirit of Nigeria, Africa
Entrepreneurship has been said to be a national asset which should be cultivated and adequately rewarded given its fundamental importance in driving and sustaining the growth of any nation.
Through creative thinking and innovation, entrepreneurship raises the standard of living of any economy by inventing new ways of doing things or revising existing methods in a more efficient manner, thus creating employment and wealth for the country.
The presence of a large number of small and medium enterprises (SMES) has been observed in large and well-to-do economies, while a good number of academic literature have argued that the growth of small businesses translates to economic gains.
The Organisation for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD) in its report “Entrepreneurship at a Glance 2018 Highlights” observed that the number of firms in a country is correlated with the size of the economy.
“In all countries, the majority of enterprises (between 70% and 95%) are micro-businesses, (i.e. enterprises with fewer than ten persons employed),” the OECD also noted, highlighting the importance of entrepreneurship.
Big corporations like Alibaba, Facebook, Amazon, Apple are all products of an enterprising spirit and started on a much smaller scale. Today, each of the aforementioned organizations contributes significantly to employment and growth both in their domestic economy and globally.
It is for this reason development experts have been argued for greater support for entrepreneurship, a catalyst for economic growth and development. According to Washington- based Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute, (The GEDI Institute), many of the conditions that help entrepreneurs also help the economy as a whole, providing even broader gains from supporting entrepreneurship.
The reality for Nigeria is however grim as Africa’s biggest economy ranked 101 out of 137 countries on the GEDI Global Entrepreneurship Index 2018 with a score of 20 percent across critical sub-indices.
In context, Ghana which ranked 93, Algeria at 80, Botswana at 52, Egypt at 76, Gabon at 79,
and South Africa at 57 are some of the African countries with better support for entrepreneurship. However, overall, the continent lagged in the ranking.
On this note, United Bank for Africa (UBA), a leading PanAfrican Bank, brought together over 20,000 participants and no less than 120 SMES from across Africa as Ubamarketplace hosted the most influential gathering of entrepreneurs on the continent.
The event, the first of its kind by the bank, was held in Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja between July 26 and 27.
The event was held on the side-line of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Forum, founded by Tony Elumelu, who chairs United Bank of Africa, Heirs Holdings, and Transcorp. The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has been passionately paving the way for entrepreneurship in Africa over the years.
At the 2-day event, 7,521 beneficiaries of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme were participants of the series of activities including an exhibition of innovative products and solutions by young Africans, providing a platform for networking and collaboration.
Entrepreneurs were presented a platform to pitch their businesses with a grand prize of a $5,000 grant for the winner, courtesy of UBA.
60 global speakers from the public and private sectors across three continents participated in interactive masterclasses, plenary sessions and debates geared towards generating ideas and defining concrete steps Africa must take to empower its youth and accelerate the continent’s development.
As the largest gathering of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Africa, the event brought together businesses and business owners in various industries including food, fashion, beauty, home/interior and gadgets.
The event offered plenary sessions and discussions on the small and medium scale enterprises (SMES) sector and the relevance of financing.
UBA officials were on ground to enlighten and educate entrepreneurs on tailor-made financing products that would help their business a great deal, while entrepreneurs whose business were ailing got firsthand knowledge on how their business could grow and most importantly the needed support that would help them succeed.
The plenary sessions highlighted the entertainment and music industries. Likewise, fashion, a big cultural and revenue attraction on the continent, was showcased the designs of 10 leading African labels.
At the master-class sessions held during the Ubamarketplace2019, small and medium scale businesses were provided with the opportunity to network and get solutions to some of the challenges they faced in running their businesses.
This was in line with UBA’S goal of helping both its customers and potential customers attain their dream of having successful and thriving businesses.
The highlight of the events included the unveiling music sensation Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, popularly referred to as Wizkid, as a brand ambassador of UBA and a presidential debate focused on charting the way forward towards the eradication of poverty in Africa through job creation.
Moderated by Fareed Zakaria, host of Global Public Square show on CNN, the public sector leaders on the panel included H. E. Paul Kagame, President, Republic of Rwanda; H.E. Macky Sall, President, Republic of Senegal; H.E. Félix Tshisekedi, President, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); H.E. (Prof.) Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria; and Hon (Dr.) Ruhakana Rugunda, Prime Minister, Republic of Uganda, representing the President of Uganda, H.E. Yoweri Museveni.
Healthcare experts also weighed on the dialogue “The Role of Healthcare in Economic Transformation”.
Speakers on this panel include Dr Awele Elumelu, Trustee, Tony Elumelu Foundation and Founder/ CEO, Avon Medical Practice; H.E (Mrs.) Aisha Buhari, First Lady, Federal Republic of Nigeria, H. E ( Mme.) Djena Kaba Condé, First Lady of Guinea; H.E. (Mme.) Keïta Aminata Maiga, First Lady, Mali; Gilles Carbonnier, Vice President, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); Oulimata Sarr, Regional Director ai, UN Women Central and West Africa; and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-general, World Health Organisation.
At the event, Vice President of Nigeria, H.E. (Prof.) Yemi Osinbajo said commended Tony Elumelu and the initiatives from UBA.
“By birthing this particular intervention, Tony Elumelu has compelled us to focus on what really matters, our youth and their dreams. The message to Africa’s emerging business giants is a clear one: How and what can you contribute, like Tony Elumelu, to empowering the next generation, helping them to realize their own dreams?” Osinbajo said.
The event also drew praises from other national and international figures including Nigeria’s erstwhile Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who took to micro-blogging platform, Twitter, to appreciate what the commitment of UBA and TEF to promoting entrepreneurship.
“I have always believed have always believed that the creativity and dynamism of our youth offers a way out of the nation’s economic challenges and in hosting #Ubamarketplace @Tonyoelumelu and the @TonyelumeLUFDN have created a fantastic platform that must be sustained and emulated. Well done.”
For Nigeria’s economy struggling to create jobs and achieve strong growth, the Ubamarketplace is timely given the need to challenge and support the country’s youth population towards entrepreneurship.
Youth unemployment is on the rise, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) latest employment data which put the percentage of unemployed young Nigerians at 29.72 percent-above national unemployment at its alltime high.
This is worrisome as it reinforces the cycle of poverty in Nigeria, already tagged world poverty capital. Tony Elumelu warned about the implication to the nation beyond economic losses.
“Extremism is a product of poverty and joblessness. Poverty anywhere is a threat to everyone everywhere,” he said.
Nigeria has 41,543,028, Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMES) as at 2017 according to NBS data but the businesses still struggle from lack of access to finance, absence of entrepreneurship/vocational training, and poor Business Counselling/monitoring, highlighting the importance the initiatives of UBA and the TEF in promoting entrepreneurship.