African Leaders Urged to Seek Creative Solutions to Continent’s Challenges
Raheem Akingbolu
Organisers of Creative Week in Nigeria, a talent hunt platform for brand and business owners, have identified creativity and innovation as major tools that can help overcome various challenges daunting the continent’s business growth.
According to them, players in various sector can change the status quo of untapped natural resources, low Gross Domestic Product and poor infrastructure by embracing the power of creativity to produce positive change.
Speaking at the opening of a three-day forum organised for budding creative minds in Lagos, Managing Director of Chini Africa, Nnamdi Ndu, the lead organiser of the event used scientific discoveries and marketing models to demonstrate how Africa can address various socio-economic challenges facing her businesses.
To this end, he challenged brands, government and nongovernmental organisations to unite in the resolve to provide solutions through modern techniques.
In an interview with THISDAY on how brands can rejuvenate the economy through creativity and marketing, Ndu stared that the idea of Creativity Week is to encourage the private sector to be more forward-looking in developing the societies across Africa.
“Though people rely on government for development as they pay taxes and believe that development is squarely on the shoulders of the government, but we know that if certain activities are left to the government, in the face of dwindling incomes in, government would not be able to make the expected changes.”
He told the private sector that creativity is not only about producing Adverts to sell products, but the “consumer of today wants the brands to identify with them, with the issues they are dealing with and speak the same language with them”
According to him, this can be achieved by brands getting involved and intervening in issues that communities are interested in. “This way the brand owners are not just selling products but they are connecting with consumers’ hearts and in return the consumers will be loyal to the products. Consumers don’t just buy products these days because they are told to buy, but they are also buying and connecting with the hearts of the brand owners”
Ndu, suggested that “if different companies take one issue in the society, using Sustainable Development Goals of UN as template, even if they adopt one and pursue it, we will see that the society will grow.”
He noted that though some companies were involved in CSR, but many of the CSR projects are for the camera. The issues should be internalised, to the extent that even the staff should be able to say what the brands represent inside and this should resonate outside, he said.
The organisers used the opportunity of Creativity Week to launch ‘Creating a Better Africa programme’ which Ndu said is an opportunity for African businesses to stand up and take positions to help in solving challenges confronting the continent today.
The Creativity Week is an annual forum that brings together all those who are involved in marketing communication and marketing and the whole idea is to promote the industry. It is also targeted at establishing the industry so that they can produce materials that are at par with materials produced from other parts of the world.