How entrepreneurship
can rescue the economy —Adeboye
Penultimate week, Bola
Adeboye, Vice President, Global Business Network, MD/CEO, Nigeria Police
Mortgage Bank Plc and founder, Spark School of Entrepreneurship, spoke with
Omotayo Lewis and Abiodun Awolaja on the role of entrepreneurship in reviving
the Nigerian economy, among other issues, shortly after delivering the 4th
Matriculation Lecture of the McPherson University, Ogun State. Excerpts:
From your CV, it seems that, in
the last 15 years, you have been involved in the crusade for entrepreneurship
as an economic solution in Nigeria. Now that the nation seems to be at the
crossroads economically, why do you think we have not been able to latch unto
it in Nigeria?
The government has not been too
serious. But now, I guess they have to take it serious because we have been
warning that there is a need to diversify our economic base. No country in the
world that has oil, depends on oil. America has been buying oil and putting it
in reserve. Britain discovered oil, but they just left it there. United Arab Emirate
got oil and converted it into other industries; they converted it into tourism.
But in Nigeria, we were making money from the oil and it is being shared
between the Federal Government and the state governments; it is wrong, it is an
anomaly. In the process, we left our productive sector, we left agriculture,
and we left industries. Where are the rubber plantations?
We have to go back to basics and
it will encourage regional balance in development, it will solve economic and
social problems, it will reduce crime rate, it will create employment for the
up and coming ones. We have over thirty eight million Nigerians that are
unemployed. It’s a concern, we have been shouting it but government has no
choice now. Very soon, nobody will even buy our oil, and then we will have to
look inwards for other things. And we are blessed with so many human resources,
mineral resources. We have eight million graduates that are unemployed; they
are untapped and they are undeveloped.
In the past, government
specifically put money into the textile industry…
But they are dead, because we
cannot compete with foreign countries.
If you had the opportunity of
being the coordinating minister of the economy like we used to have, what
specifically will you do?
Let me tell you certain things
that I would do. One, I would advocate for gradual stoppage of oil revenue
sharing.
But that would cripple the
states?
It will not. You make the states
more rational. Do you want to tell me that Ondo State does not have cocoa?
Where are the cocoa research institutes, the International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture? Most of the research institutions are dead. We don’t
invest in research. Malaysia came here, picked our palm seedlings and turned it
into so many products. If we continue to say that the states should continue to
be dependent on the Federal Government, we will continue to kill ourselves. The
states should look inwards, identify the resources they have.
We have countries that have
exported even human resources. India did it when they were going through their
own process. You would find Indians all over and the people were remitting
foreign currencies back home. There is a need for Nigerianisation, there is a
need for us to operate as a nation. There is a need for us to identify ourselves
collectively. I am not saying the states should not be given money, but it
should be targeted at the productive sectors. We might make it a condition: the
Federal Government would tell the states: “We will give you your money, it’s
your allocation. But you should channel it to productive sectors that can
generate revenue.” Look at the budget we are having now, six trillion naira,
but over four trillion is on recurrent expenditure. For capital expenditure, we
want to go and borrow money, and that is why I have my fears.
You mentioned in your lecture
that entrepreneurs don’t necessarily have to have money, that it is ideas that
rule the world. Would you like to elaborate on that, for our youths?
Ideas rule the world, even in the
most developed parts of the world. Dangote started with N500, 000 borrowed
money. It was not his money, Richard Branson started with records selling, and
Bill Gate wrote just Microsoft programmes, for his vacation fee; he sacrificed
it. So, what we are saying is, you need little or no capital. Let me give you
my book “How to start your business with little or no capital”. If you go
through, you will see that most great business men started with little or
nothing. I started with nothing, but the capital base of my bank now is N5.5
billion. What will germinate in you, what you need, what will stimulate you,
what will continue to maintain you, what will propel you, is that idea.
The Yoruba say “Owo ti
omodebakoko pa, akara lo ma fi je.” (A child will typically waste the first
money that he or she makes). What is the meaning of that, except you don’t
respect the Yoruba culture? It is a tested and proven case that, for most
people that started business, there is the tendency of failure, but when you
don’t give up be of course, you will make it. You need to have resilience, the
ability to go the extra mile, and tenacity. When the troubles are much, you
have the tendency of giving up, but if you don’t give up, you will eventually
make it.
The universities have introduced
entrepreneurship studies and your book, a recommended text, seems to be one of
the very few available. Do you think lack of good books is one problem for the
youths?
They are not giving them enough;
they are not supporting them enough. But even apart from the books, the schools
should encourage their students to try their hands at something. Some may go
into fashion; some may go into vocational skills. They are all in my paper. My
wife started with brown paper, sewing of brown paper. Now she is into
export-oriented fashion designing.
What if there is no electricity
to power it?
You don’t need electricity to
power brown paper. From there, she ventured into adire, and then she started
going into textiles. Later, she started going abroad, sewing cloths for
Africans. And then, she started bringing in clothing materials. We have to
start somewhere, I have seen some adire fabrics, they are fantastic, but are we
encouraging that industry? It is only in this country that you will find the
government officials going with 17cars on their entourage. I was in Britain, I
saw the Prime Minister.
Maybe, they have learnt from the
Murtala Muhammed case...
Which Murtala Mohammed’s case? In
Europe, nobody would shoot you because they know that you are not in power to
take any money. If we need governance to be open, transparent and not
rewarding, nobody would shoot anybody. But when you get to power and say “Let
me eat my own,” you encourage capital flight.
How do you assess the economic
policies of the present government?
We have good policies. My problem
is implementation and we have to address it. One government comes and sets its
policy, and another comes and cancels it. In Britain, in USA and the developed
economies, they continue with the process because if you do so, they continue
with the process, they will mature, they will pass through a lot and yet they
will succeed. But here, because I want to take the glory, I would cancel your
own policy. And then, our people in leadership are too powerful. We have to
reduce the potency, the power given to the leaders. There must be dissemination
of power.
No comments:
Post a Comment