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Alternative Plan: How FG Can Use Social Intervention Fund to Accelerate Nigeria

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It occurred to me that this current administration has only four years to make good on its agenda of CHANGE.

With over 1 year of that time spent already, the results so far did not look like the job of transforming Nigeria would be a walk in the park as the election campaigns made us all to believe. 

For example, if we take a look at the area of job creation for youth, from what I can see, not much has really changed in the lives of the average Nigeria youth as current unemployment rates grew worse to 51%.
Thankfully, the federal government of Nigeria seems to be getting their hands dirty trying to fix this. That’s why I took interest in the N500billion social fund; the government’s consolidated social intervention fund capped at N500billion that covers six aspects including: Teach Nigeria Scheme; the Youth Employment Agency; Conditional Cash Transfer; Micro Credit Scheme; Home Grown School Feeding; and Free Education Scheme for Science Students. I am aware that the smartest brain are behind this project, with direct supervision from the office of the Vice President, but I don’t think this money will be well spent nor achieve any major benefit to the economy, based on how it is structured.

Let me explain.
A breakdown of the N500billion shows where the majority of the money will be spent. It might be of interest to you that the YES initiative (N10billion), building of 12 ICT hubs (N15million per one) and STEM programme have meagre allocation from the N500billion fund, yet these are what I expect to have the larger portion to help in creating new industries that will diversify our economy.

It literally seems that the bulk of the fund is for aids: feeding school children, and monthly allocations to others. While it is morally difficult to argue against supporting the less privilege, but how far do you think that the government’s approach of giving aids to its own people instead of empowering them accelerate the economy?

Raise your hands if you think that all the aids that Africa received from US and Europe helped us out of poverty. Many of such aids never really transform the African economy like when the average citizen is empowered with skills.

The message at that level is “not to give aids, but to partner…..”. Andrew Rugasira, CEO of Good African Coffee said it better on CNN and his book tour interview, as he noted that “the solution to Africa’s economic challenges will only be met by Africans innovating and creating valuable products, services and brands at source”.

The same analogy applies to this N500billion “handout” as it seems that the bulk of this money will be spent as aids, and there are so many things that could go wrong, just like the recently scrapped fuel subsidy. But the critical questions to ask is “what values are created after spending half a trillion naira? “

One of the most incredible mathematical equations I learnt is the compound interest. The equation emphasizes the impact that time has on the value of money. So, we are not only destroying the value of the N500billion, we are also not taking advantage of what its future value could be, if spent wisely.

Partnerships not Aids: a new way of thinking CHANGE
I am of the school of thought that government should double up critical investment on socially empowering initiatives that focus on building talents that solve national problems, as these problems, if they remain unsolved will make us dependent as a consumer nation.

One of such social programme is YouWin! I am not in a hurry to say YouWin was successful, but a World Bank report and an expert analysis later, it looks like the world’s Largest Business Plan Competition – YouWin! -compared favorably against benchmarks as a viable job creation tool.

We should implement more of these initiatives and build a structure to make it a critical part of our GDP acceleration programme. Mr President believes that agriculture holds an immense potential for the growth of our economy.

Yes, I agree, but I am biased towards technology, because tech entrepreneurship is responsible for the growth of the most developed economies of the world. That is why the baby steps we have taken in this direction by all agencies of Government, especially under the auspices of NITDA including #StartupFriday, Aso Villa Demo Day and Technology Exchange programme (i.e GOTEX), should be sustained.

We have a lot we can learn from other nations, including supposedly “developing” economies like Chile that started a tech acceleration programme dubbed StartUp Chile which annually brings the best startup founders to launch their programme in the Latin American country, and India who are are building a government that relies on Technology.

We must encourage and support the youth to innovate, and solve local problems with global excellence. This will come at a cost to government. In addition to grants; it will imply granting concession, tax-rebates and “free trade zone” status to early stage startups; encouraging local investors to invest in our startups by giving them tax breaks for those investments like what is obtainable in Europe where high-net individuals that invest in local startups and keep their investments up to three years can benefit from rebate up to 50%. In Turkey, it is reported to be as high as 100%.

But if you ask me, we barely compete on major metrics we should focus on to accelerate Nigeria through technology innovations, instead, we have joined other African countries in attempts to ban everything from the “social media gag bill” to stifling home-grown technology like Remita that wants to help government’s finance become more transparent.

Another casualty of our policy is a young Nigeria with a marketplace business model for digital imagery using drones, but the policy against drone will never make his business to take off. And there are several of us, who are hurt, made lame and efficient just because we are waiting for light (PHCN) to be switched on so that we don’t have to bear the burden of fueling and maintaining generators which for most of us take away 45% of our business expenses. Add to all these challenges, our “doing business” index is so bad to the extent that local startups are choosing to be incorporated in US or elsewhere with one of them Andela, almost getting it’s Nigeria identity “lost in transit” due to this.

This is where I believe we should spend the better part of Nigeria’s intervention fund and make policies to make it happen, so that we (the youth) can create the future for Nigeria.

AUTHOR BIO: Wole Ogunlade is a growth strategist for early-stage startups; he writes about growth marketing topics on his personal blog,SpokenTwice.com and also contributes to leading tech blogs in Nigeria and diaspora. He is a mentor at the 2nd edition of the Tony Elumelu Foundation programme for entrepreneurs. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter @spokentwice.


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E-Business

StarNews, Global Black Economic Forum Launch Business Competition In Partnership with MTN & USAID

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Africa’s leading video streaming platform, StarNews Mobile and the Global Black Economic Forum (GBEF), have announced a call for applications for the launch of their Business Competition in Lagos, Nigeria.

Held in partnership with MTN and United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID), the initiative will empower Nigeria’s most promising businesses that are classified as Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with invaluable investment and partnership opportunities from the USA.

Held over 10 weeks between April 8th to June 14th, hosted exclusively on the StarNews Biz Channel on the StarNews platform, this competition offers a platform for emerging entrepreneurs to showcase their ventures and gain national visibility.

With subscribers voting for their favourite candidates, the top 20 contestants will seize the spotlight and make their mark on the business landscape.

The StarNews Business Competition in partnership with GBEF delivers a unique opportunity for thriving Nigerian SMEs to access mentoring, funding, partnerships and socio-economic development tools through the Global Black Economic Forum.

With the prospect of securing cash prizes through StarNews worth up to NGN5,000,000, getting access to StarNews’s network of investors and the opportunity to gain national visibility by having their business on the StarNews web platform.

The top three winners will also receive coaching from GBEF’s Academy for Advancing Excellence and become part of GBEF’s ecosystem of global leaders committed to social and economic justice across the Black Diaspora.

Previous speakers at GBEF convenings from the entertainment sector include Wyclef Jean (Haitian Musician & Activist), Debra Lee (Former CEO of Black Entertainment Television – BET) and Ceci Kurzman (Founder of Nexus Management Group). Applications will close on April 5th 2024.

Speaking on the competition’s launch, Guy Kamgaing, Founder and CEO at StarNews Mobile, says “The StarNews Business Competition is a passion project close to our hearts at StarNews Mobile.

It’s about discovering the most promising business entrepreneurs and creators in Nigeria, opening up global opportunities for them and providing them with the resources and tools to achieve their goals.

By partnering with MTN, USAID and GBEF, we want to be a platform of empowerment for these SMEs by helping them give back to the communities that are supporting them.”

According to the US Embassy and Consulate for Nigeria, over 80% of Nigerian startups are incorporated in the United States and more than 60% of venture capital funding in Nigerian startups accounted for by the US.

In 2023 alone, Nigerian startups raised a total of $398mn however, this signalled a 66% funding decline compared to 2022 due to the global economic downturn, reinforcing the massive need for a fresh injection of capital and business support for Nigeria’s emerging SMEs.

Alphonso David, President and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum notes that, “Our partnership with StarNews Mobile is a critical resource as we continue to build the collective strength of entrepreneurship across the Diaspora.

“Building a sustainable ecosystem of Black entrepreneurs in the United States and across the African continent is essential to create a future that makes economic opportunity and economic freedom a reality for all.”

A sister company to ESSENCE, GBEF advances its work by convening global summits and conferences, bringing together world leaders, business leaders, entrepreneurs, celebrities and civic leaders to address the most challenging problems facing our communities.

GBEF’s Academy for Advancing Excellence facilitates workforce and leadership development strategy, addressing the talent pipeline & employee lifecycle, providing leadership development & coaching, and conducting institutional assessments & research.

GBEF also develops and implements economic and social justice policy recommendations with partners ranging from civil and human rights organisations to government entities and corporations that advocate for economic opportunity, social justice, and health equity through thought leadership, advocacy and litigation.

Launched in 2017, StarNews Mobile empowers African content creators with the unique opportunity to monetize their work through a subscription model, boasting over 4 million subscribers and a thriving community of more than 120 content creators.

With a strong presence across six countries including Cameroon, Nigeria, Côte D’Ivoire, Congo, Benin and Ghana, the platform has also established key partnerships with major telecom operators such as MTN and Orange.

To-date, StarNews Mobile has secured over $8mn in funding with its most recent raise – a $3mn pre-Series A funding round in October 2023 – led by Janngo Capital with participation from French football players Aurélien Tchouaméni, Jules Koundé and Mike Maignan.

 


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Companies Invest More than $100,000 Yearly to Upskill their Cybersecurity Teams – Study Reveals

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Over 70% of businesses pay more than USD $100,000 for additional training annually to keep skills of their cybersecurity employees up to date, a recent global Kaspersky study has revealed.

However, the surveyed companies also highlighted that there was a lack of relevant courses covering new challenging spheres in the educational market and stated that training does not always bring them the expected result.

In its recent study ‘The portrait of the modern Information Security professional’, Kaspersky examined the topic of the global cybersecurity staff shortage, analysing the exact reasons businesses lack cybersecurity experts, and identifying the ways they evaluate and upskill their cybersecurity workforce¹.

According to the research, companies are investing significant amounts in upskilling their cybersecurity teams: 43% of organisations globally say they usually spend between $100,000 and $200,000 per year on information security courses, while 31% even invest over $200,000 for training programs. The remaining 26% state they usually pay less than $100,000 for educational initiatives².

However, cybersecurity practitioners also note that the educational market is struggling to keep up with the rapidly changing industry and fail to deliver the necessary training programs on time.

Survey results for the Middle East, Turkiye, Africa (META) region shows that the scarcity of courses covering new challenging spheres (48%) was the main problem for those searching for cybersecurity training.

50% of respondents from the META region also stated that trainees tend to forget what they learned because they had no opportunity to apply newly acquired knowledge, therefore the courses were useless to them.

The need for special training pre-requisites such as coding and advanced mathematics, which were not specified at the pre-registration stage were also problematic for 37% of practitioners from the META region.

“With a constantly evolving threat landscape, businesses should continually improve the skills of their cybersecurity personnel in order to be well prepared for sophisticated cyberattacks.

“Developing high-profile specialists within the company and building internal expertise can be an effective strategy for organisations that aim to retain existing employees and allow them to grow professionally, instead of constantly hunting for new candidates and checking their professional backgrounds and practical skills.

“For organisations served by Managed Service Providers it is also important to maintain a pretty high level of expertise internally and use the same language when discussing the scope of services and Service Level Agreement with them,” comments Veniamin Levtsov, VP, Center of Corporate Business Expertise at Kaspersky.


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Heirs Insurance Launches User-friendly Website for Stakeholders

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Heirs Insurance Group, Nigeria’s fastest growing insurance group, has launched a new website that delivers the most user-friendly insurance experience in the industry.

Heirs Insurance Launches User-friendly Website for Stakeholders

In addition to its features that aid simple navigation, the website also personalizes the insurance experience taking customers through a short journey that enables them to make decisions quickly on the best insurance plan to support their personal and business success, or access competent insurance advisors to speak with.

According to Ifesinachi Okpagu, chief marketing officer, Heirs Insurance Group, the website, www.heirs insurance group.com, embodies the ethos of the brand: the delivery of simple, quick, and accessible insurance service that delights customers and brings the uninsured much closer to taking up insurance plans.

She said: “Today’s customers want simplicity and this new website delivers on that request, ensuring that people find the right insurance solutionsfor their needs in a few minutes. We are empowering customers to take control of their lives, their businesses, assets, and their most cherished people.” Heirs Insurance Group has been at the forefront of pioneering a new era of insurance solutions since its launch with the roll-out of various initiatives including a seamless mobile app, USSD; Prince, its intuitive chatbot; InConnect, its partnership portal Digital Experience Centre; and more. With the launch of this website, Heirs Insurance Group solidifies its position as the leading digital insurance company in Nigeria, democratising access to insurance for all.


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