President of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has emerged the 2017 World Food Prize Laureate. Speaking during his Norman Borlaug Lecture titled “Betting on Africa to Feed the World,” delivered on Monday, October 16 on World Food Day in the United States, Akinwunmi maintained that Africa holds the key for feeding the nine billion people that will inhabit this planet by 2050.
The Laureate also called for land tax for unused agricultural land or underutilized agricultural land to provide incentives for faster commercialization of agriculture and unlocking its potential in Africa.
In the lecture held before a large international audience at Iowa State University in Des Moines, Iowa, Adesina stressed why, more than ever before, the world must help Africa to rapidly modernize its agriculture and unlock its full potential.
“Africa sits on 65% of the uncultivated arable land left in the world, so what Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world,” he emphasized. “African farmers need more than a helping hand. They need a policy lift,” Adesina said.
He also highlighted how the challenge of addressing global food security is greatest in Africa where close to 300 million are malnourished. It is also the only region of the world where the proportion of the population that is food insecure has increased, he said.
The AfDB President paid tribute to Dr. Norman Borlaug, whom the lecture series was named after, and recalled how Africa was the last frontier for the late Borlaug.
Borlaug, the Founder of the World Food Prize, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for a lifetime of work to feed a hungry world.
Adesina stressed that despite the progress globally in food production (including in Africa, Latin America and Asia), the world still has 700 million people languishing in extreme poverty. This, he added, includes 800 million with chronic hunger, 2 billion people with micronutrient deficiency, and 150 million children under 5 years of age who are suffering from stunting.
He described the challenge of feeding the world as immense, with need for rapid increases in global food, feed and biofuel production to feed a global population of 9 billion people by 2050.
“If Dr. Borlaug alone could feed one billion people, we definitely can feed 800 million people globally and we definitely can feed 300 million Africans. Dr. Borlaug would be disappointed if we couldn’t and with all technologies and innovations, from gene revolution to ICT revolution, at our disposal, we won’t be able to face him and say we didn’t.”
Adesina decried the current situation where Africa spends US $35 billion annually on food imports, describing it as unacceptable. By his estimates, if the current trend continues, Africa is estimated to spend US $110 billion by 2030 on food imports.
“There is therefore absolutely no reason for Africa to be a food-importing region. Africa has huge potential in agriculture, but, as Dr. Borlaug used to say, nobody eats potential!”
Unlocking that potential must start with the savannas of Africa which covers “a mind-boggling 600 million hectares of which 400 million hectares are cultivable,” Adesina said.
Africa’s savannas, he said, are better than the savannas of Brazil, because their soils are not acidic and therefore do not need liming, which had to be done at massive scales in Brazil.
“Yet, while the savannas of Brazil feed the world, those of Africa cannot even feed the farmers there,” he lamented. He further highlighted how technologies, innovations, research and development, mechanization, modernization of agriculture, policy support and massive investments in infrastructure made the difference to turn the savannas of Brazil and those of Northern Thailand into a food powerhouse.
To transform its agriculture, Africa needs to make a decision to develop new agrarian systems − one that combines smallholder farmers with a new dynamic generation of medium and large commercial farmers.
He also canvassed land tenure systems that make it easier to get access to land, and for smallholder farmers and their communities to have secured land rights. A top priority must be to mechanize agriculture in Africa, he added.
Over 1,200 people from more than 65 countries will address cutting-edge issues related to global food security and nutrition at the 2017 Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium, October 18-20, 2017.
Dove ‘racist’ ad: Nigerian model defends campaign
Few days ago, an advert by personal care brand, Dove showing a black woman turning white after using one of their products, a soap to be precise, sparked outrage online., with many labelling it racist and calling on friends all over the world to boycott the company’s products.
The company has issued and apology and withdrawn the ad. “An image we recently posted on Facebook missed the mark in representing women of color thoughtfully. We deeply regret the offense it caused.”
Well, Lola Ogunyemi, a Nigerian model at the center of the controversial advertisement has also defended the campaign, saying the message was taken out of context. Read her opinion below.
“From a very young age, I’ve been told, “You’re so pretty … for a dark-skinned girl.” I am a Nigerian woman, born in London and raised in Atlanta. I’ve grown up very aware of society’s opinion that dark-skinned people, especially women, would look better if our skin were lighter.
I know that the beauty industry has fuelled this opinion with its long history of presenting lighter, mixed-race or white models as the beauty standard. Historically, and in many countries still today, darker models are even used to demonstrate a product’s skin-lightening qualities to help women reach this standard.
This repressive narrative is one I have seen affect women from many different communities I’ve been a part of. And this is why, when Dove offered me the chance to be the face of a new body wash campaign, I jumped.
Having the opportunity to represent my dark-skinned sisters in a global beauty brand felt like the perfect way for me to remind the world that we are here, we are beautiful, and more importantly, we are valued.
Then one morning, I woke up to a message from a friend asking if the woman in a post he’d seen was really me. I went online and discovered I had become the unwitting poster child for racist advertising. No lie.
If you Google “racist ad” right now, a picture of my face is the first result. I had been excited to be a part of the commercial and promote the strength and beauty of my race, so for it to be met with widespread outrage was upsetting.
Calls were being made to boycott Dove products, and friends from all over the world were checking on me to see if I was OK. I was overwhelmed by just how controversial the ad had become.
If I had even the slightest inclination that I would be portrayed as inferior, or as the “before” in a before and after shot, I would have been the first to say an emphatic “no”. I would have (un)happily walked right off set and out of the door. That is something that goes against everything I stand for.
However, the experience I had with the Dove team was positive. I had an amazing time on set. All of the women in the shoot understood the concept and overarching objective – to use our differences to highlight the fact that all skin deserves gentleness.
I remember all of us being excited at the idea of wearing nude T-shirts and turning into one another. We weren’t sure how the final edit was going to look, nor which of us would actually be featured in it, but everyone seemed to be in great spirits during filming, including me.
Then the first Facebook ad was released: a 13-second video clip featuring me, a white woman, and an Asian woman removing our nude tops and changing into each other. I loved it. My friends and family loved it. People congratulated me for being the first to appear, for looking fabulous, and for representing Black Girl Magic. I was proud.
Then, the full, 30-second TV commercial was released in the US, and I was over the moon again. There were seven of us in the full version, different races and ages, each of us answering the same question: “If your skin were a wash label, what would it say?”
Again, I was the first model to appear in the ad, describing my skin as “20% dry, 80% glowing”, and appearing again at the end. I loved it, and everyone around me seemed to as well. I think the full TV edit does a much better job of making the campaign’s message loud and clear.
There is definitely something to be said here about how advertisers need to look beyond the surface and consider the impact their images may have, specifically when it comes to marginalized groups of women. It is important to examine whether your content shows that your consumer’s voice is not only heard, but also valued.
I can see how the snapshots that are circulating the web have been misinterpreted, considering the fact that Dove has faced a backlash in the past for the exact same issue. There is a lack of trust here, and I feel the public was justified in their initial outrage. Having said that, I can also see that a lot has been left out. The narrative has been written without giving consumers context on which to base an informed opinion.
While I agree with Dove’s response to unequivocally apologise for any offense caused, they could have also defended their creative vision, and their choice to include me, an unequivocally dark-skinned black woman, as a face of their campaign. I am not just some silent victim of a mistaken beauty campaign. I am strong, I am beautiful, and I will not be erased.
Source: The Guardian
America’s Mad Obsession with Guns | By: Tony Ogunlowo
Again another psychotic madman strikes killing over 50 people and injuring more than 500 in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Never a day goes by in America that there isn’t a homicide caused as the result of a gun in the hands of an irresponsible person.
A gun is not a toy – it kills people and currently more than 300 million Americans – a third of the population- own them.
While some are calling for the control of guns others are clamouring for them: they claim the Second Amendment gives them the right to own guns to protect themselves. The powerful National Rifle Association, for instance, has lobbied every President in recent years against gun control. Owning a gun is like a birth right to many: they’ll claim people in the family have owned guns for generations and they intend to carry on the tradition. Perhaps, but in the past people used guns for hunting and not to turn into Rambo wiping out scores of people!
Again protecting themselves from what? If there wasn’t a proliferation of readily available guns, in the first place, they wouldn’t need to protect themselves with such weapons.
Buying a gun is easy. All you need is two forms of identification and in some states you can legally own a firearm before you are old enough to drive a car, buy alcohol or even have sex! Only preliminary checks are made when a person buys a firearm: checking to see if they have a registered address and no outstanding warrants. No checks are made to see if they’re psychologically sane, enough, to carry a firearm or whether they belong to any far-right or terrorist organisation – you have the money, you can buy a gun!
Even though there are limitations on the kinds of firearms you can purchase, people have devised ways of converting single shot guns, for example, into fully automatics; that is to say a rifle that can fire one bullet per squeeze of the trigger can be converted to pump out over 500 bullets per minute, just like the Las Vegas shooter converted his guns to do with the help of a simple device called ‘bump stocks’. While there are a lot of gunsmiths who’ll readily convert, illegally, a gun for a fee, conversion kits are widely available online even through websites owned by Walmart!
Hollywood also has to share in the blame for promoting the gun culture in America. Every year dozens of action packed films are released that glamourizes the gun culture. All it takes is for a demented fantasist to pick up a gun in an attempt to try and recreate his favourite actors’ murderous killing spree and this has happened before where people have imagined( – probably after taking a cocktail of drugs and alcohol!) they are Neo from ‘The Matrix’ or Rambo and have gone on killing sprees.
Gun crime used to be the sole reserve of hoodlums and gangsters: this has now spread to include anyone who has a gun and can become unhinged and go on the rampage. The Las Vegas shooter has been described as a quiet millionaire with no criminal record who just suddenly lost the plot.
Some people get overwhelmed by the power of owning a gun: they’ve suddenly got the power of life and death over somebody in their hands and can’t wait to use it – one of the reasons young Americans kill each other indiscriminately, they’ve got the power to do it and will likely shoot first without thinking about the consequences of their actions.
A lot has been said about gun control in America. In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting more will be said but nothing will be done: the President will go on TV to condemn the killings and offer his condolences to the bereaved and the people will bury and mourn the dead until the next time. And there will be a next time and another next time ad infinitum until all the guns are taken off the people. Perhaps it’s time to repeal the Second Amendment which allows people to freely buy guns as suggested by Michael Moore, the US filmmaker.
Firearms ownership should be limited to the security services who need them to maintain law and order: when you have a third of the population running around with firearms it complicates things; everybody becomes a potential target as everybody is a potential murderer.
You can’t have your cake and eat it: if Americans want to carry guns, people will die – sometimes en masse!
Perhaps President Trump should do more to control guns in America and home-grown terrorists instead of banning every ‘Muslim terrorist’ coming into the country.
Tony Ogunlowo blogs at http://www.archangel641.blogspot.co.uk
Photos from Pastor EA Adeboye's surprise book launch
Dignitaries thronged The RCCG Youth Centre, on August 15, 2017 for the launch of Pastor EA Adeboye’s new book titled: ‘Pastor EA Adeboye: His Life And Calling’. The distinguished man of God had no inkling of the project as his wife had hid information about the book from her husband for one year, saying that she planned it to coincide with his 75th birthday.
The 40-page book offers a fresh insight into the life and calling of Pastor EA Adeboye, it documents his challenges and achievements through the years.
Roll call of guests at the event include Presiding Bishop, Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel) Bishop David Oyedepo, Acting President of Nigeria, His Excellency Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and his wife, Dolapo, Former President, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Wife of the Governor of Lagos State, Her Excellency Bolanle Ambode, Chief Executive Officer of Emzor Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, Dr Stella Okoli and a host of others.
In his remark, the revered cleric said, “The event of today, without any doubt, has been a great surprise to me. This is because my wife hid it from me, and we don’t normally hide anything from each other, because we have been married for 50 years and we are still on honeymoon. Why the event is a surprise to me is that God also hid it for me. I had no inkling at all from my Daddy that something like this is happening. If God hid it from me, it must mean that He approved of it. My wife knows that if I had any idea about what is happening today, it will never happen. I would have stopped it long ago because who am I without Jesus Christ? If there is anyone to be celebrated, it should be Him.
He continued, “People say I am humble, but people need to know where I am coming from. I cannot say I have any ability or wisdom. Everything has been the Lord Himself. When I was about 40 and I saw grey hairs on my head, I wondered why and God said I was carrying a burden that was not mine.
“God said, ‘I am just using you as camouflage. People need to see someone. So, I am putting you forward so that I can do the work from behind.’ So, everything that is happening in RCCG, nothing is of Adeboye at all; it is all about God. So, for you to say you are writing a book about somebody that is nothing, someone who has almost zero beginning, from a poor family and passed through secondary school by God’s grace. For God to allow today to happen without telling me, it can only be that He wants to draw your attention to Himself that if you allow Him, He will do great things, using you as camouflage.”
He continued, “People say I am humble, but people need to know where I am coming from. I cannot say I have any ability or wisdom. Everything has been the Lord Himself. When I was about 40 and I saw grey hairs on my head, I wondered why and God said I was carrying a burden that was not mine.
“God said, ‘I am just using you as camouflage. People need to see someone. So, I am putting you forward so that I can do the work from behind.’ So, everything that is happening in RCCG, nothing is of Adeboye at all; it is all about God. So, for you to say you are writing a book about somebody that is nothing, someone who has almost zero beginning, from a poor family and passed through secondary school by God’s grace. For God to allow today to happen without telling me, it can only be that He wants to draw your attention to Himself that if you allow Him, He will do great things, using you as camouflage.”
Eulogising his wife of 50 years, Daddy GO as fondly called said, “If you can find a woman that can stand by you with 40 days of prayer and fasting, first, second, third time and willing to go with you as long as possible, then I will classify your wife as second to mine. Without my wife, I cannot be doing what I am doing today,” he said.
Photo Credit: Open Heavens International Centre
https://www.facebook.com/OpenHeavensIC
www.ohic.org
Bill Gates donates 5% of his fortune to charity.
World’s richest man, Bill Gates has donated $4.6billion worth of his Microsoft shares to charity, his biggest donation since he set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000. A report by a US Securities & Exchange Commission states that the Philanthropist’s donation comes in the form of 64 million Microsoft shares, valued at $4.6billion and representing about 5% of his current $90bn fortune. Gates now has his stake in Microsoft reduced to 1.3% from 24% in 1996.
The Agriculture Revolution in the Niger Delta: The story of a Farming General |By: Paul Boroh
As an officer in the Army, I took to farming believing that is the future of the country and that on a personal level, I could better sustain my family. Our lands are so fertile that I did not need much fertilizer; the inputs were minimal and the yields were much. Our climate, by God’s grace is predictable; it rains when it should rain and the sun shines when it should; so why not take advantage of what nature has freely given us as Nigerians.
When in July 2015, His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari appointed me Special Adviser on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, I had the primary responsibilities of streamlining the Programme and transforming it back on track, working for peace in the Niger Delta and sustainably reintegrating some 30,000 Amnesty beneficiaries back into society. Although we have various integration programmes which include education, vocational training, professional training in Aviation and Maritime, automobile engineering, entrepreneurial training and tourism and hospitality; I had no doubt that the best way to integrate such a huge number of beneficiaries quickly and sustainably, is through aquaculture and agriculture.
However, I also realized that this requires a lot of planning and painstaking implementation; like other programmes, we had to conceptualize, plant, culture and water the ideas to the germination and harvest stages. We approached a number of agencies and embassies especially the Israeli Embassy. We have also gone into partnership with various Agricultural bodies. But as a basic step, we had to get the beneficiaries interested so they can buy into the Programme.
In keying into the Federal Government’s Agriculture Initiative, we presented our ideas and the facts on the ground. The facts are that agriculture creates mass sustainable jobs and empowerment; advanced technology and high yield varieties ensure good harvest, and costs can be drastically reduced by building locally fabricated integrated feed mills which rely entirely on local products. Also, our country of over 180 million people is a huge market in itself and additionally, the ECOWAS (West African Region) provides a market that is more or less limitless. On the national level, we know that in taking to agriculture, the country is moving towards food self- sufficiency and security.
I am happy at the level of enthusiasm for agriculture amongst Amnesty Beneficiaries and to harvest this, we had turned to the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) with an agreement to train an initial one thousand beneficiaries and youths at its Bio-Resource Centre in Odi, Bayelsa State. Unfortunately, budget delays have not allowed us to take full advantage of this agency which uses technology and the principles of science to produce high yields in farming. However, the Presidential Amnesty Office has trained and began to empower Amnesty Beneficiaries in crop farming, fishery and poultry. As at June, 2017, 1,000 Amnesty beneficiaries across the nine Oil-Producing States are being trained in agriculture and will be empowered to establish their own farms. These include 105 Beneficiaries undergoing training in Agro-Business with the Songhai Rivers Initiative at the Songhai Farms, Rivers State, and 100 Beneficiaries training in fish farming under kabocastle Services at its Perecastle Fish Farm, Patani, Delta State. Also, an average of 25 Beneficiaries each are being trained in fish farming in six centres including the Delta State University by Gedisco Energy solutions, Infinite Farms in Ozoro, Delta State and Orus Resources Farm, Aluu, Rivers State.
At the Institute of Oceanography, University of Calabar, Cross Rivers State, 96 Beneficiaries are undergoing training in fish farming. The Ma-Atari Farms, Port Harcourt are training some Amnesty Beneficiaries in agriculture and poultry farming, the Ogbebor Leadership Institute, Ologbo, Edo State is training some in rubber processing, TSC Services is training 24 in General Agri-Business at the Edo State College of Education, Iguoriakhi, Edo State while Eunirusk Investment is training 18 in Cassava, Corn and Oil Palm at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State. Forty eight Amnesty beneficiaries are being trained in crop farming by the Faculty of Agriculture, Imo State University. The training in agriculture is designed as a full value chain ; from farming, production, processing, packaging, marketing to Agri-Business Management.
By our planning, each farm will require the services of at least four farmers. This has the prospect of creating 4,000 farm workers in the Region under this phase. Also, some leaders of the Amnesty Beneficiaries have bought our argument that building houses is not sustainable as they have to be serviced and maintained, but in contrast, taking to agriculture is a money-yielding venture.
So many of them have bought into the agriculture revolution. One of them is into large scale rice farming in Bayelsa State while another which has taken to plantain cultivation, is emerging as the biggest farmer in Bomadi, Delta State. It is not only the consciousness of the Amnesty Beneficiaries that need to be transformed but also that of the Niger Delta and country as a whole; oil is a wasting asset, it may dry up in the foreseeable future. In contrast what the future foresee is that agriculture would enrich us all. So let us start with the basic policy of eating only what we grow, and growing what we eat. Change should begin with each of us.
*Brigadier General Paul Boroh (Rtd) is the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme. A professional peace practitioner and now a farmer.
“How can Nigeria continue to dance on the graves of our children”, Oby Ezekwesili debuts in first episode of Forbes Woman Africa
In the first episode, Oby Ezekwesili, creator of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign talks about her harrowing experience in fighting corruption in Nigeria from her early days as the co founder of Transparency International to the shock and horror of finding out about the abduction of over 270 girls in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria.
Watch the promo: http://APO.af/FsLa7x.
Climate Change: Trump is taking his administration in the opposite direction to the rest of the world.
“The millions of people living on the African continent are on the frontlines of climate change, and it is critical that polluters are held accountable for the suffering and injustice global warming is already inflicting”
Denouncing Trump’s decision to abandon the Paris Climate Agreement, Greenpeace International (www.Greenpeace.org) said the decision would cost the US its global leadership position and its share of the economic benefits of the clean energy transition.
Greenpeace Africa Executive Director Njeri Kabeberi said:
“Thursday, June 1st 2017 will be written in history as the day the US, under the administration of President Trump, turned its back on those who needed its leadership, ambition and compassion.
“The millions of people living on the African continent are on the frontlines of climate change, and it is critical that polluters are held accountable for the suffering and injustice global warming is already inflicting. Climate change impacts are already a daily reality, and action to stop catastrophic climate change cannot be delayed. Our global community will take action, and is already taking action, with or without the US government, and it is critical that major emitters like South Africa step up and take a leadership role.”
Jennifer Morgan, Greenpeace International Executive Director, said:
“Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement will turn America from a global climate leader into a flat earth society of one. It is a morally-bankrupt decision that Trump will come to regret. Global climate action is not a legal or political debate; it is an inescapable obligation to protect people and the planet.
“Trump is surrendering US global leadership to real world leaders who are seizing the momentum to protect their country and the climate by transforming their economies to clean energy. We are witnessing a seismic shift in the global order as Europe, China and others lead the way forward.
“Almost 200 countries committed to climate action in Paris and only one has decided to withdraw. This is how far out of step Trump is with the rest of the world. It is the changing of the global guard – as the US bows out, world leaders, CEOs and people across the world can and are moving forward into the future.”
Greenpeace East Asia Senior Global Policy Officer Li Shuo said:
“President Trump is taking his administration in the opposite direction to the rest of the world. While China cancels coal power plants, Trump cancels climate action.
“Trump’s attempt to sabotage the global transition to a safer clean energy future won’t succeed. It will only corner the US and present China with an opportunity to reap the economic benefits of America’s withdrawal.”
Economic Confidential's 2016 Viability Index: An incomplete analysis. | By: Tope Bolarinwa
Following the recently released 2016 economic viability report by economic confidential, I beg to disagree that economic viability is a question of percentage of IGR to federal allocation. The picture below shows the index as published by economic confidential.
Viability is successful survival and economic viability is when a state is sustainable in terms of her use of her financial resources. That sure goes beyond the ratio of IGR to Federal allocation.
Federal allocation remains a credible funding source for every state in our federation and the mere fact that a state plans it’s expenditure around that alone is not enough to call the sat unviable, further to assume the absence of federal allocation for a state is to assume the absence of the federation which is a needless assumption; the federation would be there, the absence of the federation or inability of the federation to provide allocation would mean that many state’s IGR would also significantly dwindle. Nonetheless it is noble for states to take efforts to generate funds internally to being more development to her people.
Viability is about income vs expenditure. All states have deficit in that regard. But that does not tell the full story. We have to look at what percentage of expenditure is on recurrent and what percentage is on capital. This will tell us how the government is using the finances of the state to secure it’s sustainability over time.
Further we should look at income vs debt i.e. revenue to debt ratio.
While not exhaustive, these are all indicators that will further tell us about the viability of a state better than IGR percentage of Federal allocation. Please tell economic confidential to complete the work they have started so that we can understand more about the operations of our beloved states.
God bless Nigeria.
Temitope Bolarinwa blogs at whatsupng.blogspot.com.ng.
Why Made-in-Nigeria will give small businesses a boost
Nigerian Federal Government should be commended for putting the spotlight on local manufacturers through initiatives such as the Made-in-Nigeria Dress Days and an Executive Order compelling state agencies to direct at 40% of procurement to Made-in-Nigeria goods and services.
That’s according to Magnus Nmonwu , Regional Director for Sage in West Africa (www.Sage.com), who says a strong government push to encourage Nigerians to support locally made goods and services will help encourage entrepreneurship. This, in turn, could help spur diversification of the economy, create local jobs, and decrease unemployment. Made-in-Nigeria resonates with the theme of Africa Day (25 May)—“Building a better Africa and a better world”.
“Local service providers and manufacturers could play an important role in the revival of Nigeria’s economy,” he adds. “We welcome the effort to encourage industrialisation and diversify the economy from commodities into new areas. Strong local demand is the foundation of a manufacturing sector that can grow into an export industry.”
Government is putting its money where its mouth is with its Executive Order and giving the public a good example to follow, says Nmonwu. However, there is scope for the public sector to do more to encourage the growth of small businesses in Nigeria, including tax incentives for local producers, support in accessing finance, and facilitating mentoring and skills development programmes between small business and bigger companies.
Government should encourage small businesses to adopt business software so that they can improve regulatory compliance and financial controls. This could also help in tracking the performance of those that benefit from state loans and incentives, and hold them accountable, says Nmonwu.
Infrastructure investment across roads, power, communications and ports are also important in spurring development of local industry, Nmonwu says. “There is enormous scope for government and the private sector to cooperate on creating polices and infrastructure that create an enabling environment for Nigeria’s business builders.”
Sage would support initiatives to put business information and tools online to help entrepreneurs build their skills and access the resources they need to be successful. Another good idea might be for government to put together advisory boards with representatives from big businesses, small companies, the government and other stakeholders to understand the voice of small business and develop appropriate policies to help drive them.
“Small businesses and start-ups are the engines that will power Nigeria’s growth into the future,” Nmonwu says. “The sooner we start supporting our proudly Nigerian suppliers and service providers, the better for us. With our support, they can create wealth and jobs for the country, and many of them could grow into globally competitive exporters.”