Market Development in the Niger Delta (MADE), a programme funded by the UK Department for International Development, has been making impact in the Niger Delta region since 2013, through empowerment of farmers, artisans in terms of job creation and poverty alleviation. Now in the second phase (MADE II), has added the Edo State Investment Portfolio (ESIP), a component that is addressing human trafficking and irregular migration in Edo State through livelihoods improvement and promotion of investment opportunities. In this interview with Shola O’Neil, MADE’s Team Lead, Tunde Oderinde, gives insight on what the project hopes to achieve. Excerpts:
Tell us, is MADE II any different from the first phase of the project or is it really just an extension of lifespan?
MADE II is a continuation of MADE I, which addressed systemic constraints in selected value chains. The main difference between the two phases is that MADE II has a component focusing on improving livelihood opportunity for victims of human trafficking and irregular migration in Edo State solely, while we are continuing MADE I all over the nine states of the Niger Delta including Edo State. For ESIP, we are looking at opportunities that can support livelihood for two segments of the population. One, the returnees; and also we are looking at opportunities for the susceptible population, which for us is the wider population.
We are talking about potential victims of human trafficking due to deprivation. These include artisans struggling to make ends meet, kids in the secondary school, year five, six, who basically have the mind-set that they can only make it abroad; or the graduate from the university who feels if he can’t get a job here, he will travel as well.
So our intervention is looking at how we can come up with opportunities that will address and improve family livelihoods, address offer reintegration for returnees, and at the same time create additional opportunities for the susceptible population to stay within Edo State. But apart from that, generally, we are still strengthening and deepening our interventions within the core value chains of cassava, oil palms, fishery, etc.
Considering that this phase will run for only two years, especially the ESIP component. How did you ensure that the right foundation was laid?
What we did immediately we got the mandate to implement MADE II was to better understand the economic and investment scope in the state and to identify good pillars within that can be harnessed. We also realised that the level of investment in Edo State by private sector players is a bit lean as the concentration is on major cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
With an understanding of the economic realities, we thought it is important to understand the target demography. We examined potential returnees and the susceptible population in terms of age categories, level of education, skillset, factors leading to irregular migration and the resultant trafficking, and so on. We conducted a study to understand the socio-economic issues around those themes, the families who have been in the ecosystem, and how our work could improve household livelihoods.
As the vulnerability of the community is important, we also looked at past incidences that occurred in some of these localities, leaving them in ruins, depleting the social capital and economic capital available to them and so on. Based on our findings, we designed interventions to stimulate livelihood opportunities – especially in the agricultural sector. We are also looking at other sectors such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and entertainment that can put food on the table and trigger long-lasting employment.
We are also strongly considering the possibility of stimulating some formal employment. We are running an internship programme with EDO Jobs and there are other donor partners who are willing to test our model by paying interns for about six months to be placed in formal businesses. It is important to note that paying for interns to be admitted is temporary and is aimed at getting businesses comfortable with the employability skills of artisans and also to ensure the interns develop in a way that would make them easily absorbable.
Since the start of the project some of months ago, what can you say have been the achievements so far?
The most important is that we have been able to identify areas within Edo State that we can say are full of opportunities and we are working in such spaces using two approaches. We are leveraging on opportunities that are of comparative advantage and there is another set of opportunities we call potential opportunities because of the nature of demand. We see the fact that Edo State is known for various agricultural projects as a great opportunity because we now realise that it is not about getting people to be attracted to the place; it is about opening new markets to what they will continue to do.
We have engaged with a lot of stakeholders in Edo North and Edo Central; and on the demand side we have farmers, farmers’ group cooperatives and at the same time agricultural sector partners who are willing to uptake some of their products. All this is along the lines of creating a transactional relationship between demand and supply. We have been able to work out a with a company promoting apiculture (beekeeping), while getting funding from another investor with similar interests.
We hope to facilitate financing support for about 400 beekeepers; but beyond that pilot, it is our interest to scale that into the larger Edo population so that people in major clusters where beekeeping is currently being practised improve their beekeeping practices and at the same time get to attract many other farmers coming to that space. This is on-going in Okomu and we hope to scale this to many other communities.
We also have a waste recycling company coming in to invest and we are engaging the youth who have developed a model of collecting recyclable waste from the Edo Technology Hub. They will also be coming up with a model to bring in hundreds of youth into their fold that they may also gain from the arrangement with the waste recycler willing to invest in collecting waste. What we have been able to do so far is connecting the dots. We are ensuring that companies coming to invest in Edo are properly aligned with a lot of actors who will provide support, for example, in terms of inputs.
How has MADE been working with officials and agencies of the Edo State government to actualise its objectives?
The relationship has been very great; and I’ll tell you that is the reason why engagement with the state government when you move into a new state is important. You need to look at what they have in their plan and, based on that, look at where the areas of alignment are. When we got into Edo State, the first thing we did was meet with almost all the relevant agencies – for example, Ministry of Agriculture, Wealth Creation, to see what is important to them, what are the sectors and pillars of growth in the state. Each of these ministries was able to itemise and also link us with some of the potential partners they are discussing with and some of those partners are the ones MADE is currently working with.
Yes, it is too early for us to say we have achieved so much, but I can say that we’ve aligned with a lot of stakeholders and the stage is set for four interventions; we have another three partner interventions we are getting approval for. We have five initiatives that are currently running. We are supporting Edo Jobs, we are supporting the Edo Innovate, we supporting the Office of Investment Promotion, and we are also supporting some NGOs working on returnee integration in the state.
What challenges have you encountered in the implementation of your highlighted plans?
First, I would say, is the problem of financing. A lot of our target beneficiaries have issues around financing for working capital or expansion, so we are engaging with the financial institutions to enable small businesses access working capital. We hope that, through that, they will be able to increase their capacity utilisation and also employ more since production rates will grow. We are also looking at linking small businesses using technology that can bring efficiency to their work. The implication is that they not only become more competitive, they also improve in terms of efficiency and productivity. Consequently, they will be able to go into new markets and employ more hands.
The other critical issue is the challenge of building skills and an entrepreneurial ability in personnel so that they can stay on the job and have skills to pass on to other potential workers. We have observed that entrepreneurial skills also give them of purpose when they are placed in businesses.
Most importantly, there is access to new and high value market. Some of these businesses within Edo State are lagging in their capacity utilisation because of the limited markets in Edo State. That is why we are looking at forward linkages, how businesses can sell into major markets like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and the environs. We will also be working out a relationship where they can participate at the level of international markets. That way, we are sure we can sustain small businesses and continue to employ youth and capable hands because of the fast growth we will be able to stimulate.
When the time for the project is over, what would you want to be your greatest accomplishment?
Beyond meeting our immediate targets, which we have to report back to DFID, we are also looking at building institutional capacity of some of our stakeholders. We are already identifying and grading some of them we feel are viable and capable to take some of the work forward. So beyond just the partnership, we are also thinking about how to strengthen their capacity so that when MADE is no longer there, they continue to do the good work. I will tell you, for us, rather than just partnerships to deliver results, we are more interested in building that capacity for institutional sustainability.
Importantly, MADE as a project will not be able to transform the economy of Edo State in two years; but with the little we are doing by addressing systemic constraints and our engagement within the government and other stakeholders, a lot of potential victims will experience the benefits of seeking opportunities in Edo, marketing Edo and believing in Edo State’s economy. Some of them will begin to see opportunities in things that they have never seen as opportunity and some of them will begin to feel comfortable in what they do because now they make money and they can support their families. If we start from there, plus the changes the government is putting in place now and with what the office of the Investment Promotion is planning for Edo State, the combination of all these efforts definitely in another five years will turn the economy of Edo State around.
Finally, considering the tremendous successes recorded in the first phase of MADE as well as in the on-going phase, what great lessons do you think other civil society actors can learn from MADE’s activities?
To tell you the truth, government alone can’t do it and don’t expect too much from government. We can get the government to think in the right direction. I think the most important is to get government to think about the enabling environment, but in everything we plan we should think about the private sector. There is no need to push everything to government as it will not happen. There are private sector partners who are willing to do the work, but the only problem is government needs to put the right environment in place. Then donor partners should see their role as being facilitators; we shouldn’t go into the state to want to implement. We should be bringing together partners who will see the commercial incentive to want to continue the exercise. I think that is the unique value MADE is bringing in. We’ve never seen ourselves as part of the implementation, we are only the facilitators. Once we can bring the demand and supply together and they begin to interact and there is transaction, there will be no problem and it can continue on its own.
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