Category: SouthEast

Loosely fashioned after the UK National Sport Lottery, the Enugu State Traders Empowerment Scheme is proving to be a potent micro-economic spur. Its success derives in part from the fact that winners reinvest the fifty thousand Naira lottery sum into their businesses, and largely due to the transparency that has characterized the entire process since its launch in February.

Various economic indices showing the policy’s success have emerged since its launch in February, all dousing whatever skepticism some might have nursed about the programme that benefits one hundred traders monthly. Such statistics offer a strong sense of validation. Yet, none can be more reassuring than the personal experiences of individuals whose lives are impacted by social and economic policies.

For traders in Enugu, the raffle that produces one hundred winners monthly couldn’t have come at a better time. And you could, in fact, glimpse that on the beneficiaries’ faces.

“I was very happy when I got a call that I had won N50,000,” said Agbaedo Ignatius, a carpenter at Obolo Afor, beaming as he held his dummy cheque aloft. “My prayer is for God to bless the governor for the way he always remembers the poor.”

It was a similarly ecstatic story for Ifeanyi Ugwu, a trader at Orie Orba Market, one of the 37 markets hosting the raffle.

“This sum will help boost my stock of goods. You can’t imagine how happy I am,” he said, urging the writer to visit his groceries store to gauge how the earning has impacted his business. He had lately been exceeding the grace period to pay for items supplied to him on credit, prompting threats from the suppliers to discontinue such gesture. The fifty thousand naira raffle prize helped him offset previous deficits and gain fresh supplies.

For Ginika Omeke, a 26-year-old seamstress, the story was no less remarkable. Erratic public power supply means disruptions to her daily operations. Such disruptions are often costly as her customers, frustrated by the long wait resulting from the frequent outage, simply move to other shops whose owners have back-up power generators. Her determination to procure one with whatever little savings she could muster never came to fruition. Until now, “The governor’s initiative will help businesses grow,” she said, flashing a demure smile. “This money would enable me to buy a generator and also some important materials that I could hitherto not afford.”

Ten months later, the initiative has been held in 10 markets across the state’s three senatorial districts and produced its one thousandth winner as the draw moved to Afor Awkunanaw at Garki Market, located on the southern fringe of Enugu metropolis on November 24. And the beneficiary, Mr. Onyeka Ogbodo, remains just as exultant as the raffle’s first winner had been. “The N50,000 cash prize will enable me to grow the stock in my shop ahead of Christmas. This is a huge surprise,” he said.

It is in light of this capacity to target and transform small businesses that Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s traders’ raffle programme finds its greatest appeal and resonance, a point underscored by a massive rally organized by traders few months ago in the governor’s honour. “The scheme was designed to empower our market men and women and also boost economic activities in the state,” the governor noted during the flag-off at Ogbete Main Market, Enugu.

The rally, said Mr. Temple Udeh, president-general of the Enugu State Amalgamated Market Traders Association, was organised to thank the Enugu State governor for his policies that have helped businesses flourish and in appreciation of the harmonious relationship he has so far had with traders in the state.

The traders who praised Governor Ugwuanyi for enthroning peace and security in Enugu State and working hard to end the fractious relationship that typically exist among leaders of various market unions, also pronounced a unanimous endorsement for him ahead the 2019 elections, saying that “nothing will make us change our stand”.

Although some may consider it absurd to laud elected officials for performing their statutory responsibilities, however in a clime where the capacity to carry out such function is on a perpetual decline the gesture takes on an increasingly compelling tone. The traders realise this too, a point evident in Udeh’s statement that “traders have never had it so good”.

But more good times lie ahead, apparently, with plans for a credit scheme for traders being contemplated by the Ugwuanyi administration. The governor disclosed at a forum with traders held mid-year that his administration is currently discussing with financial institutions and international corporations on ways of extending easier and more convenient lines of credit and other facilities to traders in the state to assist them grow their various businesses. Governor Ugwuanyi also added that the government is also making efforts to upgrade the capacity of the Enugu State Marketing Company to arrange special import services for traders in the state.

So the traders raffle is by no means a populist programme. It is consistent with the governor’s vision to create wealth and boost private enterprise in the state which had long lived with the unflattering tag of a civil service economy. That, plus the desire to transform Enugu into the South-East region’s economic hub are goals the governor has pursued passionately since his inauguration, a dream brought closer to fruition with the landing of the first international cargo aircraft at the Enugu Airport a little over one year ago.

It’s worth stating that the remarkable development seen so far in Enugu has occurred despite the allocation from the federation account where it receives one of the least amount disbursed to states each month. The governor is often rather modest about that, attributing the state’s economic stability to providence as highlighted in his popular quip: “Enugu State is in the hands of God”. But there is no doubt too the impressive indicators stem from prudent deployment of resources and sheer genius at creating wealth.

• Ani, formerly editor of ThisDay, The Saturday Newspaper, and later Saturday Telegraph, lives in Enugu

From now on, the best graduating student of St Patrick’s College in Emene, Enugu State, will receive N30,000 cash prize, thanks to Anthony Akaeze, an alumnus of the school, who endowed the prize to promote scholarship and excellence.

At a ceremony held in the school to unveil the first winner of the prize, Akaeze said the gesture was borne out of the need to appreciate and give back to the school that gave him everything.

Noting that there is no substitute for learning, he said the prize would encourage pupils to work hard and create a better future for themselves. Akaeze observed that the school had contributed substantially to the country’s development by producing people of impeccable characters who are making impacts in communities and public spheres.

He said, “For a school established in 1960, St Patrick’s College has had its good and bad times, but what nobody can deny is its contribution to nation building. The school has produced countless talents and people of impeccable character in Nigeria. Year in year out, we see pupils from different backgrounds, from far and near, admitted here as upstarts. After undergoing training, they are left with unquantifiable knowledge that makes them change agents.”

Akaeze said the school deserved support not just from the government, also from its old boys, noting that the catholic mission supervising the school’s affair had built a reputation in school management.

Speaking on the academic prize, Akaeze said: “The endowment is simply my humble way of identifying with my alma mater, which I consider an extension of my family. Whichever way we look at it, family takes priority because the end is inextricably linked to the beginning.

“St Patrick’s College marked my first major beginning in life in terms of knowledge acquisition and I consider it both an honour and privilege to institute this prize which I hope will outlive me. I believe I owe it to the school for whatever I may be today, and whatever I hope to be. I believe that the real foundation of my life was laid at St Patrick’s College.”

Akaeze congratulated the first winner of the prize, Chibuoke William Okolo, urging pupils of the school not to give up on their dreams.

He said, “My hope is that you (Chibuoke) will go on to achieve greater success in life and fly the banner of this illustrious school as a worthy ambassador. I urge other students not to give up on their dreams, no matter the odds. This prize is to promote excellence at the St Patrick’s College, but I would be glad it encourages students elsewhere to aspire to the top.”

Akaeze thanked the present and past teachers of the school, including Reverend F.P. Okeke, a former principal, whom he described as “a great administrator and disciplinarian of the first order”.

He hailed the principal, Reverend Father Chijioke Eze, for supporting the initiative. Akaeze particularly appreciated his literature and mathematics teachers, and Mrs Bridget Ibe, who taught him English Language.

He said: “Mrs Ibe probably didn’t know what she did in my life. More than any other teacher, she was the one who encouraged me as a student either through word of mouth or in her assessment of my effort in her tests.”