Category: Women In Business

The founder/Director, Wizzy Pride Group of Companies, Glory Imabong Oniyokor, is gradually but steadily running a ring round Nigeria’s entrepreneurial space. With interests in education, investment, printing and food industry, the budding entrepreneur, assisted by over 30 employees, runs a thriving nursery and primary school, a foundation that trains women, a mobile food market that takes the burden of shopping off women and busy company executives, as well as a co-operative. She shares the secrets of her entrepreneurial prowess and future plans with Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA.

Her business philosophy is simple and can’t be faulted. To Glory Imabong Oniyokor, one of Nigeria’s burgeoning entrepreneurs, business is all about solving problems.

“It’s always about identifying a problem and looking for a better, innovative way to solve it. Try to solve that problem for somebody and, in doing that, it is a business already.

“You just look at the cost of solving that problem and then add a little money to it and you are raking in more money,” Glory, who runs a chain of fast-growing enterprises with interests in education, investment and food industry, said.

Hers isn’t an abstract or vacuous business philosophy; rather, it is one that is time-tasted and rooted in reality. And this, perhaps, is underscored by the fact that a common thread that runs through all the businesses set up and managed by the 2010 graduate of Business Administration from Lagos State University (LASU) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) is her ability to identify a problem and to provide top-notch, tailored solution.

“The truth is that there is always a problem to solve; it’s just that people have not really opened their eyes to see it,” Glory emphasised. The entrepreneur, who sees opportunity where others see challenge, has been able to open her eyes to see problems that needed solutions hence, each of the business under her belt, The Nation learnt, sprang up and flourished from a problem solving mindset.

For instance, the Akwa Ibom State-born budding entrepreneur and human resources manager is the founder/Director, Wizzy Pride Educational Services Limited, Wizzy Pride Investment, Wizzy Pride Foundation and Mobile Food Market, among others. And each of these businesses, she said, started from her quest to solve a particular problem.

Take Wizzy Pride Nursery and Primary School, for instance, which is one of the enterprises under the Wizzy Pride Group of Companies, the school, nestled in Shagari Estate, Ipaja, Lagos, was established to solve the problem of women looking for a serene and secured environment for their children’s education.

“I went into the business because I wanted to solve the problem of women who were actually in my shoes, looking for a good place to drop their children while they go to work and still have rest of mind,” Glory told The Nation.

As she explained, it was when she started having her children and got into the shoes of other women who were also looking for where to drop their children that she saw that it was a very difficult problem to solve.

However, what she and indeed, other women saw as a problem, requiring a solution was, for her, an opportunity to provide that solution by setting up a school. “I decided to resign from where I was working to solve their problem,” Glory stated, noting that the school business started about eight years ago, precisely 2012.

Today, Wizzy Pride Nursery and Primary School is one of the most sought-after in and around Iyana-Ipaja, Abesan and Gowon Estate areas of Lagos. The array of qualified teachers under the school’s employ as well as its management’s emphasis on care for pupils has continued to push enrolment figures up.

“It’s been interesting and rewarding, but it’s something that doesn’t just come easy; you have to prove to people that you can actually take care of their children. Now, we get referrals even from people that have relocated, sending people to us in the school,” Glory said.

The same knack for problem solving, which, in the case of the school, manifests in taking proper care of the children, is also evident in Glory’s Mobile Food Market. This arm of her expanding business empire is all about shopping for women and corporate organisations.

And like her other businesses that sprang up to solve identified problems and in the process make money, she said she set up Mobile Food Market after discovering that a lot of women want their houses to be stocked with food, but don’t have the time to go to the market.

Her words: “People have the money, but don’t have the time to go shopping. So, when you reduce time and let people concentrate on their work, you are meeting some of their needs. I shop for them (women and corporates) and they pay for my services.

“We shop at market price; they just pay us service charge. We buy exactly how it is sold in the market and the truth is that if an individual goes to market to shop, he can never shop the way we do because we buy directly from wholesalers, in bulk.”

According to Glory, people are even surprised the way Mobile Food Market shops and they are ready to pay the service charge. “And even when you add the service charge, you will also still get the value of our services because your cost of transportation has to be added, and you are buying little quantity while we are buying volume,” she added.

To drive home her point that Mobile Food Market is filling a niche in the food industry, Glory said an operational manager in GTbank, a woman, who was recently transferred to the bank’s Ipaja branch, confessed that the biggest thing she would miss is Mobile Food Market, because it was solving a lot of problems for her and reducing her stress.

The entrepreneur has also been able to demonstrate her immense propensity to spot problems and provide innovative solutions to solve them when she launched Wizzy Pride Foundation. The Foundation trains women entrepreneurs on how to start and run successful businesses.

The training, which is done yearly, brings together women from various works of life and vocations and trains them by using relevant resource persons and facilitators who understand the dynamics of today’s business. The training have been running except last year when the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic put the empowerment programme on hold.

Although Glory said the Foundation could not hold the training last year because of COVID -19, it has moved from physical to online space  to continue empowering women. She said even during the COVID-19 lockdown, she had to run an online training for a woman who owns a school but needed to do other businesses to augment.

“I decided to train her online and, as I speak, she has started and she is happy that, at least, she has an additional source of income outside school because a lot of proprietors were affected during the pandemic. So, it has been helpful,” she said, pointing out that the Foundation has so far trained over 100 women.

Savvy, proactive and not one to miss a business opportunity with promises of a bountiful return on investment, Glory did not stop at empowering women; she moved a notch higher   by setting up a co-operative, under her Wizzy Pride Investment, to encourage women to save and also have access to loan to start and run their businesses almost at a zero interest rate.

Again, the co-operative, which she started two years after establishing the school, was borne out of the need to provide solution to an identified problem, which is women’s access to capital to start and run small scale businesses. “A lot of people were coming to me, thinking that I had money to give especially women. But there was no money; we are all struggling. So, I decided to create an account,” the entrepreneur explained.

Explaining further, Glory said: “I invited friends, about 16 of them, both secondary school friends, university and church friends and gave them the idea that what if we have an account where everybody will contribute little money into it and then when you need money, you just come and take and pay little interest. They all said it was a good thing.

“The following year, five of them decided to start; they were saving N3, 000 each, some N5, 000. After six months, some of them needed money and we had an agreement that once you a member of this co-operative at no point will you withdraw all your money. You can only request and take loan not that you are closing your account. There are benefits for you saving and getting a loan because the interest is more or less zero per cent.”

Like a seed planted on the riverside, the co-operative blossomed. From five members, it has over 600 members, according to Glory, who single-handedly did the registration and other documentations. Describing the initiative as “very useful for women,” she said the co-operative has two platforms. One is for members who save and take loan at almost no interest. The other is for business people who take loan and pay with interest.

Irrespective of the platform, the co-operative has been a safe haven of sort for women, as its management sometimes goes to various markets to let women know that there is a platform to assist them with start-up capital particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic when a lot of them could not start their businesses. “We needed to assist them with little funds to start again especially market women,” Glory said.

Expectedly, the co-operative has been hugely successful, with Glory noting that in a year, she makes close to 100 per cent of what she has invested. However, this has not stopped her from having her fingers in other juicy entrepreneurial pies. She also runs a flourishing printing business. She does printing jobs for individuals and corporates, schools, hotels, among others.

Glory has also tried her hands on cleaning services, even though it wasn’t as successful as her other businesses. And how did she venture into cleaning? Her response: “At a point, I got so busy that even attending to my house was a problem. I mean cleaning the house. So, I thought of it that this is also a problem to several busy women. I was looking for a way to solve that problem for myself and also extend it to other people.”

Accordingly, Glory wasted no time in partnering a parent in her school who was idle and who also loved cleaning. The duo registered a company. They started from cleaning homes, and then moved to companies, and the money started rolling in. She, however, said the business could not really fly because “We had little issues that were not welcoming to me, so I decided to back out.”

But, how does the mother of three children balance her busy work schedule with family? “What I do is that I train people like me and I empower them to work. Training people helps reduce your job a lot,” she told The Nation.

She noted, for instance: “In the school, I have somebody who has spent eight years with me and I have been able to train her to be like me. So, I might not be around throughout the week and the school will still open and close because I have trained her to also do what I do.”

Encouraged by her strew of successes, Glory said access to finance is not and shouldn’t be a problem for aspiring women entrepreneurs. “Even the school business, I didn’t start it with my money. What I actually think should be women’s problem is getting the idea and also having integrity. In anything, even in words that you say, have integrity. That has helped me a lot,” she said.

The astute entrepreneur said on the strength of her consistency and the integrity she has built into her chains of businesses, an aggressive expansion programme that will take her businesses, particularly her empowerment training for women to other states across the country is on course.

The Head, Public Affairs, Communications & Sustainability (PACS), Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, is building a strong and consistent public policy and sustainable agenda for the Coca-Cola business in Nigeria. The model, which is anchored on creating a more sustainable and better shared future and making a difference in people’s lives, if emulated and replicated by other corporate organisations, could be the tonic to achieving the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). DANIEL ESSIET reports.

Her passion to create a fair and equitable world where the common man can have access to the basic necessities of life greatly motivated her to build a career around sustainable development. And the thought that her work puts a smile on someone’s face, especially the most-vulnerable, continues to propel the Head, Public Affairs, Communications & Sustainability (PACS), Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Nwamaka Onyemelukwe, to keep pushing the frontiers.

For Nwamaka, who holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Pharmacy from the University of Benin, Edo State, and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Lagos, creating a more sustainable and better shared future and making a difference in people’s lives, communities, and the planet by doing business the right way, is a way of life. ”This is what gives me the fulfillment and the kick to keep putting in my best every day,” Nwamaka, who is also an alumna of Harvard Business Publishing said.

Indeed, in her capacity as head, PACS for Coca-Cola Nigeria, Nwamaka, more popularly called by the shortened form of her name, Amaka, is responsible for enabling sustainable business growth by building a strong and consistent public policy and sustainable agenda for the Coca-Cola business in Nigeria. She also oversees strategic communication and stakeholder management, as well as leads high impact sustainable programmes that create shared value in communities across the country.

Amaka has also been championing the development and implementation of various award-winning initiatives across the country, raising awareness on several issues plaguing the society and driving behavioural change for the adoption of progressive practices. For instance, she is responsible for sustainability initiatives empowering over 100,000 women, recycling projects, securing financial inclusion for women as well as driving environmental sustainability in Nigeria.

Also, under her charge, Coca-Cola has facilitated the award of over $1.9 million grants to local Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) with key competencies from the company’s philanthropic arm, The Coca-Cola Foundation, leading to sustainable and enhanced communities. Her achievement in this space was recognised by the organisers of the prestigious Sustainability, Entrepreneurship and Responsibility Awards who named her as the first runner-up Sustainability Professional of the year 2020.”

Through the Foundation, the Coca-Cola Company has also committed to giving back one per cent of its prior year’s operating income annually to enhance communities and protect the environment. The Foundation has so far given back over $1 billion.

Indeed, experts say companies that make Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) part of their core business strategies are more successful in more areas than those without such plans. Besides positively impacting people and communities, these initiatives have been directly linked to top and bottom-line growth, brand differentiation, customer loyalty and employee engagement.

The most successful companies have a mission beyond making money—and their CSR strategy reflects that. And at Coca-Cola, the company decided that growing profitability doesn’t have to come at the cost of ethical responsibility.

Explaining what informed the focus of the beverage manufacturing giant when it comes to sustainability, Amaka said the brand’s mandate was to refresh the world and make a difference. She said through this mandate, the company has distilled activities that have been identified to ensure the realisation of a better shared future.

“The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and our total environmental impacts inform our sustainability focus,” Amaka ssaid, adding that the company’s sustainability pillars focused on what it called the ‘4Ws’ – Water, Waste, Women and Youth Economic Empowerment, and Well-being.

“We believe in empowering our people, creating equal opportunities, building inclusion, and supporting communities to achieve more, especially in times of need. We recognize that we cannot do this alone, that is why Coca-Cola’s sustainability model also involves collaborating with governments and local NGOs by empowering or increasing their capacity to implement numerous initiatives on a much larger scale,” she said.

According to Amaka, the company believes that government, private sector, and non-NGOs need to come together to help solve issues currently plaguing the country and hindering its development. “Our strategy at Coca-Cola is a story of partnerships. We have been able to build strategic golden triangle partnerships to intervene in various areas enabling economic growth and grassroots development across the country,” she pointed out.

In doing these, Amaka said one of the goals of the company’s various sustainability initiatives was to make Nigeria a healthier, more vibrant and bio-diverse place.  She said Coco Cola’s strategy is to stay focused and meet consumers’ needs and cope with economic ups and downs across the country, including sustaining the brand through digital marketing to be used by millennials throughout the world.

Having come this far in positioning Coco Cola’s sustainability model as one to beat in the national and international corporate world, are there some lessons that could be learnt from Amaka’s impactful career? “Yes. Plenty,” she said, noting that number one is that “You’ll never be 100 per cent ready. Take each opportunity that comes your way and make the most of it. We all have big dreams and there’ll never be a perfect time or opportunity to take them on so start now.”

Secondly, Amaka said there would always be obstacles and challenges, but it’s how one reacted and managed them that mattered. ”Another will be that not everyone will agree with your vision, but that doesn’t mean you’re wrong. If you’re confident enough, go for it. Finally, it’s ok to fail. It’s one of the best ways to learn, just never let fear get in the way,” she added.

The business sustainability advocate has a few success nuggets for women entrepreneurs. “The first advice I will give is to understand your passion, realise that you can’t be like the next woman; never compare yourself to her.

“Also, be open to opportunities and be prepared to spot growth propellers when they present themselves. Always remember that life is a marathon, not a sprint, so remain resilient, confident, and focused,” Amaka advised

However, as hugely successful as her career has been, there have been challenges. For instance, juggling her work responsibilities with being a wife and a mother is no tea party. ”It’s never been easy,” Amaka admitted, saying, “Whoever coined the term “Work-Life Balance” must have been joking because it is a hard task trying to juggle a full-time job with being a mother.”

According to her, being a working mum can lead to high levels of stress and feeling of guilt because “You have to divide your attention between work and family so learn to find the right balance and make perfect use of your support system. It will not be easy, but over time, you’ll get the hang of it.”

Amaka, however, said the key to getting along is to stay organised and find one’s support system. ”Learn to be always fully present when you are available, stay organised and ask for help if you need it. Accept that there will be good and bad days so, don’t beat yourself up about mistakes and slights, but stay grateful for the opportunity to be a mother and have a great career,” she said.

Before joining Coca-Cola Nigeria Limited, Amaka worked at Philip Morris International, where she served as Manager, Corporate Affairs. She started her professional career with Novartis Pharmaceuticals and served in various capacities before leaving the company to pursue other interests.

Amaka is one of those who believe that the situation in Nigeria and Africa as a whole leaves a lot to be desired. According to her, it is an open secret that Nigerians and Africans generally are subjected to unprecedented levels of waste, health and other environmental challenges with little to no opportunities for women and youths.

The closure of schools last March due to the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the challenges of educating the youth. As in most countries, adapting quickly to ensure the school year wasn’t lost was high on the agenda. Now, more than ever, using technology to support learning has become vital, according to the Managing Director of HP Nigeria, a technology company, Ifeyinwa Afe. Although her company supports remote learning through innovative and technology-driven products and interventions, she gave tips on how to make the right choice for a laptop to enable a positive learning environment. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

Even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the education sector was troubled. Issues around decrepit infrastructure, incessant industrial actions by teaching and non-teaching staff and poor enrolment, among others, brought the sector almost to its knees.

With as many as 10.5 million children not attending school, mostly in the Northeast region, for instance, the nationwide closure of schools in March 2020 due to the pandemic highlighted the many challenges of educating the youth.

With the closure also increasing the burden of continuing education on policymakers, school administrators, teachers and parents across the country, the Managing Director of HP Nigeria, a technology company, Ifeyinwa Afe, said it was clear to all, more than ever, that it was vital to turn to technology to support children’s learning.

As in most countries, she said the need to adapt quickly to ensure the school year wasn’t lost was high, which was why the Federal Ministry of Education and the Universal Basic Education Commission set up the Nigeria Education Sector COVID-19 Response Strategy (FMoE, 2020).

Ifeyinwa, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics & Development Studies from Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, and an Executive Education Programme in Management from University of California, Berkeley, however, said the most practical response to the challenge tossed on children’s learning by the pandemic came from the Lagos State Ministry of Education.

According to her, the ministry released a schedule of radio and television broadcast lessons for students in public schools, and also put in place additional technology-driven interventions.

“Technology-driven interventions included the launch of virtual learning platforms, and the provision of e-learning resources such as HP’s Classroom of the Future (the solution offers smart, education-focused hardware coupled with cutting-edge software to support new teaching methodologies and empower all the key stakeholders in the classroom); SchoolGate; Mobile Classroom (resources that are relevant to secondary and post-secondary school students offering courses from Chemistry to Business Statistics to Operations research),” she said.

The business executive with vast experience in Information Technology (IT) sales, corporate governance, and business management, listed other interventions to include the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) e-learning toolkit (that provides students with resources to effectively prepare for the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE)); and Unity Schools learning platforms.

Other e-learning resources accessible on the FMoE website included Khan Academy, Seesaw, National Open University, and UNESCO’s School Meets Learner Approach.

“With the sudden shift to a hybrid of in-person and at-home learning, technology and digital tools are no longer just one component of learning, they have become crucial to students’ ongoing development, connecting teachers with their pupils, pupils with each other and to resources and learning materials, Ifeyinwa, popularly called Ify, said.

She, however, said youths fortunate enough to attend private schools and universities were less impacted, as many quickly developed e-learning alternatives, embracing learning management systems such as HP’s Classroom of the Future, Moodle, Nearpod, and Edmodo; and held live video lessons on Zoom and Microsoft Teams, supplemented with audio-visual presentations on PowerPoint.

Understanding learner attitudes and needs

To drive home her point, Ify said the Education Partnership Centre (TEP Centre) in its “Learning in a Pandemic Report”, drilled down into the impact of COVID-19 on   youths’ education, highlighting some interesting findings  based on a survey with 557 students across 31 states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

TEP Centre is a pioneer in the emerging field of education partnership, specialising in research, design, implementation, support and evaluation of education programmes, projects and initiatives across the public, private and non-profit sectors. Its mission is to partner public and non-state actors to create a sustainable framework that will deliver improved access to quality education.

The centre’s “Learning in a Pandemic Report” was revealing. For instance, 37 per cent of those surveyed reported that online learning was their main form of learning, 26 per cent used books as their main form of learning, and 23 per ent learned through WhatsApp. Interestingly, only one percent said mobile learning was their main form of learning, a further three per cent learned on mobile TV, five per cent from their parents and five per cent from home lessons.

Reasons given for preferring online learning platforms included broad content such as core skills outside the school curriculum, flexibility and independence gained from self-study, and more learning time, as well as the opportunity to practice independent learning, mental toughness, digital skill acquisition and the ability to access quality and experienced tutors.

When students rated the learning platforms, they identified some challenges such as network challenges, access to devices and other related infrastructure – such as electricity. When the respondents were questioned on what resources they needed to help their learning, the majority — 66 per cent — said they would need a laptop to learn from home, on their own terms.

Addressing the challenges

Ify pointed out that parents were determined to ensure their children’s success in learning. She, however, regretted that they faced many infrastructural challenges such as data costs, limited, poor quality, or no Internet access, and unstable electricity supply.

“They (parents) have questions about how best to equip and prepare their children during the pandemic, particularly in light of different waves hitting, and the potential that schools will open and close erratically through the years ahead as the world tries to get a handle on the virus,” she added.

The managing director of one of the oldest Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEMs) in the Nigerian PC and print market, said as noted by the respondents in the Learning in a Pandemic Report, laptops enable a child’s learning process.

“While many people might focus on a smart phone, the smaller screen size, limited battery life made shorter by running various e-learning apps, and the need for data to access the portals mean it is a useful, but not ideal learning aid,” she said.

Ify, who pointed out that “A laptop is an investment in your child’s future,” however, said it could be overwhelming choosing the right one to enable a positive learning environment. “There are a number of features you should look for when choosing a laptop to help your child succeed including: battery, camera quality, connectivity, mobility, power, and storage,” she said.

The IT expert did not mince words when she advised: “When it comes to choosing the right laptop, choose a laptop that is built for tomorrow’s success, not just today’s needs. In doing so, she said it was important to make sure the processor is current generation.

“Don’t be sold on older stock. Currently available 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i3 Processors are a good choice, and are responsive and reliable,” she advised.

Ify also said it was important to make sure the hard drive can handle the workload. According to her, a 1TB hard disk drive will help to comfortably store schoolwork and projects safely.

“Don’t forget they need to connect. Wireless connectivity (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) is a must. Whether your child is at home, at school, or at a coffee shop, they should always be able to keep learning,” she added.

That is not all.The HP Nigeria boss advised users to make sure the battery can last more than five hours and has fast-charge technology. As she observed, one of the biggest challenges to online learning and studying in Nigeria is erratic electricity supply, “so when you’re choosing a laptop, pick one that can power through the power cuts, so your child can create and study all day. A good laptop shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes to reach 50 per cent charge, and the battery should last as much as 7-12.5 hours.”

Also, the laptop chosen should have a USB Type-C® port so, it was important to consider buying an external USB-C-based power bank for those times when the user will be away from home for extended periods.

She also enjoined users to choose a laptop with a high-definition camera with an integrated microphone, as remote learning means not only watching one’s teachers present to him or her, but turning the camera around and confidently showing oneself and work to the teacher and the class.

Noting that a bigger screen makes things easier to read, Ify said: “Choose a 14” or 15” screen so it’s easier to concentrate, and view presentations, and online applications and websites.”

She also said durability matters – whether children are studying from home, or carrying their laptop to school. “Remember to make sure their laptop is reliable, lightweight, but durable,” she stated.

Ify reiterated that buying a laptop for a child would not only help him or her succeed at school, but also empower him, by preparing him for future challenges, and helping him to acquire critical skills necessary to thrive in the digital era.

The Institute of Entrepreneurial Excellence Innovation and Sustainability (IEEIS) is an organisation focused on inspiring and empowering age groups and businesses to develop entrepreneurial mindset and skills needed to survive and thrive in the 21st Century. Its President, Dr. Ngozi Ogoke, has teamed up with the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (ELI), a global thought leader dedicated to expanding human potential through entrepreneurial mindset education, to raise change makers via entrepreneurship. Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

Her campaign resonates with the global push to turn to entrepreneurship to produce work-ready graduates and next-generation innovators capable of tackling the multi-faceted problems facing the world, particularly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So, by the time the President, Institute of Entrepreneurial Excellence Innovation and Sustainability (IEEIS), Dr. Ngozi Ogoke, is done with her ongoing campaign to integrate entrepreneurial mindset in early career life of children and youths, she would have left her indelible mark on the sands of time.

With the tagline, “Redefining entrepreneurship,” the IEEIS is an organisation with the objective to “Inspire, enable and empower all age groups and businesses to develop entrepreneurial mindset and skills which will lead to creativity, innovation, humane, social entrepreneurship and sustainability resulting to a purpose-driven life, change and generate extraordinary future for all.”

The IEEIS, under Mrs Ogoke’s charge, has launched an aggressive campaign to encourage the integration of entrepreneurship mindset into the school curriculum, which is necessary to equip the young generation with the skills to become change agents.

In embarking on the campaign, Mrs Ogoke’s approach is mainly through collaborations and partnerships. One of such collaborations was between IEEIS and the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (ELI), a global thought leader dedicated to expanding human potential through entrepreneurial mindset education.

ELI serves academic institutions, government agencies, profit, and non-profit organisations around the world to empower their constituents with an entrepreneurial mindset through professional development, certification training and courseware.

ELI believes that entrepreneurship is more than an academic discipline and reaches far beyond the concept of traditional business creation and small business management. To it, entrepreneurship is a mindset; a framework for thinking and acting that can empower anyone to succeed.

And, in today’s rapidly-changing, highly complex world, the need for entrepreneurial thinkers at all levels of society has never been greater. From preparing students to become workforce-ready graduates or next-generation innovators to elevating the entrepreneurial thinking of the existing workforce, an entrepreneurial mindset exposes opportunity, ignites ambition, and fosters innovation.

It also shifts everyday thinking into a new framework, empowering people to identify problems, deploy solutions, and make connections by using creative and critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.

Under Mrs Ogoke’s leadership, IEEIS and ELI have closed ranks to provide professional development training for educators and impactful entrepreneurial mindset programs for their students. By training educators and students with this mindset, the goal was to create an environment where young people see opportunity to create positive change in the society.

As part of the collaboration, IEEIS and ELI organised a webinar recently, entitled: “The entrepreneurial mindset: Transforming Nigerian economic ecosystem,” where development experts discussed the power of an entrepreneurial mindset and why it is something everybody needs to embrace.

The virtual event also explored how this shift in mindset can transform economic ecosystems in Nigeria. It was also a platform for various presenters to highlight how an entrepreneurial mindset could empower ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.

During the webinar, Mrs Ogoke said young people from the education sector needed to develop the entrepreneurial mindset that will enable them thrive in the midst of adversity and learn how to identify opportunities, set goals and pursue them vigorously as a way to contribute to the society by solving problems for themselves and others.

“If all young Nigerian students left school with this type of mindset, there would have been hundreds of thousands of graduates each year actively looking to solve the myriad problems that Nigerians and Africans as a whole face every day. Consequently, I encourage the entrepreneurship mindset in the education sector across all levels,” she said.

,Mrs Ogoke also told The Nation that in collaboration with the Entrepreneurial Mindset Development Programme (ELI, Inc. USA), IEEIS offers Icehouse Entrepreneurial Mindset Development Program. The institute, she added, was also in collaboration with 100 Steps 2 Startup, Canada, created by Dr. Sean Wise, a Canadian award-winning entrepreneur and entrepreneurship professor.

The 100 Steps 2 Startup guides the user or student from idea creation to revenue generation using videos and worksheets, leading the student step-by-step to success. It also helps entrepreneurs launch dreams and educators teach essential skills.

To empower entrepreneurs and startups, Mrs Ogoke also said IEEIS was partnering investors, grants giving organisations and other financial institutions to provide start-up funds to the determined prospective entrepreneurs who developed a viable venture idea.

The IEEIS will make the seed money available to passionate entrepreneurs who have acquired the entrepreneurial education, skills, and knowledge to pursue a viable venture or a viable opportunity discovery that is sustainable for his community, state, nation and the continent. The institute’s training are structured in a way to provide the skills to succeed as an entrepreneur.

Why Ogoke’s campaign is compelling

It is easy to see why Mrs Ogoke, who is a life coach and an entrepreneur, is preoccupied with unleashing the potential of children and youths through entrepreneurial education and training.

For one, entrepreneurship, according to Geneva-based international organisation, World Economic Forum (WEF), is an essential life skill that every student will need to survive and thrive in the 21st Century.

The WEF, which is committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agenda, however, stated in its report that the gap between the skills people learn and the skills they need was becoming more obvious, as traditional learning falls short of equipping students with the knowledge they need to thrive in the 21st Century.

Ogoke and indeed, other development experts, could not agree less.The IEEIS boss noted, for instance, that entrepreneurship education will empower students to remain adaptable when facing obstacles, persist through failure, communicate better, and become problem solvers and opportunity finders.

She also noted that entrepreneurship is linked to higher academic achievement hence, colleges are turning to entrepreneurship to produce work-ready graduates and next-generation innovators by engaging students in the highly experiential, entrepreneurial process.

“By cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset in students, we can empower and engage them to achieve their goals. The process of integrating entrepreneurial mindset in early career life of our children has countless advantages towards economic development of any nation.

“We also believe that all stakeholders in Nigeria will lean towards the implementation in the educational curriculum so that our children and youth will be competitive with other nations. Also, they will be sustainable when they graduate from school,” she told The Nation.

However, in pushing for a shift in mindset in favour of entrepreneurship, Mrs Ogoke pointed out that Nigeria and Africa as a whole already have the talents, the resources, and the right climate to make significant impact to the world economy.

She, however, lamented that the challenge on the African continent is to make the youth change makers by developing them to see problems as opportunity and create responses to solve them. “We are in an extraordinary situation in history in the sense that nobody knows the fundamentals about how the world will look like in 10, 20 or 30 years,” Mrs Ogoke said.

Interestingly, it is the extraordinary situation in history that now drives her passion to redefine entrepreneurship and hopefully, create change makers. She raised many posers to underscore her drive namely, “How can we make ordinary people to be extraordinary? How can we create prosperity by taking into account everyday people?

“How can we remove barriers holding people back, especially our youths? How can we put them in the right direction to be competitive and sustainable? What problems do you as an individual/your institution wants to solve for humanity?”

Asked if she has, through the institute, reached out to the authorities in the education sector to rework the curriculum to accommodate entrepreneurial training and skills, Mrs Ogoke said: “Yes,” adding: “The authorities’ response was indeed, positive.” She emphasised that entrepreneurship involves solving a problem that will benefit humanity.

“In the process of identifying a passionate problem a person wants to solve, there lies the opportunity which if developed result to entrepreneurship.

“For instance, Facebook, Google, electricity, vehicles, electric cars, mobile phones, frozen vegetables, portable drinking water, cassava flour for bread and the list is endless. These are problems solved that lead to opportunity identification that results to entrepreneurship. There are many problems that need to be solved which are opportunities in Nigeria and Africa,” she added.

More importantly perhaps, Mrs. Ogoke pointed out that the institute’s objectives are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “Our objectives are aligned with UN SDG 4 (quality of education), 8 (decent work & economic growth), and 9 (industry, innovation & infrastructure),” she said.

According to her, the skills acquired in achieving goals 4, 8, and 9 will lead to capturing all the 14 sustainable development goals.

Blockchain technology is acknowledged as potentially revolutionary. However, only about 1, 000 out of Nigeria’s estimated population of 200 million are said to be certified in that field. There is also fewer number of certified Nigerian women in the industry, which is believed to be the technology of the future, revolutionising digital commerce, for instance. But, African Lead, Global Women Blockchain Alliance, an organisation that empowers women through Blockchain technologies, Mrs. Modupe Ativie, is working to ensure that Nigerian entrepreneurs, especially women adapt Blockchain technologies. DANIEL ESSIET reports. 

Push to make Nigeria a regional leader in Blockchain technology via training and capacity building is on course. And leading the charge is African Lead, Global Women Blockchain Alliance, an organisation that empowers women through Blockchain technologies, Mrs. Modupe Ativie. She has been helping Nigerian entrepreneurs, especially women to get trained in Blockchain technology, which, according to experts, is the technology of the future.

Blockchain is a specific type of database, but it differs from a typical database in the way it stores information. Blockchains store information or data in blocks that are then chained together. As new data comes in, it is entered into a fresh block. Once the block is filled with data, it is chained onto the previous block, which makes the data chained together in chronological order.

Different information can be stored on a Blockchain, but the most common use so far has been as a ledger for transactions. In Bitcoin’s case, Blockchain is used in a decentralised way so that no person or group has control—rather, all users retain control. Decentralised Blockchains are immutable, which means that the data entered is irreversible.

Its decentralised nature and cryptographic algorithm make it immune to attack. In fact, hacking a Blockchain is close to impossible. And in a world where cyber security has become a key issue for personal, corporate, and national security, Blockchain is potentially a revolutionary technology.

Invented in 2008, Blockchain technology has since taken the world by storm. Originally created to disrupt the financial services industry, providing solutions to the its inherent problems, the potential applications of Blockchain have gone far beyond financial services and are looking to disrupt almost every industry in one way or another.

However, as promising and revolutionary as it is, the growth of the Blockchain space has seen a similar pattern with gender bias well known to the tech industry, with a disproportionate ratio of men to women that are involved in the industry in some way, shape or form.

For instance, statistics from Coinreviews, which provides the best cryptocurrency reviews, bitcoin news, and all things digital currency, show that over 2017, 91.58 per cent of visitors were male, while only 8.42 per cent were females. CoinReviews was founded by a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts from the United States.

However, closing the huge gap in the female/male ratio in the Blockchain space has been one of the major preoccupations of Global Women Blockchain Alliance, where Ativie was nominated the Africa Lead by her partners she worked with in India and the United States. Her nomination was based on her passion for helping people, especially women, to get training in Blockchain technology.

Global Women Blockchain Alliance, which she leads, is a non-profit group, aimed at injecting the much-needed diversity into the Blockchain technology space by empowering women through shared business connections and exchanges, association, meet-ups, fora, learning events and more.

Through the Alliance, which exists to empower women through Blockchain technologies, Ativie, who has spent the first six years of her professional life working as a trainer in quality assurance with Pfizer Global Pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom (U.K.) has been organising and training women to adapt Blockchain technologies.

Explaining her foray into that space, the certified training consultant said: “I got involved in Blockchain after finding out that about the statistics of low women involvement. I found out that fewer women were certified in the use of the technology. I found that in Nigeria with a population of over 200 million, no fewer than 1000 people are certified in Blockchain technology.”

But, Ativie was determined to change the status quo, hence she took it up as a challenge. In doing so, she recalled, for instance, that when the Internet came out people were initially reluctant to embrace it. Her words: “Some thought it was from the devil.There were several concerns poured out. Because of this, we didn’t take advantage of it early enough.

“Now, there is hardly anything we can do without the Internet. Now, Blockchain is facing the same resistance. People are saying it is the sign of end time. May be it is. Who knows? But my point is that right now, it is the technology of the future. Blockchain is the future of skills. It is the skill of the future. It is important for everybody to get at least a basic knowledge of what Blockchain is all about.”

An industry thought leader, Ativie came armed with both passion and requisite skill. She came from a top level education background in the U.K., where she has been involved in the quality assurance space that has given her a breadth of experience which has been instrumental to the success of her efforts so far.

She has extensive knowledge in addressing organisation’s needs and promotion of growth. She has also been integral to driving technological focus and bringing an entrepreneurial mindset that financially empowers the members of the fast-growing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) community and, ultimately, help position Nigeria as a regional leader in the global Blockchain market that has been projected to reach $40 billion by 2025.

The huge market, according to experts, including Ativie, is being driven by the increasing popularity of Blockchain technology in retail and supply chain management. For instance, the market for cryptocurrency is expanding rapidly, as corporate users in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector and government offices are increasingly adopting cryptocurrencies.

The rising adoption of the Blockchain technology by firms for strengthening their daily operations and increasing security has also put the demand for Blockchain solutions on the upswing, with Blockchain expertise now one of the hottest in the job market. The  demand for people with Blockchain skills is high because of its many fields of application.

With the industry looking to hire those who have the skills set to navigate the new technology and the growing eagerness to realise all its benefits, Ativie is leveraging the Alliance, to ensure that Nigerians, particularly women tech entrepreneurs, do not miss out of the bountiful opportunities therein.

By working with various government institutions and helping them utilise Blockchain technology in a way that creates a more corruption-free, transparent, efficient and inclusive environment, Ativie’s vision is to facilitate a more open and equal financial system for Nigeria using blockchain technologies through training and capacity building.

Her focus on training and capacity building started after the quality assurance expert came back to Nigeria after her sojourn in the UK. Her words: “When I came back to Nigeria I had to have a career switch. I found out that the quality assurance system in Nigeria was a bit rigid. Recruitment was really slow in that sector.

“I changed my career path to human capital development, focusing on learning and development-training and capacity building. I got involved in capacity building mostly because of the kind of training opportunities I was exposed to while in the U.K. I attended a lot of training in different sectors of the economy.

“While I was there, I was taking advantage of any free capacity building opportunities that was coming my way. I was soaking up every bit of information irrespective of the sector. I like to call myself a life-long learner. At the moment, I am doing a few courses here and there. I like to keep myself updated in different fields that I am interested in.”

Ativie told The Nation that when she returned to Nigeria, it was easier for her to make that career change. Again, she explained: “I got into training, helping people get better, bridging the skills gap with the things I knew. The things I did not know I took up time to learn. I got involved in learning and development.

“I did a few paid and contract jobs while here. In 2017, my husband moved to Port Harcourt because he got a new job. He wanted the family to be together. I didn’t really get a job in my sector, so I decided to go entrepreneurial. Still under learning and development, I decided to market training. I got certified as a training consultant. I decided to market my services in learning and development, recruitment, and personal coaching.”

However, Ativie’s journey to positioning Nigeria, particularly women, to take advantage of the opportunities in Blockchain started last year. “It started out really under learning and development. I was selling Blockchain training. I have been helping people, especially women, to get technology training in Blockchain,” she said.

As an entrepreneur, she said she was motivated by the desire to see people get better. According to her, the obvious gap between people with skills in the developed world and the people here in Nigeria moved her to bridge the skills gap.

“When it comes to learning and development, I have taken time to dwell a lot in the educational sector. I am an educational enthusiast. I have taken a lot of time to build the skills gap and that is the motivation,” she said.

Looking to the future 

The rate Blockchain technology is growing is certainly good news. However, providing solutions is still crucial, especially as banks seek to improve on their product offerings and customer satisfaction. As a global consultant and entrepreneur with expertise in emerging technologies, financial services, and inclusive growth, Ativie has proven herself to be an asset.

She sees Blockchain technology as the backbone for virtually everything. She, however, believes that every innovative idea goes through a challenging phase of acceptance. The initial challenge, according to her, is with early adoption. However, once Nigeria crosses the initial hurdle, the growth will be exponential.

This is why Ativie has been encouraging women to challenge themselves. “There are lots of different roles and skills needed and so many different things a woman can do within the Blockchain industry – just go for it and try,” she advised, attributing her successes so far to God’s grace..

“I put my success down to God. I find strength in God. Without God in my life, I would have given up a long time ago. There were times I thought of picking up a desk job because of difficult phases in my entrepreneurship journey,” she said.

Ativie’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs: “First is clarity. You have to have a clear plan. I am not saying you have to have everything when you are starting up. Even successful entrepreneurs have had to modify their business plans after they started. But you have to have a plan to support what you are doing.

“The second is perseverance. Perseverance is very importance, because there will come days and times where everything will scream against you. You have to go and do something else. You are the only one that can keep yourself motivated by persevering and deciding to stick with your dreams regardless of what you see. Look at what happened to Amazon founder many years ago when he operated from one room. Imagine if he had given up at that time. He decided not to.

“Look at where he is today. Perseverance is very important. Thirdly, mentorship is good as well because when you get a mentor you are exempted from certain basic mistakes. It is good if you can get a good mentor in the field you are interested in. It will prevent you from making certain mistakes.You can step on their shoulders and succeed early.”