It got to a point that the stupendously wealthy trio of oil man John D. Rockefeller; steel maker, Andrew Carnegie and financier J.P. Morgan wanted to know who would trump the others in philanthropic giving. Rockefeller out-gave only because he lived the longest.
Nigeria’s Tony Elumelu, TOE to his close pals, a banker, and consummate entrepreneur, reportedly worth about $1bn, has gone beyond Corporate Social Responsibility. He is using his personal fortune to recruit, and jumpstart the business of budding entrepreneurs, who will join the cadre of Africa’s future merchant class. It’s like his peace of mind, dripping with passion, depends on this quest.
Elumelu is Chairman of Heirs Holding, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, and United Bank for Africa. He displayed stellar performance in transforming insolvent Standard Trust Bank into one of the top five banks in Nigeria. He used it to buy up UBA, in the biggest banking merger in sub-Saharan Africa. He then expanded UBA into the rest of Africa.
His Tony Elumelu Foundation, a philanthropic organisation bankrolls the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurial Programme that is dedicated to the promotion of excellence in business leadership, entrepreneurship, and the enhancement of Africa’s private sector.
TEEP is giving $100m seed money to 1,000 young entrepreneurs from 51 African nations. The lucky winners emerged out of 20,000 applicants who went through 12 weeks of training and weeding. TEEP entrepreneurs spread across the educational, agricultural, energy, fashion, and ICT sectors.
The finalists attended a two-day boot camp at Ota in Ogun State, for more training sessions and pep talk with Elumelu and other captains of industry, who have track records in business and leadership.
The question-and-answer sessions offered the rooky entrepreneurs rare perspectives on innovation, strategy, corporate governance, financial management, and decision-making. The boot camp provides each finalist with the $10,000 seed capital, networks, and support to put their new knowledge into action.
Elumelu’s gesture may be an answer to Chambers Umezulike’s lament: “My generation has suffered because of the failure of my father’s generation…. We are the ones that stay at home because there are no jobs, while (our parents) treat us to tales of how… they started working (immediately) after university, and started families immediately with adequate finances and basic necessities.
Umezulike continues: “Today, the naira has been so devalued… that my generation has seen Nigerians that worked for years, and cannot even start a family, (and) can’t pay a bride price. These young Nigerians can neither pay rent, nor afford basic necessities. Furthermore, because of (poor) pay, unemployment swells.”
Traditionally, a camp boot is a correctional facility for wrongheaded kids. But the military runs it as an institution where military initial indoctrination, instructions, and strenuous physical training are given to new recruits. After completion of the Basic Training, recruits undergo Advanced Individual Training to acquire further skills needed for their military assignments.
In business, a boot camp is a place where people learn new and practical skills, with less emphasis on academic work. Elumelu’s boot camp initiative is an attempt to create intellectual infrastructure to move Africa from the trap of seeking-and-receiving aid, to an inclusive economy that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the economies of other continents.
Gambian Modou Lawan, a beneficiary, says: “The boot camp has been a great experience. I have been able to exchange ideas with a number of entrepreneurs. This has really changed my perspective on Africa.” Perhaps, these starry-eyed youngsters will take over the world with innovative ideas. They may also be evangelists for Elumelu’s pet economic theory of Africapitalism.
By the way, Africapitalism is an economic philosophy that embraces private sector commitment for the economic transformation of Africa, through long-term investments that will create prosperity and social wealth. Elumelu will likely become Africa’s Bill Blanks who introduced physical workouts to Japanese youths in Japan’s first boot camp in 2005.
Blanks became a folk hero to the kids who nicknamed him “Taicho,” or Chief. Elumelu says, “I want to go to the Zambia, when I am 80 years old, and meet someone who shows me their manufacturing business or financial institution, and tells me that it was built with $10,000 from Tony Elumelu.”
He declares: “This is not about commercial benefits (to me), but an attempt to leave behind a legacy for Africa’s development. In empowering these emerging entrepreneurs, we are providing (resources) for them to drive economic and social transformation throughout Africa, secure their future… and provide solutions to (Africa’s) problems.”
Mentoring has historical origins in Homer’s “The Iliad.” As he prepared to proceed to fight in the Trojan War, Odysseus sent his son, Telemachus, as a ward to old and wise man, Mentor, for tutelage.The first recorded modern use of the term can be traced to “Mentor,” the protagonist of a book, “Les Adventures de Telemaque,” published in 1699 by French writer, Francois Frenelon.
Today, mentoring or mentorship is defined as a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person guides a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The mentor can be older or even younger, but he must have a certain area of expertise. This learning and development partnership must involve face-to-face interaction and communication.
The one receiving mentorship is usually referred to as protégé, apprentice, or mentee. Nigeria’s former High Commissioner to the Court of St. James’ in the United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade, once publicly acknowledged Mr. Akintola Williams, doyen of Nigerian accounting profession, as a mentor. See the greatness that Kolade achieved!
Carnegie started out as a 12-year old in a railway company, and met the President, Tom Scott, who spotted his brilliance and made him personal assistant. When Carnegie displayed intelligence and nerves to take on more responsibilities, Scott decided to nurture, and rapidly elevate him through the ranks.
Elumelu himself learnt at the feet of the master, the inimitable Ebitimi Banigo, banker extraordinaire, former helmsman at the International Merchant Bank, a sort of campus that groomed numerous Nigerian banking poster boys.
Banigo cut his banking teeth at America’s Citibank and Chase Merchant Bank, before his debut at the IMB. After his All States Trust Bank was gobbled up in the Central Bank of Nigeria banking consolidation, Banigo fetched up as Minister of Science and Technology, before becoming the Amayannambo of Okpoma, Bayelsa State.
At the boot camp, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo observed that “societies cannot develop without social entrepreneurs,” men who will take deliberate steps to provoke social change with their own resources, time and talents.
Now that it has been announced that the online application portal for the young African entrepreneurs’ class of 2016 will open on January 1, 2016, perhaps the best tribute anyone can pay Elumelu is to join him as a facilitator in this most altruistic endeavour.
It is therefore commendable that the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria is collaborating with an NGO, Community Awareness on Development Network, to train 2 million young Nigerian entreprenuers.
Though SMEDAN won’t give seed money, it will partner Bank of Industry for funding; and the Corporate Affairs Commission, to facilitate business registration. It will also enlist consultants who will assist trainees in preparing business plans, and provide them rent-free accommodation for nine months.
Source: punch
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