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Connecting To Advance
TED Talks
Ghanaian economist Prof. George Ayittey unleashes a torrent of controlled anger toward corrupt leaders in Africa — and calls on the “Cheetah generation” to take back the continent.
Please enjoy. Then contribute to the discussion. The space below is yours.
[youtube]ZnepHUYFqgg[/youtube]
In the last week’s edition of this column, we rummaged over first two of the resolutions of the African Union 17th ordinary Session in Malabo, Guinea, that dwelled on the employment of youths and creating an avenue for vocational training in the areas of ICT and agriculture. In this concluding part, we shall take a critical look at resolutions three, four and five, that pertain to the provision of adequate resources for youth agenda cum funding of the Pan African Youth Union, and organizing training summit at the middle of every year for youth volunteers, and subsequent posting within the region possibly to serve as volunteers on the bill of the African Union.
African resources have been frittered away to foreign lands for non-economic activities, that had left the continent worse-off than it were in the last 50 years. Each dying year witnesses the pomp and pageantry of expensive Independence celebration ceremonies round the continent, but they celebrate underdevelopment and poverty and dwindling economies. We often hear stories of the ‘good old days’ of the seventies and early eighties, when young graduates had their job placement before they write their final examinations. Civil servants could buy new cars with ease, but what we have today is an array of over-used cars that are only fit for scraps in developed countries, running in African major cities partly because people cannot afford the cost of new ones. What happens to these jobs and new cars? Why are the industries closing shops as the universities churn out thousands of young graduates into the already over-blotted labor market? Does that portend a good future for the present generation, if past years are better than now? This is the bane of brain-drain syndrome plaguing the continent. African leaders must wake up to their responsibilities and provide purposeful leadership in the area of economic empowerment for their young population.
I keep wondering why these leaders have not seen it fit to empower their young population over the years. The scenario has been build-up factions that will empower the youth with guns to sack the entire citizenry and create huge refugee population in order for them to be political saviors. One of the basic problems of youth in Africa is lack of access to quality education. In places where schools are available, young people there do not see the need to go to school as it takes a long time to reap its dividends because the value for ‘quick wealth without labor’ is on the increase. Those who have the gusto and drive to acquire education/skills do not have the financial capacity due to chronic poverty ranging them, as the government care a little less. Moreover, skill acquisition centers that would have been the alternative mode for equipping the youth with technical and entrepreneurial skills are nowhere to be found. Thus, young people are left with no plausible option than to engage in all kinds of unwholesome activities that tend to undermine the moral fabric of their societies just to make ends meet. The example of pockets of insurgent groups in various parts of the continent is a clear case at point, each seeking to be heard depending on what the grievances are, at the expense of civilian casualties.
The Pan African Youth Union has more or less been left moribund for years. Why is it now the leaders deem it fit to dust it up from the shelve in the organization’s archive to give it a new look? African youths are despondent and frustrated because they have been denied opportunity for empowerment economically and politically for the past fifty years. Organizing youth summit in every June/July to train youth volunteers is not a bad idea, but do they have the political will to make it real? How far would the leaders go to move the proposal from paper to practical action? Do all the countries that signed that pact have the capability to absorb these young volunteers (as proposed by the AU), into their economy to participate in the program marshaled out considering the volatile nature of many of these countries? Which country would allow her young people to be sent to a place like Somalia or the DRC? Would this attempt not be another pipeline for the siphoning of public funds without tangible results? Your guess is as good as mine!
Truly, there is nothing nobler than planning for younger generation by their leaders. Nonetheless, the abhorrence of youth by some of these leaders make the whole resolution looks as if that summit in Malabo, was another gathering for our ever- complacent leaders who gather to drink expensive wine, lodge in five-star hotels with tax payers’ money, and consolidate on their business links and forget the plight of their suffering masses back home. Future studies have demonstrated that equipping young people with profound strategies for the unknown is the best way to galvanize any country into prosperity. Until the right atmosphere free of internal conflict, youth unemployment, hunger, militancy and poverty is created in Africa by the leaders; the impossibility of incessant youths’ unrest in the forms of violent protests and demonstrations would continue to be a mirage.
by Magali Rheault and Bob Tortora
Young women and men equally likely to express entrepreneurial intentions.
Gallup surveys in 27 African countries and areas underscore the interest young people in the region have in entrepreneurship. A median of one in five Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 who are not already business owners say they plan to start their own business in the next 12 months, although they are less likely than those aged 25 to 35 to have these plans. In general, young women are as likely as young men to report plans to launch a business.
African leaders convening this week at an African Union summit in Equatorial Guinea will address youth empowerment and the roles young Africans can play in positioning their countries for sustainable development. Gallup’s measures of young people’s attitudes about entrepreneurship inform such conversations, particularly the relationship between youth and economic development.
Gallup finds African youth believe they can rely on social networks to launch their businesses. A median of about 6 in 10 African women (57%) and men (61%) between the ages of 15 and 24 say they trust someone other than a family member enough to make them a partner in starting a business. Similar proportions of women and men in the older age group (aged 25 to 35) say the same.
Young Africans — whether they are currently thinking about starting a business — paint a mixed picture in terms of starting and running a business, be it a formal or informal venture. They are relatively positive about the safety of assets and the potential financial success of their business, but fewer find the paperwork process and access to loan money easy enough for would-be entrepreneurs. It is important to note that young people in the older age group as well as both genders share similar views
Attitudes About Entrepreneurship Vary Across Countries
Young people in different countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan and northern Africa have different views about some aspects of entrepreneurship. Young people residing in northern African countries are less likely than their counterparts south of the Sahara to say they plan to start a business. Young people’s perceptions about business outcomes in northern Africa are generally less positive than those in sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, young people in each region found more agreement with respect to ease of business entry and trust in business partners.
Gallup finds other country differences across income groups. Intent to start a business among those aged 15 to 24 is highest in low-income rather than middle-income countries, and ranges from 3% in Morocco to 40% in Uganda. In many of the countries and areas surveyed in Africa, majorities of young people believe they can trust non-relatives to be their business partners, although in the Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, and Tanzania, less than 50% of young people believe they can.
Young Africans’ views about access to capital underscore the importance of developing country-specific initiatives. As few as 9% of young people in Libya and as many as 45% in South Africa say it is easy enough for anyone to obtain a startup loan, even though similar proportions of young people in each country plan to start a business in the next year and both countries are upper-middle income economies.
Majorities of young people in the Somaliland region (64%) and Chad (51%) say paperwork is easy enough. Young Libyans (11%) were the least likely to say paperwork is easy enough. These findings suggest the paperwork process may push many young people into informal types of entrepreneurship, which could lead to socio-economic marginalization.
Young Africans’ perceptions about business profitability and asset safety are more positive across all countries. Views about would-be entrepreneurs’ potential profitability range from 85% in Ghana believing the government will allow business owners to make a lot of money to 40% in Libya believing the same. Trust about the safety of business assets is also relatively widespread, ranging from 91% in Ghana to 37% in Chad.
Bottom Line
Young Africans, including young women, show a latent interest in business creation. Although entrepreneurship is not a panacea to the daunting challenge of youth unemployment across Africa, it is a critical pillar that stands to provide a livelihood for many and, in turn, create jobs for more young people. The findings also underscore the gap between relatively positive perceptions of business outcome versus the more negative views of business entry. However, the cross-country variations are important reminders to develop country-specific entrepreneurship programs to turn aspirations into successful ventures. Future research will explore potential gender differences in push-and-pull factors in business creation.
For complete data sets or custom research from the more than 150 countries Gallup continually surveys, please contact SocialandEconomicAnalysis@gallup.com or call 202.715.3030.
Survey Methods
Results are based on face-to-face interviews with 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted in 2010 in Algeria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somaliland region, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error ranged from a low of ±2.9 percentage points to a high of ±5.9 percentage points for the question “Are you planning to start your own business in the next 12 months, or not?” The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
In the world of business, it is only a fool that would work himself to death for someone else. It is true that one should strive to justify what one earns, particularly if one is an employee, but it would be suicidal for employee not to have a plan to be on his own at a point in life. This is because experience has shown that you cannot be richer than your employer, except if you are not 100% dedicated to your work or if you are cutting corners.
Some people work for security, while others work for freedom. This piece is not intended for those who work for security; it is targeted at those who are willing to take calculated risks in arriving at their desired destinations in life. Such people, I presume, know who they are and must be working consciously towards making it count in life. How can they make it count? This they can do by ensuring that what they know rubs off positively on others. That is why I say that it is not what you know that matters, but what you do with what you know.
Given that you know who you are, the challenge before you is to know what to do with it. It is not sufficient to know who you are, you must know how to maximize your God-given gift. What I have discovered is that if you do not want to lead, you are bound to be led. Put differently, if you do not want to be your own boss you will surely be bossed around by someone else. There is something in you that the whole world is waiting for. You only need to act on it as nothing moves until it is moved.
The greatest inhibition to taking one’s rightful place in life is fear. Fear has always been the bane of many a man that would have been great in life. Many, who would have become celebrities but are perceived as nonentities, have been victims of FALSE EVIDENCE APPEARING REAL (FEAR). Man is always afraid of what will happen next. He is often more concerned about tomorrow. He feels insecure and worried. This fear of the unknown has always prevented many a man from taking the bull by the horn. It makes many of us to leave our destinies in the hands of others to control.
You need to appreciate that there is nothing to fear about tomorrow. God has not given us the spirit of fear. The expression ”fear not” appears 365 times in the Bible, which invariably means there is a dose of fear not per day! We must always remember that today is the tomorrow spoken about yesterday. If your employer had not overcome the fear of insecurity or what most of us tag ”fear of the unknown”, you would not be in that your office working. It takes courage and absolute faith in God to live the kind of life you are destined to live. Today, I run a demonstration farm in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria, where I rear rabbits, chickens, snails, among others and still train people on the need to be self-reliant. This is possible because I confronted my fear. I could have raised several excuses why the farm should not start. Setting up the farm has come with its challenges, but the will to win has been my sustaining power.
What you must always know is that there is no gain without pain. You don’t have to fear failure. There are no secrets to success. Don’t waste your time looking for them. We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure – ALL YOUR LIFE. Take that bold step now, fear not. Remember, what Orison Swett Marden said: ”many a man has finally succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat he would never have known great victory
“Know the enemy and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will never be defeated; when you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal; if you are ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be defeated” – Sun Tzu (The Art of War).
The quote above is unequivocally food for thought for all ages but especially the youth. I mean the African youth who appear ‘trapped’ by these conquerable enemies identified above as 3Fs….. FEAR, FAILURE AND THE FUTURE.
Take a moment to reflect on these popular quotes on the enemy of fear:
” I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fear to do”….Eleanor Roosevelt.
”Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear”… Ambrose Redmoon. ”
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear”…Edmund Burke. ”
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom”….Bertrand Russell..
No human is immune to this ‘abstract feeling’, regardless of age, social status, and skin color. Fear in this context is not the feeling manifested by an individual when exposed to life threatening situations such as a robbery attack, natural disasters, or the fear associated with the death of a loved one. Rather, the Fear under examination is one that is absolutely within the control of its host. I’ll like to share a personal experience along this line as a youth. I remember growing up in the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria with so many attractions around. As a youth while in High school (secondary education), I had a deep interest in sciences wanting to become a Medical doctor or a Pilot. My Dad used to have a health book as big as an encyclopedia. I usually pick up the book from his library at my leisure to read even though most of what I was reading made little or no academic sense to me. Moreover, growing up in an environment that was not ‘science friendly’ so to say, I started nurturing the fear of pessimism. Added to this was the issue of finance. In school, most of those in the sciences were mates from affluent or wealthy homes. So I had this mindset like, which may be true of most young people that success in the sciences depends on the pay-book of our parents. Hence, I had to settle for the major that accommodates students from all walks of life, the Business Department.
Closely associated with ‘fear’, is the enemy of Failure. In my view, the fear of failure is largely responsible for the stagnant and under-developed psyche of an average person especially youths. In this part of the world (Africa) where superstitions and the fear of the Unknown permeates, many individuals out of lack of motivation and willpower submit themselves to the dictates of their environment thereby giving up after few encounters with failure. Interestingly though, most of the world acclaimed and celebrated personalities from time immemorial, in Africa and in the Diaspora, were beset by this ‘enemy’ on a constant basis and yet are known for success today. Bill Gates, Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Wole Soyinka and most recently, Barrack Obama were all ‘victimized’ at one point or the other in their quest towards success by failure. However, due to determination to succeed at all cost, these individuals are known for who they are today. The same can be your experience too. Failure in my opinion, no matter how often it besets its recipient, is only a natural manifestation, to some extent the frailty of the human species, which is inevitable before success can be realized. Ponder over this: What does it take an infant to become a toddler and grow into childhood? It takes days, weeks and months of repeated crawling, stooping and falling (failure) as a natural experience. In the same vein, failure in whatever form, be it in your academics, business, relationships and other areas of life should not be a deterrent to your progress and success in life. As a very good friend puts it in an article; ‘MAKING IT SLOWLY BUR SURELY‘, Tunde Oseni fervently addressed issues on success in life as a gradual process that takes time to materialize. Therein, he advised youths, especially those in the developing economies, never to be ‘too ambitious to succeed’. Rather, with the right ‘tools’ such as education, commitment, perseverance amongst others, success is guaranteed even though it may come slowly. Therefore, never allow the failure of today to becloud the success of tomorrow. No matter, how many times failure comes your way, realize that what matters most is your unrelenting determination to turn it into success.
The last ‘enemy’ identified above is the Future. Erroneously, many usually see the Future as being into the distant days ahead. However, the future starts today! Future in this context is the unnecessary worries, concerns and anxieties about tomorrow. Needless to state, it is vital to think or plan ahead of time. Many though have allowed themselves to be entrapped by the uncertainties of life thereby giving up effort towards a bright future. Most African youths grow up in an environment that barely impact positively on their lives. Environments where values which define us a people have been thrown into the air, environment where leaders lack integrity and national interest, environment were the youths hardly have a voice especially in government. Despite these limitations, a good number of African youths have made the best for themselves. It is important that as youths, we start positioning ourselves now in terms of empowerment for the future. Obama positioned himself years ago through academic and intellectual empowerment, emerging as the President of the United States of America in 2009. Certainly, a ‘mystery in disguise!! The same can be your experience too. A positive mindset coupled with optimism is needed to successfully wage the battle for a bright Future.
Hence, a call goes to everyone out there, especially African youths who before reading this piece may have been ‘enslaved’ as it were to FEAR, FAILURE and FUTURE. These three ‘enemies’ are within your capacity not only to control, but to conquer. May your Fear turn to be your Freedom, your Failure turn to Fortune and your Future turn to Fame.