Tag Archives: nigeria

An Accidental Corruption Crusader

Posted on 25 October, 2012 by | Comments Off

Yinka Osobu does not consider herself a crusader against corruption. In fact, she is a small business owner in Nigeria trying to keep costs down, manufacture quality products, and make a profit. She has been doing this for 18 years as the CEO of CMC Interiors, a furniture and fabric company based in Lagos.

However, when she was charged a different price for each container she imported, she grew frustrated. “There weren’t two containers that came in under the same regulations,” she said, noting how prices and regulations changed with no consistency or clarity. “I had reached the end of the road.”

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Posted in Africa

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CIPE Opens Nigeria Office

Posted on 17 October, 2012 by | Comments Off

After more than twenty years of innovative and impact-oriented programming in Nigeria, CIPE has opened the doors of its first brick-and-mortar office in Sub-Saharan Africa, located in Nigeria’s most populated city – Lagos.

“The opening of the Nigeria office is a significant benchmark for CIPE’s Africa programming on the continent,” said Abdulwahab Alkebsi, CIPE’s Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East, “It provides more on-the-ground capacity than CIPE has had before, but also solidifies our local presence, which we’ve managed for more than 20 years from Washington. This office will further our strategy of partnering locally to strengthen democratic and economic reforms.”

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Nigerian Youth Take On Sustainable Development

Posted on 15 August, 2012 by | Comments Off

In June, world leaders converged in Brazil to discuss a topic of growing importance to countries world-wide: sustainable development. Despite months of hype for the Rio+20 Conference, however, participants left Brazil without any sort of global plan for addressing environmental, economic, and social concerns, and without even a statement saying that they should do so. Yet no matter how you judge the outcomes of Rio+20, the global attention it brought to the increasingly important topic of sustainable development is undeniable.

Sustainable development has different connotations to different people, but broadly in refers to lasting development that takes into account political, social, economic, and environmental factors. For individual countries, this means investing in economic sectors that create jobs for all, building better infrastructure to provide key services such as reliable electricity and transportation, and empowering political institutions that allow individuals and businesses to engage in advocacy and let their voices be heard.

For youth — the world’s fastest growing age group, and also the most over-represented among the world’s unemployed — the stakes of development’s success (and sustainability) are even higher.

In CIPE’s recently released  Economic Reform Feature Service article, Babatunde Oladosu and Michale Olumuyiwa Kayode, second and third place winners of the 2011 Youth Essay Contest in the sustainable development category, argue that youth can play an integral role in their country’s development by creating jobs, holding economic and political leaders accountable, and investing in local communities. Both authors also point to the importance of their own country, Nigeria, in investing in itself. Local actors, not foreign aid, must lead the way towards economic prosperity and democratic reform.

Read their winning essays: “Nigerian Youth and Sustainable Development,” and “Youth and Politico-Economic Development in Nigeria,” here.

Articles at a glance:

  • Youth can help make development sustainable and home-grown by increasing focus on job creation instead of job seeking, encouraging local business, and investing in their communities.
  • Nigerians—not international donors—are the best leaders of and investors in Nigeria’s economic, political, and social development.
  • Nigeria’s current state of affairs is a product of both the government and the citizens, and both parties must work together to resolve the country’s problems.

CIPE is also now accepting entries for the 2012 Youth Essay Competition, which focuses on the theme of entrepreneurship. Winner in each category will have their essays published as Feature Service articles and receive a $500 honorarium, and a special Grand Prize winner will be awarded the opportunity to attend an entrepreneurship conference in the United States in 2013. Find out more here.

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Checkmating the Malaise of Corruption in Nigeria

Posted on 16 July, 2012 by | Comments Off

As part of the ongoing efforts to highlight the 2011 CIPE Youth Essay first-place winners, this week’s Economic Reform Feature Service article features the Corruption category first-place winner Chukwunonso Ogbe of Nigeria.

In this essay, Ogbe discusses the widespread effects of corruption in Nigeria and highlights the ways in which Nigerian youth can help combat corruption.  Ogbe tells the stories of Nigerians who encounter different facets of corruption on a daily basis.  Next, Ogbe urges youth to speak out against corruption instead of accepting it as the status quo in Nigeria.

Article at a glance:

  • Evidence suggests that corruption takes on numerous forms and continues to run rampant throughout Nigeria.
  • Corrupt acts have far reaching consequences that can affect all levels of supply and demand.
  • Nigerian youth should use media tools to promote transparency, highlight government projects and ministries that are prone to corruption, and pressure the government to ensure accountability.
  • Youth can help transition Nigerian society away from an “ends justify the means” attitude by engaging in rallies, protests, and boycotts against corrupt private and public sector leaders.

Read more about all the winners or find out more about CIPE’s Youth Essay Contest.

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Posted in Africa, Global

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Results from CIPE’s Efforts in Nigeria

Posted on 29 January, 2009 by | Comments Off

While I was travelling across Nigeria with Toki Mabogunje last week, she recounted how CIPE programs have benefitted two organizations she represented. As a representative of the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Mrs. Mabogunje attended an advocacy program hosted by the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) in conjunction with CIPE. She was quite affected by that program, so she wrote a report when she got back on the need for advocacy. The president of NASME at the time was impressed with the report, took it to the council, and this led to the opening of NASME’s office in Abuja, the capital. NASME began to track what the legislature does and see how it could influence some of the bills that were being presented before the house.

Mrs. Mabogunje also served on the accreditation committee of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce when the chamber undertook an accreditation process with CIPE and NACCIMA. Apart from tightening the Chamber’s operations and making it more efficient, the accreditation process acted as a catalyst to other reform programs which have really changed the face of the Lagos Chamber today. It’s been a way of infusing younger people, newer ideas in the council and has made the leadership more sensitive to other issues, such as women in the chamber and young people.

Toki is currently doing consulting work for CIPE and passing along some of the knowledge she acquired to other regional chambers in Nigeria.

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“Nigeria’s Imperative for Youth-Led Entrepreneurial Development”

Posted on 15 December, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Nigeria’s business environment remains laden with barriers preventing the youth from fully realizing their potential and assuming leadership positions in society. The major barriers include deficiencies in basic infrastructure necessary for faster development and greater productivity, such as roads, power supply, communication infrastructure, security, and access to capital. There are also many systemic barriers: low standard of education, ineffective government policies, inadequate training, and other economic, social, and political factors.

In this Feature Service article, Chinwe Mirian Onwubiko, winner of the second place in CIPE’s 2007 Youth Essay Contest in the ‘Entrepreneurship and Leadership’ category, explores the challenges that Nigerian youth face and talks about how Nigeria can make a better use of its abundant human and natural resources. Tapping these resources could help Nigeria achieve its business and investment potential, but it requires empowering the country’s youth.

“Entrepreneurship could become a major avenue for Nigeria to accelerate economic growth, create job opportunities, reduce the importation of manufactured goods, and decrease the trade deficit,” says Onwubiko. “Many young Nigerians aspire to be successful entrepreneurs, but their ability to make use of their skills remains highly constrained. (…) The failure of the government to provide a conducive entrepreneurial environment and to satisfy basic social needs exacerbates these problems. It is imperative, that policies are implemented to address these issues, with Nigerian youth at their core.”

Article at a Glance

  • In spite of its abundant natural and human resources, Nigeria has long suffered from weak development.
  • For Nigeria to prosper, young people must be given a chance to be leaders and entrepreneurs.
  • The challenge is to create an environment where young entrepreneurs can lead the country’s development.

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