HOW YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS AND INNOVATORS CAN MAKE THE AFCFTA ‘MAGIC’ HAPPEN

It is no longer news that thirty-five countries of the African Union have ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) agreement, which is a free trade area policy founded in 2018 to create a single continental market for goods and services. It promises to enable free movement of business persons and investments while potentially being the world's largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization. Despite the fact that there are several issues surrounding the optimistic success of the AFCFTA operation, gender mainstreaming is one of the most critical aspects that must not be ignored if we must record great success in this endeavor. In order to put a little perspective, we should define Gender mainstreaming according to Wikipedia “a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated”. Now, let’s bring it down into the implementation and operationalization of AFCFTA, as we hope to achieve gender equality and encourage the active participation of both genders in the day-to-day operation of the African Continental Free Trade Area program so as to maximize the wealth of experience and talent required for the success of the program. 

To begin with, I will like to quote a popular African proverb that talks about the need to start incorporating and engaging gender in politics and decision making “If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation”. The proverb speaks to the importance of investing in women while also doing that for men, for the collective development of the society. It cannot be denied that the role of women in the public spaces and parastatals in Africa has for long been doubted and restricted by virtue of society’s interpretation of power along gender lines.  Therefore, gender mainstreaming should be seen as organizational change; hence, our perception of women’s capabilities needs to change for good, as it is obvious, women have been playing leading role in shaping our nations. In history, discussions concerning international agreements, peacekeeping arrangements and legal resolutions have been responsible for stereotypes that disempower women, thereby resulting to some sort of underdevelopment and snail-race growth in most Africa countries. For example, hardly will you find equal participation of women in top level of governance in Africa or even in any other part of the world, we rather prefer to leave them at home in our kitchens or in the “Other room”, another word for bedroom as described by one of our leaders. 

Another point to consider is that economic development is highly achieved when women enter the marketplace, as it has been proven that women’s economic participation decreases the dependency ratio and improves the proportion of wage earners to dependents.  In addition, women's participation in post Covid-19 nation-building is an important ingredient in achieving an equitable, peaceful and more prosperous African society. For instance, if women are included in the labor force and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, more families will be lifted out of the cycle of poverty, seeing that men alone can no longer cater for the financial needs of the family due to inflation, currency devaluation and globalization of skills. For a very long time in our history as humans, the society defined power, decision making and authority as terms that connotes masculinity and maleness, therefore excluding women in the exercise of these very important social duties. But surprisingly, women-owned businesses have been said to be the world fastest growing businesses around the world and most part of African, making significant contribution in the form of employment, innovation, and wealth generation. This can be seen in the businesses owned by Folorunsho Alakija- Nigeria, Bethlemen Tilahun- Ethiopia, Divine Ndhlukuka- Zimbabwe, Isabel Do Santos- Angola, Julian Adyeri- Uganda, Salwa Akhannouch- Morocco, Saran Kaba- Liberia, Sibongile Sambo- South Africa and Tabitha Karanja- Kenya. 

In conclusion, in order to make the AFCFTA magic happen, gender diversity, gender equality and/or gender mainstreaming must be top on the list of policies to embrace. Even though recently women have become actively involved in politics unlike before, nevertheless, they still face certain challenges that limits their chances and opportunities, which psychologically kills their morale. However, the role of women in our continent can be re-instated and accorded respect seeing that women entrepreneurs play a significant role in job creation, family upbringing, wealth, poverty reduction, human capital development, education and societal development especially in developing countries. Therefore, a robust and consistent commitment to gender mainstreaming is an important and effective means for African nations to support the promotion of gender equality at all levels - in policy development, research, governance, and in other societal empowerment activities, and to ensure that women as well as men can influence, participate and benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement development efforts. 

Article written by Daniel Akinjise 

How impostor syndrome affects the productivity of youths

In the midst of current global trends, especially the Covid-19 saga, I like to share with you something to discuss that I find prevalent among young people which may be affecting their productivity negatively at the workplace or the society at large.

It’s the Impostor Syndrome!

A term I came across just last month. It’s believed to be suffered by one-third of young people globally and a mental health issue common among millennials. In Nigeria today, we have several cases of young people committing suicide due to failure in examinations or a broken relationship. Young people seem to doubt themselves more than ever, which can be blamed on the overuse of social media or on family background. Seeing other’s achievements online can compound the problem.

It’s an internal dialogue of self-doubt or inadequacy that persists despite evident success. I have termed it the” I must not fail” syndrome. It can also be a constant process of seeing a list of your achievements, disregarding them and disbelieving that you can reach the next. (This isn’t low self-esteem or lack of self-confidence) as it’s also suffered by highly intelligent/successful people.

Young people can overcome impostor Syndrome by:

 Developing a new response/approach to failure: “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently”. Try to do things differently and check out the outcome.

Reward yourself: celebrate small and big wins. If no one validates you. Please do it yourself. Learn to pat yourself on the back.

Make the rules: you have the right to make small mistakes and be corrected. So, ask questions often from people you see as mentors. Don’t be scared to ask for help.

-       Take the risk: take calculated risk and build confidence. A drop of water they say makes an ocean.

Impostors have the tendency to attribute success to luck and not their abilities. They should know that success well-planned looks more real. Hence, they must intentionally visualize success.

The article was written by Akinjise Daniel

Managing Diversity and Fault Lines in Nigeria

Nigeria today is at crossroads with many de-stabilizing flashpoints tarnishing the peace within. The problems that create misunderstandings, lack of trust, low acceptance of heterogeneity, violence, terrorism, negative conflict, unbridled greed for material wealth, corruption, violations of human dignity and human rights are multiplying day-by-day. Humans are social animals therefore, they tend to live in communities and set each other’s company. Families live together even if they do not require any material benefit from one another. Conflicts occur between family members and sometimes lead to destruction. This is because of diversity.

The essence of all religions as a propeller of human rights to promote peace and tolerance is being undermined, putting at stake the future of several generations in Nigeria, hence, eroding the possibility for a society that values peace, diversity, democracy, and citizenship. To start with, we need a proper understanding of the key points; which are diversity and management.

What is Diversity?

Diversity can be described as having a range of people with various racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds and various lifestyles, experiences, and interests. In clear terms, It means understanding that each individual is special and recognizing our individual differences.  These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, political beliefs, and religious beliefs. 

Diversity means different things to different people. According to research, it is segmented into 3 kinds

-        Demographic diversity (our gender, race and sexual orientation),

-        Experiential diversity (affinities, hobbies, and abilities)

-        Cognitive diversity (how we approach problems and think about things).

Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse society that has witnessed conflicts arising from this ethnic and cultural diversity. In Nigeria today, we have diversity in almost all areas, talk of culture, language ethnicity, cultural diversity, federalism, and national integration, etc. Every ethnic group wants to be recognized, as such, the scramble for power has plunged the country into coups, civil wars and more recently could be argued to have contributed to the event of insurgency. The country is only great because of its diversity. The reason why the country is great is because of its diversity. It is because we have here people of every race, people of every tribe, bringing in their different cultures and strengths. All the things that make each one of our ethnic groups great come together in one country. In an interview conducted for the Vice president of Nigeria, he agrees that Nigeria is a country with a lot to get from its diversity” “We are greater when we are together than when we are apart.

This country is greater together than apart. Every one of our ethnic groups needs the support of the other. When people speak of Nigeria and respect this country, it is because of the diversity, it is because of the strength in the numbers that we are considered great. That is why the whole of Africa looks to us for direction. If we were one small enclave nobody will look at us with the seriousness they look at us today”. The truth is that from Nigeria’s inception, every political/social dispute or malaise in the country has its roots in Nigeria’s cultural/religious differences. And the only genuine and permanent solution to the senseless religious/cultural killings that go on endlessly in Nigeria is the division of the country along the existing cultural/religious divides. 

50 Story tellers trained on Media for Demographic Dividend

Last week, about 50 young change makers got trained on the use of media to achieve demographic dividend courtesy, Hacey Initiative and Alarika. Hacey Health Initiative is a youth led non-profit organization that has been in existence for over 12 years and has impacted the lives of many young Nigerians through community projects and training. The one week storytelling boot-camp took place in a city in Lagos state, Nigeria. Our founder, Akinjise Daniel was selected amongst other media storytellers and journalists to attend the training.

Demographic Dividend to a layman can be referred to as the benefits gotten from the investment given to the youths over a period of time. One of the ways to develop a nation is to invest in its human resources so as to have more independent young people who are capable of fending for themselves and adding to the GDP of the nation.

In Nigeria today, over 50% of the young people are underemployed or unemployed leaving them to be dependent on their parents or the community for survival. Developed nations like the United State of America, Japan and United Kingdom have put in structures to harness the benefits attached to investing in Young people and are reaping the dividend already. Statistics says that in 2050, the population of Nigeria will be times two of its current number. This means that there would more out of school children, increase in the rate of unemployment and the nation might be poorer than it is today.

There are four thematic structures to be looked into if a nation must harness it demographic dividend:

- Reproductive and sexual health

- Education and skill learning

- Entrepreneurship and Employment

- Youth empowerment and participation in governance

If a nation invest in the aforementioned points, there would be more independent youths who are employed or entrepreneurs running scalable businesses, there would be educated people who have talents and skills to start up initiative capable of building the nation, there would less teenage mothers and out of school children an there would be more young people with capacity to participate in governance.

Nigerian youths are meant to be key drivers of the economy; they must be invested in to harness the demographic dividend.

TAD INITIATIVE PARTNERS WITH THE DISABILITY ADVOCATE

In a bid to reduce inequality amongst Nigerians, a young man founded a non-governmental organization and decided to bridge the gap between people living with disabilities and people without. This he has done in the last 2 years by organizing skill acquisition programs, health talks and mentor-ship sessions for people living with disabilities.

I was privilege to attend one of his sessions where he invited a number of professionals and health practitioners to share knowledge and speak from their experiences about how people living with disabilities can thrive even in this world of competition.

In the last two years, he has impacted the lives of over 2000 people living with disabilities across Nigeria. In the course of making positive impact in the lives of people, he has received several recognition and awards. He is known for his prowess in establishing partnerships and collaborations with other Non-governmental organizations in Nigeria.

Below is an informal interview I conducted with him:

Interviewer: Hello Sir, how are you doing?

Interviewee: I’m fine, how are you too.

Interviewer: May I know your name and that of your organization?

Interviewee: My name is Dosunmu Oluwaseun and I’m the founder of Across-all Initiative. At Across-all initiative, we advocate for persons living with disabilities and ensure that they have the basic amenities of life just like every other person. We started this initiative in 2017 and since then, we have impacted about 2000 persons with disabilities.

Interviewer: What’s happening here today?
Interviewee: we are holding a program to address the issues of unemployment amongst persons living with disabilities

Interviewer: What made you come up with a project like this?
Interviewee: The need to solve a societal problem made me launch Across-all Initiative. There’s a huge gap between persons living with disabilities and persons without. We established Across-all initiative to bridge the gap through skills acquisition and other empowerment programs.

Interviewer: What’s the impact of this project?

Interviewee: Since 2017, the project has impacted over 2000 persons with disability and we intend to help about 10,000 in the next 5 years.

Interviewer: Good to meet you Seun

Interviewee: The pleasure is mine

TAD Initiative was available to provide partnership support to make the event a success.

THE VISA BROUHAHA...advocating for a visa-free Africa

I’m a Nigerian, an active citizen and a social entrepreneur. I’m ambitious for good success (Holy Bible; Joshua 1:8) and I love to travel.  I was 17 years old when I made my first international trip and it was to the closest African country sharing border with Nigeria; Benin Republic. It was my sister’s convocation ceremony in one of the universities in that country and it was germane that we attended that ceremony because we’ve never gone to visit her since she started her studies four years before.

Prior to the D-day, we had made series of enquiries from friends and family who had visited Benin Republic before and what their experiences were when they travelled. Some of them gave positive reviews while others gave negative reviews. After all said and done, we decided to go witness our part of the story the next day. At dawn of the following day, we set out to travel by road since we couldn’t afford to pay the huge cost of travelling by air. We were three guys on that trip and we were determined to have lots of fun at the convocation ceremony. We dressed in our best outfits and made sure we used a bit of face powder to smoothing our oily faces. After two hours of heated journey from our base, we got to the closest bus stop to the border (Benin/Nigeria border) at 9:00am.

At the closest bus stop to the border, we were cajoled to take motorbikes to the border terminal which was just a stone throw, but didn’t realize until we got to the terminal that it wasn’t worthy of taking bike for. Again, we were told to take motorcycles to cross the border and this can’t be done until we’ve been checked by the immigration officers at the border.  The immigration officers were three in number, standing behind the barricades. They requested for our international passports and visas for them to allow us passage. We looked confused and taken unaware because nobody told us that we would need a visa to visit a neighboring country. We had thought that we would only be requested to submit our international passports and yellow card for perusal. We pleaded with the immigration officers of our ignorance of necessary documents to present during travels like this but they were not in the mode to listen. The most senior immigration officer insisted that we go back to our country if we can’t present a valid visa and also challenged us of coming from a country where orders aren’t strictly followed.

After about an hour of pleading and arguing, the immigration officers requested to be tipped if we really wanted to gain access to the border, or else we would be harassed and moved to the cell. At this point, we were tired and frustrated already. We further pleaded with them not to harass us and allow us pass unharmed. We were extorted but eventually allowed passage. We got to the convocation ceremony all sweaty and worn-out. We managed to smile, eat and celebrate with our only sister who was passing-out of the university because we didn’t want to spoil her day with our sour travel ordeal. We finished at around 6’o clock in the evening and made our way together with our sister back to the border. This time, we were not harassed but that didn’t change the mindset we already have about traveling within the African Continent.

When we got home, we couldn’t stop talking about our ordeal to friends and family who cared to listen. I charged my phone and surfed the internet to read about the required documents needed to travel to another African country and I realized that there are not so much differences with required documents to travel to other continents of the world.

Africa is our continent; let’s make it home for all Africans!

An article written  to advocate for a Visa-free Africa

Written by Akinjise Daniel.

TAD Initiative celebrates World Health Day 2019

Humans interact with the environment constantly. These interactions affect quality of life, years of healthy life lived, and health disparities.  The environment influences our health in a variety of ways and the relationship between human health and the environment has been properly studied and environmental risks have been proven to significantly impact human health, either directly or indirectly by exposing people to harmful agents, thereby disrupting life-sustaining ecosystems.

Several factors influence the health of a population, including sanitation, diet, socio-economic status, environment and lifestyle. These factors have been altered significantly during the economic transitions that have shaped present society and resulted in a considerable increase of life expectancy. According to World Health Organization (WHO) it was estimated that thirteen million deaths yearly are attributed to preventable environmental Factors.

-          Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health and is estimated to cause about two million premature deaths worldwide annually. A reduction of air pollution is expected to reduce the global burden of disease from respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer.

-          Water pollution is another major environmental risk to health. Contact with unsafe drinking or bathing water can impose serious risks to human health.

-          Climate change is also posing risks to human population health and well-being and thus is emerging as a serious concern worldwide.

-          Environmental degradation, Intensification of agriculture, industrialization and increasing energy use are other severe driving forces of environmental health problems.

Conclusively, environmental degradation poses a significant threat to human health worldwide. Harmful consequences of this degradation to human health are already being felt and could grow significantly worse.  Our calls to action are cited below:

-          Let’s ensure that we protect and sustain our environment.

-          Let’s leave the world a better place than we met it.

-          Let’s not hand over a burnt planet to our children

-          Let’s ensure we make our environment clean for better well-being.