Group restates commitment to SMEs growth, poverty reduction

With a vision to establish Nigeria as a global economic force through empowerment and wealth creation, Stanford Seed Transformation Network Nigeria (SSTN) has restated its commitment to empower more start-ups to build strong processes and sound governance principles to ensure poverty in the country is tackled to its barest minimum.

President, Stanford Seed Transformation Network, Nigeria, Mrs Nwamaka Okoye outlined this vision during the group’s first anniversary and end of year dinner in Lagos.

Themed “Refresh”, the keynote speaker at the event and Chairman, MTN Nigeria, Dr Pascal Dozie advised entrepreneurs to remain focused, have a great mission in order to stay afloat and succeed in business.

He noted that apart from being intelligent, three other key requirements needed to be a successful business entrepreneur is that one has to sweat, make sacrifices and be patient.

According to him, “Don’t try to jump the system; make sure you climb the ladder without missing each step or trying to get an advantage, because whenever you are collapsing, you wouldn’t know where to touch because you have missed some steps on the ladder. There is no science for success.

“You can rationalize whatever comes to you in life, believing that whatever comes to you comes to you for good. A philosophy one has to adopt in order to stay afloat in business is to stay focus till the end. Your mission has to be great, your starting point has to be moderated but your course and trajectory has to be specific,” Dozie said.

He explained to the audience how he sojourned in his career and business life, how he rose to the peak by maintaining the philosophy and paths of a successful entrepreneur despite many challenges that ensued along the line.

The entrepreneurial icon recalled how he overcame the big challenge on him when he partnered with the telecommunication giant, MTN to come into Nigeria due to lack of fund based on the 40% and 60% profit agreement, which later took the company between 4 and 5 years to sign the shareholders’ agreement . He said MTN surviving and doing well today is because MTN has never cut corners, as the company has based itself on truth.

He further stated how integrity and knowledge held sway at Diamond bank which he founded, stating that money should not be the major parameter of an entrepreneur, rather, integrity and finding the right people should be the major focus to ensure sustainability.

“What makes us different is our goal at the Stanford Seed Transformation Network. We seek to help Nigeria become a global force and economy to reckon with. We want to be the most vibrant network of entrepreneurs in Nigeria. We have a number of programmes that we currently execute.

“We are enriching the environment through the quality of start-ups and entrepreneurs that we produce. We are establishing ourselves as thought leaders in the society to help propagate some of the solutions that we have developed as well as stories of how some entrepreneurial challenges were addressed”, Okoye had said earlier.