Human development as key to nation building and wealth creation, by Ahubelem

For a nation to move from its economic stupor, it must take human development as a critical index in its priorities. This was the kernel of a seminar recently organized and sponsored by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Brickwall Group of Companies, Mr. Uche Ahubelem. Despite Nigeria’s abundant resources, there is very poor development of human and economic resources.

Also corruption, poor funding, inadequate infrastructure, and policy discontinuity among others are to blame for the sorry state of the economy.

As the world’s eighth largest exporter of oil, and Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria accounts for 15 per cent of Africa’s population, contributes 11 per cent of Africa’s total output and 16 per cent of its foreign reserves, yet it accounts for half of the population and more than two-thirds of the output of the West Africa sub-region.

But the country still falls far short of the economic and social progress required to impact the well-being of the average Nigerian, given that over half of its population live on less than one dollar a day.

According to resourced persons at the seminar, Nigeria needs good management, adequate funding, policy continuity, friendly MSMEs policies, and promotion of entrepreneurship and professionalism among others to be able to achieve any meaningful development.

Therefore, to create favourable investment climate and wealth generating enterprises necessary for economic development, especially now that the country is experiencing economic downturn, there is the urgent need to develop skilled entrepreneurial workforce in areas where it has competitive and comparative advantages.

Also, the National Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER) and the World Bank revealed that over 55 per cent of Nigerians of working age are unemployed, representing one in five adults. The World Bank report also indicated that only one in every 10 graduates get a job while a recent report by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) indicated that over 200,000 Nigerian graduates, who completed the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in the last five years, remained unemployed.

According to the Financial Standard 2009 report, entrepreneurship as a cornerstone of development strategies for emerging economies has garnered support among scholars, policymakers and governments, and many emerging economies suiuch as El Salvador, Israel, Latvia, Uganda, Vietnam, are making significant strides in realising their entrepreneurship potential in addition to more known examples like China and India

Given these challenges, Ahubelem, a highly motivated, results-oriented executive with specialty in growth, turnaround, and value creation, advocated for the inclusion of entrepreneurship at the forefront of Nigerian economic development agenda.

For the MD/CEO of Brickwall Group of Companies with investments in Real Estate, Construction, Transport, Oil and Gas, Shipping and Entertainment, there is no doubting the fact that human development is critical to nation building and wealth creation.

From his ‘Attack Young’ to ‘Basic Principles of Business Strategies’ seminars powered through his Uche Ahubelem Centre for Human Development (UACHD), there has been success of testimonies.

The motivational speaker, life coach and businessman with experience in mentorship, recently held the Uche Ahubelem Empowerment Seminar Series (UAESS), a bi-annual programme aimed at breeding young business leaders, particularly Nigerian youths, with the potential and attributes needed to excel in their various fields of interest.

Entitled ‘Basic Principles of Business Strategists,’ the seminar provided inspiring and concise lectures on the basic principles of business strategies by well known resource persons, including the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, founder Heirs Holding and Tony Elumelu Foundation, Tony Elumelu, and Debo Adejana.

Speaking on the import of the seminar, Ahubelem said that with the current employment situation and economic downturn in the country, the need to raise new crop of business owners and provide assistance to the existing ones cannot be over-emphasised.

According to him, “For us at Uche Ahubelem Centre for Human Development, we believe that births are in two forms. The first, which is biological, is usually characterised by our parents’ influence, while the second is the one you give yourself. This form of birth is otherwise known as ‘personal birth’ where you live above your parents’ influence and begin to influence others positively. As a result, we offer empowerment programmes for entrepreneurs and the youth.

“Again, we recognised that human development is critical to nation building and wealth creation; therefore, we are committed to equipping these critical stakeholders with the skills, tools and support that they require to serve as change agents,” he added.

Since its inception in 2015, the centre has successfully launched significant projects that offer empowerment programmes for entrepreneurs that focus on the basic principles of business strategies aimed at enlarging the human capacity and raising quintessential leaders, especially among Nigerian youths.

A remarkable feature of the ‘Attack Young’ seminar was when 10 participants were chosen out of the 12,000 applicants to present their projects to the panel of judges. The presentation saw projects from different sectors such as Agricultural, Medical, Tourism, Textile, and Media.

Some of the beneficiaries of the empowerment programme include, Jerald Nnasor, who won the grand prize of N700,000 for his echo-friendly mobile advertising project, during the ‘Attack Young’ seminar; Micheal Balogun, winner of N600,000 prize, for his tourism package coupled with a quintessential mobile application that gives insight into the nearest and best tour sites closest to you, and Precious Unu, who went home with N500,000 for her Special Spoon, a canteen project located in Lagos.

The maiden edition of the UAESS tagged: Life Proven Secrets of Success produced Gbenga Odediya, a young Information Technology (IT) entrepreneur, who won N300,000, for his pitch; Olubunmi Odeyemi and Elijah Ifeoluwa, were rewarded with N100,000 and N50,000 to kick off their projects.

According to Ahubelem, the author of Greatness 101, a monthly publication and inspiration magazine, “ I’m an advocate of humility, loyalty to authority, equity, fairness and justice; above all, the fear of God, all which are the simple secrets to greatness.”