Growth, development and sustainability

If I had a million dollars and I needed to spend it all on charitable acts, what would I spend it on?

Well, it will interest y'all to know that it has been my biggest dream to industrialize the Niger Delta. It's quite unfortunate that with all our oil wealth, our region is plagued with widespread unemployment and poverty.

Since we won't get any help from the government, I have been pulling my weight in my little way. Having worked with an NGO for seven years and with all the knowledge that I have gathered, if I have a million dollars, I will set up various industries based on the resources that are most prominent or available in the area. It could be fish farming and processing of fish into cans for the riverine area, it could be large-scale farming and packaging of finished food products. It could also be livestock for hide and leather, canned beef, milk and cheese. Basically, it is my intention to create something sustainable for development and poverty alleviation.

It's just that I don't know if it's because I'm an Economist or possibly because I have seen poverty play out first hand. But when it comes to charitable acts, I prefer it to be sustainable. You see, my first job experience was with an NGO, one I was actively involved in too. I handled a lot of projects from empowerment of the youth, Operation cloth, shelter and feeding the needy, educational and vocational scholarship, Educating the girl child etc.

Personally, I hate to get involved in anything that will not serve in the long run. Everything that I do in the short run has always been aimed at a sustainable future in the long run. I have never really been a fan of handouts. I'd prefer people are taught how to fish than be handed fish. At one point, I had to write to the management to stop any handout program and channel all that money into something more sustainable and that was how the vocational scholarship plus youth empowerment program came about.

For me, a thousand fed people today would all go hungry tomorrow, give a thousand youth a million naira each and over 90% of them will come back asking for more. But if you empower 10 youths and assist them with a business startup in their field of empowerment, you will be sure of them pushing through. Moreso, with the multiplier effect, these empowered youths can become an employer of labor. Thus recruiting more people and providing them with a source of earning.

I remember when we first started our empowerment programme, it was a disaster. The first launch of the programme was not handled by me. After the selection process, candidates were asked to go look for their area of vocation, then come and enter it into the office registry. After registering it at the office, one of our officials will now follow them to the various training centers and pay the required amount for them to start. Everything was put in place and the required fee was paid. We all thought the programme was sailing smoothly till it was time for the first inspection of our various candidates. During that inspection, we found out that the majority of our beneficiaries had absconded from training.

We also later discovered that most of the beneficiaries of the skill acquisition program did a kill and divide with the trainers. Our MD was so upset that he wanted to cancel the program but I pleaded with him because that program was my brain child. I saw that it's something beautiful and a lot of people will benefit from it. As a development economist, I am all about poverty alleviation and anything to reduce poverty to the barest minimum.

I had to restructure and promised my boss that I will see to it personally that every money channeled into the program is adequately utilized and if I fail, he can scrap the program. I dropped all other engagement and focused on the skill acquisition program. First, I interviewed all the candidates myself. I commissioned a trusted team who went to source for the centers that the candidates will train in after which an agreement was drafted between our foundation and the various training centers to rule out foul play like the last time.

For the beneficiaries, we reached an agreement that upon completion, the candidates with the most satisfactory performance will get a business set up from the NGO but then a small percentage will come back to the foundation.

Amazingly, our second test run was successful and I really outdid myself.

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