A few years ago, I interviewed a young man, who I thought was one of the smartest people I had ever met – Of course, he had to be a product of my alma mater – King’s College, Lagos. But seriously, he was very smart, articulate, confident and innovative, and as we spoke, I kept wondering why he was looking for a job, and not owning his own business. Before we concluded the interview my question was answered: he had, in fact, tried out his hands on entrepreneurship and had gotten his fingers burned. He had received a grant from one of these foundations that dole out tens of thousands of dollars in entrepreneurial grants, training, mentorship and so on to young entrepreneurs.
Reflecting on his story, and my journey as well as that of other entrepreneurs with whom I interact, I have come to a conclusion that we need to strategically re-think this fad of youth entrepreneurship that is sweeping the country. While it is good to encourage young graduates to innovate and apply themselves to entrepreneurial ventures, we must be cognizant that the chances of new businesses surviving are very slim and that these chances are further reduced when the entrepreneurs lack the “experience” of formal structured enterprises, and the real life apprenticeship that can only come from truly serving another master. I learned that day from that young man that his ideas, passion and excellence were not enough – and it was he that confessed this to me. According to him, and I paraphrase, “my partners and I just didn’t have the breadth to negotiate contracts and terms with the big companies who were our counterparties, and soon the grant support we received had run out and our business and dreams were suspended until later”. I worry that a lot of our youth based entrepreneurial efforts may not yield the results that we want, and that if we were more strategic and targeted a slightly different demographic, we could achieve better results.
I must quickly admit that a number of young entrepreneurs in Nigeria and all around the world have proved skeptics like myself wrong – so I do agree that there are a number of exceptional exceptions to this picture that I am painting. The challenge is that they are the exception and not the norm. To drive the entrepreneurial revolution in Nigeria our hard-to-find entrepreneurial grants and finances need to be channeled to those who may have a better chance at success because of their exposure, experience and depth of their networks and influence that are critical to entrepreneurial success.
Again, I should not be misjudged as advocating against supporting fresh out of school graduate entrepreneurs, but let’s be honest: I am not sure I completely agree that one’s inability to find a job is the best motive for entrepreneurship. You will agree that entrepreneurship in its finest form is about a person taking significant risk to set up a business venture. When young people fresh out of school are unable to find jobs, and then get a grant to start a business, it doesn’t exactly include the element of “risk” that is a critical part of entrepreneurship. My policy recommendation and strategic focus therefore is that we channel much more entrepreneurial funding and support to the demographic that is better positioned to succeed – people who have 10-15 years of work experience: mid-career professionals who have learned and practiced strategy and disciplined execution, understand human resources and financial systems and have commercial experience – selling and negotiating on behalf of their current employers. If such people are prepared to take some risk, then I think our policies should create deliberate incentives to support them – because they will be more likely to succeed. You may recall that under the old pension schemes, a number of self-funded government institutions allowed for an early retirement at about 45 years or after 10-15 years of service with some gratuity payout that could help support entrepreneurial ventures. I know a few people who left CBN and NNPC with such schemes and have set up very decent businesses that have stood the test of time. I strongly advocate that it is on this demographic that we should focus up to 80% of our funding and resources on, leaving 20% to the truly exceptional exceptions that may come from the young graduates and school leavers.
I actually think that government policy and even pension laws should encourage people to take an early retirement in the public service – it will help to decongest our top heavy public service and provide job opportunities for younger people to work. Mid-career public servants should be given golden handshakes and encouraged to come up with entrepreneurial plans that can be funded by government. We will have a better career progression in the public service, and maybe we will begin to deal with some of the issues of corruption that have plagued our society. The truth be said, many public servants in that mid-career level already run their side-businesses, unfortunately sometimes to the detriment of their jobs and at a colossal loss to tax-payers that pay their salaries. So, rather than creating a situation where they are: ”robbing Peter to pay Paul”, we should just as a matter of policy, get those with a true entrepreneurial heart out there and give them some incentive and support to do so.
Entrepreneurship is a catalyst for economic transformation, and if we are going to get it right, we need to move from Youth Entrepreneurship to ‘Mid-Career Entrepreneurship – placing our bets on horses that are more likely to win and deliver a better ROI for the government, other grant-giving institutions and the society as a whole.
Omagbitse Barrow FCA
