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Interest in social innovation is growing in Nigeria as awareness among organisations and government intensifies, with emphasis on the need to pursue new and creative methods to achieve certain goals in response to a changing world.
According Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Foundations for Social Innovation in Europe (TEPSIE), social innovation refers to any project or activity that is new, that meets a social need, that engages and mobilises its beneficiaries, and that to some extent transforms social relations by improving beneficiaries’ access to power and resources.
The United States of America comes top of the Social Innovation Index 2016, scoring 79 out of 100. It scores well in each of the four pillars, ranking second in terms of its policy and institutional framework (weighted 44.4 percent of the Index), second in financing (22.2 percent) and first in entrepreneurship (15 percent). It falls down only in the pillar measuring the depth of civil society (worth 18.3 percent of the Index) where it ranks 11 percent overall. Ghana came in 39 position with 34.9 out of 100 and Nigeria occupies position 41 with 33 out of 100.
In Nigeria LEAP (Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability, and Professionalism) Africa, a non-profit organisation, founded in 2002 has been at forefront of the battle line, labouring to instill and sustain a culture of social innovation among youths. It recently gathered fellows of its Social Innovation Programme (SIP) to build a support network among them and jump start an alumni association.
“Our aim is to connect 2016/2017 fellows of the SIP with past fellows and mentors, which dates back to 2013 and to create a community of social innovators, who will transform Africa” said Femi Taiwo, executive director at LEAP Africa.
The SIP 2016/2017 Fellowship began with induction in November 2016 with the support of Union Bank of Nigeria. The 20 change makers began immersion in fellowship through series of training, mentoring and coaching exercises to scale up their initiatives in 2017.
Past fellows of the SIP shared how their various social innovation endeavours have fared, listing milestones attained and challenges along the path.
One of the fellows, Olufunbi Falayi, co-founder of www.passionincubators.ng, which supports tech start-ups outlined the achievements of his social innovation venture. “We have incubated 15 start-ups and 50 entrepreneurs among whom are ArojinTech and Solar/CleanTech. Our objectives align with the Sustainable Development Goals 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation” Falayi said.
Falayi is also the CEO, Leadspace, providers of office space for entrepreneurs and founders of SME businesses, middle level corporate executives, freelancers & creative artists. It is a subsidiary of passionincubators.ng.
Globally, young people are helping to drive national competitiveness, economic growth, and achievement of social development goals. For Nigeria to remain competitive in the future, Nigerian youth need to be prepared to be competitive in the local and global market.
It is estimated that 70 percent of Nigerian women are poor and only 1 percent of these can access funding from traditional financial institutions. To address this challenge, Nkem Okocha, Fellow of the SIP founded Mamamoni Limited to offer free vocational skills training to low income female entrepreneurs living in rural or urban slum communities in Nigeria.
“Our goal is to lend to 10, 000 low income women in five years and to engage 10, 000 low income women in our soap factory in the next five years” Okocha said.
Mamamoni Ltd operates an online platform, www.mamamoni.org, configured to enable donors give of their savings at an interest rate of 5 percent, which they in turn lend out at 15 percent to clients and retain 10 percent to cover cost of operations. Okocha stated that among the challenges they have been facing, getting people to lend leads the list.
Over the years, LEAP has inspired and equipped youth, business owners and social entrepreneurs to lead ethically while implementing initiatives that transform their communities and organisations; sustaining livelihood and contributing to national development. LEAP achieves this through its training programmes, publications and most recently eLearning.
LEAP Africa is passionate about promoting youth-led social entrepreneurship. In 2004, LEAP Africa initiated the Annual Nigerian Youth Leadership Awards (ANYLA) to celebrate outstanding young people across the country.
Evolving from ANYLA, and with the support of the International Youth Foundation, the Social Innovators Programme and Awards (S.I.P.A) is LEAP Africa’s platform for empowering young change makers to expand social ideas into scalable social enterprises. S.I.P.A celebrates young social innovators between 18 – 35 years, whose ideas and initiatives offer effective solutions to challenges in local communities across Nigeria.
STEPHEN ONYEKWELU
