Wednesday, 1 April 2015

Jonathan Favoured To Win $5M Mo Ibrahim Prize For African Leadership

The news from Nigeria today is wonderful. Africa’s largest country has concluded a peaceful election process. Furthermore, the incumbent has already gracefully conceded and congratulated his successor – a first for Nigeria and a benchmark for other African countries to follow.



Today, we Africans are all proud of Nigeria and President Jonathan.



Thank you Mr President. If you are seeking a legacy, you have definitely achieved it.

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Next Senate President?

Since north is producing the president, SW the vice president, where will the next senate president go to. Dr Chris Ngige would have been the best choice but then Ekwunife PDP frustrated him out... what do you think my people as APC must produce the next senate president. Dr Saraki stands a better chance due to the role he played in scuttling PDPs opportunity of winning the election.


Femi Fani-kayode Releases Statement About The Presidential Election

Text of a press conference addressed by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Director Media and Publicity Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Organisation on April 1, 2015. Read below...





Ladies and gentlemen of the media,



We have come here today to express our gratitude to the Nigerian people for the overwhelming support that we received over the last few weeks when it comes to the issue of the Presidential election.





We fought a virile, strong, aggressive and very effective campaign on behalf of our candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan and we put the case to the Nigerian people as to why we believe that he ought to have been elected as President for a second term.





We are very proud of the efforts of our President and of our party and we are also very proud of the efforts of every single one of those who participated in the Presidential Campaign Organisation. As a Directorate we could not have asked for anything more in terms of support and encouragement from our colleagues and comrades within the party and the Campaign Organisation. I am personally very proud of my team, every single one of them; my Assistant Directors, my officers, my advisory team and every single one of those that joined hands to help us to state our case and to sell our candidate to the Nigerian people.





It has however come to a point that we must tell the world and the Nigerian people about how we feel about the outcome of the election. What we will say here today is basically to reiterate and to reflect the words of our leader and President, President Goodluck Jonathan. We start by saying that we commend and we congratulate General Muammadu Buhari for winning this election. We also wish to commend our President, President Goodluck Jonathan, for having the courage to concede that he has lost the election at the earliest moment and also for being able to stand up and rise above party politics and being able to speak like a statesman.





We therefore urge the Nigerian people and our teeming supporters to stand firm and continue to support the democratic process and continue to agitate for a better Nigeria. We urge them to continue to support our party the PDP as best as they can even though we lost this election. We ask them to co-operate with the incoming government and to remember that we are first and foremost Nigerians before anything else.







On the day of the election when I went to vote at Ile-Ife, I held a press conference in which I told the people that more than anything else that we should try our very best to keep the peace in this country and to keep the country moving forward. I also reminded them that in every election there will always be a winner and a loser. It is a mark of our humanity and it is also symptomatic of the type of people that we are and who we are that when the time comes we can say we fought a good fight but we lost.





And having lost, it does not mean that it is the end to the world, it just means that we need to re-group, re-organise ourselves and begin the process all over again because another elections will come in a few years time. And that is where we are today. We have conceded that we have lost. We acknowledge the fact that we fought a good fight. We do not have any fears about the future. We did the right thing during the campaign. We have no regrets about our candidate or the way in which we conducted our campaign and we will live to fight another day





Finally let me commend all our colleagues on the other side for also standing up for what they believed in. There was absolutely nothing personal as regards this Directorate or myself. I had nothing personal against anybody. I was simply doing my job for which I have no regrets and I wish them well and I sincerely hope that they will take Nigeria to a level that we can all be proud of.





May God grant each and everyone of us peace. May He watch over our nation. May He guide our President for the next two months whilst he is still in power and thereafter and may He guide and lead the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, in the herculean task that lies ahead for him. My prayer is that he brings our nation together, heals the wounds and that he builds the bridges in terms of religion, ethnicity and region that he needs to build in order for us to make Nigeria a better place and to ensure that Nigeria becomes a great country that she is destined to be.





I want to end this message by thanking our colleagues in the press for always responding to us so quickly and for always being ready to hear our message and for putting it out there. Also those on the social media, both friend and foe, we thank you for your efforts. We thank our foes because they kept us on our toes and we thank our friends because they encouraged us and gave us hope.





May God grant you all peace and joy and may you live long and prosper.





God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.





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Nigeria Leads The World In Enthusiasm For Business

Nigeria leads the world in enthusiasm for business, according to a survey carried out by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). Indeed, the report noted that, all across Africa, a growing wave of grassroots self-starters are taking risks and defying obstacles to bring their money-making ideas to life.



Armed with a can-do attitude and hopes of striking it big, they’re navigating a conundrum of challenges to pursue opportunities at a time when many African countries enjoy unprecedented levels of economic growth.



GEM is the acclaimed largest study of entrepreneurial dynamics in the world, providing information to help policy makers, civil society and the business community understand the obstacles to nurturing entrepreneurship, enterprise promotion and growth. GEM annual surveys arer carried out in 99 countries.



The GEM survey noted that Nigeria leads the world in the proportion of the population who believe they have the skills to run a business, with almost 90 percent of Nigerian adults believing they have the ability to become entrepreneurs. The result of the survey shows that out of every 100 Nigerian adults, 35 are involved in some sort of entrepreneurial activities. It added that Nigerians are not deterred by fear that their new enterprise will fail; only 21 percent were concerned by this risk.



The survey confirms Nigeria as an entrepreneurial nation, where most adult Nigerians see opportunities in entrepreneurship, believe in their own entrepreneurial capacities and declare themselves ready to start and run a business. Indeed, 44 percent of the population intend to create their own businesses within the next five years. Of those surveyed for GEM, almost a quarter (22 percent) said they expected to create between 6 and 19 jobs over the next five years.



Growth and development



In 2012, the report stated, 21.7 percent of Nigerians aged between 18 and 64 years of age were preparing to start a new business, which is the second highest rate in sub-Saharan Africa, after Zambia, and 14.9 percent of adults were actually running a new business.



GEM noted that Nigeria had taken a number of steps to support small and medium-sized enterprises and the federal government has established support for the private sector as a policy priority. “A number of schemes to help small business are in operation such as the Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Bank of Agriculture (BoA).”



Access to finance


All new entrepreneurs report finding financing for their ventures is a barrier to creating and growing an enterprise, while lack of access to finance is the major reason for the discontinuance of an enterprise. There are few domestic equity sources, as well as limited sources of export finance, and SMEs’ participation in the stock market is minimal, due to their inability to meet the listing requirements, as well as their persistent tendency to operate as much as possible in the informal sector.



The commercial banks remain the primary formal source of finance for enterprises. Though banks are already encouraged to give more money to entrepreneurs, but procedures need to be simplified and information about financing schemes should be more widely available.



Gender dynamics


Nigeria stands along with the handful of countries with more women entrepreneurs than men and more early-stage female entrepreneurs than males. Africa leads the world in the number of women starting businesses, with almost equal levels of male and female entrepreneurs. In fact, in countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia the women outnumber the men.



Overall, the continent has a much higher proportion of female entrepreneurs compared to other regions, with Nigeria and Zambia (both 40.7 percent) coming on top and countries like the United States (10.4 percent), the UK (5.5 percent), Norway (3.6 percent) and France (3.1 percent) lagging far behind. According to Mike Herrington, executive director of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the main reason for this is because women in Africa “need to earn an extra income to be able to afford to send their children to school.”



Young entrepreneurs



About 82 percent of Nigerian young people perceive a good opportunity to start a business while 86 percent believe that they have the skills and knowledge necessary to start a business. However, young males tend to have slightly higher intentions and perceptions of good entrepreneurial opportunities and capabilities than the young females.



Over 82 percent of Nigerian youths see entrepreneurship as a good career, 77 percent believe that successful entrepreneurs have high status and recognition and 78 percent are comfortable with the level of visibility that entrepreneurs enjoy in the media. The decision to go into entrepreneurship was mostly influenced by parents and friends. This is reflected in the fact that the majority of young entrepreneurs source their start-up finance from family and friends, and nearly half of them conduct their business from home or on the street.



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