| From zero to hero
•Obinna Etele dropped out from medical school
to attend to his entrepreneurial passion.
Today, he wants undergraduates to be like him
By PETRUS OBI, Enugu
Thursday, April
3, 2008
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•Obinna
Etele
Photo : Sun News Publishing |
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In this interview with Daily Sun, Etele gave an insight into
his programme. Obinna Etele is a graduate of the University
of Lincoln in the United States of America. Before going abroad,
he had to abandon his studies at the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka where he was studying Medicine to pursue his entrepreneurial
passion.
Early education
I entered the University quite early, and never knew I had
a vision better than medicine. When I discovered my talent
was more in becoming an entrepreneur, than being a medical
doctor, I had to abandon medicine. Today, that desire of becoming
a medical doctor has completely died.
After realizing my dream of becoming a successful entrepreneur,
with a bachelor’s degree in Business Studies, a diploma
in Law in International Trade and a certificate in Information
Technology in UK, Obinna returned home with an initiative
targeted at changing the mindsets of undergraduates in Nigeria
towards entrepreneurship in a programme I call Undergraduate
Business Conference.
Take off point
The conference took off in Nigeria in July last year and was
successfully hosted in Enugu and Lagos respectively in collaboration
with the center for Entrepreneurship and Development Research,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and with the support of the
Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Chinedu Nebo.
It is a new initiative that changed the mindsets of undergraduates.
At the conference in Enugu alone, we had thousands of people.
In Lagos it was the same thing. The undergraduate business
conference is one that has come to stay. It has been packaged
to change the mindset of people to let them become more entrepreneurial.
We believe that students can pursue a major course in the
university, but we also believe that its high time our students
became more entrepreneurial in terms of thinking because there
is no job and the unemployment rate in Nigeria is going higher
and higher.
Our belief
We believe that a student after graduation from the university
should be able to think of an initiative, an idea, implement
that idea and start work on it. You must not be a business
man to do business. You can be a medical doctor and do business,
after all many professionals do business. So, we believe that
if these students can be given early knowledge while in the
university, once they come out, they should be able to stand
on their own, and become employees. We cannot continue to
have a situation where people spend four to five years in
the university only to come out unemployed; there is no difference
or gap between you and the illiterate because you cannot find
a job; you have wasted your years in the university.
So, the Conference we have founded, which I am the Head, executive
council in the UK is an initiative that has come to change
the mindset of our people in the sense that we want employment
to reign; we want our students to turn into employers rather
than be unemployed.
Initial perception
Initially, many people were ready to partner with us in terms
of organization, business and companies; but one thing you
have to understand when you are in course of making a change
is to look out for the best. So, we came in and we saw that
UNN was ready both in cash and in mind they were highly ready
to support this course knowing that our students need a change
in the way they think; it’s a thing of the mind. Now
tell me why a student in UK will work while studying, and
a student in Nigeria will not work while studying. This is
based on the foundation they were given in school. So, we
decided to take the university that understand what we are
talking about and went into partnership with UNN and we made
headway at the first conference at the Protea Hotel, Nike
Lake Enugu and the second one at Victoria Island Lagos.
Target audience
Initially we were focusing on students but at a time we saw
that we had a message of change so we expanded it to include
university lecturers, professors, fresh graduates, but our
main target remains the undergraduates.
At the end of year conference, we were able to distribute
thousands of questionnaires; we analysed the questionnaires
to find out if the programme was worth it, and we found out
that majority of the participants want the programme to spread.
Expansion
Thus, we are thinking of a bigger conference this year; this
time not only a conference but a business training which you
can also call a master class, a business plan competition
and an award night and dinner to honour people that have shown
concern and who have contributed to students entrepreneurship
in Nigeria.
The conference will be free to all participants bearing in
mind the financial situation in the country and the importance
of the message. Our sponsorship comes from With worth Entrepreneurship
Consultants, Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, UNN
and perhaps other individuals.
Our role model
The conference took after “Business Stardom’ in
the UK , which is organized twice a year in Birmingham and
London. Etele said it is what he has repackaged and reshaped
to suit Nigeria. It is a business conference sponsored by
banks and UK government and other independent institutes in
UK for every unemployed, and those who have desire to start
a business or improve on his business.
We want to, one day, become a converging centre for the whole
of African students and young entrepreneurs because our target
is the youth.
2008 conference
This year’s plan is based on the success of last year’s
conference. It was successful in terms of attendance, the
support and the message. We were also able to realize about
N1 million; people donated to support the programme. We want
to expand the conference and make it more educative. It will
be held at the Ekpo Refectory, UNN. The university is ready
to host up to 15, 000 people. Experts including successful
women entrepreneurs are expected to speak at the conference.
We want to teach the people not only what to do but also how
to go about it; that’s why we have tagged this year’s
conference ‘In search of Financial Excellence’.
Banks are going to be our biggest partners this year. We might
not be looking at the bigger banks. The CBN has provisions
that every aspiring businessman can obtain loan from the Micro
Finance Banks. And, the UNN Vice Chancellor has promised that
we would partner with students who have good initiatives.
Office of the VC is ready to put pen on paper when these students
present their business plans.
They can sign on their behalf. What it means is that they
will have part ownership in the business. That’s why
we made plans for business plan competition. But, for the
students who don’t make it to the final list on the
judges desk, we plan to call in the banks. The Centre for
Entrepreneurship and development Research is there to give
certified reference that these persons have attended the conference.
So, we have to teach them how to secure the loans. We shall
also teach them how to write a business plan, and a feasibility
study because these are the things the banks will look out
for.
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