Simeon Mpamugoh
Dr. Obiageli Nwankwo runs Divine World multi-purpose and co-operative society. Her aim is to empower people by organising periodic seminars/ workshops on agricultural practices and its value chain.
Dr. Nwankwo who is also a food processor, believes that the economic advancement of a great nation is driven by people, and not government.
She added that the government’s role was to make favourable polices that would enable people drive the economy through the establishment of strong institutions to create diverse opportunities for ordinary Nigerians to participate in economic diversification.
She spoke with Daily Sun, recently in Lagos.
What is the scorecard of your co-operative society for the poor people who are mostly farmers and petty traders?
The development has been quite impressive. There is joy in giving. It is not about giving money only. It entails giving time and services. I am fulfilled when my services bring smile to people’s faces.
It also helps the social entrepreneurship we are propagating to get the country back on her feet as the giant of Africa. A lot has happened on the image of the country. Nigeria is seen in bad light in the global map. But with the events of agriculture as its economic mainstay, the country will once again experience economic boom.
In harnessing potentials of women in agriculture, would you say that they have fared well?
Women have made remarkable strides in that sector but more needs to be done. They need all that it requires to reach their potentials. It is important to empower, not only women but the men too. I talk to them on the need to embrace agriculture and its value chain. If it were year’s back, I wouldn’t have been able to do it but the way women are responding to this call is on the increase. More women are today interested in farming. It is no longer manual but mechanized farming. They are also getting involved in it.
With more trainings and grants, more women would be involved in agricultural entrepreneurship. Women play significant role in nation building and twill help the country a great deal when they get involved in mechanized agriculture. It is not going to be only for Nigerians consumption but also for export.
A lot of women in food processing, now, think of export. More are also into agricultural value chain such as using cassava to make starch and ethanol. I am into food processing. It is not that everybody should till the soil and plant crops. Some would farm, while others process the harvested crops into another product. So, a lot of our women are firmly in the field. In my food processing business, I also intend to go into export.
What do you think about equitable distribution of resources and sustainable development at rural levels through cooperative society projects?
This is what we are working on now. We want to redistribute the economic resources through empowerments. We are not waiting on government to do that for women. Who are the government we are talking about?
Government is in every one of us. What we are saying is that ordinary Nigerian should be given the opportunity to offer solution to one challenge or another in order to drive our economy.
And women should take the bull by the horn. It is interesting to note that the focus of Divine World Multipurpose Co-operative Society is not only on agrobizness. Before now, I was in the clothing sector. And we used to travel to China, Vietnam and Sri Lanka to bring in cloths but when I look at it today, I discovered that there was nothing fantastic about it. The next thing we did was to go into training of people who are today good in clothes making. It is no longer the traditional wears only but also suites, shirts and gowns.
We produce them here and even put “Made in Nigeria’’ label and export. The fact is that when you look at Nigeria and the world at large, what we really need to do is to go back to our roots, which is agriculture. Nigeria used to be an agricultural nation. In cocoa, cashew nut, palm
Produce and shear butter. The country was the mainstay of those cash crops but with the oil boom, everybody abandoned it and pursued oil.
As it stands, and with the oil prices crashing every day, we should go back to agriculture where we were known for before the oil boom.
As one of the NGOs enlisted for Social Exchange Market (SEM) grants for the empowerment of rural poor, how were you sorted out?
We didn’t lobby for it. The social entrepreneurs know we are into skill training and empowerment programmes and based on that, they picked us. We didn’t find any need to lobby because whatever you are doing, you can be sure that people are somewhere, watching you and sorting you out. That is what one of the NGOs has encouraged us to do. We go down to the rural areas for training.
There was a seminar we had in a rural community in Delta State, usually, I thought Delta was within Asaba area but in this particular community, we went through Warri into the creeks. I was a bit scared. If not for this empowerment, nothing would have taken me to such area. And by the time we got there, we saw their pains.
So, we are not only doing is only for Lagos or cities. When you really go down to the villages, it will push you more to reach out to them. At present, we are already in more than 12 states of the federation. We have thousands of registered members and we provide them with trainings and skills in farming, food processing and counseling.
What are your thoughts on people who defraud innocent Nigerians through NGO’s? Are you not threatened?
I am not threatened because I know what we are doing. We are in the right course. And when you are in the right course, delivering services and the people are seeing it, you should not be threatened, in anyway.
And in everything you do you must know there is the good, the bad and the ugly. So, take the good one and follow the good people. We have had people coming to complain about some NGOs organizations that collect money from them and do nothing for them at the end.
We are different. People have invested confidence in us over the years. We also specialize in poultry business. They provide us training on poultry farm. When it comes to poultry farming, we know it. We organize workshops and train our members.
What are the plans of your NGO for those in the creative industry?
Our focus is not only on agriculture. We try to bring in people from other sectors. We provide them with counseling to change their mindset because we have discovered that a lot of them have ideas, but do not know where to start. After counseling programme, they are satisfied.
However, talking about helping those in the creative industry, I would say that every NGO has what it wants to empower people on it. This is akin to someone who read medicine but decided to specialize in surgery or pediatrics.
There is no way the person would function in all because when you take all, your hands will be full and you would not be able to meet up with time and space. So, there are NGOs that function in those areas. We are empowering those that will create jobs for the teeming population towards the economic revolution of the country.
Most of the things we do in life start with passion before they turn into business venture. What is the story in your own case?
Passion greatly plays a part in what one becomes in life. Passion would make anyone excel in anything he or she is doing. We always emphasize on people pushing their passion. On whether that is the case with me in my projects, I would say yes.
It is also to help humanity. Even in my food processing company, what drives me is the need to see that people are served quality products. I noticed that one could hardly get pure groundnut oil, well processed like any of the quality brands.
And where you are able to see it locally, it is not always well packaged. Yet, we have abundance of groundnuts in Nigeria. So, I was moved to fill in those gaps.
My motivation into the production of pure groundnut oil came from the desire to provide quality product. However, it is regrettable to see that every vegetable oil in the market is branded pure groundnut oil. But our product, from processing to packaging provides a world of difference.