Trade is the new Warfare!
Technology is the new Trade!
I am increasingly becoming a fan of the East. Maybe it’s because I have consumed a lot of literature about China since my time there in November 2017. I find a lot of learnings from the emergence of the Nation, in slightly over half of a century; from the disastrous Great Leap Forward, to a global superpower and on course to becoming the world’s largest economy in a couple of years. In the immediate future, when global power and influence finally tilts in favour of the East over the West, Deng Xiaoping may earn his place for lifting more people out of poverty than anyone else in history.
Two major learnings for me. First, great economic transformation rests on policy reforms. The story of China’s transformation is well documented as having began from the liberalization of the economy led by reformists within the communist party. On the surface, it stands to reason that, the burden of economic miracle rests on leadership. However, on further examination, one would understand that even within the status quo, a few reformist souls can do much. I have made two commitments in this regard, considering I do not hold any public office at the moment. One, participate and influence policy dialogues bullishly. I find that even with all our desire for change, we as young people and entrepreneurs, do not understand the politics of reforms. Two, get involved in the non-partisan side of party politics. This is the tricky part for which I am not sure how I would go about this.
Second, with great policy frameworks, comes greater responsibilities for the private sector. The average annual GDP growth rate of 9.5% experienced by China in between 1989–2017, and the recent adoption of a mass entrepreneurship and innovation policy by the Chinese premier in 2014, has produced many scholarly works on the role of private sector. In Nigeria, there is an abundance of stories that demonstrate the depth of our human capital. However, stories of innovation, which are locally relevant, are not well told, not well sold, or are literarily too far in between.
Now, this is the crux of my writing. Ideas are a dime a dozen. However, maybe this is the starting point, getting a lot of people (mass) to tackling our locally prevalent challenges (power, security, food, infrastructure, education?), leveraging technology (innovation), in potentially commercial ways (entrepreneurship). To get this started, I will be sharing bi-weekly, one business idea along the lines of the challenge, solution and market potential. My hope is that these nuggets can inspire someone to further expand on them and get involved even as the government tries to figure out the circus it is in, at the moment. Even if I fail in this goal of mine, I hope to have succeeded in trying.
Which other current challenges do you think private sector can take advantage of, to build enterprises by leveraging technology?
#MassEntrepreneurship
