African Leadership magazine

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MARCH - APRIL 2021

AFRICA PERSONS OF THE YEAR

GAME CHANGERS TO WATCH IN 2021

Contents

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David Abioye: A Legacy of Transgenerational Servant Leadership

W.H.O. DG Tedros Ghebreyesus, Akufo-addo, Graça Machel, Others Emerge Winners In The ALM Persons of the Year 2020 Awards

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Eder Pale: An Entrepreneural Odyssey

65 Liberia: The Untold Story

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Paratus Botswana - Africa's One-Stop-Shop for Quality Network Solutions

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NIGER DELTA UNIVERSITY - A HAVEN FOR ACADEMIC & ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE IN NIGERIA

AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE

...A Publication of African Leadership (UK) Limited

Group Managing Editor - Kingsley Okeke editor@africanleadership.co.uk Associate Editor - Arvy Nahar aknahar@africanleadership.co.uk

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Ken Giami Founder & Executive Chairman

Editor-At-Large - Martin Roche martin@africanleadership.co.uk Editor, International Affairs - Kenneth Nkemnacho nkemnacho@africanleadershp.co.uk Head of Creatives - Joseph Akuboh A.

Editorial Board Peter Burdin, London UK – Chair Nwandi Lawson, Atlanta USA -Member Simon Kolawole, Lagos Nigeria -Member Peter Ndoro, SABC Johannesburg – Member Frenny Jowi, Nairobi Kenya - Member Brig. Gen. SK Usman Rtd., Abuja Nigeria - Member David Morgan, Washington DC USA – Member Contributors Matshona Dhilwayo, Chifuniro Kandaya Arthur Becker, Charles Peter Yomi Henry-Eyo, Barnabas Thondhlana

Staff Writer - Miracle Nwankwo

Furo Giami - Chief Operating Officer / Executive Director Bernice Benjy - Group Head, Finance & Administration Sasha Caton - Manager, UK & European Operations Ehis Ayere - Group Head, Sales & Business Development Jolayemi Mayowa - Manager, Client Relations Ekene Okolie - Manager, Office of the Chairman Samuel Moses Elaikwu - Manager, Sales & Business Developments Happy Benson - Director of Operations North America Christy Ebong - Head, Research and Admin - North America Sheba Nyam Alhamdu, Stanley Emeruem - Business Development Managers Oluwatoyin Oyekanmi - Head, South African Bureau Bernard Adeka - Head, Nigeria SS/SE

CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS Portsmouth Technopole, Kingston Crescent, Portsmouth PO2 8FA, United Kingdom; t: 44 23 9265 8276 | fax: +44 (0)23 9265 8201 | e: info@africanleadership.co.uk w | www.africanleadershipmagazine.co.uk AFRICA & REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE OFFICES Abuja Accra Atlanta Johannesburg Nairobi London Washington DC

ISSN 2006 - 9332

While great care has been taken in the receipt and handling of materials, production and accuracy of content in the magazine, the publishers will not take responsibility for views expressed by the writer ...Identifying, Celebrating & Enabling Excellence in Africa

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FROM THE CHAIRMANʼS DESK

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but for the world at large. Such leaders become notable points of references for what is possible, and also inspire a whole generation of upcoming leaders, who go on to make significant contributions to society. It is why we have made it our mission to discover and celebrate these outstanding African leaders and institutions, and position them not just as agents of change, but enable them to continue to inspire and lead even more effectively.

It is always a great pleasure welcoming you to our Persons of the Year investiture ceremonies.

The Persons of the year awards were conceived as a platform to recognise and celebrate the exceptional contributions of our African brothers and sisters, who continue to hazard their lives in the service of Africa and humanity – and where their choice for recognition is decided by ordinary Africans and lovers of Africa everywhere.

This year's edition, which is the 9th in the series, attracted over 120,000 votes on the ALM website; over 7 million active online engagement during the voting period across various social media platforms.

We are very happy with the growing involvement of Africans from all shades of thought in the selection process, especially in what was a very challenging year for most people around the world due to the outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic.

I can therefore make bold to say that this years honorees are the people's choice - servant leaders, who by sheer resilience and a commitment to making a difference in the lives of their people, have broken stereotypes and limitations, and are moving society forward in very remarkable ways.

In Africa, like in most of the developing world; the inspiring example and impact that one effective leader exemplifies is truly powerful and game changing, not just for the immediate beneficiaries

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We have not only used our platforms to celebrate African achievers but have continued to promote our most distinguished African leaders for other credible recognitions and global endorsements supporting committed African Leaders in delivering their respective mandates. We are proud that two of our previous winners of the African of the year awards had gone on to win Nobel Prizes, and our other award alumni are making a difference wherever they find themselves. Our high-level events and work with business leaders have also resulted in over $20 Billion in deals over the last 15 years, creating jobs and opportunities for all. These testimonials encourage us to continue, in the face of horrendous challenges.

As is the case at all of our events and platforms, today is about celebrating Africa and African success stories. But today is also about renewing our collective commitment to make Africa truly great, by addressing some of the challenges that we are faced with.

Some of the world's poorest countries are in Africa, and according to a 2018 World Bank report, it is projected that Africa might have 90% of the world's poorest by 2030. This scale of poverty also breeds crime, insecurity, health epidemics, and several other challenges that could snowball into global proportions.

COVID19 especially exposes the weaknesses in our polity. These statistics must change, and we are the ones that would change it.

We are the ones we've been waiting for. For this is our time. It is Africa's century.

Ken Giami AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE

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ALM PERSONS OF THE YEAR AWARDS: A CELEBRATION OF AFRICANS SERVING HUMANITY

WHAT NOTABLE LEADERS ARE SAYING ABOUT

AFRICAN LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE

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H. E. JOHN MAHAMA FMR. PRESIDENT OF GHANA

H.E. MRS AMEEN GURIB-FAKIM FMR. PRESIDENT OF MAURITIUS

DR GOODLUCK JONATHAN FMR. PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA

“It is always an honour to be in the company of such distinguished fellow Africans, that the African Leadership Magazine events bring together - Africans who have committed their lives to changing the negative narrative about our continent.”

“It is very gratifying that we now have an organization like African Leadership Magazine, which endeavor s to promote good governance and impactful leadership in Africa - bring the best of Africa to the global stages.”

“African Leadership Magazine has become a brand for Africa and I am pleased to be associated with it. especially because of the caliber of African Leaders on itʼs board.”

H.E. JOHN KUFOUR FMR. PRESIDENT OF GHANA

H.E. JAMES A MICHEL FMR. PRESIDENT OF SEYCHELLES

“ I b e l i e ve p e o p l e a re m o re important than power and anything that promotes good people and leadership is what we need in Africa, and that is what African Leadership Magazine is doing.”

“I wish to express my sincere thanks and deep appreciation to the African Leadership Magazine for the work that it is doing on the continent, and especially in advancing the cause of small Islands Developing states, Any effort aimed at increasing the visibility of the good work being done by leadership in Africa does positively impact on the continent and that is what the African Leadership Magazine is doing.”

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DR MANU CHANDARIA CHAIRMAN, COMCRAFT GROUP, KENYA

“I am honored and deeply humbled to be with the African Leadership Magazine. The organization have been consistent in tracking Africaʼs best and showcasing them to the world, which is quite commendable.”

AFRICANLEADERSHIPMAGA ZINE

WHAT NOTABLE LEADERS ARE SAYING ABOUT

AFRICAN LEADERSHIP MAGAZINE

MRS. ELLEN JOHNSON - SIRLEAF NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER & FMR. PRESIDENT, REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA

H.E JAKAYA KIKWETE FMR. PRESIDENT OF TANZANIA

“I feel deeply honored to be a s s o c i a te d w i t h t h e A f r i c a n Leadership Magazine as it is a veritable platform to honor true service in Africa. I commend your efforts and assure you of my continued support and the support of the good people of Liberia.”

“African Leadership Magazine is doing a wonderful job of speaking for Africa and Africans. The magazine remain a good example of what young people in Africa can do in the world. Best wishes in keeping the African dream alive.”

H.E DAVID MABUZA DEPUTY PRESIDENT REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA “It is an honour to participate at this African Leadership Magazine's 2020 C e re m o n y, a n d I c o m m e n d t h e magazine's focus to reshape positively, the dominant narratives about the African continent, especially towards the pursuit of peace-building and democracy on the continent”.

DR. AKINWUMI ADESINA PRESIDENT, AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

DR. MO IBRAHIM FOUNDER, MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION

MO DEWJI TANZANIA BUSINESSMAN & PHILANTHROPIST

“I thank you so much, African Leadership Magazine for the great work that you are doing for the continent. Your tradition of awarding excellence as I have seen in the line up of African Leaders who have received the African Leadership Awards, is something very commendable”

“The future of African people and improving the quality of Leadership on the African continent is my vision and I find in African Leadership Magazine - a true partner. I am also happy that the African Leadership Awards is doing at a lower level, what I intend to achieve at the Head of State level. That is why I flew to Paris just to be a part of what you are doing here at the African Leadership Magazine”.

“The African Leadership Awards truly captures the essence of my message which is that, success shouldnʼt be solely defined by wealth. It should be about the positive impact and influence that one has had in his community.”

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SPECIAL COVERAGE

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DAVID ABIOYE: A LEGACY OF TRANSGENERATIONAL SERVANT LEADERSHIP

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AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE

SPECIAL COVERAGE

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It was a harvest of commendations, eulogy and veneration, as friends, family, wellwishers and congregants gathered to celebrate with Bishop David Abioye as he marked his 60th birthday celebration. The event, which held recently at the Living Faith Church Goshen City, a suburb of the Abuja Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, had in attendance business, political, diplomatic and pulpit leaders from across Nigeria and internationally who had nothing but admiration for the servant of God for his commitment to kingdom advancement, leadership development, and impact stewardship.

Bishop Abioye is the Senior Pastor of Living Faith Church, Goshen City - a 15,000 capacity edifice, sitting on a 740-acre of land, with over 30,000 worshippers every Sunday.

The weeklong diamond jubilee celebrations began with a Music Festival, a main celebration service, thanksgiving service and also had a Public Lecture with the theme: 'Building Leadership that Last'. The Public Lecture, which was delivered by a prominent Nigerian Faith leader, speaker and founding pastor of Salvation Ministries International, Pastor David Ibiyeomie, highlighted the importance of purposeful leadership, maintaining that, "Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence." Pastor Ibiyeomie also quoted copiously from the scripture in describing Bishop Abioye's brand of leadership , maintaining that “in Christ, the goal of leadership is not to grab power in order to control and oppress others but to serve them."

In Christ, the goal of leadership is not to grab power in order to control and oppress others but to serve them.

While recounting his personal experience with the celebrant, Pastor Ibiyeomie averred that Bishop David Abioye is a true embodiment and reflection of a servant leader while urging leaders across the continent to emulate his leadership traits.

The Public Lecture was followed by a panel discussion anchored by Apostle Emmanuel Kure, a televangelist, founder and president of the Throneroom (Trust) Ministry who in his

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SPECIAL COVERAGE remarks about the celebrant said: “We thank God for the day, Bishop Abioye was born.

We thank God for planting him in the North, so that the North too can be blessed with people of peculiar gifts, callings, and people who are very clear about their mandate on earth. From the way he has lived his life these 60 years, it shows that he knows where he is coming from and where he is going to, and he is waiting on the Lord to bring him to the fullness.”

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10 Other panelists that spoke included Dr. Alex Iziyon; SAN, Senator Liyel Imoke; Former Governor of Cross River State, Nigeria, Dr. Fela durotoye; President, GEMSTONE Nation Builders Foundation, Dr. John Dara and Dr. Adegboola Adeniyi, all appreciating the transgenerational impact of Bishop Abioye's servant-leadership While presenting his goodwill message, the President of the African Development Bank, AfDB, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, congratulated Bishop David Abioye and commended him for his selfless services to humanity.

In his words, “ Bishop Abioye is not wasting his Godgiven life. His life has been a testimony of helping and encouraging others. Today as you celebrate 60 years of using God's oxygen, I celebrate and rejoice with you for using God's oxygen to change lives."

Continuing, Dr Adesina said, "In Erin-ile your community where you were raised, your generosity is being felt by all. You have provided 5500 eyes screening free of charge for the people. You have also supported 330 eyes surgeries free of charge. You are also providing scholarships and bursaries for thousands of students, including the neighbouring communities,” he added.

Similarly, the founder and presiding pastor of the 100,000 seater Dunamis International Gospel, Pastor Dr Paul Enenche, congratulated the celebrant and commended him for "practical expression of deep humility; simplicity; honesty; sincerity; integrity; and spiritual sensitivity; as well as authentic spirituality." Continuing, Pastor Enenche stated that, “ with Bishop Abioye, we have seen that you don't need to be a Ministry founder, to be a ministry front liner. You don't need to be a General Overseer to be a Kingdom General."

On his part, the former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria and founder of the Word of Life Bible Faith Ministries, Pastor Ayo Oritsejefor, commended the celebrant for his steadfast commitment to Bishop David Oyedepo. In his words, “ I have watched you through the years, and I see your heart and commitment, and it excites me.”

The President of Living Faith Church World Wide and the celebrant's spiritual father, Bishop David Oyedepo, while speaking, maintained that "he received the lord's call and didn't refuse the call. We both share similar spiritual attributes of undying zeal for God".

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SPECIAL COVERAGE Bishop Oyedepo began his teaching by releasing prophetic blessings on the people, and captioned his teaching; 'Who is on the Lord's side?'. Taking his bearing from Exodus 32:26, he taught the people the importance of steadfastness in kingdom stewardship.

“Interestingly, the God side is the ever-winning side of life, any day, anytime and anywhere,” echoed the Bishop.

Other anointed men of God also gave their remarks both virtually and physically including; Bishop Aremu, Vice President (Foreign Missions), Living Faith Church Worldwide; Arch Bishop Daniel Praise, presiding Bishop of the Dominion Chapel International Church; Pastor Dzindefo Mensah from Ghana, Pastor Isaac Oyedepo; Resident Pastor of Living Faith Church, Maryland USA and many more.

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Bishop David Abioye is a teacher, father and mentor to thousands of followers across the globe. He has remained a committed husband and family man. Despite his work schedule, he cherishes his time with his family, both immediate, extended and spiritual. He is renown for his teachings on Victorious Christian Living and Spiritual Stewardship and has authored over 12 books. He runs a daily devotional programme and is known to have declared his most valued asset as the Holy Spirit. "I have always told people that if they care to pray for me, it's the prayer of Divine Presence. If God is for you, no man can be against you. I will rather lose ten thousand members of the church than to miss His presence."

PROFILE

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CELEBRATING A LIFESTYLE

OF TRUE

STEWARDSHIP MARCH - APRIL 2021

AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE

INTERVIEW Every 11th day in March commemorates the birth of an inspirational vessel in God's hands, someone whose heart and love for God have inspired others into a pursuit for God. He is Bishop David Olatunji Abioye, the First Vice President of Living Faith Church Worldwide, an Evangelical Christian Denomination headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.

Born in 1961 in Akwatia Ghana, into a Christian home by God-fearing parents who raised and taught him to love God. Bishop Abioye grew up into a responsible and hardworking young man who cared for and supported his siblings. From his early years, he began to display rare attributes of servantleadership.

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He had wanted to study architecture at the University of Nsukka Nigeria, following his expertise and passion for technical drawings in secondary school.

However, this ambition was unfulfilled, and he opted for automobile engineering in Kwara State Polytechnic of Nigeria. Having studied automobile engineering, Bishop Abioye wanted to establish an automobile company. Still, the lack of a white-collar job in that field at the time made him take a different direction. He knew that he needed to start from somewhere to achieve this dream, so he joined the roadside auto repairers referred to as 'mechanics' in Nigeria. He intended to gain experience and exposure, but while on it, he got a teaching job at a Polytechnic.

Later, according to Bishop Abioye, the Spirit of God instructed him to go into full-time ministry, a call he obeyed and thus began his journey as a pastor in Living Faith Church, under the leadership of Bishop David Oyedepo. And ever since he took up the mantle, Bishop Abioye has not ceased from touching the lives of people through his teaching of God's word, a lifestyle of stewardship, humility and simplicity that has continued to inspire others.

This year, as he clocked 60, a lineup of activities was put together by the church and Christian community to celebrate God's faithfulness in the celebrant's life, and African Leadership magazine was there. The activities attracted thought leaders, dignitaries, sons of the prophet, family, and friends, highlighting the celebrant's various leadership attributes. Bishop Abioye is happily married to Mary Abioye, and they are blessed with three children.

In commemoration of his 60th birthday anniversary, African Leadership Magazine takes a look at the life, ministry and philosophy of this great leader: EARLY LIFE AND FORAY INTO MINISTRY: I want to start by thanking the Almighty God principally for the life I have today. I also want to thank my spiritual father and lifetime mentor, Bishop David Oyedepo, for his investments in my life. I count myself as nothing that God has made something. I see no reason why I should be alive when others died at birth.

Some died after completing primary school; others died shortly after their youth service years. I count it a privilege to have met God's servant way back in the 1980s. Man has his plans, but God has his designs. I was on my way to study architecture at the University of the Nigeria Nsukka when the door was shut, but another one was opened for me to meet with his servant. I want to believe that God ordained for me to meet with him from the foundation of the world. Meeting him wasn't accidental but a divine orchestration by the hand of God. I will forever be grateful to God for that meeting and for his receiving me. Practically speaking, I am in him, and he is in me, as ordained by God. I have had an excellent opportunity to serve in the family of Living Faith Church since its inception. Even though a graduate of Engineering, I've found the greatest joy in my current calling and assignment. Before answering the call into full-time ministry, I had worked briefly at the then

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INTERVIEW

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Open Cast Polytechnic, Auchi, between 1985 and 1986 as a lecturer. Ministry is a call, not what you desire. I needed to say that because I did not choose ministry. I was simply a lover of God; I love God and was running after God. I never thought of the church. I was dreaming of having a modern high tech workshop, which was my greatest aspiration. I was doing everything I could to get that done while at the same time loving the Lord as a believer. One thing led to the other, and in the process, I was privileged to meet God's Servant, Bishop David Oyedepo.

When I met him, I saw an unusual kind of passion in a greater dimension of knowing Jesus and following after him. That fired me up. In the process of time, God gave him a vision for ministry, and I found myself serving him with a great love for Jesus. When the church commenced, I was still pursuing my passion for an automobile engineering workshop. Until finally, the Lord spoke to me to abandon what I was doing to serve under his servant. That is how I came into the ministry.

Ministry is a call, not what you desire. I needed to say that because I did not choose ministry. I was simply a lover of God; I love God and was running after God.

God has different ways of dealing with people. My spiritual relationship with God has always come most modestly and straightforwardly. I have heard God speak to me, primarily through an inner voice experience and deep conviction, which I believe is one of God's most robust ways of talking to people, just like in Elijah's experience on the mountain; the still small voice.

When that voice comes, it is usually with solid conviction. Every time I hear God in such a manner, it is with assurance and rest. The Lord spoke to me that He has an assignment for me under Bishop David Oyedepo, which I refer to as my calling to the ministry. I have said several times that my call is to see the fulfilment of his ministry. It's more of a supportive ministry; while he deals with significant issues, I look into more minor problems to prevent distraction. I am doing what I'm assigned to under his calling, little or big.

Encounter with the founder of Living Faith Church World-Wide, Bishop David Oyedepo MARCH - APRIL 2021

AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE

INTERVIEW

I found in him a man who was pursuing God the way I desired to seek after God. Ever since that day, my spirit connected to his spirit.

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16 The contact with God's Servant, which dates back to the early 1980s, is a mystery. It was in a Christian Students' Fellowship. Hearing him speak ignited fire into my spirit; I found in him a man who was pursuing God the way I desired to seek after God. Thus, he immediately attracted me. Ever since that day, my spirit connected to his spirit. It's beyond physical likeness of any kind. I believe this can be better illustrated with Proverbs 27:19, "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." Ever since then, the relationship has kept growing more profound by the day. It's exciting, and I give glory to God for the privilege.

He is several things to me. Firstly, he played a tremendous brotherly role in my life. Since I became a staff under him, we have also had a formal relationship. I regard myself as a servant under him. From that formal relationship, it has grown to a father-son relationship. He has given me the privilege of coming close, having the treatment of a son. I work very hard not to abuse but to appreciate that privilege.

THE CONCEPT OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP IN MINISTRY: You see, when you have honestly heard from God, the voices of others become insignificant to you. You can't hear from God and be confused. You can't hear from God and doubt. You can't hear from God and be wondering whether you heard from Him or not. It's as straightforward as that. It's only someone who wants to walk in disobedience that will pretend to hear something else as it comes to play.

However, in your bid to obey God, you cannot rule out that people will come to say different things to you, some out of sincere heart, others out of personal observations, while the devil sends many others to get you off course. Whatever way it comes to you, what is most important is to have this inner witness. I have derived so much strength from my innermost being.

One day, someone asked me, why are you taking this thing seriously? Is this your father's work? And I said, yes, it is my father's work: my heavenly father, and my father, Oyedepo. Someone else asked me, is it your ministry, and I said, yes, it is my ministry because it belongs to my father-my spiritual father and my heavenly father.

I work by the philosophy that you don't have to be a founder to make your impact. If God sends you to, why not, but it does not send you, don't take a step. Everyone has a role to play. Your number on the line is not as crucial as your function on the line. I am not a self-made man, and I cannot stop acknowledging people because people are my opportunities to rise to where I am today.

You don't have to start a ministry to have a church. I quite understand that there are callings, and as a matter of fact, callings will multiply because,

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according to scriptures, there will be a multiplication of visions. I like to discourage people from having a selfmade call. If you are called, let it be a call, and if you are not called, you can fulfil a calling within an existing ministry.

I have realized that it does not reduce you; it's all a matter of impact. Like I tell people, I am not number one in our ministry, but by the grace of God, I carry out my assignment with undeniable impact. Ministry is about function, not about the number. Ministry is not about 'foundership' but about touching lives.

You don't have to be at the top to lead; you can lead from the middle, and you can even lead from under.

THE MINISTER'S GREATEST ASSET: The Holy Spirit, my Guide, my Custodian, the One whom Jesus Christ handed us over to is my greatest asset. If you like, call it Divine Presence. I have always told people that if they care to pray for me, it's the prayer of Divine Presence. If God is for you, no man can be against you. If God is for you, you have rest, and your supplies are guaranteed. Everything that is needed is in Divine Presence. I have said humorously that 'I will rather lose ten thousand church members than to miss His presence.' Saul traded Divine Presence for the elders of the city, and eventually, the elders left him. David instead preferred to miss the drums of

AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE

INTERVIEW

The most significant inheritance you can leave for your children is a name. You may not leave any material thing for your children but leave a name for them.

Without a good reputation, you are doomed; when you are dead, you are indeed dead. With a good name, when you die, you still live on. Good character and integrity will be considered as my next asset aside from divine presence. I don't care about what I have materially, but I want to maintain a good name. A good name, not in the sense of fame, but a name to be remembered for good. My candid advice is, live an exemplary life.

People may applaud you for good speech, they may scream at your oratory skill, but they will only follow you for your good character. They may admire you for your appearance, but they will copy you solely for your character.

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My next asset has to do with my relationship with people, which I describe as integrity, maintaining sound Christian character. When we were growing up in the faith, my family church background was in the Evangelical setting that is the Baptist, to be precise. The basic scriptural principles we learnt were honesty, transparency, truthfulness. I have said that I will instead be a pastor of thirty people in my village and maintain good character than being the pastor of thirty thousand in a city, without character. I value character. "' A good name', the Bible says, 'is better than riches." If you lose money, you may get it back, but if you lose your name, it's gone forever.

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We need to value the presence of the Holy Spirit. That is the promise of the Father that Jesus gave to us. That is my most valued asset.

committed, focused and highly supportive – following in the footsteps of our parents in the Lord. The good thing is this; she has never asked me, why are you following Bishop Oyedepo? Neither has she ever made to think the pressure is too much; let me look for something else to do. We were 34 in number the first day she came to join me in church, and the whole church gave us a gift of food flask. Gradually we have grown to where we are today.

My wife is a blessing to me. Without mincing words, we have grown to have a kindred spirit. What I have admired about her is her love for God. My wife has been a great lover of God, and I respect her for that. Because she is a lover of God, she is a lover of me and my assignment. She is a submissive 17 person. We have enjoyed the years together. As you grow in a good marriage relationship, you find out that your wife is more than your wife. I have found sisterhood in her; I have found motherhood in her. When I don't see her as my wife, I see her as my sister or mother. We have had good companionship.

I am also grateful for my children, who have given us peace and joy. I was amazed, and I had to ask them what inspired them to write so much about me and extend their goodwill messages for my 60th birthday? I feel honoured and appreciate God for them. And very significantly, I will like to appreciate someone who I have missed dearly and who spoke extensively from his sickbed last year and telling me that he will be at this birthday, my biological father. He made a significant investment in my life. As a child, I watched him pray at the altar; I watched him fast for many years. He is a lover of the Bible, and I honour him today, alongside my mother.

As a person, I am passionate when it comes to the issue of family.

Although I have a hectic work schedule, I still find time to relate well with my family, both immediate and relations, knowing very well that a happy family is the bedrock of any thriving pursuit. I make sure I extend a hand of love to everyone and assist in whatever way I can, either on regular terms or otherwise.

HOBBIES AND DAILY COMMITMENT: My primary hobby is loving and serving people. I get excited when I have the opportunity to help people. It brightens my soul and quickens my body. I feel relaxed whenever I have the privilege to love and serve people. More importantly, I enjoy relaxing with my family because that's the hub of peace and success in life. I believe God made man work, so my day usually is filled with work even till night with a brief break every evening. Often time, I only have just a few hours of sleep at night. I do not compromise my study time, which is usually at night time and qualitative time with my wife and children when they are at home.

BISHOP ABIOYE, THE ROUNDED FAMILY MAN: I want to appreciate my dearly beloved wife. Thirty-four years in marriage by the grace of God, we have been together as a couple serving the Lord. As soon as we got married, she resigned from her job to follow me. So

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the people than to ignore God. That's why in Psalm 51 verse 11, he cried to God, "cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me." You can take every other thing away but don't take Your Spirit away from me.

COVER

W.H.O. DG TEDROS GHEBREYESUS, AKUFO-ADDO, GRAÇA MACHEL, OTHERS EMERGE WINNERS IN THE ALM PERSONS OF THE YEAR 2020 AWARDS

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The African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Awards committee has unveiled the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as the African of the year 2020; the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, as the African Political leader of the year 2020; Graça Michel as the African Climate Champion of the year 2020, alongside 10 other distinguished Africans in a keenly contested poll. The poll attracted over 120,000 votes on the ALM website; over 7 million active online engagement during the voting period; and over 5000 votes via email.

The winners were decorated and presented with honour instruments on February 26th, 2021, during the annual African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Award ceremony. This year, the event held virtually and hosted influential Africans in business, politics, and all spheres of African leadership spectrum. As has been the tradition, the winners were unveiled by the Publisher of the Magazine, Dr Ken Giami, at the U.K. Head Office of the group. The announcement of the winners was preceded by the awards committee working with the editorial team to collate online and offline votes and submissions from the over 1 million subscribers/followership base of the publication.

The African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Awards, which has become the leading votebased third-party endorsement in the continent, recorded an upsurge of over 50% votes from the previous year, mainly from Africans within and the Diaspora.

The Publisher, Dr Giami, maintained that 2020 had been a very turbulent year, with the COVID-19

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pandemic stretching Africaʼs fragile health systems and exacerbating poverty in the continent. However, he stressed that certain Africans contributed towards minimizing the impact of the pandemic on the continent and helped in inspiring hope for the future. These Africans are deserving of a special commendation. In his words, “all the nominees for this yearʼs persons of the year have contributed in no small measure towards minimizing the impact of the pandemic on the continent through their work and are deserving of the crown.” Continuing, he stated that, “the nominees have demonstrated great faith in the Africa project, and are ‘walking their talkʼ in their communities, helping in changing the negative narratives about Africa globally. They all are true lovers of Africa, determinedly contributing, sometimes amidst challenging circumstances but undoubtedly making Africa and the world a better place for all.”

The African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year which is in its 9th year is an annual award reserved for distinguished Africans, who have blazed the trail in the year under review. A shortlist of nominees are selected from results gathered via a Call for the nomination – traditionally promoted via a paid online and offline campaigns across the continent, Europe, and the Americas.

This year, the selection committee expanded the categories to cover other key themes that are critical to Africaʼs future ambition and sustainability aspirations. It included subjects that resonated with the continent in the year 2020, including – individual, institution and group contribution to the fight to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. Other themes included – Africans whose activities, policies and actions have contributed to ‘Investments in Africaʼs young people, jobs & wealth creation; promotion of sustainable peace & development, delivering democratic values; & the promotion of Africaʼs image globally. See below profile of some of the outstanding winners.

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GRAÇA MACHEL Founder, Graça Machel Trust

Graça Machel is an African stateswoman whose decades long professional and public life is rooted in Mozambique's struggle for self-rule and international advocacy for women and children's rights. She is a former freedom fighter in Mozambique's FRELIMO movement and the country's first Minister of Education.

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In the years following her tenure in government, Machel produced a ground-breaking UNICEF report “The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children” that changed the way the United Nations and member states respond in conflict zones. Since then, she has worked tirelessly in support of global health, child welfare, and women's rights and empowerment.

Machel works through several regional and international development bodies to accelerate social transformation. Machel is a founding member and Deputy Chair of The Elders, and played a key role in establishing Girls Not Brides. She is a member of the UN Secretary-General's Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group.

Machel produced a groundbreaking UNICEF report “The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children” that changed the way the United Nations and member states respond in conflict zones.

Since then, she has worked tirelessly in support of global health, climate action, child welfare, and women's rights and empowerment.

Machel lends her expertise to a number of organizations in a governance role. She serves as Board Chair of the Africa Child Policy Forum, Board Chair of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes, Board Chair of United People Global as well as Executive Chair of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies. Machel is a Board Member of the South African Future Trust (SAFT), Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Kofi Annan Foundation, and Education Above All. She is Board Chair Emeritus for the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and is a UNICEF Young People's Agenda Global Advisory Board Member. She is Chairperson of Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital Trust and a Trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. She also sits on the Jack Ma Netpreneur Advisory Board. Additionally, she is the Chancellor of the African Leadership University.

Machel has created three non-governmental organizations in her own right. She founded and serves as President of the Foundation for Community Development and the Zizile Institute for Child Development. She founded the Graça Machel Trust in 2010 where she focuses on advocating for women's economic and financial empowerment, food security and nutrition, education for all, as well as good governance.

Among numerous awards, Machel has received the United Nations' Nansen Refugee Award in recognition of her long-standing humanitarian work. In 1997, she was made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. She is a member of the Ambassador David M. Walters International Paediatric Hall of Fame. In 2018, she was awarded the World Health Organization's highest honour, the WHO Gold Medal, for her enormous contributions to the health and wellbeing of women, children and adolescents.

She was also acknowledged by Women Deliver with their 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award and she was named one of Africa's 50 Most Powerful Women by Forbes in 2020.

Leiden University bestowed upon her an Honorary Doctoral Degree for her extensive work to advance children's rights in 2021.

Graça Machel has dedicated her life to improving the fate of women and children, inspiring hope, and building a more just and equitable world for us all.

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Profiling the Political Journey of a Peacemaker H.E Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Former President of Nigeria

Since leaving office in 2015, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has remained totally committed to promoting democracy, credible elections, peace and respect for the rule of law in Africa Dr Goodluck Jonathan was vice president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2007, a position he held until January 2010 when he became Acting President and following the death of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua in May 2010, he was sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In 2011, he contested and was elected as Nigeria's President. He peacefully handed over to the present administration in May 2015.

His successful Transformational Agenda led the implementation of projects and policies targeted at promoting development across different areas of the economy. Under his watch, Nigeria experienced unprecedented economic growth and became the largest economy in Africa. As President, he promoted democratic values and principles, peace and national security.

As President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Jonathan made major contributions to the political, economic and social development of Nigeria through his Transformation Agenda. He vigorously pursued his commitment to change the global negative perceptions of the Nigerian elections by reforming the electoral process to establish a culture of nonviolent, free, fair, and credible elections. He further promoted democratization through the observance of the rule of law, enactment of the Freedom of Information Act, electoral reforms and non-interference in electoral outcomes.

Since leaving office in 2015, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has remained totally committed to promoting democracy, credible elections, peace and respect for the rule of law in Africa. He is the Chairman of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation, an organization he founded to promote best practices in democracy, peace and prosperity in Africa.

In May 2020, he was appointed as a Member of the Kofi Annan Foundation Electoral Integrity Initiative Senior Panel.

Given his position as the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the great roles and contributions his administration offered to the maintenance of peace, security and stability in ECOWAS region, in July 2020, he was appointed as the ECOWAS Special Envoy to Mali with the mandate of restoring peace and democracy in the country. In December 2020, Dr Jonathan was invited by the Government of the Gambia to lead the process of dialogue for a new constitution for the Country.

In and out of office, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has received several local and international awards, in recognition of his exceptional public service and commitment to peace, democracy and good governance on the continent.

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DR. TEDROS GHEBREYESUS

A Lifelong Commitment to Service Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was elected as WHO Director-General for a five-year term by WHO Member States at the Seventieth World Health Assembly in May 2017.

He is the first WHO Director-General to have been elected from multiple candidates by the World Health Assembly, and is the first person from the WHO African Region to serve as WHO's chief technical and administrative officer.

Immediately after taking office on 1 July 2017 Dr Tedros outlined five key priorities for the Organization: universal health coverage; health emergencies; women's, children's and adolescents' health; health impacts of climate and environmental change; and a transformed WHO. Prior to his election as WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros served as Ethiopia's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012–2016. In this role he led efforts to negotiate the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, in which 193 countries committed to the financing necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. He served as Ethiopia's Minister of Health from 2005–2012, where he led a comprehensive reform of the country's health system.

All roads lead to universal health coverage for Dr Tedros, and he has demonstrated what it takes to expand access to health care with limited resources. The transformation he led as Ethiopia's Minister of Health improved access to health care for millions of people. Under his leadership Ethiopia invested in critical health infrastructure, expanded its health workforce, and developed innovative health financing mechanisms.

Beyond Ethiopia, Dr Tedros' global leadership on malaria, HIV/AIDS, and maternal and child health has been immensely impactful. He was elected as Chair of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Board in 2009, and previously served as Chair of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership Board, and Co-chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Board.

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Born in the city of Asmara, Eritrea, Dr Tedros holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Community Health from the University of Nottingham and a Master of Science (MSc) in Immunology of Infectious Diseases from the University of London. Dr Tedros is globally recognised as a health scholar, researcher, and diplomat with first-hand experience in research, operations, and leadership in emergency responses to epidemics.

Throughout his career Dr Tedros has published numerous articles in prominent scientific journals, and received awards and recognition from across the globe. He received the Decoration of the Order of Serbian Flag in 2016, and was awarded the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award in recognition of his contributions to the field of public health in 2011.

AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE

PROFILE

Judge Carlos E. Moore, a Moss Point, Mississippi native, is the Managing Partner of The Cochran Firm – Mississippi Delta based in Grenada, Mississippi. In July of 2017, he was appointed as the first African-American Municipal Judge Pro Tem for the City of Clarksdale, Mississippi and in May of 2020 he was named the first African-American Municipal Judge Pro Tem for the City of Grenada, Mississippi. A graduate of Moss Point High School (Salutatorian), the University of South Alabama, and The Florida State University College of Law, Judge Moore also completed course work at Rice University in Houston, Texas as well as the University of Mississippi School of Law in Oxford.

Judge Moore is very active in several bar associations, including the American Bar Association, National Bar Association, American Association for Justice, The Mississippi Bar, Magnolia Bar Association, Mississippi Association for Justice, and the Grenada County Bar Association. He is a past Vice President of the National Bar Association, he is also a past Deputy General Counsel for the NBA, a past Deputy Chief of Staff to the NBA President, past NBA Region V Director, past Board Member at Large as well as a Past Chairman of the Young Lawyers Division of the National Bar Association. Carlos also served as Secretary/Treasurer of the Grenada County Bar Association from 2003-2007 and has been a member of the NBA Board of Governors as well as the board of the Mississippi Association for Justice for a number of years in various capacities. In 2011 after completing three years on the Mississippi Bar Ethics Committee, Moore was elected by his peers to serve a three-year term as a Commissioner of the governing board of The Mississippi Bar, which regulates all the lawyers in Mississippi.

In addition to his bar association work, Carlos is very active in his community. Besides being a 2010 graduate of Leadership Grenada, he is a member of the Grenada Rotary Club, Grenada Chamber of Commerce, 100 Black Men of Grenada, Inc. (Founding President), Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., The Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and is a board member and Founding

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President-Elect, National Bar Association – USA

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PROFILE Chair of the Grenada Unit of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Delta.

Married to the former Natalie Herrington of Grenada, the Moores are the proud parents of one daughter, Avery Nicole, and active members of Abundant Life Assembly in Grenada where Carlos serves as General Counsel. The Moore's have also provided college scholarships to area youth since 2006. ` Before opening his own law practice in 2006, Attorney Moore was employed

by Harlow Law Firm in Grenada where he was engaged in the general practice of law and also served as Assistant City Prosecutor for the City of Grenada from 2002-2006. Licensed to practice before state and federal Courts in Mississippi and Tennessee as well as before the United States Supreme Court, Carlos is the recipient of many honors including being named the 2007-08 Outstanding Young Lawyer of Mississippi by The Mississippi Bar Young Lawyers Division (1st African-American to ever receive the award in its then twenty-six-year history) and being named in 1998 as an Outstanding Young Man of America.

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Carlos has also been the recipient of three NBA Presidential Awards, the NBA Young Lawyers Division was named Outstanding Division under his chairmanship in 2008, and most recently in 2010 he received the Meritorious Service Award from the NBA Young Lawyers Division as well as was named a 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 “Rising Star” in the Mid-South Super Lawyers magazine. In 2012, Carlos was named a White House Fellows Regional Finalist, ranking in the top 100 of approximately 1000 fellowship applicants nationwide and named Young Lawyer of the Year by the National Bar Association. Moore served as inaugural president and has been a founding member of the National Law Group, a consortium of plaintiff law firms across the country, since 2010, and is most noted for winning a $12 million jury verdict for a deserving client in 2010, just 4 years to the day after opening his own law practice. Moore is also a 2013 graduate of the Collaborative Bar Leadership Academy.

Most recently, in 2013, Moore was named Attorney of the Month and appeared on the June 2013 cover of Attorney at Law Magazine, Mississippi edition. In October of 2013, Moore was named the City Prosecutor for the Town of Webb, Mississippi, and in December 2013 Carlos became a graduate of Leadership Mississippi. In the summer of 2014 Moore was named a Trailblazer Under 40 by the National Bar Association, received the NBA Presidential Fred D. Gray Legacy Award, was honored with the NBA Solo and Small Firms Division prestigious Esquire Award, and completed his term as Chair of the Workers' Compensation Section of The Mississippi Bar. In January of 2015, Moore received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the Southern Region Black Law Students Association and in May of 2015, Moore was named to the board of directors for the Foundation For The Mid-South. In November of 2015, Moore was named Prosecutor for the Town of Vaiden, Mississippi. Most recently, Moore was named a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and was appointed to the ABA Council on Racial & Ethnic Diversity in the Educational Pipeline by then American Bar Association President Paulette Brown. In December 2017, Moore was named City Attorney for Jonestown, Mississippi and in April of 2018, Moore was named City Attorney for Drew, Mississippi.

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A report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), shows that approximately 20% of new businesses fail during the first two years of being open, 45% during the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years. The report further states that only 25% of new businesses make it to 15 years or more. The story is even scarier for businesses in Africa, where the world bank reports that entrepreneurs face the harshest conditions. In this exclusive interview with African Leadership Magazine UK, Eder Pale, founder and CEO, Mozhandlings, one of the largest logistics company in Mozambique, tells us about his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges and breakthroughs. Excerpts.

Entrepreneurship is a very tough task in Africa. The World Bank reports that the continents present the harshest conditions for the business growth and entrepreneurship.

Can you share your experience doing business in the logistics sector on Mozambique?

Entrepreneurship is defined as an act of creating new services or products, identifying opportunities, transforming them into a profitable business. Within the area of logistics this is observed in small transport companies whereby It usually starts with a small fleet, sometimes offering a vehicle that transports small volume goods.

The market's economy, despite of, in certain cases, interfering in rising costs due to the liberalization process itself, it offers enormous opportunities for those who want to undertake, particularly in the logistics sector. These are opportunities that, as in any other sector, are accompanied by enormous challenges. It is necessary to have the courage to embrace these opportunities and, at the same time, face the challenges as they come, without ever being discouraged by the obstacles the journey presents towards the entrepreneurship.

One of the biggest challenges of the emergence of the logistics sector in Mozambique has always been that of competition, often unfair, with large companies with their credits already established in the market. I started my career in this sector in the City of Beira, Center of Mozambique, where one of the ports with the most movements in Southern Africa is located, due to its geostrategic location that establishes the connection with several countries in the hinterland. It is in the City of Beira, where the largest logistics companies in the country are located, that I do not need to mention their names, and that they are true giants in the sector.

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However, the growth of the Beira Corridor represented (and continues to represent) great opportunities, even for small ones.

And from this understanding that is it would be possible for the small ones to embrace part of the challenges, my determination to undertake emerged at first as a true David to challenge a Goliath. From that decision, that is what was necessary for me to continue to overcome each barrier and each challenge, until the present stage in which we already have a conquered market, and we are establishing the name of our company, contributing 26 to the development of the sector.

An especially important aspect that has always served as a motivation has been the importance of having flexibility to adapt to the needs of the sector and being able to identify opportunities in adverse situations. And to assert ourselves in this market we are aware of the need for greater agility to perform the services entrusted to us. And these are the main characteristics that a logistics entrepreneur must have to survive in a competitive market, with many setbacks. Therefore, the need to create alternatives in a market that is constantly changing is decisive, adopting good practices to meet the needs of a demanding and hurried clientele, in order to obtain a profit margin and survive in the same market.

The logistics sector is even more complicated, especially for those without deep pockets for investment. What in your view are some of the challenges that should be confronted to open up the sector for other young entrepreneurs?

One of the biggest challenges is the improvement of legislation in the sector, particularly with regards to market regulation and the introduction of electronic and Tracking sealing of in transit goods, whose implementation is taking place in a pilot phase throughout the country which is incredibly good and with unique challenges in the Port City of Beira.

Another challenge, equally important, is in the context of legislation on credit institutions and financial companies, known that one of the “Achille's Heels” for companies is access to finance for their operations. And, if already established companies face difficulties in accessing the financial market, we can then imagine the barriers that young people and entrepreneurs will face, often discouraging, considering that the bank guarantees often imposed are beyond the reach of new entrepreneurs.

On the other hand, the opening of the sector to new operators, particularly those who wish to undertake, imposes a series of incentives and the adoption of principles of preference for local content, opening space for certain small activities to be carried out by small operators and eliminating the practice of monopoly that characterizes market behavior today.

Another major logistical challenge is to overcome the deficient transportation infrastructure that impedes the growth of various logistics markets as road and rail links between economic centers are irregular. Although there is a road network, some parts are not yet built, and others are deteriorated and cannot be used with commercial routes. This means that the cost of transporting goods is double or triple the average than in developed countries and makes the

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Most importantly, and above all these challenges, it should be the perception that Africa has a large number of natural resources, such as Oil, Gas, Minerals and Agricultural products. On the other hand, about 90 percent of the African trade is carried out by sea, making ports a crucial place for supply chains despite being small by world standards.

Several ports that are under construction across the continent will need modernization to cope with the large commercial volumes that are expected with the population growth and economic development. This represents a range of opportunities for young people that should boost initiative and entrepreneurship, rather than the challenges that may discourage us.

A lot of young entrepreneurs face the age stereotype and are mostly seen as reckless and irresponsible because of the disruptive and game-changing ideas that come from their young minds. Did you face any of these challenges when you started as an entrepreneur?

The Societies, particularly the Africans, are homogeneous in many respects, particularly with regards to taboos related to the perception of youth's capacities or inability to lead various processes. Paradoxically, young people have been largely responsible for major revolutions and major changes in the political systems of societies.

However, the same young people who, for example, were moved by the spirit of African nationalism and fought for the independence of the countries of the continent, the same young people who yesterday believed in their ability to generate profound social changes, today, already at old age, they no longer believe in the strength of the youth and are primarily responsible for the barriers that young people face.

This could not be different in Mozambique and with me. The most important thing was to always bring out the courage and entrepreneurial spirit and, as I said before, face and overcome each barrier and each difficulty, each time, with a focus on the development of your entrepreneurial initiatives and the contribution you can make to society.

The watchword for young people should be to overcome stereotypes and complexes of any kind and move forward with entrepreneurial initiative.

The logistics industry is facing a lot of disruption due to the digitization of its operations. What are some of the innovative solutions MOZHANDLINGS as a 21st-century organization have introduced to make it stand out from its competitors?

The logistics sector is increasingly relevant for the development of properties in Mozambique due to the growing demand for space for storage, handling and transportation of diverse goods, containerized and in bulk, destined for the national and regional markets. This also results from the growth of the middle class, the expansion of consumer markets and the increase in online sales. In fact, several developers from the Middle East (Bahrain, Kuwait and Dubai) have plans to build a network of logistics centers on the continent. This will greatly influence the digitization of logistics operations, through growth in e-commerce and the penetration of smart mobile devices that will drive the use of drones as potential tools to help logistics operators overcome the challenges of transportation infrastructure.

This is the trend in the development of the logistics market in the present century and MOZHANDLING cannot ignore it. That is why we are striving with the modernization of our operations through the introduction of these new work and operational management methodologies. It is clear that the poor digitalization of Mozambican society itself influences the delay in this process and MOZHANDLING has no way of accelerating

Africa has a large number of natural resources. On the other hand, about 90 percent of the African trade is carried out by sea, making ports a crucial place for supply chains despite being small by world standards.

Therefore, above all stereotypes of any kind, young

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And all of this goes through national, regional, and continental measures and policies for greater integration and open markets. Therefore, it is not only at the domestic level that barriers must be raised.

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The weak adhesion of African countries to the Free Trade Area and the various non-tariff barriers is another challenge, no less important, which can discourage entrepreneurial initiatives. The free market, the free movement of people and goods at regional and continental levels, combined with the spirit of adventure and the discovery of new places, can constitute important incentives for the entrepreneurial initiative of young people.

people should consider that in the last decade, globalization and technology have created new opportunities for internationalization, which has boosted supply chains and competitiveness in Africa which, as a developing continent, offers untapped opportunities for everyone looking to enter onto a virgin market. On the other hand, and specifically in the logistics sector, there are customers with specific needs, which have generated an increasing logistical demand on the part of those who seek to expand their operations and improve supply chains and transportation networks.

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entrepreneurial initiatives of those who could choose to transport goods even more expensive, even at the domestic level.

SPECIAL COVERAGE the step beyond the country's real capabilities. As I mentioned earlier, this digitization process is still on an experimental basis with the introduction of electronic sealing of goods in transit in the country and will still take its time to catch up with the digital challenges of the century.

However, this does not paralyze the strong competitive movement, typical of a growing economy, and MOZHANDLING has been introducing technologies to meet the demands of the current and local market, in a process that is certainly still far from being consolidated but allows us to survive in the market.

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The government of Mozambique plans to increase the handling capacity of the port of Maputo annually to 48 million tons by 2033, and also plans to

reactivate the construction of a deep-water port at Techobanine, close to the South African border, and build a new port for Palma, north of Pemba, to support the LNG activities. Can you share your thoughts on these projects and what further policies would you like to see the government implement?

The Oil and Gas industry is the country's biggest challenge and hope for the near future. In addition to the logistical challenges that face the response to the demand of this emerging industry, with regard to the business environment, we hope that some normative instruments relevant to the business sector will be introduced, namely, for the promotion of local content, through specific law, which may allow the creation of national response capacities, particularly with regard to the provision of services and supply of goods, logistical support and intervention of various kinds, we also hope for a consolidation of the Mining Law, Exchange Law and Law of the State Financial Administration System that can encourage the development of an industry with considerable gains for the national economy, with a reduction in the levels of poverty, greater transparency in the division of benefits resulting from the exploitation of natural resources and promotion of the national business community. We also hope that the oil and gas industry will serve as an instrument for the development and complementarity of other industries such as transformation, agriculture and processing and the entire national productive value chain.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown had an adverse economic effect across the continent and the world at large.

As a business leader, can you share with our readers some of the steps that you took to keep your businesses profitable amidst the pandemic?

Having the logistics, the Cargo & Transport agency been one of the most affected sectors after the outbreak of the Pandemic, causing thus the world to have to force itself to shut down due to the restrictions imposed by the uncertainties, you can imagine how difficult it would have been to readjust in favor of a devastated market and left to its fate, having to demand, on the one hand, a business race

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for reinvention to overcome the crisis and we succeeded, and on the other hand, the ability to take different attitudes in the face of the scenario in which the situation contrary to what had been taken as a focus, where we had more creativity in expanding the services in digitalization keeping our customers more confident of their business before MOZHANDLING. For that, we adopted 3 different behaviors that could help us to monitor the situation and keep our professionals more engaged: - Emergency: characterized by a phase of responding to the problems that arose with the pandemic that consisted of protecting our manpower in the adoption of home office conditions whose focus is on their health and safety.

- Crisis Management: creation of structures in defense of the management and company on the legal, tax, financial and communication aspects.

- Strategic reflection: it was a step of analyzing profits and losses and making the most of new opportunities as they arose by always reducing cost.

Business beyond profits has become a buzz word and some business leaders have put together long-term plans to give back to their communities and the world at large. Do you have some philanthropic strides that you will like to share with our readers?

Yes, I am a person who goes beyond to great lengths when it comes to helping others and those who are unable to. For those who know me you shall know how to better elaborate this.

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As a young man who likes to act behind the camera and much more distant from the public's eyes, I have supported considerably and sustainably all who work with me inclusive at most those who are vulnerable because I am part of this and together we have to build a more prosperous society. In fact this is part of me and I will always continue to be.

The logistics industry looks entirely different than it did 10 years ago, can you predict where the industry would be in another decade?

Logistics is one of the pillars of the sustainable development path that Mozambique and Africa in general should continue to follow. The challenges that must be faced for the future development of the logistics industry are not so different from those facing the rest of the world in relation to the supply chain, which includes increased risks, the consequences of globalization and the impact of technology and pressure cost containment due to the growth of competition.

The sustainable growth that the African continent will be able to register in the next 10 years, both in its GDP and in its population and development, will constitute a great opportunity for the import and export of products, in some regions more than in others. To answer such logistical challenges that will arise, one must take into account the differences and conditions of each of these regions before establishing a comprehensive strategy that addresses commercial and logistical factors. However, as I mentioned, the biggest logistical challenge is to overcome the deficient transport infrastructure to ensure efficient road, sea and rail links between economic centers that are still deficient.

On the other hand, it is more than certain that logistical solutions must be created that respond to the challenges of the long-awaited growth above the market average in the coming years. However, in order to guarantee the success of the trade, it is necessary to study in advance the products and the potential markets to which they are destined. Efforts should focus on improving security, increasing transparency, combating corruption and, mainly, improving infrastructure, in front of which there are several projects in process that will improve transport networks.

AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE

ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE As an astute businessman and household name in the Oil and Gas, Media and Sports Sectors, I strongly believe that my high points of achievements are the areas where I have directly or indirectly affected the lives of many people in the course of my journey.

As the current Chief Executive Officer of the Unity Group of Companies with interests in Oil and Gas, Media, Hospitality and Aviation Sectors of the economy, my passion for business and entrepreneurship has greatly contributed to Unity Group.

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Although certain sectors such as the oil and gas sector, has undergone fundamental transformations, the companies under the Unity Group, are now in the midst of a period of growth and development unmatched in its over 25-year history, with a workforce of over 4,500.

I have always demonstrated my knack for business and entrepreneurship, even in my early years. This led to my quest to seek greener pastures in Europe, in the year 1980. During this period, I decided to take some courses in management. After a ten-year sojourn, I decided to return to Ghana to channel the rich experiences acquired in Europe towards the nation's development.

DR. KWAME

KYEI A PROFILE IN EXCELLENCE The measure of success is not by how much money an individual may have in their bank account but by the impact they make in the lives of people via selfless leadership and extraordinary contributions.

This statement has found a fitting expression in the life of a business mogul and leader per excellence, Dr Kwame Kyie, the Chief Executive Officer of Unity Oil. In this piece, he shares a no-holds-bared details about his life, businesses, passion and leadership.

Read On:

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Between 1992 and 1995 I became a Transporter for the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) in the haulage of petroleum products. Thereafter, I established my first petroleum product retail outlet at Taifa – Accra and became a dealer for Unipetrol and the Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL), in 1995. From this humble beginning I steadily expanded the business and was granted an Oil Marketing License by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) leading to the establishment of Unity Oil Company Limited, in 2002. The company has grown into a formidable fuel retail chain with over Forty (40) Petroleum Product Retail Outlets across Ghana.

As a way of contributing to Ghana's burgeoning democracy and expanding media landscape, we established Light FM in Kumasi, in 2006, with the objective of providing social cohesion, civic education, morality and advocacy for the underprivileged in society. In the subsequent years the group has added Light Television, Vision 1 FM and Wisdom FM to the media scene.

Two years down the line, I established the ultra-modern Sports Hotel and Recreational Centre in Kumasi which has carved a niche in the

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ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE hospitality industry.

In 2014, we established Nation Services Company Limited, a Bulk Oil Distribution Company (BDC), to supply and distribute petroleum products to Oil Marketing Companies and other Bulk Distribution Companies in Ghana and other land-locked countries in West Africa.

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Furthermore, I was also appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Kumasi Asante Kotoko Sporting Club by His Royal Majesty Otumfour Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, in November 2016. In addition to my corporate interests, I am also an accomplished farmer who has several acres of land under cultivation in Ghana.

At our companies, our strategy is to recruit and train staff effectively, to subsequently advance their skills and strengthen their leadership capabilities. 31

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My latest addition to the Unity Group is Airfutures Limited, a domestic private airline company registered in Ghana.

As a renowned philanthropist, my business acumen and entrepreneurial capabilities has been recognized both locally and internationally. In 2010, I received an Honorary Doctorate degree in Services and Development from the International Ministerial Council of Europe, an affiliate of the University of Copenhagen. I was also adjudged the Petroleum and Gas Entrepreneur of the Year (2013) at the 4th Ghana Entrepreneur Awards, in April 2014.

Moreover, in the following year, I received an award for Business Excellence in the Oil Sector of Ghana at the West African Regional Magazine Business and Leadership Awards held in Lagos, Nigeria.

I am also a member of the West African Nobles Forum.

Additionally, I sponsor the organization of a peace campaign/ annual thanksgiving service to bring people together and pray for the nation. Year-on-year, the thanksgiving service has an average participation of about 1,000,000 people from all walks of life.

Throughout my life, I have championed the cause of indigenous entrepreneurship. I believe that the Ghanaian youth must be inculcated with self-confidence, a 'can do' attitude ad belief in their abilities to transform Ghana's economy.

For the Unity Group, I believe we have laid a firm foundation.

We foresee the companies under the group expanding internationally and emerging as the preferred business partner for West Africa and beyond.

Employee Inclusion and Diversity, as a Key Performance Indicator At our companies, our strategy is to recruit and train staff effectively, to subsequently advance their skills and strengthen their leadership capabilities. This is also achieved via strong employee engagement, to enhance employee performance. We seek to maintain a healthy dialogue between management and employees via employee representative bodies where management provides information to our staff on operational and financial results.

In uncertain times, a strong employee engagement is important in order to maintain strong business delivery.

The oil and gas landscape is evolving. Thus, performance in a company working in this sector necessitates competent and empowered staff.

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ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE

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There is a growing number of women working the oil and gas sector in Ghana, although not enough women employed in the sector as a whole. This is critical because women in Ghana are often key income providers in their families. This has fueled our vision to seek to empower women so they can positively influence their families and communities, in the long run. Women are 32 empowered and equipped to venture into this male dominated sector we operate in. For instance, all fuel attendants working in Unity Oil Stations across the nation, are all women. In addition, women have occupied management positions as well to create gender diversity in the company. We provide equal opportunity in recruitment, career development, promotion, training and rewards for all employees.

We actively monitor representation of women and have talent-development processes to support us in delivering more diverse representation.

We aim for a diverse workforce and an inclusive environment that respects and supports all of our people, especially women, and helps improve our business performance. Our diversity and inclusion approach focuses on progression, retention, inclusive leadership and transforming our external reputation.

Social Impact as a Key Performance Indicator Successful businesses today are not easily satisfied with monetary returns but instead seek to examine the significance of their business activities in terms of impact on the society, as a whole. Thus, our companies fall in such category of businesses, making social impact a Key Performance Indicator.

We believe investing in communities not only benefits us but the society and the environment we operate in. Not only does our social impact deliver business growth but has a positive impact on people in the community we operate in other communities as well.

Social Performance plays a key role in delivering the businesses' strategy at the community level. Through our initiatives, we have built strong relationships with people in the

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community. Understanding their concerns and managing our impact on them is a priority and essential to us being responsible. Although profit is still an important indicator of the success of the business, we also define ourselves as a great business when we are able to change people's lives for the better, by opportunity creation and empowerment, rather than purely financial metrics.

We contribute to building skills in the communities where we operate by supporting education and promoting women empowerment. For instance, Unity Oil annually donates to primary schools in the Ashanti Region. Recently, the company constructed a computer lab and library for the Amankwatia school in Kumasi.

Furthermore, the company annually donates clothing to widows and children homes. Additionally, the company occasionally pays off medical bills for the less fortunate or those who are unable to afford their medical bills at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).

Radio is a unique and effective tool for the provision of information. Vision 1 has gained popularity in the quest to empower communities and providing a forum for diversity of opinions and information. Not only does Vision 1 serve the interest of its geographic communities, but its content of broadcasting is largely popular and relevant to a local audience, which may often be overlooked by mass-media broadcasters. These communities drive the operations of the radio station and the radio station can be said to be largely owned and driven by the community.

Vision 1 provides a mechanism for facilitating individuals, groups, and communities to tell their own diverse stories, to share experiences, promoting national values, promoting Christian morality, and advocating for the less fortunate.

Vision 1 is a non-partisan radio station, which promotes civic education by providing information and learning experiences to equip and empower citizens to participate in democratic processes.

The radio station also enhances the capacities of local people to work together and to tackle a range of social problems, including poverty and exclusion through radio.

For 10 years, the Unity Group hosts an Annual Thanksgiving Service. In every election year, the Peace Campaign is launched at these thanksgiving services to promote nonviolence in Ghana during the election period to ensure the country has a peaceful election. This is a way we promote social cohesion and work towards the wellbeing of citizens in our country.

Lastly, the radio station in conjunction with the tv network under the Unity Group, contributes to nurturing of the creative talents of the community. The Gospel New Stars is an annual talent show under the Unity Group, to discover younger talent and support them as participants.

This social impact contributes to driving mileage for the radio station, in the area of listeners and also in advertisements. In addition, it contributes to strengthening the brand reputation of the companies, thus attracting foreign investments and partners as more companies today are keen on assessing the environmental and social impact of other businesses before venturing into business.

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ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE

An Energy Leader Par Excellence

Nnamdi Obiagwu, MD/CEO

Mr. Obiagwu is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Technology Owerri. He has worked across several countries and industries during the course of his career whilst also attending numerous local and international trainings including; INSEAD KenanFlagler Business School, Enterprise Leadership Program, Achieve Global Professional Selling Skills and Acclivus Professional Negotiation to mention a few.

His work experience is a testament to his versatility, love of challenges and success in a wide range of business segments that span Telecoms, Lubricant Sales, Business Development, Financial & Business Data Analysis & Reporting, Distributor Network Development, Fuels Territory Management, Fuels Supply Chain Management, Oil & Gas Consulting, Financial Advisory, Co-operative Administration & Management, Marine Vessel Management, and Executive Management.

He commenced his career at Digital Computer Communication (a Computer Warehouse company) as a network engineer responsible for feasibility assessments, planning, and implementation of computer networks linking sites nationally. Where he found a flair for IT and developed an understanding of its importance and role in modern business.

In 2001, he moved to Mobil Oil Nigeria plc (an ExxonMobil subsidiary) as a Lubrication Sales Engineer responsible for lube sales across various channels. Driven by performance and innate ability, he rose through the ranks to Special Sales Projects and Business Development. This involved the development and implementation of key sales & marketing strategies along with relevant analysis.

To harness and further develop his competencies, he was deployed to the ExxonMobil Africa Mid- East Head office in Brussels, Belgium as an expatriate in 2004.

His assignment involved financial and business data collection, analysis, and presentation to both lubes and fuels top management. An experience that availed him the opportunity to understand the inner workings of Multi-national Corporations and expectations as a top executive. his return to Nigeria, he was responsible for technical sales of specialized lubricants and lubrication solutions to help customers optimize lube and plant performance across Nigeria and worked to bring the young distributorship model and network to maturity.

He subsequently became the Fleet/Logistics Manager responsible for transportation and all logistics to move fuel on a national scale and in the management of all related relationships (unions, transporters, agencies, etc.).

In 2014, he left Mobil and established COMACO Advisory Ltd, a company that provides corporate advisory services to Oil & Gas, Marine, Financial, Cooperatives and other sectors of the economy and in addition took on the role as an Executive Director, Supervising- Marine for the HARPS group of companies to coordinate the activities of the Nigerian and Singaporean offices.

He joined Eterna plc in July 2017 as GM head of Lubricants responsible for all lubricant's activities and was appointed to the board of Eterna January 2020 as the Executive Director/Chief Operating Officer.

He has served on the Boards of several private companies, has all the requisite experience and the professional but calm personality that would allow steer Eterna through despite the prevailing challenges currently facing the industry.

In 2009, he was immersed in the fuels side of the business as a Territory Manager, responsible for all fuel-related activity in Eastern Nigeria for almost 40 sites. His duties

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Shortly after, he became the Fuels Supply Manager responsible for the National fuels supply chain operations from importation and local sourcing to ensuring product availability to over 250 sites and corporate customers.

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ranged from enforcement of retailing standards to resolution of ligation and legal issues.

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Buoyed by the determination to become Africa's leading energy power house, Eterna Plc appointed Mr Nnamdi Obiagwu as the new Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Mr Obiagwu whose impressive background has prepared him for the onerous task of leading the oil and gas conglomerate has already stepped up to the new task with gusto. He is set to provide the necessary leadership needed for the attainment of extra-ordinary heights in the industry.

INTERVIEW PROFILE

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DR. TENI ADESANYA: HARNESSING AFRICA'S

TALENT, SKILLS & SMART IDEAS FOR GLOBAL IMPACT Africa's young and resilient population has put the continent ahead of the curve in smart-thinking and can-do-spirit. According to a recent UN report nearly 60% of the continent's population are under the age of 25, making Africa the youngest continent in the world.

The continent's young population has been described as a blessing, but, only smart and purposely leadership can help transform the continent's young demography into an asset.

The Chairman of Oxford International group has joined the growing list of leaders that are changing the narrative and harnessing the continent's young population towards pushing boundaries and making global impact. In his words, “We can't afford to waste the talents, skills and smart ideas that our young people are blessed with''.

In this exclusive interview with African Leadership Magazine UK, he talks about the company's strides and his role in galvanizing the youth for global impact.

Excerpts:

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AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE

INTERVIEW

Talking about our success isn't so much of a secret but more of laser-like execution of our strategies, which boils down to three major factors.

The first is 'our people'. We made them understand the business, its vision, and their part in it. Beyond these, we made co-owners of the business so that they own a stake in it, and they can see it. With this, they understand that the success of the business is their success. Of course, they'd go all out to make it a success.

We call our staff “associates” or “smart entrepreneurs”, with this sense, they don't see themselves as 'mere employees' but business owners within a business. That was such a motivating force like we've never seen.

The second is our model or “system”. We saw the way conventional businesses operate, and the limitations that bring. We went a different route.

From the organizational structure to operational processes, down to how people rise through the ranks, it was completely different.

We know the primary and most urgent solution lies in “Job creation” that will create massive access to opportunities. With jobs come the ability to earn and be self-sufficient. If you're sufficient, you can contribute to the national economy. It's that simple.

I've met thousands of young Africans, they are energetic, smart, brimming with ideas, and ready to conquer the world, so why not create opportunities for them?

You recently linked Nigeria's tedious land documentation process to the country's housing deficit. Tell us more about their interconnectedness?

Last is our mission, which is clear as daylight – “taking over the business space in Nigeria, while creating multimillionaires and thousands of jobs along the way.” So, if you ask, our success boils down to three things – our people, our model, and the mission we are running with.

Promoting entrepreneurship is at the center of your foundation's mission – as you put it, “Our mission is to build a Nigeria, and Africa where young people have equal opportunities to realize

One of the core mandates of every business is to boost the economic growth of its people through Job creation. How would you score Oxford

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Government can't provide all the solutions, individuals, corporate organisations, foundations and NGOs like ours have to step in to fill the gap.

Existing data puts the country's housing deficit at close to 20 million – that is staggering. While there are many factors responsible for this, one stood out for me, especially because I'm a stakeholder in the Real Estate industry – land documentation process. It is strenuous and tough; the bottleneck involved in the process essentially discourages potential home-owners, many people just giveup completely especially with middleclass individuals busy with their professional lives. It literally takes months, sometimes years. Although, additional measures and policies are being put in place by the government to make it easier, until these are fully implemented and operational, we'd still be where we are. So, yes, they are interconnected – among other factors.

We craft the system in such a way that anyone can get to the top within a short time frame while giving your absolute best to the organization. You can say this model is unique as we don't exactly conform to conventional business operating models. A very visible example is in our reward packages for associates. Of course, we are not a rigid organization, we are constantly adapting and evolving to meet new realities.

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The reason is not far-fetched. We live in a continent with many challenges that have left many young people with huge potential in poverty, limited access to opportunities, and confused as to the next step in life.

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It is a fact that starting a business from scratch in this part of the world is tough and the reasons are many. Ranging from infrastructural deficiencies to regulatory landmines and others. But despite these challenges, there are existing and emerging opportunities for smart thinking entrepreneurs to leverage.

their potentials, pursue their dreams and aspirations.” Why is this so important for you and your organization?

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Entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan has been described by some analysts as an uphill task. A World Bank report maintained that entrepreneurs in the continent, face some of the harshest business conditions in the world. Can you share some of your success strategies, in building one of the continent's most diversified business groups?

INTERVIEW Group Africa in this regard?

Well, so far, we have built several businesses across different sectors of the economy, while raising about 5,000 smart entrepreneurs in the process and creating hundreds of jobs. We are not there yet, in fact, we've not scratched the surface but definitely, we are in the right direction.

You seem to be very passionate about youth mentorship and philanthropy?

What fuels your passion in these areas and are there success stories you may want to share?

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My biggest motivation is the desire to maximise the human capacity potential of young Africans. We can't afford to waste the talents, skills and smart ideas that our young people are blessed with. Through our philanthropic efforts, we have been able to reach hundreds of people and families in different impactful ways.

We have helped to fund business ideas, support small businesses, paid tuition for students and also support families with food supplies. In all of these, I am first grateful for the privilege I have to touch these lives and secondly, I'm motivated to do more when I see the depth of impact we are You have quite a laudable leadership pedigree. What are some leadership nuggets you would love to share with our readers?

I have been asked this question many times and my answers are always the same. Four things have been the core ingredients of leadership for me that I discovered myself. They are Courage, Self-confidence, Winner's mentality, and Emotional Intelligence or I'd say Empathy. I could say a lot about these four What are some successes of Oxford International Group that should be promoted? Ÿ

Our speed of growth within such a short period of operation in an economy with several regulatory or operational challenges.

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The number of lives touched and impacted positively through our business operations and philanthropy efforts.

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Our contribution during the Covid-19 lockdown.

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The recent launch of our Microfinance bank – Safegate Microfinance.

You have been selected by the Africa Leadership UK Group Limited for some honours. How do you feel about these endorsements?

More often than not, these awards are a reminder of two things. One, that we are doing something good, worthy of recognition. Two, we are just starting and we need to do more.

I am delighted and honoured by this award.

My biggest motivation is the desire to maximise the human capacity potential of young Africans. We can't afford to waste the talents, skills and smart ideas that our young people are blessed with.

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FEATURE

THE GLOBAL CITIZEN CALLED WRITER:

HOW I LEVERAGED WRITING TO BUILD INFLUENCE & CREATE IMPACT IN THE SOCIAL SPACE!

By Inemesit Hanson

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "GLOBAL CITIZEN?" Just before I get into what this phrase really is and what it means to me, I want you to know that I am not about to bore you with the story of how I started writing at 8 years old or how I struggled with making a living from writing and all of that stuff. No! Even though all of the above I just mentioned is true, however, this story is about my journey to embracing my style of giving back to humanity as well as defeating the imposter syndrome I suffered whenever I felt that my writing skill was not enough to impact lives.

The first time I ever heard about the phrase "global citizen" was from a friend. I never really liked the phrase because I thought it was one of those big names that people liked to call themselves. I mean, I was also calling myself a professional volunteer at the time but I just didn't like that phrase, "Global Citizen." Maybe it was because I felt intimidated by the word "Global" or it was the context in which the phrase was used. Either way, the phrase "Global Citizen" refers to someone who is aware of and understands the wider world – and their place in it. These persons take an active role in their community and work with others to make our planet more peaceful, sustainable and fairer.

This definition of the phrase " Global Citizen" was so magnanimous for me and this was because while growing up in the ever bubbling city of Lagos, Nigeria; I was taught to believe that only those who engaged in environmental sanitation, gave food to the needy and took clothes to orphanages were worthy citizens of the country. For the longest possible time, I couldn't give back to my community or make an impact just because I didn't have clothes nor money to contribute to the growth and betterment of humanity. Even when I started volunteering professionally with a certain organization in Lagos about 4 years ago, I still felt that I wasn't making an impact or giving back enough. So when this friend of mine would always say, I am a Global Citizen, I felt like... "What have you done for humanity that you should call yourself a Global Citizen?" I still believe it was the imposter syndrome that triggered this line of thoughts all this while but then something happened...

A lightning hit me hard in the head and the imposter syndrome I had been

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Just before you begin to say "Oh, I have heard about the power of writing a book and all of that stuff..."; You might really want to read this next part. You see, I had written a book before, ooh yes! I did a book launch in Abuja city, the Capital of Nigeria and I went on a book tour. I gained media appearances and sold over 300 copies of the book between 2019 and 2020 as a self published author but then, why didn't any lightening of wisdom strike me? Heck, why didn't I gain this knowledge several years ago when I started writing at 8 years old?

Why? I didn't gain this knowledge that this second book gave me because I didn't write a book about myself. I didn't write a book centered on my flaws, my successes, what I know and what I have been through. I didn't write an intentional book. I just wrote all these while for the fun of it and I say this because I encountered a paradigm shift in my line of thoughts after writing my second book called "ANYBODY CAN WRITE A BOOK!" This book took the veil off my eyes and helped me believe that truly, my writings are enough to impact lives and make me a Global Citizen in the social space.

After reading this part, you would think that this realization just happened like that. Well no! Things started unfolding gradually and this is why I always say that "It is in the doing that clarity is obtained" - Inemesit Hanson.

After launching this book for free in February 2020, I quit my job because I was tired of the cycle of impostor syndrome and self doubt that wrecked around me even at work. In the middle of a pandemic, when

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suffering disappeared. Do you believe that?

Of course not. I know you don't but that was what happened or more like what happened!

A lightening of self awareness did strike me and it led me to write a book! Yes! This was what actually happened!

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FEATURE people were losing their jobs, Inemesit Hanson was resigning from hers with no job in hand. How would I survive? What would I do? I really doubted that decision. I wallowed in self pity until I decided to celebrate my first book launch in March 2020. My first book "ALL THE SIMPLE THINGS I LIKE" was going to be a year old in March and so I decided to create a "14days write your book challenge" to help others write a book because I now knew that "Anybody Can Write A Book" and that was it.

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The challenge couldn't end there! It had to continue because it 38 was indeed transforming lives and people were actually writing a book in the pandemic. The significance to this is that people were finding themselves. People were achieving lifelong dreams of becoming authors- a dream I had never had because I on the other hand just wanted to write. The challenge went on in April, May and then in June before another thing happened... Don't worry I'll go straight to the point this time. What happened was that I was invited to speak at YALI NETWORK Abuja on the topic "The Power Of Now." Apparently, someone had recommended that I speak. I was stunned at first, me? For those of you who may not know this- YALI ( Young African Leaders Initiative) Network is an Initiative of the US Embassy.

It was only people I admired and looked up to that spoke on this platform and this was why this speaking engagement really meant a lot to me. I finally came on board to speak on "The Power of Now" as regards the writing industry and harnessing opportunities in the pandemic as a writer.

Flash back to three months later, I was recommended by two people to become the next Programs Officer of YALI NETWORK ABUJA! It was really perplexing when I got the recommendation text!

I mean, me? A writer? What do I have to offer to Almighty YALI! I was going to turn it down when I remembered the popular words of Late Ubong King which says, "If you are asked to do something and you don't know how to do it, don't say no to this task just because you don't know how to. Say Yes first and then learn on the job." At almost the same time I remembered these words, I became affirmed that I have been prepared for this position my whole life. I reminded myself of how I had been giving back to the community via community sanitation in secondary school, I reminded myself on how I won best Leadership position in secondary school as head girl, I reminded myself of how I volunteered all through my university days and coordinated programs for my lecturers in school, I reminded myself on how I served tirelessly in a volunteering firm back then in Lagos, of how I started a networking organization upon my arrival in Abuja to help youths leverage on their networking skills even as a Corp member. I remembered my successes as an author and my book tours and boy oh boy the strength to begin the job role came upon me. Never underestimate the power of affirmations!

There was another problem of how to win this job role because I had other competitors and a vote would be conducted but then I still believed that when I get to that bridge, I will cross it. Eventually, I did cross the bridge. I won the election as the elected programs officer of YALI NETWORK even though I wasn't what you would call a popular member of the network. Wow! I now write and draft programs for this network. I now serve one of Africa's largest network of Young Leaders via writing programs and not by community sanitation, not by giving relief materials, not by clothes, not by what I had once known or been exposed to in my quest to

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serve humanity but by my writing skill-set.

This is not to say that all of these things don't matter or that I don't still engage in these activities, no! This is to say that your skill- sets, your craft, your art, your creativity, your writings can serve the globe at large. Don't look down on it. In my case, my recent position and antecedents has helped me encourage as many writers as possible to hone their skills and make an impact in their community. I am now a firm believer that a writer has the capacity to change the narrative at a global level easier than any other creative especially because of parastatals like Amazon, global magazines and virtual stages that now exist.

This is why I advise that all writers should write a book and by writers, I mean, you and I because writing is an innate nature of being human. As a matter of fact, it has always been my gospel that "One Book can change your life forever!" You just need to find your why for writing that book and viola, you are on to making an impact in your industry or community! Writing that one book helped me make an impact in my communities for writers as well as in the social space and that is not all... Writing that one book helped me build influence that in turn guided me in starting my digital business as a writer called Your Writing Camp. So you see, the dividends of impact and influence is most times affluence.

Via Your writing Camp,a school for writers, I have been able to help over 50 and still counting writers become authors since its inception in May 2020. I have helped a number of writers make a living from writing and I have helped share my knowledge on how to use writing to impact lives in the social space.

My book "ANYBODY CAN WRITE A BOOK" is still out for free and it is still impacting lives even as I write this now. A while ago, I saw that friend of mine make a post on "Being A Global Citizen" and the lightning that hit me this time was pretty much an AHA Moment. I said to myself, I am now also a Global Citizen! You, my friend, is also a global citizen because we are gradually learning to impact the lives of people ( both young and old) across the world via our writing skill-sets.

Finally, being a Global Citizen beckons to the fact that you are ready to inspire and inform others on the need to build a fair, safe and more secure world for everyone using the power of your voice and hey, what better way can you best communicate this knowledge than to keep writing for the world to see?

The world may be changing fast, but you can make a positive difference if only you embrace your identity as a writer! Cheers!

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Afric n Leadership

NIGER DELTA UNIVERSITY - A HAVEN FOR ACADEMIC & ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE IN NIGERIA

SPECIAL EDUCATION REPORT

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GOVERNOR

DOUYE DIRI: Educating Bayelsans for Sustainable Growth & Development

SPECIAL EDUCATION REPORT

Poised to confront the twin problems of unemployment and insecurity, the Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri has prioritized education development in the state. The Governor's commitment to providing quality education stems from his firm belief that education can serve as the greatest leveller – providing the much-needed platform for sustainable growth and development.

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Before the Governor Dickson-led administration which laid the foundation for the current administration's ambitious efforts to make the state an education hub, Bayelsa state was ranked 28th in the Education Development Index out of the 36 states in Nigeria. Militancy thrived, and countless numbers of youths were lured into illegality and violent crime. For a state that is the 4th largest oil producer in the country, this shouldn't be the case. More so, Nigeria is ranked as Africa's top oil producer, with an economy estimated at approximately N150 trillion.

Driven by the need to change the narrative and present Bayelsa as a viable destination for discerning investors looking for investment security, which flows from an informed citizenry, Governor Douye Diri has sustained commitments to education development.

Notably, the Governor's support for tertiary Education has continued to attract commendation from significant stakeholders. While recently constituting a joint committee on NDU ASUU, the Governor who is the visitor to the school, maintained that his administration would continue to support education in the state. In his words, “the educational sector would continually enjoy a pride of place in my administration.”

The Governor reiterated his commitment to working with relevant stakeholders to advance quality education in the state. Investment in Education has had a demonstrable impact in Bayelsa State.

In furtherance of his commitment to education development, the Governor has allocated a sizable budget for the sector in the state in the 2021 budget.

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In 2018, UNICEF reported that 13.2 million children out of school in Nigeria are the highest number globally. In 2016, Nigeria was ranked 152nd out of 188 countries in educational achievements by the UN Human Development Index.

SPECIAL EDUCATION REPORT

NDU IS SOLVING SOCIETAL PROBLEMS MATTHEW SEIYEFA, PRO-CHANCELLOR

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Universities exist to solve societal problems, but not very many institutions have embraced this truth. Niger Delta University fully understands her place in evolving solution to peculiar challenges confronting her immediate environment and Nigeria at large. In this exclusive interview with African Leadership Magazine, the Pro-Chancellor of the University, Mr Matthew Seiyefa, talks about the institution's problem-solving mantra and strict adherence to value addition. Excerpts: You have been a great advocate for quality education as a panacea for solving some societal ills. How has your current position as the Chairman helped in the promotion of these ideals?

To start with, though I did not work in the University environment, I've always been very passionate about education. And I was always drawn to the university system. Anywhere I go in the world, I find myself visiting universities, not because I have somebody there. While others are going shopping, I'm going to the university.

I do so to enjoy the ambience and the serenity and also shop for books. As you may be aware, I have a massive bookshop in Yenagoa. Most people ask me, 'Why did you build the bookshop in Yenagoa?". I say, why not. If you have been to Harvard University Bookshop, it's the same design you find in my state. Some people think I should have been in the academia. But, every endeavour requires intellectual rigour.

When I retired and went back to my state, the Governor appointed me as the Pro-Chancellor of the Niger Delta University. Before the appointment, he told me that the State University's Pro Chancellorship is the only position in which he feels I will fit in. He said it's where I can operate and not be answerable to him as the Governor.

When I went into that environment, I saw a very passionate vice-chancellor. And we both went to my home, where we discussed at length and shared a lot of values. We all believe very strongly in the power of education. More so, because of the area where we come from that is marginalized, We feel alienated, and education is the key, and my story best exemplifies that. I went from the village to the Federal system and competed. They don't concede anything to you.

An American thinker said, "traditionally, you have three sources of power, Wealth, Violence and

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As things stand today, knowledge rules the world. So, experience affects the economy, and it affects everything. We have an alarming situation going on in the university environment. People are after the paper, rather than the content that they go with it. People don't want to think; everybody runs away from thinking, you know, you listen to television programs and wonder what the quality of thought is? What is so difficult, for instance, in our context, these herders and farmers issue? Why don't you confront ranching? Nothing happening here is new; it has happened elsewhere. Universities are meant to solve problems, and I shared this with the V.C. I said Prof. 'This University was created to solve problems. What problems are endemic here? What problems can we solve? What is the quality of intellectual rigour that you can bring to bear on the issues here? For instance, last year, we had the issue of flooding. The Governor called the V.C. he said, "V.C., you know, what are we doing, what can we do? ". That's a practical situation, the Governor calling the V.C. "What can we do?". COVID happened; I was there, we presented some materials that the university produced - sanitizers, soaps, many products and all that to the government.

Knowledge rules the world. So, experience affects the economy, and it affects everything.

People are after the paper, rather than the content that they go with it.

We are also promoting quality output from our lecturers.

The rank of Professor is global; there's no 'NDU' professor.

Anywhere you go, they call you Professor. Yes, Professor, so you must earn it; you must deserve it. Pay the price. Academics is voluntary, and you came into it. You must pay the price. Nobody forced you into it; you say you want to teach, you want to be an academic, OK, there's a process, you must learn to sit down, you must sit down and read. There's no other way because the dollar is inside the pages. You must be noble to open them. You must learn to wake up in the night, put on the light, wash your face; there are no two ways about it. If you can't do that, you can't be an academic and then expect that after three years, promotion, another three years, promotion. Where are your publications? A

The media people were there, and it was an interactive session. And the media said, "What are you doing to be able to solve the COVID problems?" and I asked the V.C. to answer the question - which hacks back to the purpose of a University? What is the goal of a University? It's much more than issuing certificates; it's about solving societal problems. So, I said V.C. these are the issues; the university is not there as the ivory tower to talk about academics alone; it must provide the solution to societal problems; it can't live in isolation. And that is why they talk about the town and gown interaction. You can't be isolated; you are there to provide a solution; beyond teaching, there is research, and there is community outreach.

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Last year, we provided about 18 hours of electricity in the school environment. No university in Nigeria does that, eighteen hours!

They don't. But we were doing it religiously, so I said, look, "this is not sustainable; what can we do? We entered a partnership with a power plant in the region to deploy their excess power towards powering our university community. Through the University's IGR, we single-handedly built the evacuation infrastructure. We took delivery of that project in August 2020. In the process, twenty communities on the road got electricity, including our host community and the Bayelsa airport. So we have regular electricity. Now how does that help us? I said, "V.C., we talk to the academic staff, how do you use this electricity availability? We need you to stay in your offices, conduct your studies. The laboratories are open 24 hours, do your research.

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Knowledge". These three sources often inspire and determine how value and recognition are distributed in every society. The person with wealth; those with an enormous appetite for violence; it's either he's a wrestler or a hunter, but when the village is in a problem that requires physical prowess, you turn to those people. He's the one to lead the warriors to defend the community. And then there's the person who knows. He's the wise guy, they can be arguing about things, and they will consult him to find out what he has to say about the issue. Every society witnesses the interplay of these three structures.

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professor of History, a professor of what one can profess? Where is your Inaugural lecture? So those are the things.

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Some analysts have drawn a correlation between poor education and rising cases of insecurity in Nigeria. Do you see any correlation between the two?

It's leadership. Leadership and governance will drive every other thing.

Education provides the skills, and by way of general remarks, I used to tell my class, because I was in the training school for years. I said look, "whether you are a child in Maiduguri, a child in Sokoto, a child in Lagos, and all that. We cannot pretend that they are different. They are not different. For instance, I did my NYSC in Kano at the School of Islamic and Legal Studies because I studied Law. So I went to teach there. So you have men on one side, and you have women on the other side of the class, and all that. OK, they don't mix, but it's all artificial. When you interact with them, it's all artificial. We have the same desires. The children in Maiduguri, the children in Bayelsa all have the same desires. You can pretend, but, they are looking at the same contents on their phones, they enjoy the same music, they have the same aspirations. You can pretend that "Oh, we have shielded our children". It's a lie, so all of them have the same aspirations; they listen to Davido. They have the same desires to better their lives; they enjoy the good things that technology has offered, good phones, good clothes, cars, all these things that we all aspire for. They have the same taste, but they don't know how to get these things. Since they don't have the skills, but they have the aspiration, they grow to find any means of satisfying their aspirations. Education enables you to navigate the modern world, through skills, through understanding. How society operates and all that, how you can solve problems, contribute, and get paid for it. But if you don't have an education, you don't have any skill, you can't understand how society works, but you have physical strength, then you resort to self-help. That's why they resort to crimes like kidnapping, abduction and the rest. Or somebody now brings a group of people together to explain how they can get out of poverty by radicalizing the Northeast. They say things like, "look, these people are the cause of our problems. That is why you cannot eat; that is why you don't have access to good things. Let us attack them, let us fight them and all that. They simplify things and then give them guns. And then you have a group of people that will say, "Look, in this place, we are going to create utopia.

That is what you find with groups like Boko Haram.

We also have the same simplification strategy in the South through Pastors. "Pray, fast, pay your tithe, do this, do that". No work. If you don't work, if you don't have the skill to do something and pray until tomorrow, it won't work even though however, in this case, nobody tells you to go on an illegal route.

Tell us more about your role as the Honorary Adviser to the Bayelsa State Government on Security?

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If you look at Brazil, in the late Sixties to early Seventies, the North East of Brazil was closely related to poverty. The semi-arid areas are just like our Northeast, but somehow these semi-arid areas are suitable for cattle rearing. The Brazilians decided to turn the story around; they turned that place into their haven for cattle rearing and animal husbandry, did irrigation and all that. And today, Brazil is known as one of the critical exporters of beef. In fact, as of 2006, when I was there on a study tour, the Brazilian population was at I think about 175 million or so, and they had about 275 million herds of cattle.

So it is not rocket science that is so difficult. Security is about development, and development is about Security. For instance, since last year, somehow, the politicians have gotten us to focus on 2023. Everybody is now focused on 2023. We have left governance; nobody talks about governance. Elections are the core of democracy because it offers people the choice to change leaders. But it's much more than elections. What happens between elections is governance. Governance happens between elections; that's the core of democracy because without development, what is democracy? If you are not developing your people, can they make the right choices at the next elections? They can't. So you threaten your democracy by not developing your people because they will not make an informed choice at the next electoral exercise. But we have abandoned governance; right now, everybody is about 2023.

How did Qatar overcome the challenge as a Semi-arid place? They set up ranches overnight. Now they are producing their meats. So if we cannot go to Space, the things that are on the terrestrial level, can't we also tackle them?

Can't we occupy our Space and feed cattle? Human beings have to die, and we have no solution? Are we all helpless? Ordinary ranching? To get cattle into Space and feed them? It's unbelievable.

Funding remains a significant challenge to the growth and development of most universities in the country. How are you managing the issue of funding at the university?

Elections are the core of Democracy because it offers people the choice to change leaders all that. But it's much more than elections. What happens between elections is governance. Governance happens between elections; that's the core of Democracy because without development, what is Democracy.

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What is your view on the recent upsurge in the farmer-herder crisis in Nigeria?

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In this capacity, I encourage the government to pursue purposeful leadership and governance. Governance is the key to Security. IN THE SIXTIES, the U.S. secretary of defence gave a seminar address in 1966 -. an address where he said that "Security is development and development is security ". He talked about human nature, that no matter how resilient human beings are, if they are pushed to the wall, they will respond. Look at Zamfara, all these places where you have endemic security problems; it's not rocket science. Look at it objectively; look at the quality of their governance, you'll see that it hasn't been optimal. We don't have to be emotional; it is proven, anywhere you have good quality governance, it doesn't get there; it doesn't get to insecurity. Findings have also shown that "as development progresses, security progresses". So, Security and development are intrinsic; if you don't develop a place, you cannot run away from insecurity.

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If we want to remain relevant in years to come, we need to rethink the funding paradigm in that place in terms of teaching, quality teaching, research, and community outreach.

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That's the challenge we had, and I mentioned it during our thanksgiving.

We usually have an annual thanksgiving. If you have a copy of my remarks there, that was one of the things I mentioned, funding. I challenged the community; let us think afresh; the state government will not provide financing to change the 46 university's narrative. If we want to remain relevant in years to come, we need to rethink the funding paradigm in terms of teaching, quality teaching, research, and community outreach.

The state government cannot remain the most significant source of funding.

We must do other things, which is why the Niger Delta, the water, and all the other entrepreneurial initiatives were birthed.

The bottled water is the best in that environment, but we have been limited because it is in school and far removed from the town. We just acquired a place at sum millions of Naira to start in the city, so that the logistics issues will not be there.

People can easily pick, and we're also acquiring a warehouse, and people can get these supplies. That is in addition to other things. The entrepreneurship team is very critical to all the range of products; how do we ramp up production to meet the needs of that place. The state ought to be a captive market, but we are not able to do that. Let us do more of that.

The potential is there, but what can we do to ramp up the spread. We also need to do more strategic investment And then do housing, hotels and all that. Those are the things we were exploring. Fisheries, the state government is bringing some loan from CBN, and they gave some of it to the university to go into fishing and rice farming because that environment is lovely. Bayelsa is the most advantaged state in the Federation for Rice farming.

I was director of the Institute of Security studies, and I brought in the Kebbi state governor, this was 2016, to talk to us about Rice farming. Kebbi Rice is phenomenal, and he said he didn't know I was from Bayelsa; when he was speaking to the class, he said

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the best state in this country for rice farming is Bayelsa state.

The VC recently emerged African Educationist of the Year. How do you think this particular honour will inspire the Vice-Chancellor and the entire region and people of the Niger Delta?

It's just like what the Governor told me when he offered me that position as an honorary special adviser; I said, why? There's no need because you said you're already doing it; I said let's leave it that way. He said no, but that getting to that level, we need to amplify it so that the younger people coming will say, 'since this person can get there, then I too can get there. It provides that opportunity for aspirations, so let us do it that way.

I said, okay, since that is it, then let us do it. Because I am a very self-fulfilling person, I like to be in the background, the university thing is more than enough. We always need to give people what to aspire for.

In the university, for instance, we wanted to make the professors comfortable, and we bought brand new cars for all of them. We want others to aspire to reach that height.

We purchased about 45 vehicles to go round for the Professors. I said in my service, the director rank is what you aspire to as a professional. When you come in as a graduate, you expect that you become a director before you retire. The director-general is just the icing on the cake.

will expect something from you, and you are expected to bring something to the table as a professor, so even on your way to work, you are supposed to be thinking. Somebody should drive you while you're reflecting. This vehicle is not your vehicle, it's only attached to your office or your rank as a professor, so you need a driver to handle it.

That's the essence. A professor should not be washing his car, society has a particular value that they expect from you, and they have paid for all these things to free you from these mundane things so that you can bring that unique value to the table. So that in the end, when we call you 'Professor this', you should be able to profess.

This particular award will also push him and other people in the region to do more. I know the amount of effort he has made, so he deserves this new one; I think it will spur him on. One thing going for him is that conviction, that spiritual conviction.

He's keying on that. Many factors play in life, but when you also have that spiritual sight, when you have that conviction about the essence of life, what life is all about, it helps. At times, when one is down as a human being, opposition here and there. Because not many people will buy into that, no matter how good you are, there will always be opposition, so at those times, I encourage him. I say,' you are a pastor, God brought you here, look at what we have achieved. What are you going to give back to God? It is to continue in the path you have taken.

When I took over as ProChancellor, people kept coming to me with different stories, but they stopped coming when they saw that I was not interested.

A professor should have a vehicle provided by the university. And a professor should not be driving himself; he should have a driver. We

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Passion, Excellence & Integrity OUR CREED AT NDU

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Professor Samuel Gowon Edumiekumo, Vice Chancellor

During the ALM Team’s visit and interaction with students and staff of the Niger Delta University, one thing was constant – they were all united in their position that leadership made all the difference and largely responsible for the huge local and international traction that the school is gaining.

In this exclusive interview with African Leadership Magazine UK, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Samuel Gowon Edumiekumo talks about his efforts towards making the institution a global citadel for excellence in learning; entrepreneurship, character and research. Excerpts:

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You have been on the saddle as the Vice-Chancellor for the past three years, and the university recently marked her 20th anniversary. Can you share some of the milestones of the university?

I will say that a historical overview will prepare us to analyse these few years you have talked about and these 2-3 years when I took over as ViceChancellor. The school was signed into law on the 15th of May, 2000.

Academic activities started precisely April 2002 in this university, and I happen to be a pioneer lecturer staff (from) the department of Economics.

The first Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Cecil Buseri, laid the foundation.

When we had no roads, we commuted from Yenagoa by speed boat because this is an island. It was a very tough period. We started the school without too many experienced hands. We had the Graduate Assistants, Assistant Lecturers, the Lecturer II, the Lecturer I; we can easily count even the Senior lecturers. In my department, we had just one and later had a professor.

During that toddler stage, everybody put in their best somehow, and some went for further studies, including myself; I was an Assistant lecturer at the time. This is how we started. The pioneer Vice-Chancellor did his best. And then, the government had issues; before you knew it, they brought in another person, Professor Chris Ikporikpo, in 2005. That was when they were about completing these roads that brought you here. He came from the University of Ibadan. He tried, and by which time we were just facing accreditation and all that. He brought in so many persons, retired professors from other schools, and I will say, he (started to) now model the system to enable us to know that we needed Professors in the system. He spent almost 7 years – 2 years acting and 5 years before my predecessor, the immediate past ViceChancellor, came in. it was under this Vice-Chancellor that I grew. When

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Professor Chris Ikporikpo was there, I was assisting my Head of Department, at every point in time, I was available. Availability was the watchword because I really wanted to understand the university system. I was always available. When my predecessor came, I 48 became acting head of department and deputy director - entrepreneurship, this entrepreneurship department that has grown this big. Under this same man, I grew to become a Professor. Under him again, I grew to become the dean of the faculty of social sciences, and I was passionate about developing the department and the faculty and all through the period I was working for the department even as acting head of department, all our programmes went for accreditation, I was passionate about it, at the postgraduate level, undergraduate level, and we never had issues. And then, during one of our senate meetings in 2017, precisely on the 6th of February 2017, while we were at the senate meeting, the then Vice-Chancellor nominated 3 of us for election to be Deputy Vice-Chancellor without informing anybody.

The academic senate members were shocked, but he said 'no, we know ourselves here.

When we nominate, let us vote, no campaign, nothing. We all know the characters of each person, so let us decide here and now'. I was then the dean of the faculty of social sciences. The current Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Administration was then the dean of faculty of science.

Then, one other dean from the faculty of agriculture was also nominated for the elections. And I would say by God's Grace, right there I was elected to be the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and the dean of science also was elected. We needed 2 Deputy Vice-Chancellors, and one for academics, one for administration. And, looking at our pedigree and where we are coming from and all, they agreed that I should be the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration. The functions of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor admin is such that in the absence of the VC, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor admin takes over in acting position, and so that was how I worked with my predecessor, and I became the VC acting on the 18th of May, 2017. I acted for another one year, and later, after series of interviews and more of that, I was adjudged one of the best to be now made the substantive VC. And so, the history of the system, I would say. are at my fingertips. So that was how we started. As a pioneer lecturer, who went through the ranks and all that is in the system, and all of our issues and problems in the system, it's like God prepared me for the office.

And so, when I came on board, I wouldn't need to consult everybody. I already knew half of the problems and what needed to be done. To get things done, I pursued all these agencies that will support the university system. That's why you have seen that difference, these 2-3 years' difference, and see where we are and where the school has grown to. So the 20th anniversary wasn't even the university that marked that, but the alumni association that did that. Then, as someone always available for everybody, I needed to participate, and I did that with them; we did sensitisation, tour, different activities, lectures and all that. In all, I was available.

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Some analysts have argued that one of the reasons why there has been an increasing number of unemployed young people in the country is due to Universities inability to provide courses that teach jobs for the future - Artificial intelligence, robotics and the rest. What is the university under your leadership doing to plug this loophole?

I have desired that any graduate from this university be an employer of labour, not someone looking for jobs here and there. While theory is very good, we also have the practicability of some of these things, so we still bring in the practical side. For example, we are now working to see that the pharmaceutical faculty can have its drug factory here in the university so that all our pharmaceutical students will be in that factory. That factory will be their lab.

They will be part and parcel of that factory, and they will be producing drugs. So, by the time they leave the university environment, this issue of an internship is sorted. So, they will just go,

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How were you able to achieve these feats?

Foresight. What motivated me to acquire some of the best equipment for the medical school and college of Health Sciences is foresight. I visited the college and went to the anatomy lab. I looked at it. We were still using cadaver. We buy cadaver from all these far areas so that people will not identify them. And I thought, is there no way that we can reduce this cadaver of a thing. You know you use chemicals to balm and preserve and all that. You need constant electricity to preserve them, and in this part of the world, that is a significant problem. I immediately charged the team to think outside the box for an immediate solution. So, while I was bothering myself with these questions, the then provost of the college of health sciences, said "VC, I went as an external examiner to one of these universities that we just

A UNESCO report stated that Nigerian Universities were performing poorly in research because they are handicapped. What are you doing to promote NDU as a centre of excellence and knowledge?

A university system is basically a system that ought to give us new knowledge. There are three core things that a university is expected to achieve - teaching and learning, research and development, then community service. Now, you had talked about the 'airboat'. It was a research outcome - a PhD student research outcome, and as we speak, we have been talking about radiation, how it affects the skin and all that. A PhD electrical engineering student is deep into that now.

When 5G comes to our shore, we have already got the solution before that time. So, one of our students has already gotten to an advanced stage with this research. Similarly, one of our engineering students is coming up with a refrigerator that doesn't use a compressor.

Even at the biochemistry level, our research findings have shown that the drugs, like the paracetamol you take, is not for everybody. Students, undergraduate, not even postgraduate, undergraduate students research output have demonstrated that drugs should be person-specific. We set a particular day for exhibition during our convocation activities, so faculties presented their research findings. So, we do not play with research. I am grateful to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFUND, for adopting

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mentioned and I saw anatomage that will solve this your problem." I said, 'Okay, how much?' He said, "it's very costly", I said 'I don't care. We sourced for the money. One was even over NGN 40 million. I said I wouldn't mind provided that would give us the quality education that we need to produce.

Everything was over NGN 100 million for the medical pieces of equipment. That's why maybe the current provost must have told you that we probably have only two universities with this facility in this country. Though we are a young university, just 20 years old, we set the pace for others to follow. We were the first group of persons that even had clinical skills lab in this country, and so, when the professionals come for the accreditation of our programmes, they saw it and said, "wow".

They decided to even add that as a condition for others to follow. So, I would say we are pacesetters.

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register companies and start producing drugs and then employing people. I do not play with entrepreneurship and skill acquisition because when you have the skills and knowledge, what we are teaching you here will enable you to put that into a business venture. For example, some of the year two students that participated in our entrepreneurship programme have established their business ventures.

People are working for them while they are still in school. So, they are already employers of labour. That's how I want this university to be.

Already, in terms of our quality, I think in Nigeria, I doubt if we have any university that will beat the output from our university. Some of our students that went overseas for postgraduate programmes have always made us proud because they come tops with distinctions. And so, that's to tell you that our products at the undergraduate level are qualitative.

You saw even when the radio station's General Manager talked of Niger Delta University English Department, that's to tell you the kind of students we groom. So we do not toy with quality assurance. It is also partly why we introduced what we now call the conference marking scheme. We insisted that the script of every student should be objectively looked at. We don't want any bias. So that if you say this student is a 1st class material, the students can compete anywhere in the world as a 1st class candidate. We just had proof that when a young girl graduated from our law faculty with a first-class, she went to the law school and came out with a 1st class. And, that is only for law. You go to our engineering, social sciences, among others, the report is the same.

If you talk about our medical programme, in this country, I doubt if we have any medical school that will be able to beat our products.

SPECIAL EDUCATION REPORT Niger Delta University as a centre of research excellence; and provided us with Hilux cars, pieces of equipment, among other things, because they have seen what we are doing. So, for us, by the grace of God, even if I leave as a VC, I think the foundation must have been laid for others to build on, and that is where we are.

Let's talk about funding…

We have been committed to shoring up other revenue sources because we had to be creative in this regard. Initially, when I came in, and the government came up with this subvention issue, which was only enough to pay salaries, we had to seek alternative sources.

We also tapped our very robust cooperative in this university. In fact, at a time, it was just the best in the whole of the state. Yes, staff cooperative. Even now, every month, I contribute my quota directly from my salary. So, funding is always there for investment and all that. You go to borrow, even as an individual. For example, some African countries like Kenya and the rest are cooperative driven.

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I was able to take some funds from the cooperative to solve immediate problems and then gradually source money to pay back. And then, we are still paying some. Besides that, prudent management of our resources brought us to this level. I am an economist. I have worked with the private sector as a banker and marketer, so the skills needed for us to block leakages in the system were brought into this institution's management. So, we now have some funds to do our work like what you see in the whole of the entrepreneurship centre. All that equipment you see were purchased from revenues generated from within the university. Even the interlocks, landscaping, electricity, everything is driven by internally generated revenue. Whatever we generate, we plug back.

So, I will say transparency and accountability have been critical factors in our revenue management. I will still use the word openness in our decision-making processes, When I was in the bank, sometimes I would close by and I will also add that collective participation 2:00 am from the bank and by 7:00 am, I am in the office in the decision-making process brought us to again. And so, it is a principle. You need to discipline this level. Even if I have an idea as a VC, I don't yourself. And when you say a word, just like the scripture impose it because if you impose it on them and will say, 'let your yes be your yes, and your nay be your they do not buy into your vision, there will be nay. You must have heard words like courage and all that. friction. And so, when you have the idea, this is what I want to do, and then, you present it on the table, your team is there, everybody will look at it and analyse it and say 'Okay VC, we support you on this. Because they are part of it, it will grow, so all these issues of people saying the university system is corrupt, for some of us in Niger Delta University, are strange. It is strange when you hear the word corruption. No, it's strange, because everybody will say 'Please, do the right thing'. This one will say 'Please do the right thing', and now I am doing the right thing, and then, the VC is coming to say 'look this is the money we have and this is where I think we should put it and all of us agree. Then, why should somebody fight and say 'OK, we want to steal out of it'...

Amazing... (laughs) That's the process. That's why I am very at peace with the unions because they are also part of the decision team. You saw the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union. A union person is part of the VC's tenders board, so whatever that comes, they see. All these projects you see us build, they participated, and when we are advertising, it's open, there is no 'I know you' - we don't do it here. When we are opening the bids, tender bids opening and the rest, all the unions, they are there, they are watching what we are doing. And so, we cannot give the job to another person and then come to say 'it ought to have been this person, no. You will open it, even ask the contractors, 'are you satisfied with what we have done?', with camera, everything.

'If you do not agree to what we have done, please raise your objection' and all of them will say they are satisfied. 'Okay, fine, we will do the analysis'. By the time we are through with the analysis, if for any reason you were not given the job we communicate to you. We will say 'look, the bid opening, this was what you tendered, and then, we are through with the analysis, you fell short on this, this, this and so the job was not given(to) you. So, you will have no

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There has been a slew of success stories from the Universities, including Ebizi Eradiri, who recently bagged first-class honours from the Nigerian Law school. Can you tell us more about the school's commitment to educational excellence?

Incidentally, you see, when you climb the bridge down, that roundabout there, there is a community by the right hand. She is just from that community. So that has just put that community and the university on a global map, That's what I am telling you, and I have said it before, quality.

What some students do or some schools do is not acceptable here. We spend time processing you, and we are processing you not for the Niger Delta alone, not for Nigeria, not for only Africa, but the world. And so, we should be able to refine you in the system to make you acceptable in every part of the world. So, what we do here, we do not play with quality. Quality assurance is key to every university, and when you talk of quality assurance, we are talking about the staff and the students.

You can't just be a staff of this university, it is not a faith-based organisation, but we are gradually being tailored towards that, since I took over, towards this faith-based kind of university. You must discipline yourself as a person and as a staff.

You can't just say okay this is the hour you ought to be in a class teaching the students and you say 'oo…', the students will be waiting and you now make a phone call '… I will not be there. No, no, it is not acceptable. Our condition of service is structured such that if you accept to serve, and absent yourself one day from this university as a

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W It is born out of the fact that those threats don't move me.

The threats don't move some of us. We will tell you that 'all die na die. If I die doing the right thing, I think heaven will be glad to receive me. And so, why should I worry myself. Please go and do the right thing.

You came up with a unique strategy to solve the issue of sexual harassment, which has been common in many Nigerian universities.

Can you share the story with us?

This idea was divine, because, I was just wondering how to put a final stop to the issue in our university, especially when the news of the Sex-for-grade scandal made news headlines in the country. I said, 'What would I do to settle this thing once and forever in this place?'. Just like inspiration, I was in my private place and seeking for an answer when the idea dropped. That was the first, the second hurdle will be to get the people to accept it because I know it will face a lot of resistance. I said 'Okay, what would I do? I would push it through the senate so that it can becomes a policy. I prayed over it, and I started looking at the positive side of it. If we succeed, the issue of 'sex for grade', will be dealt with; the issue of 'you didn't buy my textbook that I wrote so you will fail' will be dealt with. Our libraries will be visited by students (because) they know that the only way to read is the Library that has all the books. And then, the issue of missing scripts will also be dealt with. Another issue that will be dealt with is the issue of some students saying, "He failed me because of this and that'. The lecturers themselves will also be free from harassment from students on the premise that they were victimised. Overall it will make the students to have their actual grades.

So, when I looked at the expected benefits, I lined them out, then I presented it before the floor of the senate, and they looked at it, and at the end everybody supported it. Why? This singular policy, having got all these, has even solved the issue of accreditation. You, the lecturer, provide a model answer marking scheme. The questions will be there, and the script will be there intact. When we grade, the issue of this lecturer hasn't submitted the results or, delay in preparation of results will not be there. So, this one policy solves all these issues. And, no lecturer takes scripts home - whether you are there or not, because you are not the Chief Examiner; the Head of Department is the Chief Examiner.

There has been an uptick in demand for admission into your university. You recently conducted a test for about 11,000 prospective candidates who had applied to study in the school.

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reason for grudging because it was done transparently. And you know integrity; we don't play with it. So that is why you see us succeeding like this. So if you are part of the decision-makers, would they fault the decision? If they come against that, we will tell you maybe something was wrong with you because you were a part of that. We had some crises here and there, but it was because of misinformation. That was far back in 2018. By the time they now saw t roadmap today, there is nothing like crises.

A Lecturer will just call and say 'I will not be at work' or a Nonteaching staff will just say 'Today I am so tired, let me not work' for no cause. You don't try it here. And so, as a Vice-Chancellor, you must lead the way. You must show the pathway. And so, when I say you should come to work by 8 o'clock, the vice-chancellor is expected to be there by that 8.

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So, I will say transparency and accountability have been critical factors in our revenue management.

senior staff, without permission from your boss, you are dismissed.

That is how it is in our condition of service. As you are now, you are a lecturer, you are a non-teaching and you just decide that you will not come to work, that is misconduct. So, all these issues that you find in public institutions doesn't apply here in Niger Delta University. Though it is (a) public institution, but we don't play discipline.

SPECIAL EDUCATION REPORT How is the university bracing up to the growing demand for quality education across the continent?

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We are the first university to offer nursing to introduce a faculty system for nursing. In West Africa, we introduced the faculty system, and many other universities come to this place to understudy and then go to replicate the 52 same in their various schools. We also had the first professor of nursing in the whole of West Africa. And, as we speak, I think the only professor in the whole of Nigeria on Psychiatric nursing is in NDU. Just like in marine, we have the only serving professor, serving, not retired, only serving Professor of Marine Engineering in the whole of West Africa.

He is here. You see, what we do, we screen. If you are coming to NDU, you should know that this school is not the type to go and while away time. For example, we had one thousand six hundred plus students subscribe to the medical program – they all want to be medical doctors. Now, by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, the quota given to us is 50. So, we want to select the best 50 from that 1,600. In the law program, as we speak, we have over 900 people, and we want to pick just 80 out of the 900. So, you see where brain talks, and of course, as someone that believes in merit, under my watch, nobody will do anything fishy. And, I am the Chairman of the Admissions Committee being the Chairman of Senate because it is senate that admits.

So, merit, we go by the rules as given to us. So, if we have selected 80 people from the 900 and something, you know what it means. Those ones are brain. As in, if you are coming to Niger Delta University, you will know yourself, and we don't play. Our quality assurance test is such that many universities don't even do it, for example, if you are in this university and you are in year one and you write your exams for the full session and you fail to pass 40 percent of your courses registered, we will ask you to leave the programme, no second attempt. Leave the programme immediately. You go. Then, you may be in year 2, we apply 2 rules, year 2 to your finals we apply 2 rules for you.

Irrespective of your cumulative grade

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point average, the CGPA, whatever, if you fail to pass 40 percent of your registered courses, we will ask you to go. Whether you were on 1st Class line before or not. We don't play with indolent group of persons. Because you on 1st class doesn't make you to be less busy, so you will go. So, the students know. Then, maybe you pass 40 percent of your registered courses but your CGPA, that is the cumulative grade point average for a 5-point grading system is not up 1.5, we ask you to leave the program. Go home, we don't need you here. So, anybody coming here must definitely sit up, and that's what we do here.

And we don't stop at undergraduate. We do the same to postgraduate. We are asking those that come for a PhD. programme to leave the programme also. We are seriousminded people, and we don't want anybody just to come and infect or mess up the system. We don't tolerate that.

education and So, the victory I would say is dedicated to them. Now, as a person, to me, this is a call for more work. You know, they will tell you that the reward for hard work is more work.

But, I was surprised when I started receiving calls. To the extent that even the Assistant Inspector General of Police and many people from far and near called me to say, 'VC, I voted'. Calls will just come and say 'we saw it and voted'.

I was just surprised. It is just that people are just appreciating what we have done as a university. Somebody was telling me, somebody who has not even come in contact with me, she said 'But we saw it on their webpage. He has done this, he has done this, he has done this…' so, the woman hasn't even come to this place, but look at what she is saying, counting. So, I said that means the social media, they are really doing their work. So, I will say that It's the lord's doing. Let me put it that way.

You recently emerged African Educationist of the Year. How does this make you feel?

Well, it is not me that won. I will say it is Niger Delta University. Let me be grateful to all the players that brought me to this seat. They have announced me. They gave me the platform to contribute to the state through this

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The Secret to NDU's Developmental Strides

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system, it is not possible for a conference of different lecturers to say that a particular student who was supposed to have passed an exam, was deliberately 53 failed. That brings in quality. Victimization and other problems that arise from harassment for grades and all other things are non-existent here because of that process. Another thing that we do here is as soon as there is a report of any kind of misconduct in terms of either exams or whatever thing, the report comes from a committee that I am the chairman, and within 24 hours, the student is brought to defend him or herself and if the student is found wanting, depending on the gravity of the offence, it is either the student is rusticated for one semester or two and I tell you these processes have actually brought some kind of character discipline in the system. Some of them will now come to either write an undertaking to able to be of good conduct. Let me also add that something else that we do here, that is unique, is in the terms of research and development which is also part of my office and through the process we have been able to have some breakthroughs.

Maybe the VC may mention that later. I think about 2-3 years back, TETFund funded a project, because during our convocation it was well reported where lecturers and students of marine engineering were able to come up with what we call 'Airboats'. You know, here the means of transport is by sea, but in some parts of the region you have creeks that are muddy and not every type of boat will be able to move through. So, this particular boat does not have an outboard engine. The engine is up just like that of the aero-plane. So, it was funded by TETFund and and we were able to approach local content to be able to have some kind of collaboration. So, that is part of what I do here. And, with all that, I think we have been able to bring some kind of quality in what we do. Thank you.

Prof. Allen Agih, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academics

The Vice Chancellor Academics of the Niger Delta University, Professor Allen Agih in this interview, share some valuable secrets to the institution's resounding success in projects and programmes. Experts.

Every university strives to become a leader in the promotion of sound ideals, especially in character and learning, and NDU is not different, what steps are you taking to achieve the university's strategic academic goals, vision and mission?

With respect to our drive for character and learning, I would quickly say that what we do here is not different from other universities. We have different committees responsible for driving the process. So, one of such is a committee called 'Students Disciplinary Committee'. What we do in that committee is when any student is found wanting, they are referred to my committee and we meet. But apart from that, in terms of what I do to bring about quality in the system, we have different structures. Part of what my office is after is quality assurance which is key in driving that process. In terms of quality assurance, what we do here is a university, is, no one lecturer rates his students. You know, gone are those days where only one person will grade a student and for one reason or the other, the student suffers. So, what we do is what is called 'conference marking', so that brings quality in the

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What specific discipline is the Niger Delta University most notable for around the country?

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Most universities would like to be identified in a particular area. You must understand that this is a conventional university, so we have disciplines in… I think we have Students are always part of the about 13 faculties and about 71 administration. We have the students programmes but where our involved in various programmes and strength lies basically, you know, is activities of the school. We are in what I would say, may be in building an Ecosystem. terms of Engineering. We are very strong there. The reason why I think so is because most of our students that have gotten their first degree here and have gone outside for either Masters and Ph.D. have actually made us proud. Right now, there is one student in civil engineering in who is in Manchester university in the UK for his PhD. His PhD project went for a competition and it was his own that won the competition and as you speak now, the project is being commercialized. That is one. Yes. Then, there is another one that went to Canfield and has also made us proud. Then, this one I mentioned to you about the 'airboat' is also from Marine Engineering, and I think part of the reason is because they have a very strong hand there, and there is a Professor there who happens to be the only Professor of Marine Engineering in the whole of West Africa.

How would you describe the achievements that have been recorded under the present leadership of the University?

Well, in terms of the achievements, I think they have been quite laudable and commendable. Yes, and I think that it is because we work as a team and over the period there have been significant changes. The present Vice Chancellor decided to do things differently, and being an economist, you know, he adopted the business like model. In Nigeria and in most African countries, projects and government policies fail because, you know, government project does not belong to anybody, but when you drive it as a business model where you are actually looking for kind of profits or whatever thing driven, you will get results. So, he came from the banking industry, then, secondly as an economist. So, he decided to run the process business-like.

So, as we came on board, a lot of changes that were implemented were one, in terms of payment of fees, it used to be manual, where students would go to the bank, make payments, you come to the bursary unit to obtain receipt and things like that. And, of course students being what they are. There were some kind of fraudulent practices before he

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introduced an online payment system and we realized that the university has been kind of due for a long time. During that period, we discovered that there were about 400 fake receipts, 400. Because, the payment is no more manual now. So, you can now understand why there has been some kind of changes.

Secondly, we have also adopted the e-payment platform for transactions. In terms of transcript now. In terms of transcript now, we still do not go through manual, because as a student has finished and you do your clearance, your transcript is automatically cleared and, within a day or two, you have received and that is also through the e-system.

And these are made possible by our own students. Students from the computer science department. It is still in the policy of local content. We involve our students, engage them, because they already understand the system. So, in result computation, transcript, students now do it and everything is online. And, that is what I mean by doing this differently. So, that's part of it, then I think the other reason why there has been this kind of revolution is because of his style of leadership. Everybody is involved. You know, we work as a family, and there is nothing as good as your Boss, you know, having you know, confiding in you, seeking opinion from you and a kind of recognition. So, we are in together, we do it together. We come to work together, we close at the same time. I think another is student's involvement. Students are always part of the administration. We have the students involved in various programmes and activities of the school. We are building an Ecosystem.

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While recounting the milestones under the Vice-Chancellor's current leadership, she stated that "When he came on board, out of these 61 programmes we had then, we had 26 that had full accreditation status, 16 had interim accreditation status while we lost nine programmes. Note, when I say lost, it means we lost them completely; they had denied accreditation status." Explaining further, she said, "when a programme is denied status, a lot of things happen. For as long as a programme has denied accreditation status, you cannot admit students. So, if you are running a four-year programme that is in denied accreditation status, and you don't move to remedy it before you know, that programme will naturally die. Because in that four years, if you are not admitting, by the fourth year, all the students would have graduated, and you would not have anyone in the department."

The Director also maintained that while these successes have been recorded, it takes a lot of internal quality control and appraisal to sustain the winning streak. In her words, "We go through a very rigorous process of subjecting all potential programmes that will be put forward for accreditation before a mock panel."

"In that mock panel, we ask all the relevant questions that the regulators will ask. We even often add those things that they may not ask, but, relevant, to ensure that we cover our part and make it difficult to be found wanting," she said.

Expectedly, this process has made the NDU a darling of university regulators. While buttressing this point, the Director stated that "you know an accreditation panel comprises of 4 persons, three professors from that area of specialization, from other universities in Nigeria and one person that represents NUC and acts as the secretary of the team." " Now when the exercise is done, and they go back to NUC; all the professors will disperse to their various universities, the NUC representative will defend what happened in the universities," she added. She further stated that " when the NUC representative that came to begins to defend what transpired, they often very positive reviews."

Professor Odeh added though the University may not have all the infrastructure needed to support a conducive learning environment, efforts are being made to solve these problems.

Concluding, she maintained that the school puts in a great deal of effort in all her accreditation exercises.

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The then Director, Academic Planning, and current Acting Vice-Chancellor, Academics Professor Christine Odeh, maintains that achieving this feat has been through a blend of hard work, dedication, and the Vice Chancellor's commitment to "doing the right thing." In an interview with the African Leadership Magazine team, Prof. Odeh stated that "Now with regards to the accreditations, the Niger Delta University has a total of 72 programmes right now. When our present VC came on board, we had 61; within the last three years that he has been VC, he ensured the establishment of nine new programmes, and now we have a total of 72 programmes."

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How We Maintain Program Standards at NDU –

The Niger Delta University, NDU, has maintained an enviable record of 72 fully accredited programmes and counting. The 20-year-old institution has had a track record of meeting the tedious regulatory requirements for Nigerian Universities' Commission, NUC, accreditation for new programmes. It has also laid a foundation for the continuous smooth reaccreditation of 55 the existing program by the NUC.

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Financial Discipline, Probity, Secret To Our Survival At NDU – Mr. Seth W. Tueridei, FCA, Bursar The Bursar of the Niger Delta University, Mr. Seth W. Tueridei, has stated that probity, accountability and financial discipline has been the institution's secret to sustainability amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bursar made this known during an exclusive interview with the African Leadership Magazine in Bayelsa State.

According to the Bursar, “last year, COVID-19 affected our resources negatively, but the little that we have was adequately managed.” Continuing, the Bursar maintained that, “looking at our population of about twenty thousand students, but, when the pandemic hit, only about five thousand had paid, and we had huge wage bills that had to be attended to.”

He however added that sound financial management and discipline saw the institution through the conundrum.

While commenting on the clamour for self-sustenance for Universities, the Bursar, stated that, Universities can only be self-sustaining in the long-run, but, needs state intervention for the development of critical infrastructure to get to the self-sustaining stage.

In his words, “I will say that government must invest in the construction of critical infrastructure to support the growth and development of universities to reach the stage of self-sustenance, until then, we still need government intervention.”

The Bursar also stated that, education in Nigeria and all over the world remains a capitalintensive venture and must be treated as such.

According to him, “education in Nigeria is a social venture, the fact is that, what the students pay at Niger Delta University, represent only about 5% of what is required to provide quality education for these students. So, the rest has to come from support from government.”

“Before the subvention regime which was introduced in 2016, the government tasked the University on self-sustenance and we did three case-studies. We presented scenario one and told the government, how much it will cost the students, if we are to adopt the first scenario and government flatly rejected it. We developed a second scenario and we had series of meeting with the state government and they asked that we take loans to ensure the survival of the institution, but, when we presented the cash-flow, that could not stand. We now had to adopt pricing differentials, based on course of study. Those in the medical science, law, engineering, and similar faculties, will pay a slightly higher fee than their counterparts in other faculties.”

He also concluded that, for institutions to survive, there has to be sustained intervention from government, to guarantee quality education.

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NDU Is Helping To Fill The Void For Forensic Accounting In Nigeria

In his word, “anytime we want to do forensic auditing we will start going out to do that, but as we speak, we are having that inbuilt now where our students take advantage.

So, as time goes on, the country will no longer (be) looking for people outside, rather inward.” The increasing demand for forensic accountants and auditors to help in solving fraud related cases across agencies of government in Nigeria and

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While speaking on the quality of instructors and lecturers saddled with the responsibility of delivering the 57 programme, Dr. Ayunku maintained that, like in many of her other programmes in the University, they subscribe to the highest standards of excellence and professionalism, which is largely responsible for the accolades the university has been receiving in recent years.

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According to Dr Ayunku, “Most of our students are taking a program that we incorporated that has to do with forensic accounting. It's a unique course because (it's) where we train our students to go into investigation in forensic aspect, forensic.”He also added that, this is what the country is lacking at the moment.

other parts of Africa has led to the outsourcing of these services to international firms, due to the near absence of quality manpower to undertake the assignments.

Forensic accounting is an exciting and rewarding field that allows professionals to use their accounting knowledge and investigative skills to catch criminals, settle lawsuits, and reduce the risk of large-scale fraud. It is a relatively novel area for many schools in Nigeria, but the Niger Delta University is already leading the way in providing this programme to interested candidates within and outside the university.

We Offer World Class Programmes at the Collage of Health Sciences Professor Uyaye Konolowo, Provost Collage of Health Sciences, NDU Niger Delta University's College of Health Sciences is the first to launch an entire nursing science faculty in Nigeria. The Provost of the College of Health Sciences, University of Niger Delta, made this known in an interview with African Leadership Magazine UK recently. While describing the University as an institution of many firsts, she stated that “NDU was the first to own a medical skills lab. Our lab made the Nigerian Universities Commission say all medical training institutions must have that. We have set it up now with also our 3D simulation.”

She also maintained that the University was one among the very few universities in Nigeria to deploy Anatomage for her medical school.

An Anatomage Table which is the most technologically advanced 3D Anatomy visualization and virtual dissection tool for anatomy and physiology education was recently purchased at the University to enhance learning and upgrade the collages subscription to global best practice.

The Niger Delta University surprised many stakeholders when it purchased the instrument, which is out of the reach of many institutions in developing economies due to its expensive price tag.

According to the Provost, “I remember somebody calling me

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to say 'I hear you have an Anatomage Table. How did you do acquire it” and I said 'Ask the Vice-Chancellor.”

“You know he makes things happen, seamlessly and effortlessly, but that's somebody who is committed, who is passionate, moving the university forward, and we are fortunate to have him,” she said.

While reiterating the University's commitment to excellence and quality output, the provost stated that “we are exposing these students to the best experience because we are working in a competency-based world and we are building their competencies and making sure that our patients are safe with them.”

“For us here, what we have tried to put everything in place to provide a world-class learning experience for our students, because we understand that, if we don't, we run the risk of churning out unqualified products, and we cannot afford to do that.

“That is why we have put all these structures in place; it is garbage in, garbage out, that's the truth of the matter. But we have a well-structured curriculum, which is being reviewed over and over. Right now, we are still in the process of reviewing the curriculum,” she said. still in the process of reviewing the curriculum,” she said.

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In response to the increasing demand for Forensic accountants and auditors, the Niger Delta University, NDU, is providing quality to help in undertaking this important task in the country. The Dean of the faculty of management sciences, Dr Peter Ayunku, an associate professor, made this know recently in an interview with African Leadership Magazine UK.

SPECIAL EDUCATION REPORT

Why We Support the Current Leadership of NDU Tombra Kingdom, Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, NDU Chapter

We are Promoting Sustainable Reading Culture at NDU Joyce Chinyere, Librarian, NDU

The Librarian of the Niger Delta University, NDU, Mrs Joyce Chinyere, has said that the school promotes sustainable reading culture among the university students. She made this known in an interview with members of the African Leadership Magazine team who recently visited the University.

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The usual cat and mouse relationship that often defines the relationship between University Chapters of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Institution leadership sometimes boils over and ground activities in some universities in Nigeria.

However, this has not been the case with Niger Delta University and the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, NDU Chapter has said that it is due mainly to the Vice-Chancellors commitment to transparency and accountability.

Speaking to members of the African Leadership Magazine UK team in Bayelsa State, the Chairman stated that "it has been a very cordial relationship, and we are not surprised because the ViceChancellor used to be Treasurer of our union in NDU." Continuing, the Chairman averred that, "It is not as if the previous Vice-Chancellors have been acting differently, but the issue is that the current leadership came with a new flair."

He also added that the Vice-Chancellor has been expressing the principles of the union. Hear him, "he has been expressing the principles of our union, which is courage, truthfulness, fairness to all, and so we observed that he has never really had issues with the unions, not just only ASUU, SANU, NALT & NASU."

According to her, “in the Niger Delta University, from the first year in school, we organize a robust orientation for fresh students where we educate them on the importance of the Library to the institution.” She stated that the Library has also helped many of the students who may not have the resources to purchase some of the books needed for their programmes. In her words, “the Library is there to provide the book you want, the database you want, and all that you want to make sure you meet the requirements. If you want to be an A student, the Library is there for you. We encourage them and have consistently seen an uptick in the number of students who use the Library.”

While commenting on the Universities promotion of Elibraries, she maintained that “In this part of the world, we believe that the library should be a hybrid where we have the electronic and the physical books, Niger Delta University has been promoting that, and it has helped a lot.”

“As it is here, you can access the database in the Library.

Wherever our and lecturers are, they can access the database,” she said.

The Chairman also stated that the Vice-Chancellor comes to the job with an amiable disposition and runs an open-door policy.

Highlighting some of the reasons for the overall success of the Vice-Chancellor, the Chairman maintained that, "I think one major thing is that he is not self-centred. He is always thinking of the good of the university. Some other Vice-Chancellors are always thinking of their gain and, maybe, because of their political affiliations. For this present Vice-Chancellor, he is not connected to any political party, and so nobody outside this university can dictate to him what he is expected to do."

For some vice-chancellors, you observe that the government in power decides to control the Vice-Chancellor. In some other places, instead of the Vice Chancellor's allegiance to be to the university's staff, his allegiance is to the government or the political party in control in that state or the country.

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We have simplified our processes Benjamin Joffa, Registrar, NDU

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Continuing, he said that, "if you graduate from NDU today, you can pick your certificate the next day and then plan to attend the formal ceremony."

The Registrar also maintained that students from the University do not face the challenge of delay or missing transcript.

"All Transcripts are online; all they need to do is to print it and bring it to this office for certification. That same result they have printed online. So, when you bring it to us, then we put a stamp," he said.

While commenting on the integrity of results and scripts, the Registrar reiterated that "presently, in the Niger Delta University, no one lecturer marks a script. So, the issues of sales of scores, sex for mark etc. is no longer there, because we have attributed the conference marking in every program, in every course".

"At the beginning of every semester, the lecturers are expected to submit the lesson's notes, marking scheme etc. You have already submitted it to your HOD. So, they don't need you to be there to mark the script," he said.

The VC Brings Exceptional Candor to His Job Emmanuel Amaegbe, Deputy Registrar, SA to the Vice Chancellor The Special Assistant to the Vice-Chancellor, Mr Emmanuel Amaegbe, has attributed the successes recorded under the University's current leadership to the exceptional Candor that the Vice-Chancellor brings to bear in the discharge of his job.

The Special Adviser, who is also a deputy registrar at the University, manages the vice-chancellor's office's administrative functions and maintains that he gives his all to the job. In his words, "the kind of energy, forthrightness, and unreserved attention that he brings to this job, makes it easy for everyone to catch the vision."

The Special Adviser also stressed that the Vice-Chancellor came to the job prepared.

"I can remember when he was being interviewed for this job. A governing council member remarked that he has institutional

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memory. The meaning of that is that he knows the history of this University as a pioneer staff. He has on his fingertips the vibes of members of staff and students because he has been there from the beginning, and he can feel the pain, the needs, the yearnings of the university community," he recounted.

He also described the Vice-Chancellor as a team player and a result-oriented leader, adding that this was also manifest in the positions he occupied before his e v e n t u a l e l e va t i o n t o t h e V i c e Chancellor's office.

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While speaking to the team members at his office, the Registrar stated that "we have improved our system to a level now where we don't even give a statement of result again. We issue a certificate almost immediately."

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The Registrar, Niger Delta University, Mr Benjamin Joffa, has said that the University has adopted a simplified academic and administrative process to remove all possible bottlenecks in tandem with global best practices. The Registrar made this known in an interview with members of the African Leadership Magazine team who recently visited the school.

SPECIAL EDUCATION REPORT

The Appointment of the Vice Chancellor was Divine & timely Honorable Jonathan Obuebite, former Commissioner of Education, Bayelsa State

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The immediate past commissioner for education and currently Special Adviser to the Bayelsa State governor on Investments, Hon. (Dr) Jonathan Obuebite has said that the appointment of Professor Samuel Edumiekumo as the Vice-Chancellor of the Niger Delta University was timely and divine. The former commission made this known while speaking to the African Leadership Magazine UK team in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

Hon. Obuebite was the Commissioner of education under the Dickson-led administration in Bayelsa State when the state government appointed the Vice-Chancellor.

While recounting the process leading up to the selection of the Vice-Chancellor, the former Commissioner stated that "by the grace of God I was the Commissioner of education, when God gave us the vision of having Edoumiekumo as our VC. To be very sincere, knowing him for who he is, when it dawned on us that we need to think out of the box and get the right person, not because of age but because of what we know they can offer, the only person that came into mind within those that were interested, I was Professor Edoumiekumo."

Continuing, Hon. Ebuebite maintained that he believed in him before he became the VC. "I saw in him someone who had a vision, innovative, out-of-the-box thinker, and somebody who will do things differently," he said. not just because that is what suits everybody, but that is what is right to move the system forward out of conviction, not out of convenience and someone who has the drive to say this is what I want to achieve, a goal getter."

"And I must tell you; I saw in him that vibrancy, that strength, somebody who will put in his best to make a name. Some persons will come into a position for the sake of I have been there before; this is the position I held. But in his case, something is pushing him so that people will remember him for what he did after his tenure. So, you can see that zeal to make a difference; it was too much in him, I must tell you. So it didn't take me any time to know that he was the right person.

That is why I supported him," he said.

While acknowledging the exceptional achievement of the Vice-Chancellor within a concise period, the former Commissioner maintained that "He has achieved even more than my expectations."

"When you have somebody you set a goal and say okay, this is where I want this person to be, he has exceeded that goal, and that is why I said I'm happy to be part of it. Because, considering where we were coming from, the crisis that we faced, the crisis that was there before he took over, he took over a university in crisis, he took over a university that needed leadership and considered what I knew was there. He took very difficult and tough decisions. We took the decisions that ordinarily somebody who does not have guts will want to avoid; decisions someone who wants to play to the gallery will want to avoid. Those are the decisions we took; we had to step on toes. After doing all that, when people thought it would have to be a failure all the way, he was able to galvanize not just the faculty members but also the student community and the non-academic staff together," he said.

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SPECIAL EDUCATION REPORT The Director of Works, Niger Delta University, NDU, Engineer Emmanuel has said that the institution's preventive maintenance strategy is largely responsible for the preservation of infrastructure in the University. The Director made this known during a recent interview with the African Leadership team in Bayelsa State.

According to the Director, “The key word is "preventive maintenance" you have to maintain things preventively, and not reactively. And I think this move different from administration to administration.” Continuing , the director stated that, “I can confirm to you, not that the other VCs didn't do it, but in this administration they 61 is emphasize on preventive maintenance; so all these buildings that are going on, we go round time to time to see that things are restored before they get very bad.”

Engr. Emmanuel also averred that, “This is the definite, let me give you the example of the area if Engr. Frank Opigo, Director Works power, our generators. These are things that are even heavy duty, public power supply is unreliable, so the generators have to be used 24/7. At the time I assumed duty in 2006, those early years it was terrible. After some time there is a break down. But for now, those generators, the manufacturer tells you that after so many hours you need to maintain them, it does not matter if it is sounding well or not. That culture is now in place, and that's why you cannot hear that the generators is down. Whatever the cost, whatever the millions, the management provides the funds and that preventive maintenance is done, same is done for water. “ Maintenance culture has been described by stakeholders as a bedrock for infrastructure and facility development around the globe. However, in Nigeria poor maintenance culture remains a bane to sustainable infrastructure development. The Niger Delta University with its sustained investment in preventive maintenance is committed to ensuring the longevity of projects and facilities in the university.

Our Infrastructure plans for the next 5 years is inspiring - Engr. Nimi …

Similarly, the Director of Physical Planning of Niger Delta University, Engineer Nimi … has said that the school has noble infrastructure plans for the next five years that is capable of remarkably altering the architectural landscape of the school for good.

The Director while speaking on the Vice Chancellor's ambitious plans for the University, maintained that, developments in the university under the current leadership, has been rapid and fast-paced.

He also stated that, there are plans to embark on massive infrastructure developments in the coming months and years.

Hear him, “we are looking at delivering for instance the faculty of pharmacy building, which will also house drugs production laboratory, because our VC is one who is always driven to generate more revenue for university. So he has thought of that project and in no time it would be executed.”

He also added that, “there are also plans to build a Performance Theater, we have faculty of arts but we don't have a performance theater. That will also generate revenue for us, if we have it in place. Then we are also looking at faculty of environmental sciences, which is one of our new faculties set up in the university. I think these are the major projects that are in the pipeline which we are working on, but we do hope that other ones too will come up. In addition, roads projects which the director will handle.”

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NDU's Preventive Maintenance Plan Helps to Preserve Infrastructure

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WE ARE MOVING OUR STUDENTS FROM JOB-SEEKERS TO JOBS & WEALTH CREATORS Dr ThankGod Apere, Director Entrepreneurship Centre, NDU

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62 Small and Medium scale Enterprises have been described by stakeholders as the engine room for Nigeria's economic growth and development. A recent world bank report stated that the MSMEs sector accounts for over 65% of the jobs in Nigeria. The bank also maintained that the sector holds the key to depopulating the country's growing unemployment numbers.

A 2019 data by the Nigerian Bureau of statistics, NBS, put the number of young Nigerians between the ages of 15-35 who are unemployed at a whopping 55.5% - making the situation all the gloomier.

The Niger Delta University, NDU has responded to this crisis with the development of a robust plan to move her students from job-seekers to jobs and wealth creators. The Director of the University's entrepreneurship center, Dr. Thankgod Apere, made this known in an interview with members of the African Leadership team in Bayelsa state.

According to the Director, “as the entry point, we allow our students to register and learn, at least 1 skill in the cause of their stay in the school. There is a platform within the university website where you register as a student, you need to choose one of the skills, there are about 15 of them, so you need to pick one and register for it at year one. Then you pay minimal fee for it, when you get to year two, you now actually learn the skill.” With this strategy the seed of entrepreneurship and selfsustenance is sown in the minds of students, who now see the possibilities of creating their own enterprise upon graduation.

professional carpentry. We also have the automotive workshop that specializes in automobile.”

“So, they actually come to learn, they actually come to do their practical there. We also have the welding workshop; the mechanical students come there to do their practical, some also come there to do their internships during holiday periods, “he said.

The school also promotes experiential and practical learning by exposing the students to the rudiments of entrepreneurship, through the university's Directorate of Consultancy Entrepreneurship Research And Development, DOCARAD. This department houses the university's range of products – providing a frame of reference for potential student-entrepreneurs.

The director reiterated that, the achievements of the center would have been impossible without the active support of the Vice Chancellor.

In his words, “if your CEO does not support you, there is very little you can do.”

According to the director, “when we took over, it was essentially used for just research purposes. Students come to learn but we felt that instead of student just coming to learn, we can go commercial and that was the vision. So, we started producing at commercial quantity. We started selling to the University community, to their immediate Communities and even to Yenagoa. And they were able to buy trucks for us, so we can actually distribute the product from the University to Yenagoa. So, it has grown.”

He also added that, the growth of the entrepreneurship center has been the vision of the Vice Chancellor even before he assumed office. So, it was easy for him to implement the vision when he got the opportunity as vice chancellor.

While listing the products that are currently under the University's offerings, the Directors stated that, “we currently produce, Bottle and sachet waters; bread and other confectionaries; Paints; the NDU Kit, which includes Izal, Detol, and the liquid soap.”

Continuing, the director stated that, “we also have the Agric Workshop, where we have the concrete ponds, inside the buildings and we have fingerlings, which we intend to take to the next level of producing fish that we will sell to the public. We also have the woodworks, the carpentry workshop, where students come to learn

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Transparency & Accountability Mr Yalah Bolou, Niger Delta University The Auditor, Niger Delta University, Mr. Yala … has said that transparency and accountability has been the watchword in the University. The Auditor made this known recently in an interview with members of the African Leadership Magazine in Bayelsa State.

According to the Auditor, “The school and the Vice Chancellor have been projects of local and global recognition due to subscription to transparency and accountability. I used that word "transparency". He is very transparent even among the principal officers we can see whatever that comes in, he wants to make it open to everybody. The fact that he is transparent to management, to principal officers and even to the students.”

While sharing an experience with us, the auditor stated that, “when he came on board, he introduced this E-election for Students Union Government Elections. Wherever these students are, they can vote, you may be in Port Harcourt, you may be in Abuja, but you are able to vote. Now, look at one major advantage, it stopped totally cult rivalry in the course of voting.”

The Auditor also maintained, " from inception when the Vice Chancellor came on board, he introduced all forms of control systems. Strengthening control system in finance contributes significantly towards ensuring that there are no rooms for fraud and he has done that 100%. If you look at our payroll system, each time we send it to the government they may be expecting to see ghost workers and all that, but it is clean.

Before you are being paid salary, we follow a very strict procedure that ensure people sign their nominal role, nobody signs for you. These are all check procedures that have been put in place under this Vice Chancellor.”

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is Our Watchword at NDU

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We Have Adopted Homegrown Innovations to Solve Peculiar Challenges at NDU – Dr. Mrs. Mercy Orukari, Director, ICT The Director of ICT, Niger Delta University, Dr. Mrs. Mercy Orukari has said that the University has adopted homegrown solutions to solve peculiar challenges confronting the university. The Director made this known during an interactive session with members of the African Leadership magazine team in Bayelsa State.

Niger Delta University only recently successfully conducted the annual post-UME pre-entry exams for about 11000 candidates. This record number further prepares the university for the virtual education experience, which has become the new normal. According to the Director, the School is embracing modern technology to make learning experience convenient and stress free. The School is currently experimenting the plan of having the post-UME exams done by potential candidates from any part of the world.

The School has also embraced full automation, which allows students to start and complete school fees payment; registration; clearance, among others, online.

This no doubt offers a unique experience to students and administrators as it eliminates wait time and undue Beurocracy.

While speaking on new partnerships, the director stated that, “we have a knowledge exchange program with a university in Malaysia. It's not virtual yet, this was before the Covid outbreak came on board; but a few minutes ago, the provost of college just hinted that they had a virtual meeting, somebody from the UK gave them a lecture.” She also highlighted the role of the ICT department in propelling the new infrastructures that have been acquired to make learning seamless. In her words, “we have this anatomage which was newly acquired for the college of Health Science, which we have installed and can be used to teach the medical students how to dissect, they don't need cadavers anymore, in fact, it's working as I talk to you now because it was installed by the ICT unit.”

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Afric n Leadership SPECIAL REPORT

HON. SAMUEL D.

TWEAH JNR.

MINISTER OF FINANCE & NATIONAL PLANNING

LIBERIA: THE UNTOLD STORY

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The President George Weah-led administration in Liberia has adopted a methodological approach in cleaning the Augean stable. The administration has also sustained inclusion and the pro-poor agenda as the government’s cardinal thrust, upon which every other policy is built. In this exclusive interview with the African Leadership Magazine team in Monrovia, the Finance Minister, Hon. Samuel D. Tweah Jnr. talks about some of the government's significant wins that have remained under-reported, among other issues. Excerpt.

The President recently gave his 4th state of the Nation address, highlighting some of his administration's efforts to promote sustainable economic growth and development through policies and reforms. Can you help to summarize the content of the President's address?

The meat of the address is that the speech was both a midterm review and an annual lecture. Midterm because this is the President's fourth year's beginning, as he has had three years already – 20182020. So the address is always one year ahead of the actual number of years that he has served. As a midterm and an annual address, the President sets out the government's broad achievements, especially from the context of a challenging macroeconomic environment. In 2018, we saw a deceleration in the exchange rate instability, depreciation in the Liberian dollars from 129 to 135 to 140 to 150. It was very unstable and politically threatening to the government, especially with the vulnerable people's erosion of income. So inflation went as high as 30%. There was no effective monitoring instrument to deal with that. The country has been solving that problem by drawing down on reserve money to buy out Liberian dollars from outside. That was no longer sustainable because you didn't have that amount of US dollar in reserve again. So we had to work to develop a new policy instrument. In the last 18 months, we entered the IMF program and other policy reforms -reform of the wage bill to reduce the fiscal pressure, control cash management better, improve the fight against corruption, public governance, and all that work has now culminated into a severe drop in inflation from as high as 30%, as it was more than a year ago, to currently 14 - 12 per cent. So when the President stands at the midterm and communicates that inflation is now 14 per cent, it used to be 30%. The outlook is to go to a single digit as that is a significant signal of his macroeconomic success program. And so he

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reiterated to the public that even the international community, through the International Monetary Fund, said that, "Liberia is fiscally disciplined." The Bank maintained that the government is using scarce resources wisely for development priorities.

The country has moved towards an independent Central Bank where its monetary policy stance is aligned to fight inflation. They were recommending Liberia, even when noting areas of challenges and where the government has continued to push, so that we can roll back the gains because this thing has to be sustained, and it is not one year progress. This is the progress that the President was communicating. So while we have macroeconomic stability almost reestablished, the real question in the President's thinking is how do we move now to the real sector where jobs are created, and this is where the challenge is. The President tells you that to move into actual industry; you have to begin to solve problems, like the roads problem, six per cent of our road structure is developed. That's an abysmal performance historically. That's an abysmal performance; we need to continue to do roads because if you do roads, you leapfrog agriculture.

We need to continue to improve on power; the electricity access rate is also abysmal. We have a Liberia electricity corporation that is still inefficient and not profitable, which we have been struggling with since the end of the war. We now have a hydro that is delivering around eighty megawatts

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The President also said that his government is pursuing currency reform to promote monetary policy credibility and enhance confidence in the economy. Can you tell us more about this?

Before I go there, one of the things I missed out on was that last year was a challenging year.

The President also talked about the success of our Covid-19 response. There was a reference in the Wall Street Journal, I think, by the former head of the United States Center for Disease Control, who wrote in the Wall Street Journal about Liberia's success. He said that Liberia is one of the world's best countries and learning from a previous Ebola experience.

We began quarantining in Africa earlier than any other country. So informed by Ebola, we moved fast; we leveraged on the lessons of Ebola.

We also managed well; the government provided some resources, development partners offered help, resources also came from the IMF, so it's been excellent coordination in the fight against coronavirus. Everybody is looking at Liberia and saying it's a beautiful success story. Still, we are

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The government is going to ensure that that transparency is fulfilled meticulously. So all of our development partners, civil society organizations, and financial security agencies are going to be involved in verifying that this amount, this quantum of resource was destroyed, and no slice kept by anybody to make an illicit profit from - as that would erode public confidence in the banking sector. So all of that has been discussed right now, the mechanics of how do you replace, how do you restrict or destroy transparently, how do you store and how do you present this to the people. Right now, quality is so frail that after six months or

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So the speech was a showcasing of our successes, but to speak to the question of currency reform - microeconomic stability is being re-established. Still, the challenge is that the currency issue or the cash shortage issues affect the path towards stability because you need to have a reliable supply of cash that the people can get when they want it. The problem is due to the conditions of the last three year. Because of the politicization of monetary policy, which is happening, public confidence in the banking sector has eroded a bit. Remember the missing $16 billion crisis, where people imagined that 16 billion was missing, and it was never missing. So when you start having all of these crises, the public tends to believe that there is a problem with the banking sector.

Some people go for their money, and they don't get it, so the banking sector is rationing money during a high demand season such as Christmas. So people go for $200,000 only to get 50,000 or 100,000 because the banks don't have the money. About 90% of the Liberian dollar currency is outside the banks; that number in Ghana is around 38-40 per cent. So that means we are way off the norm. Most of our local money is outside the banking sector. So we need to find a way to bring that back in. It's been a problem for a long time; it's not just now.

We began quarantining in Africa earlier than In 2011 that any other country. So informed by Ebola, we ratio was around moved fast; we leveraged on the lessons of 80%, so maybe Ebola.

15% more has gone out. So the challenge is that we got a messy currency situation. We know how much that is out there when you go back historically and do all the assessment; monies should have been destroyed, were they destroyed? different colouration, all kinds of issues. So the strategy is like the President was saying, the proposal coming from the Central Bank, the legislature needs to enact a law to replace this stock of money and reset monetary policy. So once that reset happens, we have to recall all of the funds out there. Destroy them transparently; that transparent destruction is an essential element in public confidence restoration. So we know how much money is out there or how much money is coming back into the Bank, we should be able to destroy that volume.

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The President is saying that we continue to make progress on all of these projects; roads, electricity, streetlights. We will continue to do all this work. So, by the time you do roads, infrastructure, and electricity in the next two years, you will see the foundation for growth is stronger because Investments that need agriculture and electricity will have that. The cable lines running from Cote D'Ivoire to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and Guinea will enable the country to import cheap power and export energy, so it is a transmission for the future. We then need to continue all of these electric purchases so that we can leverage that. So what that means is that the President is conveying concrete, tangible practice that would deliver the soft side of the macroeconomics and the hard side of physical infrastructure. He talked briefly about agriculture.

We are looking for macro stability. Still, the deep dive has to continue in all critical sectors like tourism, which he mentioned in the speech, to continue to solve policy problems in agriculture in all these key sectors and do the heavy lifting there. In contrast, we continue to solve the electricity issues in the real sector. So I think it was an excellent midterm recap and sketching the way forward for the remaining three years.

not out of the woods yet; we have the new wave, hoping it doesn't come here. We're still maintaining vigilance, and we are wearing our masks.

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of power by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, KFW, the World Bank. They funded the hydro, and it's now half capacity, but we have to complete the transmission lines. Unfortunately, we delivered the hydro before delivering the transmission line, so there is a lag.

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one year, you see that it's too thin. I've lived in Abidjan, and I see that the quality of banknotes is more substantial. We need that kind of quality, but you have to pay for that, and that is the big question that the government is addressing now; who pays for this money? If you print money, you have to pay - the estimate runs between 30 to 35 million US dollars to replace the stock. That's a considerable amount of money. How are we 68 going to budget for it? How are we going to get it? That's already being discussed. So, given the time estimates for replacement, we're pretty confident that the money crisis will be beyond us after replacement. But we are trying to formulate new policies and digital economic policies that will ensure we move on a digital path to stop using too much fiscal cash.

COVID-19 is disrupting plans and setting governments nearly ten years back in their projection. For instance, a report titled Liberia Economic Update says that about 68.9 per cent of the population are at the risk of falling into poverty due to COVID-19 disruptions. How is COVID-19 impacting the government's propoor agenda?

From the perspective of global slowdown, back in March last year when Covid hit, the estimate was that the impact was going to be direr on Liberia. The evidence today shows that the impact has not been as bad for Liberia.

Domestic revenue in the Covid year was higher.

As an essential fact, 2020 domestic revenue amounts of money from January to December was 9% higher than January to December Revenue 2019 even in covid. So it is clear that the impact was less than expected at the onset of the pandemic. So what we want to do now is to say, look, the real risk to Liberia, as recognized by the IMF assessment, is external if the global pandemic persists externally. Supply chains are disrupted, that shock will be magnified locally in Liberia, and you could see deceleration through those lenses. So we are worried about that. However, we are excited that if America continues to ramp up it's vaccine production, and if the European Union and Britain are all poaching, if there is a deescalation in the Covid situation across the globe, it would be helpful for African countries.

Significantly better for those countries that have weathered the shock. Governments have responded differently, even though our growth is still negative. Imagine if it would have been worse; that's the point we are making. So we see what happens sometimes but we don't know what didn't happen, and it could have

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been worse. So the real risk is in specific sectors like agriculture, where there were delays in planting because of Covid and lockdowns.

So what the government is doing right now is to minimize those impacts is to look at subsidies to provide relief for household farmers.

These agribusiness people are in the value chain, the aggregator supply chain folks. Recently the government distributed around $200,000 through the World Bank to the ministry of agriculture. We are planning an agriculture fair which is going to bring all farmers together. The government is looking at 16 million dollars financing through the ministry of agriculture again, providing relief for farmers. So with these resources that are targeting farmers in the agricultural sector, we're trying to establish a database that recognizes registered farmers. We have to locate farmers in some spaces. We don't have that data. We have farmers, but we want to give each farmer a unique biometric identification and develop a direct subsidy to the farmer. So Covid had an impact on some sectors, slowed down some activities, but overall the country has done better than imagined. So without Covid, we would have been in a stronger position. We are praying now that we continue to stimulate the economy so that any impacts of Covid are weathered out.

Another instrument is to see how we can expand credit to the private sector. That is a big challenge, as bank credit has been going down since 2016, which indicates the trade economy. If the banks are not lending, it is because they feel that things will be more difficult. So the government is looking at different policies working with the Banks to deal with risk in the agricultural sector. We are looking at a Rubber planting facility to bring in as much as 400 to 500 million cash flow in a year. All this engineering is happening, intending to expand growth. It's been a challenging year, but we say we thank God for the way it turned out in Liberia.

A World Economic Forum survey showed that African entrepreneurs and businesses are often confronted with some of the world's harshest business conditions and are at the risk of closing shop within the first to the fifth anniversary. What is the Weah-led administration doing to support entrepreneurship and SMEs as the engine room for jobs and wealth creation in Liberia?

That is a fundamental question. Meeting with the French Ambassador earlier, that was the critical question I put on the table. The private sector, especially credit to SMEs - small manufacturing firms and medium firms,

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I showed the downward curve to a bank executive, and he said as a minister, to turn that curve around, we need to solve the problem with the Judiciary, and I can tell you banks will provide more money. So we're working on all of these things. The other part is that as an economist, we learned that small businesses are challenged leveraging credit because they don't have the capacity many times. So the accounting and management skills are low,

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There has been a sustained clamour by the government for increased investments in Agriculture. What are some of the incentives to boost investment in the sector?

We have a generous incentives regime in the production sector. The general incentive is such that when investors come in, they don't pay taxes for some years - five to ten years. We have waivers, exemptions and capital equipment, all that is enshrined in the law. So we probably have about the most liberal taxes set of the regime in West Africa. Well, I think we can be pretty generous in Liberia with our incentives. In agriculture, for example, you know right now if you are bringing any equipment for agriculture, there's no tax duty on that. The President signed that into law via executive order recently.

So incentives for tax regime purpose, I think we're pretty okay. We need to attract people to rebrand the country, coming out of War, Ebola, now Coronavirus. So let's rebrand the country by looking at the positives. Let's tell the story, and that's what we're looking to put out there. This is a great country with its share of challenges, but sometimes these challenges are ahead of the game. We've done some beautiful things.

Look at the Democracy culture in West Africa, the recent experience, look all across the countries, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire. Look at the Liberian election, midterm election; the ruling party did not perform well, but we are not revolting. We have maintained a stable democracy without violence. When you go to Cote D'Ivoire, you see violence; you go to Sierra Leone and Guinea; you see violence; people die. How many persons have been killed because of political violence in the last ten years in Liberia? Zero! The narrative should be that Liberia is about the only country in West Africa that can go to elections without anybody shedding blood. Who will tell that story that this is the country where term limits are God and gospel at the same time. No president can extend his or her tenure beyond what is fixed in the Constitution? No tenure elongation is possible here. In that sense, we have achieved an American style democracy- you cannot overthrow any president here. Who's telling that story, that's part of the rebranding.

This administration solves problems that were left unsolved by the past administration for more than a decade. We inherited a bloated wage system that wasted public resources that the partners complain for more than ten years to solve; they didn't crack, they didn't have the guts to put a little ball to solve it. We received it, we stopped, and we said the buck stops with us; we have solved them. That story has to be told. That was a story that has been celebrated by the executive directors of the International Monetary Fund. The propagandist has resisted the narrative that's in the fund report. Because they don't want that narrative to go out there and watch it in Europe that Liberia is fiscally disciplined, how can you not say that Liberia is fiscally disciplined when its showing up in the numbers? When we see a decline from 327 million to 292 million under 18 months, that's discipline; when we see a government that does not borrow from the Central Bank. This is the only country in the world

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and we need to help these small businesses, which is part of the problem. So if you brought one dollar for small business, maybe a fraction goes to due risking, another fraction should go to competency, to augmenting capacity, and I think that's the kind of way. So the International Finance Corporation, the wing of the World Bank, is also on board with this; we told them to help solve private sector risk, working together. We have an agreement with them; there is a new partnership framework that is looking at solving private sector risk so that young entrepreneurs, young risk-takers, whether in the formal sector or the informal economy, can have access to finance. That is their biggest problem. The critical challenge is how do they get credit? Who will guarantee 69 them? We have to solve that problem in a severe way, and I think in the next three years, you're going to see more concrete plans being rolled out.

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microloans, small businesses. This is where the significant risk is because the banks don't lend to them, and they don't lend to them sometimes for genuine reasons, but we need to solve that. As part of the program's package we are looking over for the next three years, I've told the European Union and French Ambassador that it will be essential to continue to provide jobs for our people in the vulnerable setting in an informal economy. The small and medium businesses out there are struggling for credit; we need to find a way to support them. I think it was the US ambassador or the French Ambassador who said we should work more on attracting companies that we know globally are working with small businesses and micro-businesses in countries. We help you to develop that strategy, but we can draw them here. So maybe we need to do a better job of working out ways to de-risk through banks.

We need to reach out, so looking at our midterm, we plan to do that. But the strategy is that both from a budget standpoint and a theoretical perspective, working with our development partners, we would have to find a way to open the flow of cash and credit to small businesses.

Banks cannot give credit because the financial sector is over-leveraged. As minister of finance, I'm aware we're sitting on a time bomb, and we're solving that.

There have been legacy debts in the financial sector in the last 10-15 years.

People and companies have taken money from the Bank, and they have been unable to pay it back. They can't liquidate the collateral because of business climate challenges related to the judicial sector. So the chief justice has agreed that we will hold a judicial conference to resolve this nexus of the Judiciary and business about the conflict. Whether it's a judicial procedure, civil law procedure, whatever it is that hinders banks from moving.

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Is that happening in Nigeria? Is it happening in Ghana?

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We had free monies flowing into this country; money schemed because the annual price was high. We took those revenues instead of putting them 70 into productive sectors; instead of paying people conservatively, we dump them on lavish salaries. People here were making $20,000 a month 15,000 US dollars a month. Now, nobody makes more than the salary of a minister if you are in the government.

Congratulations are in order on your emergence as the finance minister of the year. What's your message to other Finance and Coordinating ministers around the world?

I got advice from a friend who said, look, my advice to presidents and finance ministers around Africa is that you make the tough decisions in year one and two when you come to the office. In your case in Liberia, you have a six-year term, so making difficult decisions in year one, two, two, and half should not be a problem for you because if you don't make those decisions and you defer those decisions for year three, four and five in your case, it would spell doom. Now, imagine the last year, two years we said, we don't want to cut wage, what option are we left with? The first thing is that, well, the partners are going to be saying, "Well, you know, we've been putting money in that for the last ten years. We don't want to do that anymore because we see a broken wage system. So if you don't do that, you're not going to get the kind of support you need from us." If that support dries up and you have an expensive wage bill, how will you pay that if you don't have revenue? So you're going to fake it for some years, carry it to year four, and through that pretending it is going to collapse, and it turns out you are going to the elections. So you deal with that now. In the next two years, we would have solid performance - pushed hard in the real sector, stabilized the economy, fixed our currency issue. We have also brought down inflation. Look at our ports, all the work we're doing there. The Universe we face to go to the election is radically fundamentally different from the Universe today.

We are cooking the food. We cannot eat the food while it's on the stove.

It has to get cooked properly, dished, cool before you eat. The public sometimes wants to eat while the food is on fire. We can't serve them a hot meal or uncooked meal.

By the time it is done in year five of the President's, it will be visible, people will be excited, but this is what we're going to do for the next three years, all in the city and across the country.

The synergy lines will come, we will bring cheap power in, and the cost for electricity will fall, and people will see that.

We're going to solve agriculture. We're going to fight to continue to domesticate production here. Nigeria has solved the rice problem, so in my view, I will try to partner with them and go back to Nigeria, talk to my colleague to perfect that.

Because we are also looking for local partners in the agriculture sector, it's happening in Nigeria; let's make it happen here.

Elections are the core of Democracy because it offers people the choice to change leaders all that. But it's much more than elections. What happens between elections is governance. Governance happens between elections; that's the core of Democracy because without development, what is Democracy.

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SPECIAL REPORT

The LIBERIA NPA's efforts Towards

Promoting Government's Pro-poor Agenda

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The George Weah-led administration's pro-poor agenda has been the bedrock of the government's policies and programmes. In this exclusive interview with African Leadership Magazine UK team in Monrovia, the Chief Executive Officer, Liberia National Port Authority, Hon. Bill Tweahway, talks about the agency's milestones in a short space of two years, as well as her support for the government's pro-poor agenda. Excerpts: It's been over two years since you came on board as the Managing Director of Liberia's National Port Authority. What are some of the high points of your leadership?

For the last two years and four months, the significant achievement we have had was the erection of this edifice, which houses the National Port Authority's headquarters. Before my appointment and shortly afterwards, our offices were in tanks and containers. Today we are in offices that are befitting a corporate institution.

Speaking of achievements, we are on the verge of creating the first inland port; we have secured about 175 acres somewhere at the outskirts, an approximately 30-minute drive from the Guinean border and about 3 hours drive from the Ivorian border. We plan to create a first inland port. We consider that a significant achievement. The land has been bought, and we are now looking for investors. For now, we have more than five different investors who have expressed interest in creating a BOT with the Liberian Government. We will soon start a bidding process through the Liberian investment commission.

Another significant achievement is the creation of jobs. When we came in, there were about 400 people earning income from the Liberian Port Authority. Today we can say that we have a little over two thousand four hundred persons who are earners of revenue from the national port authority. So that's a giant step with our people who did not have income, so we consider that a significant achievement because unemployment worldwide is a setback for the economy in any country.

So, we consider job creation a significant milestone of this current leadership. Without colossal income disparity, for example, the gross under the last Government was 300,000. However, today our pay role is about 1.1 million, and we are still managing, not a single complaint, we pay our people on time; in fact, we are creating other incentives. Before we came, our workers had no additional incentive apart from their salary, but today, all contractors working in the national port authority are beneficiary of a rice bag that they can take

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SPECIAL REPORT home to add to their salary so that food can be at home. They never use to earn such an incentive, but we give rice bags to all contractors, irrespective of their status or income.

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Another significant achievement is our robust engagement with the APM terminal. Before we came, the terminal was a no-go zone, you can't discuss or interact with them, but today we are working with them. There is harmonious coexistence between the NPA and the APM terminal. We are always checking on them to make sure that they give all their best for the country. We think that our two years have been successful and we are hoping and praying that the years ahead will be better than what 72 we have today.

Another development I have not mentioned is that Another significant achievement is our robust engagement you know in the port industry, there are significant things with the APM terminal. Before we came, the terminal was a you have to do to maintain your port; one of these is no-go zone, you can't discuss or interact with them, but dredging. You have to dredge the port so that it would today we are working with them. There is harmonious be appropriate and bigger vessels can come in. So last coexistence between the NPA and the APM terminal. year, we were able to dredge the port. We do not want it to be one-time dredging; we are now in negotiation with COMETS, who have expressed interest in ensuring that the port is dredged again beyond where it will accommodate bigger vessels. Soon, we will have another dredging process that will be sponsored by CONEX and will be managed by us with our technicians who have the expertise. So consistent dredging of the port to make it comparable with other ports worldwide is another significant achievement.

So, we are prepared to accommodate bigger vessels to the port's gravity, and as long as we are here, we would be prepared to do periodic dredging. We will not wait until the depth is far below before we dredge. We will continue to dredge so that we can accommodate bigger vessels.

CEO, Liberia National Port Authority, Hon. Bill Tweah

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SPECIAL REPORT The Weah-led administration has zeroed in on poverty alleviation as a cardinal part of his administration. How is the NPA, under your leadership, helping to promote the Government's pro-poor agenda?

One of the President's central vision is to ensure that all 73 our market women do not sell under the rain or the sun but that market buildings should be erected. The NPA also contributed to constructing the market on the old route where the people were seen in chaff and trampoline; today they have a better market, and they are proud of it.

So, when it comes to supporting the pro-poor agenda for prosperity and development, we have contributed.

We have also contributed through the budget; like a year back, we contributed five million to the budget, which was the highest ever since the port authority's inception. No past administration of the NPA has contributed above 3 million. We are the first to break that tie to contribute five million to the national budget.

Another addition is that we also engage with the national central Government. You know the President's vision is to ensure that the best things happen to this country. One area of interest to him is creating a special economic zone, so the NPA had given about 500 Acres. Soon, the Government, through the President's effort, will be starting the first major special economic zone in the country. These are some of the processes we have engaged in, and we hope to do more.

There are vision bearers, and there are implementers and soldiers at the battlefront that will implement the vision. We are Vision bearers, and if you see any infrastructure development in the country, it is often through the guidance of His Excellency. The concept of the Inland port was his idea.

You know, he travelled across the globe as a professional soccer player. So he saw a lot of things, and he saw inland ports in other areas. So that is a motivational aspect of the President that stands as a motivation for us in infrastructure development.

COVID-19 induced disruptions have slowed down economic activities across significant economies around the world. How has the pandemic affected you, and what measures are in place to minimize the impact?

When Covid came, the President told me not to close the port because goods will have to go in, but the mechanism I put in place for the port's security is essential. Based on his advice, we ensured that nobody who came with any ship here was allowed to touch our soil. Only goods were allowed to go down, but no human being was allowed to come down. The covid-19 is an international export commodity, you get it from somewhere and export it to another country, and its medium of exporting is through human beings. We made sure that all ships that came, wherever you came from, your crew member

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Yes, the NPA is a significant contributor to the President's project. For example, when a fire outbreak recently destroyed many properties, the NPA rose to the occasion. We

contributed through our corporate social responsibility thrusts, and today houses are being built, and our people are now living in better homes. The President's vision is to lift those who find themselves in abject poverty and deprivation from that stage to a better location, and one area of concern is that our people in chaff houses should leave there and live in better homes. So NPA has been contributing to that direction.

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will remain in their offices, room and were not allowed to go outside. So that was the first thing we did, and I'm happy that the International Community ships that came abided by our protocol. When they wanted anything, they got it through a second party.

The President has never downsized anyway in this Government; he encourages everybody to work.

He tells me every day - we are all Liberians, and nobody has more claim to Liberia than any other person.

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When Covid came, on the record, I stand to be corrected nobody from the Liberia NPA died of covid-19 because the requisite mechanism and safety protocols were put in place. When it comes to the economic 74 meltdown and its effect, somebody told me that there will always be a need for goods and services. There might be a drop in the rate of goods that come to our shores, as is the case during the Crisis. So we have a little slow down in the number of goods. But we are grateful to God. One more thing is that, because of Covid, we reduced our workforce by 75%. In an office where we had 12-15 persons, you will find only three persons. We made some people work from home. So that was what we also did that made us record no covid-19 case.

But there was no downsizing?

No, the President does not believe in that. The President has never downsized anywhere in this Government; he encourages everybody to work. He tells me every day - we are all Liberians, and nobody has more claim to Liberia than any other person. We all have ownership of this land, and all of us have the right to work.

January this year signalled the commencement of the African continental free trade agreement. Top among the concern by stakeholders is managing tariffs and the movement of goods and services. What are the prospects for the success of this agreement viz-a-viz these concerns?

Liberia passed a law sometime in 2010 that we inherited that gave the exclusive right to the APM terminal to increase tariff every year based on the inflation index. If you are to do the inflation index's mathematics, that means tariff will increase every year, and there will be no year that tariff will reduce.

So our people gave APM terminal the right in the law to increase tariff.

Ideally, it would be best to increase the tariff when there are losses, but that has not been Liberia's case. You make a profit; your profit is incremental. Why do you increase the tariff? So, we have been meeting with the APM terminal team in a heated debate that you cannot burden our people with more tariffs when an economic meltdown affects the entire world. In places like America, you see up to a trillion-dollar for a relief package. We don't have a relief package; we should have a plan for our people. We support the idea of free trade in the interest of the masses, and we are working with our partners to make sure that our people don't burn with tariff.

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SPECIAL REPORT

There are Opportunities for AFRICA from the

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By Catherine Kavata Musuva

It is one year since governments around the world announced varying degrees of lockdown measures to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. Little did we know that this was the beginning of a global crisis of a scale never witnessed before in our lifetime. We are yet to fully comprehend the enormity of the devastation of what started as a public health emergency and quickly morphed into a crisis with major political, social and economic consequences.

Although a range of vaccines are now available, we are still living in the COVID-19 pandemic which has changed life as we knew it. Fortunately, Africa has reported one of the lowest number of infections and fatalities globally. According to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa has recorded 3.5 percent of worldwide coronavirus cases and 4 percent of the over 2 million recorded deaths worldwide. Nonetheless, the socio-economic impact has been severe. A degree of normality has returned to many African countries with the reopening of schools and the resumption of certain sectors of the economy which had been shut down when the first cases were reported. However, such steps should not make Africans yearn for a complete return to normal because the old normal was not working for large segments of the African population. Instead, African governments should be urged to build a better new normal for society by focusing on their developmental role.

Before the pandemic, the continent was grappling with poverty, unemployment, debt, natural disasters and other deadly diseases, among other challenges. Corruption, bad governance and fragile institutions limited the capacity of states to address these challenges.

When the highly infectious virus arrived, it found public health systems, basic social amenities and social welfare programmes in a dire state. Health facilities were ill equipped and health workers were working in undesirable conditions. Governments had not provided decent living conditions to many of their citizens. Existing social safety nets were unable to mitigate the massive job losses and economic recession that soon followed. Indeed, the pandemic exposed how poorly placed Africa's weak states are to deal with a crisis.

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A degree of normality has returned to many African countries with the reopening of schools and the resumption of certain sectors of the economy which had been shut down when the first cases were reported.

However, such steps should not make Africans yearn for a complete return to normal because the old normal was not working for large segments of the African population.

AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE

SPECIAL REPORT timber handwashing station which uses a foot-pedal to tip a bucket of water into a basin. He received a presidential award and his invention was listed as one of the top ten African innovations to help tackle COVID-19 on the continent by the BBC in 2020. Such remarkable inventions and many more that have been created by start-up entrepreneurs to respond to the challenges of the crisis should be supported as they can stimulate economic and job growth, particularly in the digital space.

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However, every crisis presents an opportunity. This is a moment for African states to draw lessons from their own responses to the crisis and from the effects of the pandemic on their countries. An opportunity exists for governments to go back to basics and strengthen their capacity to deliver basic public goods and services and create the conditions that shape citizens' aspirations. Strong leadership is required and citizens should demand more from their leaders on the other side of the pandemic. At a fundamental level citizens desire what psychologist Abraham Maslow in his 1943 hierarchy of needs theory referred to as lowerorder needs. Lower-order needs are the basic physiological needs that are essential to survival (air, water, food, clothing and shelter). They also include 76 safety needs (physical, financial, environmental and emotional) that a person needs to feel secure in their life and surroundings. Governments should therefore review their policy approaches to public health, education and social security and make lasting investments in these areas in order to better the lives of their citizens and build resilience against future unexpected disease outbreaks.

Although global health crises throughout history have inflicted great suffering and loss, they have also led to significant transformation and scientific advances, changing lives for the better. Comparisons have been made between

the coronavirus pandemic and other pandemics. The bubonic plague of the 1300s, also known as the Black Death, is estimated to have killed over 25 million people in Europe. The outbreak changed the economic and social structure of medieval Europe. It led to better living and working conditions for the poor and created the middle class. It also sparked interest in art, literature and music. The influenza pandemic of 1918, commonly called the Spanish flu, which is estimated to have killed more than 50 million people worldwide revolutionised health systems by improving patient care and bringing into focus the underlying causes of illness such as diet and living conditions.

Pandemics spur innovation and entrepreneurship by creating new needs out of the disruption. Africans were swift in coming up with innovative ways to curb COVID-19. For example, in Kenya, a group of 15 students at Kenyatta University designed and built a low-cost ventilator that is currently in clinical trials. A nineyear old boy, Stephen Wamukota, from a village in western Kenya invented a

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African governments should establish effective financial schemes and incentives to encourage development of micro, small and medium size enterprises in a continent where the majority of the working age population makes a living in the informal sector. Those working in the informal economy have borne the brunt of the pandemic. In addition, governments should build partnerships with the private sector and research institutions and help entrepreneurs build networks and market their products and services.

Government policy for entrepreneurs should also include improving the infrastructure required for businesses to thrive such as transport and telecommunications.

The pandemic could be a turning point for Africa if the opportunities it has brought on are seized. Positive change could follow from this crisis. The continent can recover if governments commit themselves to improving state capacity and strengthening governance institutions to better serve their citizens. If the basic needs of people are met and opportunities are created for them to thrive, then the new normal could be a new dawn for Africa. I hope our leaders are ready to rise to the occasion.

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YOUTH

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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the last UK-Africa Investment Summit

AFRICAN YOUTH TAKE CENTRE STAGE

“Africa is the future” That's what the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told delegates at the last UK-Africa Investment Summit. The Prime Minister was hosting the British Government's second Summit to boost trade between the UK and the African continent, and the first since the UK left the European Union. Mr Johnson described Africa as a continent of “energy and opportunity” and he paid this tribute to Africa's young entrepreneurs: “We have much to learn from the ingenuity, energy and ambition of African entrepreneurship and wealth creation. The UK has a huge role to play as we want to be Africa's partner of choice. Now there's renewed urgency for a common agenda to build back better and stronger after the pandemic”.

The Summit's keynote speaker Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank shared the British Prime Minister's optimism and described Africa as the world's “next growth frontier”. Dr Adesina reminded investors that by 2050 Africa will be home to 25% of the world's consumers and that 60% of them will be under 25 with Africa poised to profit from this youthful population: “Our Youth are our greatest asset.

Our youth are not our future, they are our present”.

This emphasis on African's youth was a recurring theme at the Summit. Dr Adesina said his African Development Bank was creating a specialised bank for young people to give aspiring entrepreneurs access to funding to help them turn their ideas into businesses.

France's President Emmanuel Macron is also embracing this renewed emphasis on African youth. He's hosting his own Summit later this year in Montpellier and he's pledged to invite young Africans to the Summit instead of their political leaders. President Macron confirmed that he would break with tradition and would not be inviting any African leaders to the 28th Africa-France Francophonie Summit: “We will just invite young people from everywhere in Africa who are involved in agriculture, civil society, business, culture and sports. They will say what they want for Africa. They will decide. Our aim is not to organise a classic Summit by inviting Heads of State but to highlight people who embody generational renewal”.

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YOUTH technologies in sectors like communications and energy. That view is shared by Dr Adesina who points to Africa's digital explosion with data consumption already growing at 35% a year, while opportunities for the continent to harness solar power and renewable energy signal a massive transformation. He described how Africa's energy sector was already looking at creating the world's largest solar power area in The Sahel as the continental seeks to invest heavily in sustainable renewable and green energy.

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For UK Export Finance, the UK government's export credit agency, major infrastructure projects like building hospitals, roads and airports are also crucial. Its CEO Louis Taylor explained at the UK-Africa Investment Summit how it is funding projects like a £1.7 billion 78 project to build a monorail in Egypt. As an indication of the level of investment into Africa Mr Taylor said UK Export Finance is currently investing in thirteen different African countries in projects across agriculture, healthcare, construction and renewable energy worth more than £4 billion.

The Africa Infrastructure Board was set up by the JohannesburgBased UK Trade Commissioner for Africa Emma Wade-Smith to specifically target these kind of projects and boost the UK's ambition to become the continent's “Partner Of Choice”. The Board's Nicholas Oliver summed up the attraction of Africa: “There is still a significantly large hole in infrastructure in Africa and as a result the opportunities are endless so we need to encourage more companies to engage with Africa.

Even during this pandemic we actually increased our tempo on the continent”.

The remarks of the British Prime Minister, the French President and the President of the African Development Bank all suggest that Africa's youth have a big role to play in these projects.

Ekow Tachie Mensah agrees. He's a Youth Support Champion from Accra in Ghana. He says it's time for Africa's youth to help transform the continent: “This current generation of young leaders understand digitalisation and this makes us better prepared to shape the future we aspire to. Preparations for the future begin today and that is why now more than ever it's important to promote the youth into strategic leadership positions”.

If Boris Johnson is right and future really is African - then he would have found much to reassure him at this UK-Africa Summit that the future is in good hands.

That view is shared by Dr Adesina who points to Africa's digital explosion with data consumption already growing at 35% a year, while opportunities for the continent to harness solar power and renewable energy signal a massive transformation.

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CLIMATE ACTION

Europe & Africa

Need to See Eye-to-Eye on Climate Change

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By Carlos Lopes

Analysis, including the IPPC reports, show Africa's vulnerability to climate change despite only accounting for 2% to 3% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industrial sources. Africa aspires to attain the economic and technological convergence and benefits similar to those enjoyed in the industrialised world. Other regions got to their advanced development stage at a high cost for the planet, contributing to climate change.

Africans should do it differently, taking advantage of being latecomers, with the opportunity to leapfrog into green industrial and technological development. But that requires a framework of support and significant financial resources the continent lacks. It is, therefore, not surprising that Africans are becoming assertive about the need for climate justice. It is a way of demonstrating that the current climate change narrative cannot box them into adaptation and mitigation alone.

Africa's most important priority is energy. Clean energy transitions will affect the African continent differently from industrialised regions, such as Europe. Diversifying the energy mix should not trump the need to reduce energy poverty. Energy transitions must meet socioeconomic and affordability criteria as embodied in the ethos of the SDGs. But, what is less discussed is the potential for Africa to be a significant contributor to the global clean energy revolution. Beyond its interest to shift from low value extraction towards higher value beneficiation and industrial development, it is positioned to also enrich existing value chains with its abundant renewable resources.

“Africa's most important priority is energy. Clean energy transitions will affect the African continent differently from industrialised regions, such as Europe.” #DevMatters Africa's Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) -which came into effect on the 1st of January 2021– could be used as the propeller for the establishment of sustainable technologies and sustainable infrastructure, whilst lowering the burden of negative trade

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Clean energy transitions will affect the African continent differently from industrialised regions, such as Europe.

Diversifying the energy mix should not trump the need to reduce energy poverty.

Energy transitions must meet socioeconomic and affordability criteria as embodied in the ethos of the SDGs

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balances and climate-related asset stranding.

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Africa's ability to access green technology will be critical. Currently, little R&D in green technologies takes place on the continent. In the last 20 years, only 4 African countries (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and South Africa) have filed renewable energy technologies patents.

80 A total of 5031 patents comparing poorly to the top-3 leaders in the field: China (240,065), the United States of America (106,171) and Japan (84,316).

Africa also lags behind other developing regions such as South America (15,840).

Connecting the R&D agenda with green technology development will be key for accelerating low-carbon industrialisation.

The Paris Agreement has provisions for technology and financing specifically directed towards mitigation and adaptation. Most importantly, in its Preamble, the Paris Agreement emphasised “the intrinsic relationship that climate change actions, responses and impacts have with equitable access to sustainable development and eradication of poverty”. The continent unambiguously backed the Paris Agreement, which sets ambitious targets but also provides safeguards for developing countries such as the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. Africa has expressed commitment to shared responsibility. But this cannot be a one-way traffic road.

Under the Paris Agreement, signatory governments committed to strengthen their emissions-reduction plans every five years, through their respective National Determined Contributions (NDCs). So far, of the 105 countries that have publicly done it within target, 44 are in Africa.

agreements on several legislative texts, it is not lost to Africans that it is likely to affect the continent in different ways. Attention needs to be paid to both intended and unintended consequences.

Europe is a major trading partner for Africa. Imposing additional hurdles to trade by introducing additional non-tariff requirements to access the EU market can be damaging for Africa's infant industry. It may also violate Europe's obligations under the Paris Agreement apart from its moral responsibility to cater for its contribution to the climate burden. The Carbon Border Adjustment Tax is a good example of a well-intended proposal that may directly affect Africa's known weak trade position. The EU assertion that “should differences in levels of ambition worldwide persist, as the EU increases its climate ambition, the Commission will propose a carbon border adjustment mechanism, for selected sectors, to reduce the risk of carbon leakage” is worrisome for Africa.

“As Africa and Europe move forward in establishing a new basis for their partnership it will be imperative to shift the discussion from 'how Europe could help Africa' to 'how we can help the planet together'.” #DevMatters Tweet.

The EU is keen to subsidise its private sector to promote the Green Deal and energy transitions, through a financial package €1 trillion under the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan. The impact of climate subsidies, notably in the agricultural sector, are another form of subsidies likely to further strain Africa's exports to its main trading partner. Africans have no difficulties to access the European market when they export untransformed natural resources while struggling with these type of policies for any transformed goods.

As Africa and Europe move forward in establishing a new basis for their partnership it will be imperative to shift the discussion from 'how Europe could help Africa' to 'how we can help the planet together'. Such ambition will not be possible without addressing faulty trade arguments that have contributed to isolate and impoverish Africa, precisely because the continent's transformation and industrialisation was not prioritised.

Carlos Lopez is a Professor at the University of Cape Town and former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)

The European Union has opted to pursue more ambitious targets than those set up in the Paris Agreement. This should be welcomed. The European Green Deal, the framework of which was introduced in 2019, is now being prioritised as part of the EU's postCOVID-19 recovery plan. A new decision targeting a 55% emissions reduction by 2030 has just been set. Although its implementation will materialise through

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INTERVIEW SECURITY

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Africa's One-Stop-Shop for Quality Network Solutions Poor services; unreliable network providers and slow internet services have become common features in Africa, as businesses struggle to migrate to online platforms due to the prevailing realties of COVID-19 induced remote-working. Paratus Botswana has come to the aid of many businesses as it provides a unique solution to help mitigate this common challenge. In this exclusive interview with African Leadership Magazine UK, the …. Talks about the company's unique offerings and how it solves clients needs. Excerpts: Paratus seems to advocate for a single network provider for businesses. What are the advantages of this over multiple service providers?

Yes that is correct. We have several enterprise customers who see the value to their business of a single service provider because they have a single point of contact, full accountability and a set of guarantees that would be impossible to achieve with multiple service providers. The advantages are reduced risk, improved security, less complexity and more control as well as improved network management, not to mention the lower cost. Not all service providers can offer this, as you have to offer guarantees and have an independent network and a bundle of services to be effective.

What unique product offering (s) makes Paratus a leader in the industry?

Paratus has a 100% independent network covering Gaborone and surrounds.

We also have an independent gateway to South Africa and two other routes connecting us to Namibia and South Africa. Based on this structure we are able to offer unmatched uptime to our customers such as the banking industry where uptime is a non-negotiable. In addition to this we have various peering points for internet and Microsoft Express routes. This again ensures that we do not have a

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INTERVIEW dependency for internet and that we can offer low latency direct connections for our customers. Our strong skill set and service culture and a combination of services that are not easily found in the market further compliment our competitive advantage.

In your view, will it be more cost effective for a business to use a single network provider?

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Yes, but not with just any provider. As mentioned above, you need to be very sure you have a network provider that truly has the diversification and ability to manage situations where you may be exposed to service interruption. Multiple service providers each charge for their services as if theirs were the primary service, increasing network costs at a time when every cent counts. Using a single provider, such as Paratus, allows a business to keep secondary or redundant services on a standby fee, thus providing a saving to the bottom line without risk.

Paratus recently signed a partnership with Spacecom to provide Broadband connectivity to the continent. Tell us more about this partnership and how it ties to your efforts to provide quality services to clients in Africa?

A quality connection is now more important than ever before, to support businesses in tough trading times. Paratus has been and continues to invest in the African satellite market to offer quality connections to the region and the rest of Africa.

Satellite technology allows us to deliver services to areas impossible to reach via Terrestrial means or where it is simply not financially feasible. Satellite technology has become more affordable, flexible, and reliable. Paratus has invested in a number of hubs both organically and through acquisition to improve the quality of our connection and service offering and lowering latency. These hubs are the landing point for comms from VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) terminals in remote regions and they are strategically placed.

To further support the investment in our hubs and to support the growth we see in Africa, we upgraded our hubs, and in in aligning with the overall group strategy of expanding the network and coverage footprint, we invested in additional capacity via the powerful satellite – the AMOS-17, through a partnership with Spacecom. The additional capacity provides ISPs and businesses with a versatile communication solution that can be easily implemented. Through leveraging business technologies such as the AMOS-17, businesses can enjoy the instant integration and dynamism of satellite capacity which can be tailored to meet their needs.

Investing in infrastructure is one area that Paratus Botswana takes seriously. How does this aid the overall mission of the group?

Paratus Group believes in investing in infrastructure for the simple reason that owning and managing your infrastructure cuts out the middleman and ensures we can deliver the service standard that we live by. It's impossible to structure service promises and guarantees where you are not in control of the full solution end to end. Paratus has invested heavily in

MARCH - APRIL 2021

various telecommunications infrastructure such as Fiber and Data centers such as the latest project in Lusaka and our recently completed and commissioned data center in Angola, our second one there. There are exciting Botswana projects, such as our fiber routes complementing our Microwave deployment that will add further depth to our network. In Namibia the construction of our Tier-3 vendor neutral Data Center has commenced and is another milestone, while as the Google landing partner in Namibia for their Equiano undersea CLS (Cable Landing Station) is further testament that Paratus is the go-to partner of choice. Lastly we should mention that our partnership with BOFINET in providing Botswana with access to the WACS cable capacity was another successful investment that has made a tremendous impact in unlocking capacity that was available yet uneconomical to reach for BOFINET.

It's impossible to structure service promises and guarantees where you are not in control of the full solution end to end. Paratus has invested heavily in various telecommunications infrastructure such as Fiber and Data centers such as the latest project in Lusaka and our recently completed and commissioned data center in Angola, our second one there.

AFRICANLEADERSHIP MAGA ZINE