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BUSIN SSI
Think. Believe. Become
LIFE
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THE NEXT
DIGITAL KING
Gbenga Sesan, the founder of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria talks about creating online and offline jobs for young adults in Africa. www.businessiqnetwork.com
NOTE Finding Your Dream Job
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ince the financial crisis in 2007, it has become extremely difficult for job seekers to secure jobs. In fact those who are fortunate to escape the-youare-fired-letters from downsizing organizations still wake up every morning hoping they will not eventually receive an email that will lay them off. Although it has become very difficult to secure a job, some people are still attracting their dream jobs. If you happen to fall into this category, then you are indispensable. If you were fired or fresh out of school looking for that dream job, then here are some secrets that should spice up your search.
have these unusual skills. But if you are fresh out of school, you need to volunteer your time to work for free in an organization where you can acquire these skills while you are searching for that “job”. You can volunteer to work in not-for-profit organizations. The two things you will gain when you take such decision: you will gain that needed experience that I am talking about and probably get a job in blue chip organizations afterwards. Trash your CV. Employers are tired of seeing the same old CVs done one or two pages of A4 paper. You need to make your CV more interesting and attractive. You need to give your employer the impression that it took you time to prepare your CV and that it's worth a fortune. That way they will know you are serious and will take your time to execute your duties when they employ you. There is nothing wrong if you let your CV look like a black leather-bound manuscript you are sending to a renowned publisher. Make it exciting to read and not to be forgotten in a rush. I do not have time in this article to go into the details of what your CV should look like, but for heaven sake, trash that A4 paper CV you carry about.
Are you qualified? This is an important aspect of getting that dream job. This goes beyond graduating from Ivy League schools. It goes beyond graduating summa cum laude, magna cum laude or cum laude. Organizations are no longer searching for such; they are in need of those with excellent skills, expertise and passion. Passion, in this context, is simply to love what you do for no particular reason or for the monetary returns. The latter reason may land you back on the street looking for another job if you are not satisfied with your stipend. So preferably, let passion be your driving force. This, of course, is the right motive to securing your dream job. If you do not have the right motive, then you probably will not find a good job anytime soon. You have to find your passion or driving force first, and then the job will come.
Follow your passion: I hate it when an applicant presents a CV and says “I want just about any job”. It's absurd. It is important that you find a job in line with your passion or related to what you studied. Don't just ask for any job, search for your dream job. If you want to work in a bank, hunt for it. If you want to go looking for some artifacts in Egypt because you studied archaeology, please for heaven's sake, do exactly that. Don't just settle for anything because you feel that is what the economy is offering. You deserve to offer yourself something better.
Excellent skills on the other hand go beyond being computer literate or speaking French as a second language. These skills can be an edge over your counterparts in a job interview, but it won't grant you your dream job in this era that computing and French are part of kindergartens' curriculum in Montessori schools. Excellent skills are required for you to function effectively in your department. They are not the usual skills for everyday employee. For example, as an accountant, you must know how to excellently use the latest accounting software. To be honest, these excellent skills come with few years experience. So if you are fortunate to have worked in an organization before now, then you should have trained yourself to
I hope as the New Year approaches very quickly, you will prepare yourself for that dream job you've always wanted. Good luck!
Alfred Ade-Ijimakinwa 3
THE NEXT
DIGITAL KING
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Gbenga Sesan: PIN started in 2007. But before that, I was with Junior Achievement. When I came straight out of school, I worked with a non-profit [organization] called Junior Achievement for six years. I was the program assistant, program manager, project manager and development manager. That was all I did before starting Paradigm Initiative Nigeria.
e graduated as an Electronic & Electrical Engineer at Obafemi Awolowo University. And further completed his executive education programs at Lagos Business School, New York Group for Technology Transfer, Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Santa Clara University and University of the Pacific. He would later consult for numerous institutions, which include Microsoft, Harvard University and United Nations agencies, among others, in over 30 countries. Afterwards, he spent six years working in a non-profit organization before he went on to affect the lives of hundreds of young adults with all the skills and experience he had gathered over the years. Read the inspiring interview of Gbenga Sesan, the founder of Paradigm Shift initiative.
BusinessIQ Life: Why did you leave Junior Achievement? Gbenga Sesan: I was going to spend one year, but I spent six years. I thought six years was good enough to lay a good foundation for the work I wanted done. And it was time to focus on something a lot more related to what I've always wanted to do for the next level, which was what PIN started out to do.
BusinessIQ Life: Who is Gbenga Sesan? BusinessIQ Life: Why did you start Paradigm Initiative Nigeria and how did you start?
Gbenga Sesan: I am a Nigerian, African Social Entrepreneur. ICT and Development Consultant. Someone who believes in the effectiveness and efficacy of using ICT for development.
Gbenga Sesan: In 2000, we started with a mailing list; basically just sending information to young Nigeria. Between 2001 and 2007, we went from sending out information to organizing small meetings and then went out to make presentation at other events. We were at the e-Nigeria event hosted by the IT Development Agency Nigeria in 2011. We were there as a group. When there was a public hearing in the National Assembly, we came together as young people, had conversation. Then there was a global summit on information society in 2003 and 2005, we organized the Rural Youth Nigeria ITT process (RYNITT). I went to Geneva for the conference, and then came back to Nigeria. I had conversations [meetings] with young people in Lagos, Kano, Enugu and Port-Harcourt, talking to them about what I had learnt and asking them what they think we should have talked about at the meeting in Geneva. In 2006, we started organizing trainings. It was in 2007 we started full operation and registered the organization in 2008.
BusinessIQ Life: Tell us about your work experience prior to starting Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN)?
BusinessIQ Life: Where did your start-up capital come from? Gbenga Sesan: I had 4000 dollars in savings; mostly from consulting work, which I did. I had been volunteering for United Nations and some other organizations and was getting paid for some of the work I was doing for them. So I had this money in savings. I thought it was a lot of money, but it finished very quickly. 6
BusinessIQ Life: What were the challenges you had to cope with when you started PIN and how did you manage or overcome them? Gbenga Sesan: I was fortunate; I had an interesting young man, Ugo Nwosu, who worked with me from the very beginning. That took care of my human capital problems. So I didn't have too much challenge in that area until we needed to expand. I had 4,000 dollars; so we didn't have money problem at the beginning until we finished the money within 4 months. I think the biggest challenge was for people to understand why I wanted to do this in a community [Ajegunle] where I didn't grow up. Ajegunle was the first location I had in mind to launch the project. But we took care of that problem by partnering with someone who had worked in Ajegunle; so eventually it was easier to penetrate the community. BusinessIQ Life: What does Paradigm Initiative Nigeria really do? Gbenga Sesan: We are a training organization that is also involved in ICT policy. So we do two things. One is training, which is basically training young people on how to connect with
opportunities having learnt about ICT. And the second is, we get involved in ICT policy processes. BusinessIQ Life: How many people had been empowered since inception of PIN? Gbenga Sesan: We've got various levels of our programs. We've got the level where we actually monitor what exactly they had gone through. We've about 500 students who had gone through our L.I.F.E Program. L.I.F.E is Life skills, ICT, Financial readiness and Entrepreneurship training. They go through a 7 weeks training program, get letters of completion and spend six months as interns during which period we basically monitor what is going on, to be sure they've actually practiced what they've learnt. So, from 2007 till date, our programs have reached at least 200, 000 young people (it's not a lot considering that Nigeria is a country of over 170 million people). Through our programs L.I.F.E, ICT Policy and Techie Entrepreneurial Nigerian Talented (TENT), we have reached hundreds of students. With the TENT program, we work with tertiary students on how to understand the use of technology. An ideal TENT student in year one decides I'm going to do this and graduate. Such will put together a plan. In year two, they start learning the necessary skills. In year three, they team up with their classmates to work on
the idea. And in year four, they launch the businesses. So when a TENT student graduates, he starts hiring their classmates or gets hired by the companies of his dream because he had picked up the right skills over the years. We also have our new program which is called Digital Jobs. With Digital Jobs, we intend to reach about 10, 000 young people, connecting them with online jobs. The basic idea is to train them, which we have started. Once they are trained, they don't need to go looking for jobs; rather they go online to various freelancing platforms and can sign up immediately to start earning income. BusinessIQ Life: What were the challenges of putting the Ajegunle L.I.F.E project together? Gbenga Sesan: We choose Ajegunle for many reasons. One key reason was the fact that we had a relationship with an organization that was already working there. It makes it easier for us to penetrate the community. The major challenge was the curriculum; trying to decide what we should teach them so that they can become either employable or can start entrepreneurial idea that can earn them income. Basically the program was designed to teach them how to improve their lives; how to bring them from earning zero dollar to earning about 3 dollars a day. The beautiful thing about the training program, when we were starting, was that we could do a baseline study. We were not in a hurry to start because we wanted to do it well. So we did two baseline studies just like we did in Aba. The first is to find out if value will be added to these young adults if trained. And secondly, we were concern about the curriculum; we were concerned about what they will learn. What do they know already? How many of them can use or do not use the computer? How many of them can speak confidently because when we teach PowerPoint for example, we are not teaching them PowerPoint so that they can do beautiful slides. It is so that they can have a visual aid to support them when they are speaking in public or during presentation. So it is like learning public speaking using visual aid. BusinessIQ Life: For the L.I.F.E Project, why did you choose Aba as your second location? Gbenga Sesan: Aba because when we did our baseline study in South-East, we realized it was a very similar community to Ajegunle in terms of the numbers of young people who are at disadvantage. And it is closer to where they can 10
have opportunities to work as interns after the program. BusinessIQ Life: If I want to be a beneficiary of this project; what do I need to do? Gbenga Sesan: Very simple. In the communities where we operate, it is specific to the communities. We usual don't encourage anyone from anywhere to come and apply. We want them to live there so they can come for those 7 weeks of training. Basically they need to pick up the form and fill it. The reason for the form is because we need to brainstorm and choose a 100 from the 400 hundred applications that we project to receive. So we have to be sure this people really need this training. We have to be sure that your parents can't really afford to pay for a regular computer training class. Once we have been able to select those who truly need this training, then we invite them for interview. Afterwards the training commences. BusinessIQ Life: Research shows that 70% of businesses start and close down within 3 to 5 years because they lack sustainability plan; what is your sustainability plan for Paradigm Initiatives Nigeria? Gbenga Sesan: We are social enterprise and we make sure we get consulting work. Our last
publicly audited statement shows that 60% of our income came from consulting; not grant. So what we do is that we make sure that we use the skills that we have to earn money. So we use what we earn to do what we want to do in the organization. BusinessIQ Life: What is your greatest fulfillment when it comes to Paradigm Initiative Nigeria? Gbenga Sesan: [seeing] young people who go through the trainings. Every time I see a young person who had gone through any of our training and comes out a better person improving his or her life and that of his or her family and becoming a role model for other young people. That's like me being paid my one year salary in one day. BusinessIQ Life: Every business has its share of challenges, what are the challenges PIN is presently facing? Gbenga Sesan: I can tell you a lot about our power challenges. Right now we have 4 centers across Nigeria and three of them run on huge electricity generators. That's a lot of money. If Nigeria is a better country, we would have used such money to train more young people. Human capital is another major challenge. We are looking to recruit from time to time. But it is difficult to find people who are
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passionate, skilled and willing to stay with an organization for a while doing the same thing. We are not looking for people to leave what they know; we are looking for people who would have done the same thing we are asking them to do. We don't want people who will do something else or want to do things because they want to earn a salary. We are looking for people who will do exactly what they are meant to be doing if they join us. BusinessIQ Life: Staffing is an integral part of every business; what is your recruitment strategy? Gbenga Sesan: We do a lot of assignments. So, when we call for applications, we get a lot of them. So we give out assignments to make sure they understand what they want to do. Secondly, we make sure they have an input into their own job description. So we ask them what you would do for the next 6 months if you are hired and we judge them base on what they have written down. Those who are serious, we invite for an oral interview in a form of conversation. It's a conversation because we just want to know if they would have done the same job without being paid. There are three things I look out for when hiring. One is attitude. If you have the right attitude, you would probably learn a lot of things. Number two is passion. If you are passionate about this and would have done it without being paid; then we want you. Number three is skills. If you are skilled enough, you will have confidence and would add value to the organization. If you bring a lot of income to the organization, then we can pay you a lot too.
work with young people a lot. Also, we do some traditional media for locations like Ajegunle and Aba. We use banners, street publicity, and local governments to recommend people and also work with organizations that work underground. But generally for our programs, we use social media a lot. BusinessIQ Life: What is the greatest business mistake you've ever made?
BusinessIQ Life: Any room for internship? Gbenga Sesan: Yes. We have space for two interns in Abuja, one in Aba. We have four interns in Lagos already and still in need of more.
Gbenga Sesan: I think my greatest business mistake was spending one whole year on campus thinking I would work for a consulting firm. I didn't have enough information to know what social entrepreneurship was all about at that time. I wanted to add value, but I didn't want to work with a traditional NGO, I wanted to work with an organization that will not be begging for money. I wish I learnt a lot about social entrepreneurship before I left school; I probably would have started a bit earlier than now. Maybe I would have made more mistakes and would have learnt a lot more.
BusinessIQ Life: Any recruitment procedure? Gbenga Sesan: Yes. It is all on our website, www.pinigeria.org. Under get involved, you will find the one for the Social Entrepreneurship Stint, which is in Lagos and the one for ICT Policy, which is in Abuja. BusinessIQ Life: Every business requires publicity, what is your major publicity channel or channels?
BusinessIQ Life: What is your perception to running businesses in Nigeria?
Gbenga Sesan: Mostly social media because we 13
right.
Gbenga Sesan: We've got a generation of hustlers which is a good thing and also a bad thing. Hustlers [entrepreneurs] mean they would overcome the challenges. When there is power problem, they would buy electricity generators. When there are no good roads, they would buy bigger cars [SUVs]. When business is not doing too well, they will scale down. But it is also a bad thing because when you are hustling, it doesn't allow you to be very creative. You are busy doing fire brigade approach, overcoming problems and there is no room to really think and be sure you are close or far from where you want your business to be.
BusinessIQ Life: Where do you see Paradigm Initiative Nigeria in the next twenty years? Gbenga Sesan: In the next 20 years, I won't be here. By 2017, I won't be on this seat. Not because I am running away, I believe we would have built a good structure for me to be able to move on the next thing I have to do. It is also important for the sustainability of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria. We have succession planning in mind for the next three years. Immediately after that, we also have expansion plan. In 20 years, we would have expanded across all the regions in Nigeria and some other regions within the continent. I do not know for a fact if we are going to North Africa, but as far as our plans are concerned at the moment, we are looking at Central, Southern, East and West Africa. And we've got some invitations to work with partners outside Africa; so we will be doing that too. But most importantly, we will be reaching our students and graduates in millions.
BusinessIQ Life: What do you think is the greatest challenge of entrepreneurship in Nigeria? Gbenga Sesan: Two things—vision and power. I think we are pretty small minded when it comes to entrepreneurship. We just want to earn enough money to show off, which is stupid really. I want to see a new generation of young people, who want to take on the whole world; who want to solve problems on a larger scale beginning from their immediate environment. The second thing is power. Power can be view from two perspectives. Power as the ability to use your skills to do the right thing and not abuse it. Secondly, power supply. Imagine how much more businesses would have saved if the power supply is
BusinessIQ Life: When you leave Paradigm Initiative Nigeria in 2017, what would you be doing? Gbenga Sesan: I am moving on to development consulting. I do that as a side business right now to 14
help Paradigm Initiative Nigeria with fund raising. But I would set up a team for it and certain percentage of our income as a company will be put back into the running of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria.
Entrepreneurs of the year 2014, which is a big deal to me. This is part of the world economic forum; it's a global recognition for the little work we have done and that we intend to do at Paradigm Initiatives Nigeria.
BusinessIQ Life: Tell us about your life outside work?
BusinessIQ Life: What will be your advice to would-be and budding entrepreneurs?
Gbenga Sesan: I am married to a beautiful woman. She holds a PHD; so we do a lot of intelligent conversation. We always have a lot of fun. I am not a big fan of sport. I just love relaxing at home, watching lot of movies with my wife. Life outside work is actually what gives me a lot of interest in the work because if I am confused outside work, I can't concentrate. So, I'm that kind of person who will make sure my life is as balance as possible so I can be able to add value on the job.
Gbenga Sesan: Vision and Skills. There is a temptation to start something because others are doing it. Rather follow the trends in your life. There have been signs of things that you feel very passionate about because you are angry nobody is doing it well. Follow your passion so that when money doesn't come, you will be happy and when it finally comes, you will twice as happy. The second thing is skill. They said there are no job opportunities in Nigeria. Yea, there are times when there are not as many opportunities as we need or want. But as far as I am concern, there are job opportunities, but it is really important for people to have the required skills that will help them become better employees. And to make sure that in all that they do, people see them as number one. If you are not number one, then you need to invest more time in what you do.
BusinessIQ Life: Any award or recognition? Gbenga Sesan: Lots of them. Like someone said it looks like they come one or more every year. It's all in my profile online. But the most recent was from the Schwab Foundation. I was announced alongside a few other African Social 15