Obi Cubana is Practising Ubuntu Philosophy

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OBI CUBANA: LESSONS IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AFRICAPITALISM? Obinna Nwachukwu

Obi Cubana has created a national sensation, but what lessons can we learn from this about entrepreneurship and how Africans live capitalism?

On Sunday 18th July 2021 at the outing and thanksgiving service for late Uche Iyiegbu (Odoziaku), his son, Obi Iyiegbu popularly called Obi Cubana, the entertainment mogul and billionaire pledged to support 300 youths from 300 families in his Oba native community Anambra state with the sum of N1m each to start their own businesses.

This gesture which may sound outlandish is typical of this young man whose philanthropy has become his second name.

In his desire to uplift the downtrodden, he has allegedly empowered over 500 youths in the last 15 years from various parts of the county. Hence, it won’t be surprising that in the next 10 to 15 years, some of the beneficiaries of the recent N300m largesse would have become multi-millionaires in their own right.

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The fact is: You cannot remove Obi’s drive for entrepreneurship and human capacity development from his success story in life.

Indeed, stories have it that the lavish party and Naira rain at his mother’s burial on Friday 16th July 2021 were funded by those he assisted in business.

Here is the import of the Obi brand – remember and empower those under you, because there would always be a payback time. Like Obi Cubana, successful men and women should make it a duty to introduce and nurture other young men and women adequately.

Money is good, but we should also encourage people to grow and progress. Imagine that Obi Cubana took in Paschal Okechukwu better known as Cubana Chief Priest as a boy, grew him in business and today, the boy owns a thriving business in Owerri as well as manages Obi Cubana’s business empire. Where would Chief Priest have been today without his benefactor?

Obi’s idea of entrepreneurship and human capacity development

is worthy of study. Whereas the process of setting up a business is known as entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur is an individual who creates a new business, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards.

The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a source of new

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ideas, goods, services, and business or procedures.

Entrepreneurs play a key role in any economy, using the skills and initiative necessary to anticipate needs and bringing good new ideas to market. Although highly risky, entrepreneurship can also be highly rewarding, as it serves to generate economic wealth, growth, and innovation.

Human capacity development on the other hand has been defined as “The process by which individuals, groups, organisations, institutions, and societies develop their abilities – both individually and collectively – to set and achieve objectives, perform functions, solve problems, and to develop the means and conditions required to enable this process”.

In the case of Obi Cubana, a number of key lessons are drawn from Obi’s business activities. Most important are these: capacity development initiatives must be participatory in design; implementation and monitoring initiatives must build on core capacities and be a two-way process of knowledge transfer. • Initiatives must provide for flexible and suitable learning pathways; • Approaches must take greater cognizance of the overall societal/political context in which initiatives operate; • There is a need for much better integration of initiatives based on regional/geographical, intra-sectorial, inter-sectorial, and vertical linkages; • Appropriate incentives must be built into capacity development

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initiatives, and those delivering capacity developments may themselves require capacity development for effective delivery.

Therefore, an overarching lesson from this young entrepreneur is that capacity needs to be consolidated and strengthened at four levels: in individuals, in organizations/institutions, in sectors and networks, and in the overall enabling environment in which the first three function in this sense, initiatives must take a holistic view of the context in which individuals operate.

Born on April 12, 1975, in Oba, Anambra State, Obi Iyiegbu (Obi Cubana) attended Secondary school Onitsha and the University of Nigeria Nsukka with a degree in Political Science in 1988.

Described as one of the richest Nigerian billionaires, Obi is an entertainer, show promoter, and entrepreneur with a net worth estimated at $96 million (N39.50 billion) This is based on his income, properties, and assets.

For the mother’s burial, he was said to have received 346 Cows, 72 Goats, and 20 from his friends, employees, and those he supported through life. For instance, he got 46 cows from his former employee Pascal Okechukwu, the Cubana Chief priest, and 10 cows from his oldtime friend and young billionaire Jowi Zaza.

In addition, he also received from his friends, a gold-plated casket for

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his late mother estimated at $73,000. The socialite also had a diamond pendant made for his late mother which he said had to replicate his mother’s face. His friends and business partners had saved up over $648,646 for the funeral

A video of the funeral went viral where guests were seen throwing cash at each other. Multiple award-winning artists, Davido, Phyno, D’banj, Kanayo O. Kanayo, E-money, Shina Peller, Ubi Franklin, Cubana Chief Priest, Kcee, and Odumeje were among the celebrities that attended the burial ceremony.

In 2006, Obi Cubana started his first business, Ibiza Club in Abuja, seeking to satisfy fun seekers and nightlife lovers. Following the remarkable progress he made from the Ibiza Club, he established the Cubana group, a hospitality club that provides all-around entertainment satisfaction in 2009. Cubana group was first established in Owerri, Imo state.

Today, Cubana has spread across various states in the country including Lagos, Abuja, and Enugu. Cubana group businesses and establishments include; Rolex Hotels, Lagos; Pablo Cubana, Lagos; Crave Cubana, Abuja; Grand Cubana Hotels, Abuja; Opium Cubana, Owerri; Cubana Night Clubs, Lagos, and Gustavo Cubana, Enugu.

The businessman is currently working on opening more clubs worldwide with the planned opening of one in Dubai and a Cubana real

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estate company. He owns several mansions across the country along with expensive cars.

In recognition of his achievements, he has received several awards and recognition across the country. His wife, Ebele Iyiegbu, a lawyer, is the founder and owner of the KIEK foundation, a non-governmental organization.

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5 OBI CUBANA AND THE THEORY OF ASSOCIATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Moses E. Ochonu

I find Cubana to be an interesting case study in entrepreneurial insurgency and innovation.

It is far too early to canonise Cubana as the patron saint of associative entrepreneurship, but my scholarly intuition leads me to read his entrepreneurial vision in this theoretical frame. Other scholars should take up the challenge of investigating whether or to what extent Cubana embodies this theory, whether his business practices and accomplishments merit the credit I have accorded him…

As an economic historian who edited a well-received book on entrepreneurship in Africa, the introduction to which argues for the recognition of distinct African entrepreneurial traditions and innovations, I find the case of Obi Cubana (Chief Obinna Iyiegbu) quite fascinating. The fascination grows when one looks beyond the visuals coming out of the funeral in Oba and the justifiable moral panic they have provoked. Let me first get a few caveats out of the way. I do not endorse his exhibitionist, and performative wealth, but I do not judge it either. To each his own. We all operate from different value and ethical scripts, but none is, in the final analysis, inherently superior to the other.

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In this piece, I am not concerned with the moral and ethical ramifications of the optics on display in Chief Iyiegbu’s mother’s funeral. Morality is in the zone of the personal, and there is no single moral code for everyone. What matters is whether there are clear, unambiguous ethical and legal boundaries that safeguard society as a whole from acts that hurt non-participating compatriots or bring the country to disrepute. From my admittedly limited vantage point, I do not see how Cubana and company’s vulgar materialism and revelry transgress any extant laws, but I am open to being proven wrong.

Besides, a person has a right to spend his money as he wishes, and Cubana’s exhibitionism cannot be analysed or understood outside his business and brand, which are anchored in show business and entertainment, the lifeblood of which are performance, choreographed pageantry, excess, and razzmatazz. In other words, his antics have instrumental and utilitarian logic in his line of business. The person, the performance, and the profession are all intricately connected in a symbiotic web of mutual reinforcement.

What appears to others as his offensively filthy exhibitionism and excessive self-indulgence are actually part of his business repertoire, part of the script, and aspects of a carefully, strategically organised spectacle to boost his brand. If I’m right, then this is a type of genius.

Others, of course, have a right to be disgusted and to express that disgust in moral, ethical, or religious terms, but ultimately, a person has the right to bury his loved ones in the manner that pleases him, and

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he is accountable only to his conscience, to God and, to a lesser degree, to the natal community from which he derives social legitimacy and cultural capital. On the last point, I have not heard the people of Oba complain about the events of this past weekend.

On the question of how Cubana and his associates became so wealthy, any explanation outside of privileged insider or documented information is conjecture and speculation. I will also leave the question of how he started and how he obtained his seed money to those with privileged information. He has granted an interview to BBC Pidgin in which he goes into details about his beginnings and the early days of a hardscrabble life of hustle and modest successes, punctuated by failures. Alternative stories of his financial ascent would have to convincingly refute and displace the autobiographical narrative of his wealth.

I find Cubana to be an interesting case study in entrepreneurial insurgency and innovation. Insurgency because he refuses to conform to and in fact challenges some of the tropes normalised by more established people of wealth in Nigeria, in terms of how to mould and curate one’s image to the public as a person of means.

I heard of this man for the first time only a few days ago, although I knew of Cubana night club in Abuja, because a friend once took me there. I did not know the owner, nor did I know that it was part of a larger entertainment empire.

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In fact, when I read about a certain Cubana Chief Priest, one of Obi Cubana’s associates, meeting with Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, recently, and the report indicated that he was a nightclub operator, I assumed that he was the owner of the Abuja Cubana that my friend took me to. In other words, I mistook the associate for his Oga.

I find Cubana to be an interesting case study in entrepreneurial insurgency and innovation. Insurgency because he refuses to conform to and in fact challenges some of the tropes normalised by more established people of wealth in Nigeria, in terms of how to mould and curate one’s image to the public as a person of means. I associate him with innovation because, well, all successful entrepreneurs are innovators in their own different ways.

Whether you like or hate him, it is to the man’s credit that he dominated the news cycle for an entire weekend and that the debate and conversations he sparked have not only continued but have netted him and his brand tons of free, enduring publicity of the type that other brands pay tens if not hundreds of millions of naira for. By the way, I am aware that by publishing this essay, I am giving him even more publicity and extending his dominance of the news cycle.

The other aspect of Obi Cubana’s profile that fascinates me is his model of what one might call associative entrepreneurship, my coinage, and theoretical framing for the central role he accorded associational relationships and trust in organising and operating his

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enterprise. Obi Cubana is at the top of a core group of entrepreneurs, who are roughly of his age and are his friends and enablers.

Most of them began with him. Others, we are told, are independently wealthy but have embraced the aura and magnetic social charm of the Cubana brand, finding it a worthy and profitable canopy for their own endeavours. This is not traditional franchising, as taught in business schools. Rather, it is an informal arrangement among trusted friends to support and build one another up by adopting a common recognisable insignia, much like the Wangara merchants and traders of precolonial West Africa, whose permissive, inclusive, and integrative brandmaking I have researched and published on.

Obi Cubana’s associative entrepreneurship leverages the same power of inclusion and integration. In this way, Obi Cubana’s success is also his associates’ successes, and his associates’ associates’ successes, and so on — a collective, shared, replicable success, if you will. As he and the business rose, his associates, including the more visible and vocal face of the empire, Cubana Chief Priest, rose with him.

It seems to me, but I stand to be corrected, that Obi Cubana has produced a new model of entrepreneurship that is an improvement on the familiar “Igba boi” Igbo apprenticeship system of business tutelage, service, training, and “settlement.” His model seems to take the apprenticeship model to a new level of collaborate entrepreneurship and wealth creation.

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Whether or not Cubana himself and observers realise it, this model of entrepreneurship is distinctly African, as I argued in the introduction to the aforementioned book on entrepreneurship.

This is why the highly individualised entrepreneurship model of the Western capitalist experience theorised by Alois Schumpeter, with the emphasis on the sole, individual catalytic business innovator and disruptor, does not apply to the African entrepreneurship landscape.

Sure, Cubana fits partially into the Schumpeterian model of an innovative disruptor who identifies a niche and its deficits and proceeds to disrupt it with innovative and more efficient solutions. But unlike the Dangotes, the Elumelus, and Adenugas, the Otedolas, the Alakijas, the Abdulsamad Rabius, and others, Obi Cubana is not the sole patriarch of a business fiefdom or of a consanguineous empire but rather the coordinating leader of a multilayered business empire where brand building is diffuse, fairly decentralised, and robustly delegated to and distributed among the core players. It seems to me, but I stand to be corrected, that Obi Cubana has produced a new model of entrepreneurship that is an improvement on the familiar “Igba boi” Igbo apprenticeship system of business tutelage, service, training, and “settlement.” His model seems to take the apprenticeship model to a new level of collaborate entrepreneurship and wealth creation.

Obi Cubana did not recruit apprentices, but rather associates — friends and contemporaries of his who have helped him build an empire in

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which they are key players and co-creators. To the extent that, by his own account, he did not pass through the traditional Igbo apprenticeship system and does not implement it but instead created a new system of associative empowerment and conjoined wealth creation, he has, in some ways, improved upon and challenged the Igbo apprenticeship model.

The African group entrepreneurship model is not just about the formation of an inner core of invested entrepreneurs, as is the case with Cubana; it is also about the cultivation of a wider concentric circle of collaborators, communal supporters, a social network of beneficiaries, an elastic chain of empowerment, and a communally shared prosperity. It is far too early to canonise Cubana as the patron saint of associative entrepreneurship, but my scholarly intuition leads me to read his entrepreneurial vision in this theoretical frame. Other scholars should take up the challenge of investigating whether or to what extent Cubana embodies this theory, whether his business practices and accomplishments merit the credit I have accorded him, or whether these accomplishments are merely the product of what Nigerians colloquially call packaging.

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6 IGBO APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM AS A NIGERIAN MODEL FOR STAKEHOLDER CAPITALISM

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

Summary: The Igbos in Africa have been practicing for centuries what is today known as stakeholder capitalism. The Igbo apprenticeship system (IAS) is a communal enterprising framework where successful businesses develop others, and over time provide capital...more

For centuries, the Southeastern region of Nigeria has practiced what is known today as stakeholder capitalism — a construct that businesses must elevate the interests of communities, workers, consumers, and the environment alongside those of shareholders. The Igbos, the predominant ethnic group in the region, are known for the Igbo apprenticeship system (IAS), a communal enterprising framework where successful businesses develop others, and over time provide capital and give away their customers to the new businesses. The implication is that few businesses grow to become very dominant, since they keep relinquishing market share, and in doing so, they accomplish one thing: a largely equal community where everyone has opportunities, no matter how small.

As the world explores how to institutionalize stakeholder capitalism — to implement more inclusive, just, and equitable economic systems that

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work for all, not just a few — we should consider the tenet and the spirit of the Igbo apprenticeship system. The IAS has demonstrated that markets could deepen management accountability, competitiveness, and profitability, while at the same time, anchoring shared prosperity. The result is that communities experience inclusive growth with empowered workers and customers helping firms deliver sustainable fiduciary results. In other words, creating value for all stakeholders — investors, workers, customers, communities, and the environment — is not a zero-sum game; empowered stakeholders empower markets of the future.

The IAS has been recognized as the largest business incubator in the world as thousands of ventures are developed and established yearly through it. Innocent Chukwuma, the founder of Innoson Motors, the largest indigenous automobile manufacturing company by sales in Africa, is a product of IAS. So is Ifeanyi Ubah, the owner of one of the largest private fuel depots in Africa, Capital Oil & Gas, which has the biggest private oil jetty in Nigeria, an 18-ARM loading gantry, ocean-going vessels, a storage facility of over 200 million liters, and hundreds of distribution tankers. Cosmas Maduka, who controls Coscharis Group, a conglomerate with diverse interest in manufacturing, automobiles, and petrochemicals, also passed through the system. Unlike Ubah and Chukwuma, who finished primary education but dropped out at the secondary level, Maduka did not finish primary school. Until recently, that was typical; education has instead been the apprenticeship model, where an individual learns the mechanics of markets and business secrets under a master.

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At the core of it, the IAS is a business philosophy of shared prosperity where participants co-opetitively participate to attain economic equilibrium. Accumulated market competitive advantages are constantly weighted and calibrated out, via dilution and surrendering of market share, enabling social resilience and the formation of livable communities. These are engineered by major participants funding their competitors, where success is measured based on support offered to others to thrive, and not by absolute market dominance. For centuries in the Igbo nation, they have kept this culture alive by reminding everyone of a popular saying, “onye aghala nwanne ya,” which means, “none should leave his or her brethren behind,” in the communities and in the markets.

The key focus of IAS is to prevent poverty by mass scaling opportunities for everyone. Igbos believe that when a child is born, he or she belongs to the community. (In fact, Igbos name their children “Nwaoha,” which means “a child of the community.”) Parents bring the children into the world; communities ensure the children succeed and thrive. If anything happens to the parents or they are incapable of raising the child, someone else in the community will step in. Typically, through the apprenticeship system, the child goes through a process of living with a new family, and then over time will transition to working in the master’s business. After a few years, he or she is “settled”; the master willingly relinquishes market share by providing customers, funding to an obvious future competitor, and other things necessary for the mentee to have a thriving venture, with no equity in the new business.

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In a very practical sense, you have a scenario where a man, trading in a city, returns to his village, picks three children (usually boys), who might have lost their fathers or the families are too poor to train them, and decides to ensure they have meaningful lives. Those children serve him for some years — a period of apprenticeship — and upon completion, he invites his kinsmen, business partners, and others as he “settles” them. If he was holding a 10% market share in that specific market, by the time he is done, he might be holding only 7%, releasing 3% to the boys. For him, the growth of his company is not what matters; it is that the apprentices do well. But he doesn’t stop there. He sends them business opportunities, making sure they can thrive independently. In some cases, the masters may exit the sector entirely, in order to allow the others to thrive. Ubah, for instance, built a spare parts business in Ghana and Congo, but went back to his native town in Nnewi (Nigeria), brought in young people, and trained them in the business. Over time, he eventually left the sector for them. Chukwuma did the same with his prior manufacturing ventures.

As the world discusses inequalities with the push on stakeholder capitalism, the IAS has handled the equality part for centuries, making the Igbo nation a relative stable community in Nigeria. While Nigeria has average literacy rate of 62%, most states within the IAS record excess of 90%. In addition, the IAS is structured to ensure that everyone has opportunity and support, and by doing that, it prevents extreme poverty and inequalities in communities. The implication is that largely equal communities have improved educational attainment and created stable societies.

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Looking at the IAS from a pure shareholder-centric capitalistic mindset, the system may seem defective — until one realizes that the shareholder here is the whole community, and through this model, most Igbo communities have built collective wealth. The Igbos came out of the Biafra war, in 1970, with their assets largely frozen and with little to begin post-war lives. Many Igbo communities started community leagues to build schools and clinics, and elders pushed men to share opportunities to help their brethren. Over decades, that spirit has resulted in enduring economic wealth.

That said, many have noted that the Igbo apprenticeship system could be reformed to provide better protection to the young people who become apprentices to mitigate any abuse from their masters. Having a registry for contracts administered by community elders with municipal power to enforce redress will ensure that contracts on settlements are honored once the young person has served as agreed. But most acknowledge that formalizing the process with written contracts and bringing governments onboard will distort the natural equilibrium where people derive pride that they helped to uplift younger people.

There are many lessons for the world from the IAS system that could elicit new changes in the contemporary capitalist system. IAS improves competition by making it possible to bring new players in a sector, benefiting customers. It brings a new mindset on value creation, going beyond financials to include sustaining communities and families. More so, it creates wealth for everyone. Largely, the Igbo

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apprenticeship system is a practical demonstration of the ubuntu philosophy — “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.” It may not be scored high when benchmarked on some Western business and economic frameworks, but for the Igbos and some Africans, it is a working system which has brought equality and peaceful coexistence in communities, making sure that no one leaves his or her brethren behind. Those are the evidential ideals of stakeholder capitalism.

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IGBO APPRENTICESHIP SYSTEM AS THE UMUNNEOMA ECONOMICS

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

In my 2019 convocation lecture in FUTO (Federal University of Technology, Owerri Nigeria), I spoke on economic opportunities in Nigeria – and The Umunneoma Economics. (Umunneoma means “good brethren” in Igbo). In my postulation, I explained how that economic philosophy is the pillar that drives the Igbo Apprenticeship System. The new global capitalist manifesto which is working to go beyond fixated focus on shareholders, to consider ALL stakeholders, is something the Umunneoma Economics is doing already. The core tenet of the Igbo Apprenticeship System could be likened to the U.S. Federal Reserve which largely works to keep the U.S. dollars stable (by reducing inflation) and maximize employment through interest rates. So, the Reserve has defined main focus areas even though it can use its systems to do other things. Consequently, the U.S. Congress uses those two main factors to ascertain the effectiveness of the Reserve policy. The Igbo Apprenticeship System is a business philosophy of shared prosperity where participants co-opetitively participate to attain organic economic equilibrium where accumulated market leverageable factors are constantly weighted and calibrated out, via dilution and surrendering of market share, enabling social resilience and formation

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of livable clusters, engineered by major participants funding their competitors, with success measured on quantifiable support to stakeholders, and not by absolute market dominance.

For the Igbo Apprenticeship System, the main focus is to prevent poverty by mass-scaling opportunities for everyone, and not for building conglomerates! It makes no sense in Adam Smith Economics that a man will build a business, accumulate a market share, and one day decides to relinquish some – and even go further by funding his competitors. But he is accomplished by doing so: those competitors are his brethren (umunneoma) and they will RISE with him. In a world of inequality, despite the obvious inefficiency in this system – lack of scale reduces the capacity to solve big problems – it is all about ubuntu.

There are great lessons from African tradition: “Onye aghana nwanne ya”- do not leave your brethren behind. Like I tell people, it would be nearly impossible to have extremely rich Igbo traders because they win by funding competitors and dividing their market shares through the Igbo apprenticeship system. How can a man give his customers to his brethren just to ensure he does not close his shop and move to the village? In this time of winner-takes-all, the world needs the spirit of Umunneoma Economics and the framework of an institutionalized and modernized Igbo Apprenticeship System (IAS). A vision to have that conglomerate is possible if all the members of the IAS can feed into an entity which all of them will co-own as a coop

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You can all make shoes but a major shoe brand with an international focus will buy shoes from the members, making sure that each member becomes a “supplier” to the brand. That brand entity will have scale and capacity to compete and win at the global arena. Yes, at the downstream, members can continue to do business on their ubuntu mindsets, but this unified brand can scale and move upstream, and attain a global status. ---

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8 A MORALIST INTERROGATION OF AFRICAPITALISM AS AN AFRICAN ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY

Abayomi Sharomi

Abstract

Africapitalism seemingly exudes a contemporaneous hope in the abyss of want bedeviling Africa. It seeks sustenance beyond the purview of the state and its many relations. In this chapter, I attempt a moralist interrogation of the philosophy of Africapitalism. Therein, I take the doctrine of moralism (as a sage), as espoused by C.S. Momoh, to advance the principles and method of Africapitalism. Momoh’s moralism is a doctrine that puts the other before or alongside the self. It holds that honesty, service and concern for the interest of the other ought to be the basis and the measure of all actions and policies. He anchors it on five principles. In critiquing Africapitalism, I underscore the need to ground it on footings able to withstand the myriads of challenges faced by theories or ideas (new or that have succeeded elsewhere) when introduced into the African milieu. My interrogation will equally attempt to bathe it from the murky waters of capitalism, African socialism, egoism in political authorities, potential indiscipline of individuals (specifically the entrepreneurs), and criticism of intellectuals. I will further emphasize the need for the inclusion of entrepreneurial moralism in its principles hoping to make it sustainable. I believe that probity is always as essential as any philosophy evolved for human development. I employ the dialogic

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method to explore the potentialities of Africapitalism.

Keywords: Africapitalism, Africapitalist, Entrepreneurial Moralism, Human Development, Moralism

Introduction

Africa is a part of the multifarious global system. Unfortunately, Africa has no true valuable impact in this ever-evolving configuration. More sadly, most African leaders do not govern well enough to provide the basic minimum of human existentialities needed for human flourishing. Thus, there is void to the self and the other. Africapitalism seemingly exudes a contemporaneous hope in this abyss. It seeks sustenance beyond the purview of the state and its relations. It challenges the private sector to look beyond their profit seeking for shareholders and incorporate stakeholders (or perhaps their community of operation) into the bigger picture of economic prosperity and social wealth. Africapitalism is a nascent philosophy that aims to contextualise the ideals of a market driven economy in Africa by not forgetting the belief of the ‘care for the other.’ Although the notion ‘caring for the other’ is arguable in the African context, we cannot deny the fact that such care is more beneficial for humanity and specifically for Africa. This chapter uses the dialogic method to midwife the need for a greater sense of moralism from Africapitalists who are the proposed champions of Africapitalism. The beauty of an idea is not in its conception or articulation but in its practical effect on individuals and the society at large. The discussion ensues between a retired professor (named The Sage) and his young tenant (named Africapitalist).

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Africapitalist is one of the recently selected entrepreneurs by the Tony Elumelu Foundation to champion the philosophy of Africapitalism and the future of Africa. His recently gingered enthusiasm cannot escape notice and the usual curiosity of The Sage has led him to inquire about the new drive of the youngster, Africapitalist. Their conversation educates both parties on the potentialities and challenges of Africapitalism.

Africapitalist: Our dear Sage, good evening, trust you had an interesting day and as usual you are watching the setting of the sun with interest, any thoughts for the day? The Sage: Well my growing friend I am always awed by the setting of the sun because if one is opportune to grow in age but decline in strength and abilities like me you will understand and appreciate that the setting of sun is a reminder of your setting days… Welcome back from the day’s work, I hope it was a fruitful one. Africapitalist: Hmm, growing in age but declining in strength and abilities, well you are not showing such signs of decline and your thoughts are always inspiring. And thank you, my day was productive. The Sage: Yes you are right, there is a stage at an old age for some persons where you return to being as though you are a baby, when all energies are lost.That said, I cannot but notice a new energy that you are exhibiting lately. It seems you are driven by something new. Africapitalist: Yes dear Sage, the future is promising and young Africans are on the verge of taking Africa to a desirous level of economic sustenance, a place where our proclivities are transformed into realities on the economic front.My motivation, dear Sage, is the

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philosophy of Africapitalism. I am one of those described as the future of Africa. We are young entrepreneurs with a different idea of business success which incorporates financial and social wealth; we do not seek wealth at the expense of the society but with the interest of the society at heart. We are taking a private sector approach to the business of development in Africa. As entrepreneurs, we stretch our arms wide in our business dealings in our environment not deep into the environment. The Sage: Hmm, very interesting, the philosophy of Africapitalism. Is this a concept from the combination of Africa and capitalism? Or is it an African form of capitalism? You know, much as we like to praise the communal nature of Africa, we cannot deny the fact that precolonial and contemporary Africa has its share of oppressions at economic, political and social levels. Nonetheless, your brief insight into Africapitalism is thirsty and I believe this will be a long discussion. I suggest you freshen up and come grab a chair next to me so you can enlighten me on this new philosophy. Africapitalist: Okay dear Sage, I’ll be back shortly.

After a short while Africapitalist returns to join The Sage in what turns out to be a long evening of discourse on Africapitalism. The Sage: Welcome, the night is ours to relish in thought, though the day is far spent, the night is still young. Africapitalism, tell me about it. Make it brief but don’t miss out anything. Africapitalist: In his reasoning, Tony Elumelu opined that it is better to support people in a more sustainable way by increasing their access to economic opportunities rather than simply investing in

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