The 47th ICAN Conference in Abuja

I gave a speech at the 47th ICAN Conference in Abuja on Wednesday, 18th, October to over 3000 accountants on the Role of Entrepreneurship in Nation-Building where I charged the accounting professionals on the role of entrepreneurs towards national development and how they can support entrepreneurs.

Here are 5 key take-aways from my speech:

1. As entrepreneurs, your major role in national development is innovation. Nike changed the way we relate to working out, Wakanow saw a problem in booking tickets and provided a solution. These are examples of innovation and at the heart of innovation is entrepreneurship
2. Entrepreneurs are vital and central to the economic development of any nation. They see gaps in the market and provide solutions. At the heart of transformation in a continent is entrepreneurship
3. The role of entrepreneurs in meeting the challenge of unemployment is job creation. Entrepreneurs create wealth. At the Tony Elumelu Foundation, our entrepreneurs will create at least 1 million jobs as a result of their enterprises and contribute at least $10b to the African economies over 10 years
4. Young entrepreneurs see agriculture as a business opportunity. The Tony Elumelu Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Programme is sector agnostic. We never launched our programme looking for agri entrepreneurs. Yet, young African entrepreneurs between 21-37 year olds see agriculture as a business opportunity
5. When looking at intra Africa trade and diversification, entrepreneurs are already leading the charge in building businesses in the high growth sectors and finding innovative ways of cross border trade.