The Managing Director of Heritage Bank Plc, Ifie Sekibo, has advised budding African entrepreneurs of the Next Titan Housemates to talk to small and medium enterprise (SME) desks of banks to access credit as a special interest rate set by the monetary authorities.
The banker gave the advice in his keynote address titled ‘Why African Needs New Breed Of Entrepreneurs And Why Is Heritage Bank Championing It’ delivered at the premiere of the 5th edition of the Next Titan TV reality show in Lagos.
The Next Titan is Nigeria’s entrepreneurial reality TV show where thousands of ambitious young entrepreneurs across the country compete with one another for a grand prize of N5 million and a brand new car to start his or her dream business.
Sekibo charged the budding entrepreneurs to stir up their entrepreneurship zeal in a bid to allow innate ideas to flow and blossom.
The Heritage bank boss described the entrepreneur as not the risk taker but the person who relentlessly pursue opportunities without recklessness, without regard to not having money, house or car or any strong financial support from family members, pointing out however that in most cases, he is the one that drops out of school.
He recalled that during the pre-colonial era in Africa, Africans forefathers who were the entrepreneurs of those days in places like Lagos Island and Badagry were engaged in fishing and farming as well as trade across the west coast among themselves under an organised system.
In addition, he pointed out that during the colonial period the forefathers were affected by the culture and traditions of the colonialists, a development which, he said, affected their psyche, thereby making what is foreign to be more important than what is local.
According to him, western tradition became the order of the day as Africans moved away from entrepreneurship to white collar jobs to earn monthly income and the word job came into play, adding that work is no longer defined as the work of a tough man or woman on the farmland but depended on how much of the colonial language one understands.
In order to reverse the trend, Sekibo contended that budding African entrepreneurs should relive the DNAs that they inherited from their forefathers by uncapping them so that their innate ideas could flow and blossom.
He said Africans burn with ideas but they needed to mine them so that they could blossom, remarking that they need to have mentors that will enable them to achieve their goals.
The banking expert told the young entrepreneurs that money remained very critical to entrepreneurship and that they had to be bold and courageous to get it, adding that there is a spirit behind getting money which is largely influenced by character and integrity.
He advised them to be bold and should not be afraid to fail because failing is not a failure and should not give up because they had failed.
In his remarks at the forum, the Managing Director of Philips Consulting, Folusho Philips, listed some factors for successful entrepreneurship, namely competence, character and behaviour, study and steadiness as well as compliant and chemistry of the prospective entrepreneur.
Similarly, the Permanent Secretary to the office of the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mrs. Yetunde Odejayi, noted that entrepreneurship was part of key programmes of the current administration and encouraged the young entrepreneurs to be bold and resilient and be prepared to face challenges in order to succeed in their endeavours.
The General Manager (Marketing), Coscharis Motors, Mr. Babarinde Abiona, charged the youths to believe in themselves and be focused, adding that Coscharis, will give a brand new Ford Focus to the winner.
One of the boardroom judges, Chris Parkes commended Heritage Bank for investing in the project and noted that judges would be very critical of their ideas because they want ideas that could add value to the country’s economy.
About 60 finalists were unveiled at the premiere out of more than 2,000 contestants that were screened at various auditions in Port Harcourt, Enugu, Abuja and Lagos. However, only 16 made it to the house while Heritage Bank used a wild card to add two more contestants, Kalu Sylvester and Ugochi Ogadi, to increase the contestants to 18.
