PRESENTATION OF MR. HANAFI OLANREWAJU RABIU AT THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR AND ESSAY WRITING COMPETITION FOR PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
(This
programme was conducted at Government Day Senior Secondary School, Adewole,
Ilorin, on 25th November, 2017.)
WELCOME
ADDRESS
Our
Honoured Guests, Good day sir, Good day ma
Teachers
of the Participants
Our
Team Members
And
The Students
It
is in happy mood that I welcome you all to this Entrepreneurship Development
Seminar and Essay Writing Competition organized by Youth Elite Group and Coin
Consults.
My name is Hanafi Olanrewaju Rabiu. I am a
Co-founder of Coin Consults and the Director of its Coinkwara Programme which
develops and promote entrepreneurs. We are not here today to talk about Coinkwara
but permit me to briefly mention some of the things we do under this programme.
Firstly, we impart entrepreneurial skills on individual through our Business
Strategy Sessions and online training through the social media. Secondly, we
promote made in Kwara goods and services on our website, www.coinkwara.com.
Thirdly, we assist entrepreneurs in sourcing for loan. We also provide business
development services to entrepreneurs. We have the students in mind when designing
this CoinKwara programme and that is why we included student development
package. An example of which is what we are here for today.
It is my sincere hope that we will all learn and
gain from this event and I am pleading with you to be patient and be attentive
while the programme continues.
Thank you.
SEMINAR
Building your future through Entrepreneurial skills
Introduction
There
was a young primary school boy from a very rich family who used to buy pack of
sweets and sell it to his peers at school because he loves to make gain no
matter how small. This boy is now an adult and the richest black man!
Who is this man? He
is Aliko Dangote
Why are you
here?
Do you know why I’m
here?
Well...
My name is Hanafi
Olanrewaju Rabiu and I am here today to help you build your future through
‘Entrepreneurial Skills’.
So if you would
follow me closely and pay attention to what I am about to tell you, the
thoughts you used to have about your future will surely change.
NOW
What is Entrepreneurship?
Is
there anyone who has an idea about what entrepreneurship is?
Or
can anyone tell me who an entrepreneur is?
Well,
I am not going to define entrepreneurship but I will explain it in the simplest
term or language that you will understand.
Entrepreneurship
is a process which starts from generation of ideas, and then to setting up of
an enterprise/workshop/company, where you will use creativity or innovation,
time and energy in making products and services that satisfy customers’ needs.
Who is an entrepreneur?
‘Entrepreneur’ (a person who organizes
business activities e.g. owns a company, workshop, office, etc aiming
specifically at growth and profit).
From
these explanations, you know that Entrepreneur stands for a person while
Entrepreneurship is the process that Entrepreneur follows.
Kinds of Entrepreneurs
Having
gone through different classifications of entrepreneurs as explained by
different scholars in the field of entrepreneurship, it is clear that there are
different ways you can classify entrepreneurs.
For
the purpose of this seminar and to make it easy for you, I will categorize
entrepreneurs into two kinds namely:
-
Those
that offer products and
-
Those
that offer services
Can
anyone give me examples of products?
What
about services?
Examples
are as follows:
Products: book producers, biros, uniform, etc, food
producers, farmers, shoe makers etc
Service:
School owners, hospital owners, consultants, barber, facebook (social media)
To
ensure that you understand what we are talking about, let me tell you what
entrepreneurs do.
From
the examples I gave you earlier, you should be able to know what entrepreneurs
do.
Entrepreneurs
produce things and offer services that will solve our various problems. But you
know what? They make money by doing this. That is by selling their service and
products.
Entrepreneurs
are the ones that make life enjoyable. Imagine, if there are no entrepreneurs
to make cloths, car, biro, etc. Let’s go back to history and talk about
Transportation.
Can
anyone tell me the stages of development in transportation as you know? There
is no wrong process-just tell me what you know.
Importance
of entrepreneurs are as follows:
·
Their
innovation improves our standard of living. i.e. They make life easier for us.
Telecom-
·
They
contribute to social development by using their money to support community
development activities. Most of them do this by establishing foundations or
supporting development programmes. E.g. Tony Elumelu Foundation, Dangote
Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, etc
·
They
create jobs by employing people
·
They
contribute to government revenue by paying taxes
·
They
make money which they also use in supporting themselves and their relations.
The richest people on the earth are entrepreneurs. E.g. Bill Gates-microsoft,
Ortega-zara wears, Dangote-foods, cement, etc
Now imagine a
world without Entrepreneurs?
Can someone tell
me what will happen in that kind of world?
No innovative
products, no one to produce things.......
How can
you become an Entrepreneur? Or let me put it this way, what are the necessary
things you must do if you want to become an Entrepreneur?
1.1.
Knowledge
and Skills
First
of all, you must learn. You must acquire knowledge and skills. Let me give you
an example, if you are very good in maths, English, or any other subject, that
is good! But you must learn the skills to use your knowledge in any of these
subjects to create products/services that solve peoples’ problem before you can
call yourself an entrepreneur. E.g. someone who is very good in Maths can
organize maths lesson for people younger than you.
- 2. You must be innovative or creative
This
means your brain must always be working on how you are going to make better
things or to make things better. E.g. Do
you remember our example on the transportation system? Let me also give you
example of chalk board and white board. They do the same thing in a different
ways.
- 3. You must be willing to take risk
Life
itself is a risk. Entrepreneurship however requires you to be willing to take
risk. Let me give you an example based on the board we talked about. It took
lot of thinking, time, energy and money to make a white board. And remember
what people were using was black board. What would be your fear, if you were
the person who thought about creating a white board to replace a black board?
The bad things which you fear can happen to you in this new product you want to
create are the risks you must be willing to take.
- 4. You must be ready to persevere.
‘Nothing good comes easy’. Do you believe
that?
If
you want to be an entrepreneur, know now that you must be ready to persevere,
i.e. keep on....., endure...., continue...., what you are doing, no matter the
challenges you face.
According
to Dangote,
“What business doesn’t like is for
you to try something and once you have one or two problems, you change and move
to another business. That does not work in business at all.”
- 5. Opportunity Seeking
You must be someone who is searching for opportunities. i.e. things you
can do to solve peoples’ problems. ...Find small solutions to big problem...
Remember that, it is by doing this that you can make money or name for
yourself. Your creativity will not be accepted by people if it doesn’t add
value to their lives. An entrepreneur will not establish an English coaching
lesson for adults who understand English perfectly because they don’t need it.
But if he establishes it for adults living in a village who doesn’t understand
it but need English to sell their products/service in the market or need to
read
Question Time....
Thank you and I wish you best of luck.
This publication is the view of the author not CoinKwara.
The author should be quoted for referencing purpose.
For Kwara State's Local Products and Services, visit: WWW.COINKWARA.COM
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