A university don and former commissioner in Bayelsa state, Ayakeme Masa is the Rector of the newly established Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies. In this interview with JOY EMMANUEL, he speaks on how the new government outfit seeks to work to develop skills among the populace.
Reason for the institution’s establishment
The school is expected to have basic skill acquisition trainings in all areas, mostly for the youths, and therefore we have to collaborate with other institutions that will also assist to provide primary skill acquisitions We will also be working with micro-finance banks, because they are expected to provide the necessary loans. Once given loans, we need to train those women or men in entrepreneurial skills so that people will know basically what to do.
The problem we have is that people don’t know what to do with money. They don’t know what to do. They just go and acquire the money and that is why the mortality rate of this
squandering of money is very high. We need to provide and train them in basic skills.
How does the school run?
The recipients of the loans will have to run the programme for some weeks with orientations, some basic managerial training. The trainings will be in different categories. This center is a school, a higher institution that is supposed to train these groups and at the end we provide certificate and diplomas at the end of the day, when it is fully mature.
What we try to do is to allow people with interest for bakeries, tailoring, welding, all sort of categories. It intends to provide people with skills and if you provide skill for the people, that is not all. You must be able to tell them the entrepreneurial activities. That is how to set up the business. How to manage the business from the beginning to the end where you think you can make profit at the end of the day.
So, we intend to give training to people on the street so that they can take initiatives and begin to form SME’s, micro finance banks and companies so as to develop the state, and produce and render various services. If there are no entrepreneurs, those things cannot be. Our duty is to provide this type of entrepreneurs who have special skills that will be able to
see what the ordinary man will not see and be able to bring it to life, and bring money to the system.
Don’t you envisage a clash with hotel and tourism?
No. tourism has a specialized area of training. They also have trained people like that but they don’t provide entrepreneurial skill training. We need to even provide these caterers from tourism but that is not the entrepreneur we are talking about now.
Most of these things have been tried in the past and the aim was not achieved, how are we sure that this one will see the light of the day?
That is why we are saying that it must be institutionalized based so that we don’t jump and give money to people. We pass through a process to get them. If they are one hundred, may be you cannot be sure that all of them will meet up but at least some of them will meet up. We will collaborate with other companies to provide starter pack. We as an institution, we won’t do that alone. Secondly, other donor agencies will help. But that is not the issue. If the people are not properly brought up, it is of no use.
Is it Public Private Partnership-based?
We are trying to train people who are already in that business or are trying to venture into that business so that they can now be able to think entrepreneurially. They should be thinking of taking risk. They should be thinking of creativity. We tried to do it to bring out the creativity of people out so that they will be able to say look, ‘there is an opportunity there.’ They will see and go for it and they will need the methodology to do it. We are providing that methodology and it is in stages, from foundation to step one. But if the people are not there, that skill will not be there. And that is why when there is a loan in the political sense, all sorts of people go for the loan, even when they are not prepared for it.
What departments are you starting with?
We need to have major things that we are going to start with like fabrication. In fabrications, we will be able to train wielders. Training wielders too is not entrepreneurial. It is about getting the skills. That skill will now further the entrepreneurial ability. He will now think of venturing into other businesses. That talent is what we want to imbibe in the people. That is
entrepreneurship. They should be able to see opportunities and the skill to start it.
Who are the major sponsors outside the state government?
For now, Bayelsa state will start it. After then, we will be in a better position to seek donors all over the world. We have a lot of resources but an ordinary man will not see what we have here. And people have to come and see what is going on here. We have so much in the state but an ordinary man will not see it.
We need to train entrepreneurs to begin to take it up themselves in partnership within and outside the country, because if we leave the rice potentials we have in the state, public sector will mess it up. For instance, Abakiliki rice, who are doing it? Entrepreneurs. So we need to have these entrepreneurs.
Look at Dangote, one man that has so much money all over the places. It is entrepreneurship. He has even started running entrepreneurship outfit. We need to create skill acquisition. People need to come and learn. You don’t expect all of them to be successful. If we have one 100, may be out of all, ten will do very well. When we institutionalize this concept into school, it will stay for a long time. The idea is to put in a school for a specialized center.
Are they paying school fees?
Of course, it can’t be free now. Is it for only for Bayelsans? No. it is not only for Bayelsans. Is it only Bayelsans that constitute the economy. If others are exempted, then it becomes a liability. There will be a symbiotic relationship, one wouldn’t expect Bayelsans alone. Bayelsans will collaborate with non- indigenes who want to work to grow the economy.
If you are settled here, you are helping the economy. There are things that are specific for indigenes.
If you go across those ones, we will tell you that these are for indigenes alone. For
Instance, when I was commissioner, they wanted to take market stores and I told them market stores are for indigenes. I was thinking that there will be a department for oil and gas because people have been clamouring for local refinery. No, basically, it is to educate.
Local refinery is a problem to Nigeria because we refused to use our resources. If we had refined the majority of the oil we are exporting, we would not have been in this mess. What we would have encouraged is local refinery but because we refused to do that, we will continue to run into problem. When we now consume eighty percent of what we are extracting, Nigeria will not have problem. We will export and companies will now come for export and revenue will now come from export rather than import. That is the mistake federal government has done over the years.
All these refineries you put on ground, they are dead and you make it impossible for another people to come in. Even now, they came and increased prices. They are just merely increasing price because it makes no sense, you have not tried to increase the supply of those products. When we export, our revenue will now come from import rather than export local refines. Instead of you to encourage it, you are discouraging it. You now allocate the oil fields to yourselves.
