
It is 7’clock in the evening at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos, Nigeria. Most of us have just arrived here, tired and we are looking for the directions of immigration to get cleared and get ready to join the respective shuttles which will take us to the respective sites.
The majority of the people at the immigration clearance desks are talking of the forum, and fortunately I happened to meet Rwandans who we came together on the same flight. All of us are attending the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum 2016.
A group of those coming at the forum are carrying a lot of papers so that they become eligible to get visors on arrival. On the other hand, I have my own visa which I had received when I was still in my home country. Of course it was as pricey as USD80 but I had to secure it so that I won’t probably face challenges at the arrival.
Luckily, they managed to get the visors and jointly we are headed to the waiting section where we are looking for those who came to pick us. But outside the airport building there are very many people, the place is over-crowded and the same time hotter than anywhere I have ever gone. It’s even hotter than Mombasa Island where I at least had a chance to visit last month.
I ask someone, “Why are there many people at this airport. Is it because there’s a forum in Lagos city?”- Oh! No Murtala airport is always like this. You may even find that only a few knows about the forum” he replies to me in an English accent which I didn’t actually understand immediately. I had to ask a different person but the accent was quite twisted as well, but as I was trying to test my listening skills, later I had to force myself to understand.
This is Lagos city, the biggest city of Nigeria with a large population of over 20 million people, and due to rapid growth and urbanisation, the city’s population is expected to increase to 25 million people by the end of the 2020, according to several analyses. The economy is as well big and the place is an international destination for business affairs, this is simply the reason why arrivals at the airport are very many.
Nearly after one hour of waiting, they picked us and took us to board our shuttles and drove to Nigerian Law School where the main forum was to take place, a 40 minute drive from the airport. There were guests, media, entrepreneurs and other participants. I was also among the selected journalists from 54 African countries of Africa and beyond to cover the event. From there, we were briefed on how the two-day forum will commence and what expectations they (organisers) had from us.
I and a group of other journalists board another shuttle and we were taken to Beni Gold Hotel and Apartments, a facility located in Victoria Island- one of the two major urban islands of Lagos state. This is where we spent the rest of our trip in Lagos. Indeed Beni Gold is a luxury apartment hotel with standard settings. I was given a room, 2387, probably located on the third floor and getting there was really stressful since the building had no lifts. You can imagine spending four hours on flight, one hour of waiting at the airport and another two hours of briefings at the site, and then someone gives you a challenge of using stairs to get to your room.
Since this time round the trip was mainly focused on exploring the power of African entrepreneurs toward African economies, don’t expect more tales of beaches, islands, financial and business activities done in Lagos or even entertainment. But I’m sure you know that Lagos is home to some of the wonderful lifestyle- in fact it has some of the biggest music and movie stars in the whole continent. However, it is also one of the most expensive cities to live in here in Africa. For instance, the second day of my trip I board a tax-cab from my hotel to the site where the forum was taking place, almost a 10 minute drive but I had to pay 2,000 naira (about 4.6 dollars). If this was the same distance I take back home, I could use this money for the next five days. It’s terrible!
Scary dishes of Nigeria
Well after spending few hours in bed I woke up at 6’clock in the morning, took a shower and got breakfast which had a Nigerian dish but I was scared of testing it as I had recently read some daunting dishes on internet which are common in Nigeria.
To shed more light on this, Nigerians enjoy various types of food but when it comes to meat, Snails kebab which is a sumptuous and crunchy dish enjoyed in many parts of Nigeria. Though snail is most times expensive and its preparation somewhat tasking, eating this delicacy leaves you with a simply rewarding feeling. This description is what stopped me from eating any kind of meat as I’m always picky when it comes to this.
So I decided to go fried plantain popularly called ‘dodo’. It is a mouth-watering dish, just a combination of ripe plantain, poached or fried egg and slices of tomatoes.
For those who really can’t miss a meat on your plate, there’s an alternative in Nigeria when you want an experience. They have ‘Nigerian Suya’, a spicy shish kebab which is a popular food item in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa. It is traditionally prepared by the Hausa people with skewered beef, ram, or chicken. Innards such as kidney, liver and tripe are also used.
The entrepreneurship day
That was the same day the forum was to begin. The talk here was entrepreneurship and business, and so we had to get prepared and be there as early as possible.
The first day was about meeting entrepreneurs, opening new relationships and forming networks. It featured plenary panels, masterclasses, TED-style talks and sector specific networking opportunities. Everyone was eager to share and learn, and this was seen through the questions that were being asked. All entrepreneurs who were there had innovative ideas and day one was an opportunity to contemplate on how they can together work to achieve the same entrepreneurship vision.
When I was interacting with some Rwandans who represented others at the forum, I realised that Africa has potential entrepreneurs with great ideas that can change the world but they lack opportunities to be empowered and bring these ideas to life. Some of these Rwandans want to revolutionalise education using emerging technology while others dream of turning some of the agricultural wastes into sustainable and profitable products, and others have already began the journey of benefiting their communities through providing clean water to people in rural areas.
Then there’s this budding serial entrepreneur from The Gambia who shared his testimony from how he started with a team of a few people to creating employment for some 146 people at his company Tropingo Foods, a food processing company which focuses on adding value to the fruits industry. Momarr Taal turned over $1.6 million in 2015 and currently exports to Asia and Europe. It is through Tony Elumelu Foundation Programme that they managed to make their businesses reality.
Another highlight of day one was also enhancing the understanding of the broad meaning of embracing Africapitalism, which according to Tony Elumelu is a new philosophy that seeks to position Africa’s private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the continent.
Later in the evening Tony Elumelu hosted a media mixer at UBA Building where we had a few-minute presser with United Bank for Africa (UBA) Group board members. A cocktail reception also gave us ample opportunity to interact with journalists from all African countries but more importantly meeting and talking to Tony Elumelu face to face. Of course it was a big deal since I’ve been seeing him but never had a chance to talk to him. But before meeting him, during the press conference, I had raised a question of what it takes to have UBA bank in Rwanda but it seemed like it was already a project in the pipeline. When I met Elumelu, he asked me where I was coming from and told him I was from Rwanda. “Oh that’s so great to have you here. In fact your president, President Paul Kagame was supposed to be here,” he told me. If you know much about him, you know he has unique relationship with Rwanda and this is why there’s no doubt his initiatives have started working for the people of Rwanda.
The final entrepreneurship day
The last day of the forum was the much awaited moment as some entrepreneurs and other participants were ready to interact with Elumelu for the first time. It featured a high-level panel dedicated to identifying policies to strengthen the enabling environment for entrepreneurs, moderated by BBC anchor, Lerato Mbele, with panellists including His Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma, President of Sierra Leone, President Olusegun Obasanjo, Former President of Nigeria, Former Prime Minister of Benin Republic Lionel Zinsou, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Honourable Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture and Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, Vice Chair of Famfa Oil and the richest African woman and also the richest woman of black woman in the world.
Clare Akamanzi, the head of Strategy and Policy Unit at the president’s office, was the representative of president kagame. It is important to note that she sold Rwanda at the international level since she was one of the speakers. Akamanzi shared Rwanda’s success story and how the country has given a provided a conducive environment for businesses and made commitments to support Elumelu’s efforts of supporting entrepreneurs.
Finally, the only man Tony Elumelu was called on stage, welcomed with loud cheers and smiles on everyone’s face is what could be seen. Others were emotionally crying. Yes I mean tears of joy. For your information, Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu is an economist by training, a visionary entrepreneur and a philanthropist. Tony is the Chairman of Heirs Holdings, the United Bank for Africa, Transcorp and founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation.
Elumelu congratulated all the entrepreneurs who made it for this year and pledged support for them. He, however, challenged all stakeholders from the public and private sectors, civil society, multilateral organizations and all individuals invested in Africa’s economic development to join hands with the Foundation to support the wider African entrepreneurial community.
However, during the same night Tony treated us to all cool performances from P-Square who delivered a mind-blowing performance. There was also a surprise performance of rising star Tekno Miles who’s commonly known for his hit song called ‘Pana’ with over 6 million views on Youtube. If this was a PR piece, at least I should’ve said a thousand words about Tony, but let me focus on the other side of the trip.
Then it was time to return to our respective countries after the short, but fruitful gathering. Since Lagos has the worst traffic ever and sometimes unpredictable as it can be, we had to wake up early in the morning and reach at the airport earlier. At 9 am we were already at the airport check-in but there was a lot of traffic
Airbus experience
Oh God! Leaving out this part of the story would be the big mistake I’d make. So let me try to highlight a few amazing stuff about flying for the first time with “Rwanda’s baby”, the newly acquired Airbus A330 proudly nicknamed Ubumwe (unity). If I declare I’m among a few people who have experienced this thing I will not be lying to you. I actually followed one of my colleagues from my workplace that went with a team of people to bring it from Toulouse, France.
So it was a surprise that no one knew we were going to fly back home with Ubumwe. At 2pm we were on board, ready to take off but you could see smiling faces every side you would turn to. I got to realise that many were struck by the beauty of the in-flight features of this plane just like the way I was. As I was thinking of what to do for the next four hours of the flight, I remembered that there was an in-flight Wi-Fi service so I turned n my wireless. I was given free 10MBs, checked my email, sent a message for someone to pick me at the airport and then they got finished.
Happened to see in front of my seat, a rectangular fixed touch-screen tablet and I knew I wasn’t going to get bored. Shortly, flight attendants started distributing the earphones but I had already removed mine and plugged them to turn to my favorite. The tablet had TV shows, all kinds of music and movies, games and animated videos among others, but I chose a movie.
As I was watching my movie, beautiful ladies and handsome men were already serving the food. It was written on my air ticket that I will have my lunch during the flight, but I don’t know about others. Definitely it was bigger than lunch since I was served with a delicious dish of chicken, rice, salads coupled with two small bottles of wine. Bread and butter and macadamia nuts were part of what I was served with. Soon after, coffee and tea was passing through for those who wanted them. The 4hour flight turned out to be like a 30-minute journey.
The entire trip was without a doubt overwhelming. Reaching home was time to ask fellows whether they arrived home safely, and later came up with an idea to create a platform for African journalists which would certainly mark the beginning of a long lasting relationship and maybe in the near future result into strategic partnerships. Let’s wait!