October 30, 2018//-The management and Editorial Board of Yerwa Express News, a leading newspaper in the North East of Nigeria, today announced Mr. Tony Elumelu, the founder of Tony Elumelu Foundation and Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc as the winner of YERWA EXPRESS NEWS 2018 North East Heroes Award.
The North East Heroes Award, started 2016, is YERWA EXPRESS NEWS’ annual award for people who have exceptionally impacted on the lives of the people of the North East of Nigeria.
Mr. Elumelu and other six awardees are expected to be conferred with their awards in Abuja, Nigeria on 27th November, 2018, in the presence of over 1,000 entrepreneurs, innovators, journalists and public/private actors.
Announcing the nomination of Mr Elumelu as the winner of the prestigious award, the Head of Administration of Yerwa Express News said in a press release: “This year’s award, titled ‘North East Entrepreneurship Leadership Award’, was unanimously resolved by our management and editorial board, after three months of deliberations, to go to Mr. Elumelu”.
“The choice was premised on his role in promoting entrepreneurship in the region through grants and provision of nonrefundable seed capital to young men and women.
In January 2018, besides his commitment to supporting 1,000 entrepreneurs across Africa, annually, for ten years, his foundation, in collaboration with International Committee of the Red Cross( ICRC), supported additional 200 in specifically the North East and Niger Delta”.
The press release added: “Our board believes that his model is the best way to bring out the region from the ruins of the Boko Haram war which has caused several losses in terms of lives and properties.
The level of destruction, particularly of livelihoods, markets, businesses and crucial commercial links, among other things, cannot be easily reversed without active participation of the private sector”.
His model is what he calls Africapitalism, which simply holds that African businesses must solve African problems. In other words, Africans must begin to see African problems as theirs to solve.
Mr Elumelu has continued to advocate that African businesses should be anchored towards job creation, social development and prosperity for the people of the continent—the only recipe at the moment to restore the glories of the region.
“It is our belief that the people of the North East need to be encouraged to create ‘business solutions’ to deal with their problems. Government cannot provide jobs for everyone, neither can it end poverty. We need young people to start confronting these problems by, for instance, building schools, that, in the long run, will provide quality education, create job opportunities and ultimately reduce poverty. It is our belief that the current problems in the region are actually great opportunities for an economic boom if utilized properly”.
This is why this year, the theme of our anniversary is: Entrepreneurship, Media and Peace in the North East. The aim is to specifically encourage governments and other stakeholders to work towards creating suitable environment for businesses to crop up. It is the only way to permanently end violence, sustain peace and bring development in the region.
Mr Elumelu has already shown the way for other stakeholders to take cue from. This award is basically in recognition of his efforts in this regard. We hope, by this, he will continue to provide, in an even larger scale, leadership, mentorship and support to businesses in the region and beyond, according to the organizers of the award.
“Other considerations while nominating him for this award is his contributions to the North East. In 2014, he was a major donor to the Victims Support Fund which was floated by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to provide humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons. He has subsequently made several other contributions to the federal government for the same cause”.
Other awardees
Other awardees include the Presidential Committee on North East Initiative (PCNI), for its interventions and effective coordination of humanitarian response in the North East.
The Committee has made very huge material intervention all across the six states of the region over the last three years including capacity building and human capital development.
Dr. Mohammed Bashir, Chairman Medical Advisory Committee, is also among the awardees for his efforts in emergency medical response to victims of insurgency.
As a medical doctor himself, Dr. Bashir is always at the forefront of providing emergency and on-the-spot assistance to victims of Boko Haram insurgency. It is only sensible that such a person is recognized.
Annual public lecture
As part of the anniversary and award ceremony, we are also going to hold a public lecture titled Entrepreneurship, Media and Peace in the North East.
The organizers hope the lecture will open a conversation front on the subject of entrepreneurship in the region and among stakeholders. It is also going to be the official launch of our campaign, moving forward, for the promotion of entrepreneurship among young men and women in the region.
“We will unveil, at the event, #YouCan, a monthly program aimed at promoting entrepreneurship through multimedia productions”.
Statistics on the level of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment is record time high and the government is very hugely limited to be able to address them alone.
It is true that the situation now has gone beyond the current model of ‘donors and humanitarian’ support which is only meant to temporarily provide feeding, health and other emergency interventions.
African Eye Report
