Employee, Employer & Empowerer: Pathways to Success and Impact in an Uncertain World- My Speech at the 2015 Babcock University Post-Graduate Ceremony.

I am pleased to be invited to speak at one of Nigeria’s leading private universities. I would like to thank Prof. James Makinde, the Vice Chancellor and President of Babcock University, for personally inviting me here. To the postgraduate class of 2015, congratulations on being awarded another degree. You have demonstrated a commitment to improving yourself and inspiring others. Your families must be proud of all of you.

I earned my postgraduate degree in 1988. The day I had my graduation ceremony, I could not post my graduation photos on Facebook because Mark Zuckerberg was still a toddler. I could not dance azonto at my graduation party because frankly, we had not figured out that we could be so creative with our legs. That said, the year 1988 is in many ways like 2015.

I, too, was heading out into a world at a time of uncertainty. Nigeria – and much of Africa – was under military rule with no end in sight, and the Cold War was still at its peak, with a nuclear war still a real and looming possibility. Oil price was around $15 per barrel. It was a time of global uncertainty, like we face today. In 1988, the World Bank estimated the outstanding external debts of developing countries to have reached $1,320 billion. This posed a serious problem for the sound development of the world economy and the international financial system.

The Nigerian government, in response to the economic crisis, introduced the structural adjustment programme (SAP) and reduced fuel price subsidies. Parents here will remember the chaos that followed: transporters raised their prices, workers went on strike, and students held protests. Today, we are in the midst of another economic crisis. You have seen the headlines: youth unemployment rates are soaring, not just in Nigeria, but also across Africa. As I look at you – Babcock’s postgraduate class of 2015 – it occurred to me that many of you might be looking toward the future with the same trepidation I had when I was sitting where you are now twenty-seven years ago.

I have deliberated hard about addressing you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in nearly three decades since I was in the seat you are in now. Two answers came to me. On this wonderful day when we are all here to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to share with you the pathways to a successful career. First, you have grown up in a highly connected and globalised environment. You have access to new technology, and new ways of communicating and working together – opportunities I never had as a student – yet some of you might feel like you lack what it takes to take advantage of these opportunities. So, today I will talk broadly about how you can achieve success as an employee.

Secondly, I will discuss how you can create opportunities for yourself and others, through entrepreneurship, and then I will conclude by discussing the art of empowering others. Empowerment is not just crucial for young people; it is crucial for everyone. In empowering others, we develop our country, our continent, and our planet. When people graduate, the natural thing to do is look for a job. Sadly, a postgraduate degree is no longer a golden key that opens doors at workplaces where people are falling over themselves to give you the job of your dreams.

A recent survey of CEOs in the UK highlighted their concerns that young people’s horizons were not broad enough for a globalised and diverse economy. The story is not entirely different in Nigeria. In a report by Philips Consulting, CEOs were not impressed with graduates’ critical and analytical thinking skills as well as their ability to work well on their own. However, the good news is that many organisations now have developmental programmes meant to equip graduates with the business, analytical and leadership skills needed to be successful in companies.

At UBA, we have the UBA Academy, which we set up in 2008 to train and develop our workforce, so they can continue to be the best professionals in the world. Our dedicated learning and development professionals are always working on closing any competency gap in our workforce.

However, I did not start my career in a training academy; rather, I started at AllStates Trust Bank, and I will share with you a few things I learnt as an employee. After my initial training programme at All States, it was tempting to assume I would be given a period of grace to get to a hang of the job. Far from it. There were customers to attend to, and loans to structure; so, I hit the ground running immediately. In the process, I learned innovation. I challenged paradigms. I worked harder than most people. I learned how to turn abstract information into reports for my bosses.?

The most important things I learned were hard work, resilience and excellence; therefore, my advice to you, post-graduate class of 2015 is to work hard so you can stand out. Hard work and excellence made my bosses Toyin Akin-Johnson and Ebitimi Banigo notice, and subsequently, believe in me. At twenty-seven, I went from being a boy to being a boss when I was appointed a branch manager at the bank – the youngest bank branch manager at that time. All the things I had learned earlier came to play, and I continued learning.

Education is not just about learning in the classroom, it is also about learning how to cope in the outside world. Some graduates have no problems coping in the outside world. I have met many young men and women who went straight from university to a boardroom.

And this brings me to the second part of my speech – entrepreneurship and how people can succeed by working for themselves.

A few of you have probably applied for jobs through the online site Jobberman.com. Now, how many of you are aware that Jobberman was co-founded by three university students who shared the same interests? These students started the business at the Obafemi Awolowo University campus during the industrial strike action by Nigerian Academic Staff Union (ASUU) of August 2009. These three students defied ASUU and the prevailing challenges and circumstances at the time, and started Jobberman, because it required little capital and there was a huge market for their product. Today, the firm is Africa’s leading online job site. This is entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship means you no longer have to wait to see who will give you a job, instead, you can seize the opportunity to secure your future and, in the process, create jobs and livelihoods for others. Entrepreneurship is how we become masters of our destiny and tackle the serious challenge that poverty and mass unemployment pose to the stability of our societies and economies.

However, unlike the team at Jobberman, I did not become an entrepreneur straight from the university. I graduated, got a job and climbed the corporate ladder. While I was at AllStates Trust Bank, my mentor, Ebitimi Banigo, helped me to develop my strategic thinking and to channel my ideas into concrete actions. I learnt all about leadership and how to run successful businesses. So, when the right moment arrived, in my early thirties, I had the self-belief to make the switch from employee to employer. In 1997, my partners and I took over the shuttered Crystal Bank and rebranded it into Standard Trust Bank (STB). In no time, we were outperforming most of the other banks in Nigeria.

How did it happen? We achieved unprecedented growth through innovation and by pursuing the customers who did not previously have bank accounts or had limited access to mainstream financial services. This approach helped create a culture of responsibility and accountability. It also facilitated payments and opened up access to credit for tens of thousands of financially disenfranchised Nigerians.

Though economic profit was our primary motivation, we made it easy for people to have access to banking services. This made me understand that even when a business pursues profit, it can also deliver a meaningful social return as well – this was the foundation of the economic philosophy of Africapitalism, which guides the way I conduct business and make my investment decisions.

The success of STB allowed us to merge with the much larger United Bank for Africa (UBA), in 2005. But we wanted to do even more, so we opened bank subsidiaries in eighteen other countries across Africa, and repeated the same model that we created in Nigeria, targeting customers who had never opened a bank account before or were being poorly served or underbanked.

Today the United Bank for Africa has millions of customers in nineteen African countries, supported by over twenty thousand employees. When I left UBA in 2010 to pursue other interests, I made a promise that through the Tony Elumelu Foundation I would institutionalise luck and create one thousand more UBAs. I wanted to leverage on the success I had enjoyed to empower the next generation of African entrepreneurs to also succeed. And that is why I launched the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme, also known as TEEP. The objective of the programme is to identify and provide mentoring, training, networking, and funding for one thousand African start-ups per year for the next ten years. Through the programme, I have committed $100 million to support the next generation of African entrepreneurs. These may be the next UBAs.

In entrepreneurship, it is important to remember that it is a long-term journey and that nothing is ever easy or perfect. You can start with an idea and over time you can refine it as the market or demand changes. If you are waiting for the perfect time, you may never get started.

In closing, I want to say to you that your education does not end here. It begins now, so always approach life’s new experiences with an attitude of learning. I have presented to you two valid paths you can follow to succeed in your career, whichever path you choose, remember to be hardworking, creative, innovative, energetic and passionate about what you do, and always have the courage to seize opportunities. Remember also that you have been empowered by your education, so you must ensure that whatever you choose to do, think about how you can give back to your community by empowering others to take charge of their own lives and well-being.

Recognise also that your country and your continent are your communities. Do not allow your religion, ethnicity or nationality to become the chains that limit your vision, your network and your ambition. Rather, use them as bridges to expand your world by embracing their common principles of humanity, solidarity, charity, honesty and the search for the common good.

These principles will enable you live anywhere, be-friend anyone, trust the best in everyone and bring down all barriers and boundaries that could hold back your success. I tell you this because I was born in Jos, Plateau State. I studied in Bendel State University, Edo State. I went to the University of Lagos. I did my National Youth Service in Sokoto. I work in Lagos and my businesses are all over Nigeria – and I am the better for it. Under governor Fashola, one of our companies was given a rare opportunity to develop the Falomo Shopping Centre in the heart of Lagos. I am from Delta State. I am not from Lagos State – that is the new Nigeria.?

That is what it is all about – bettering ourselves, bettering our communities, and making a better future for the next generation of Africans. Your generation is capable of making a better Nigeria. Your families and your teachers believe in you, and more importantly, Nigeria needs you. Congratulations on your achievement. I pray that you all succeed in your chosen careers, and that through you our nation will continue to be a shining example to other nations.

God bless you.