The key to ending warfare is not what it used to be

This past week at CES, I had the opportunity to speak with someone from the North-East Development Commission in Nigeria who is working on rebuilding the communities at the center of the Boko Haram conflict. As I learned about the deeply complex aspects of it, I felt compelled to see if there was some way that I could incorporate what Plug and Play is doing into something that could help end the conflict and bring peace to the region. So, I spent the weekend trying to learn as much as possible about the Boko Haram conflict in NorthEastern Nigeria. 

I was not prepared for what I found.

Context: Overview of Boko Haram

You have probably heard of Boko Haram from the abducted girls back in 2014, but the violence goes far beyond that. Boko Haram has been around for 10 years and continuing to terrorize northeastern Nigeria.   The violence has destroyed property and farmland in the mainly rural northeast and sparked a humanitarian crisis and acute food shortages. They have killed more than 37,500 and displaced more than 2.5 million people.

While watching a documentary by the Crisis Group (link below), a scene jumped out to me: it was of a man who is trying to end the conflict speaking about his daughter who joined Boko Haram. He said that one of Boko Harams' beliefs is that it is “shameful to be dependent on foreign aid”. 

Boko Haram is made up of people who are ambitious, capable, and skilled in business.

How are they able to recruit these people?

They are capitalizing on youth's ambition

Over the years, people have joined Boko Haram for many reasons. Initially, it was those who were sick and tired of the corruption, then many joined for religious reasons, but recently, Boko Haram has been attracting people through false promises of entrepreneurship.

Many of those who own small businesses are given a false loan through Boko Haram. When the collector shows up out of nowhere at their house demanding payment and they can't pay, they are forced to join. Others are promised a loan if they join Boko Haram.

"Boko Haram, therefore, is filling a critical gap in financial services, as most youth cannot provide collateral and lack the skills to provide a business plan required by formal institutions. These youth often already had businesses that they wanted to expand or improve. Some had regular employment but also wanted support for businesses they were running on the side, indicating that not only the unemployed or the abjectly poor pursue better economic opportunities through Boko Haram." Mercy Corps

Some of the other reasons people join may be social pressure, desire to belong, and need for protection.

So how can we as businesses or individuals help?

1. Help youths achieve their ambitions, starting with increasing their access to financial and business services.  "Improving youth’s access to business support or financial services throughout the most conflict-affected areas will help youth feel like they have a viable alternative to the informal—and risky—financing scheme on offer by Boko Haram." Mercy corps
2. Provide technology solutions that enable people to help themselves.
3. Facilitating connections to role models and support family dialogue on violent extremism.
4. Amplifying local counter-narratives already working to prevent recruitment into Boko Haram

Provide technology solutions that enable people to help themselves.

This struck a chord with me as two of the startups that I am most excited about are doing exactly that- democratizing and decentralizing certain activities to enable people to become their own entrepreneur. 

1. Vizru. 

Vizru has had a lot of success with corporates around the world. Their no-code platform is ideal for companies streamlining and digitalizing their workflows. 

I have been sharing with them the opportunities in Africa. Not just in terms of corporate's appetite to innovate, but also the potential to use technology to transform a country. 

After discussions with the founder of Vizru, Ramesh, I believe they have something that will enable the continent to ‘leapfrog’ traditional methods of information/data sharing and storage. Their digital grid is secure, accessible without wifi (all you need are SMS capabilities), and it will democratize data while enabling entrepreneurs the ability to develop their own solutions on top of it.

2. NXTgrid

The need for energy and power is at the forefront of almost every initiative in Africa. The NXT Grid team initially started out by developing off-grid solar mini-grids and realized that one of the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs (who are looking at building mini-grids) face is securing affordable financing - critical for making a profitable return. 

So they created NXT Grid. NXT Grid vets and bundles projects together to make it possible for larger financiers to fund a small mini-grid entrepreneur thereby unlocking more small grid developments and in turn more energy access.

NXT Grid is giving people the tools to create their own energy and providing a backbone to help it be profitable. 

Summary

In 1951 Langston Hughes posed a question that we must ask ourselves today, What happens to a dream deferred?

Sooner or later, the international community will be forced to recognize that the fate of Nigeria’s population isn’t just a human rights issue - though it’s certainly that - but also a major global security concern.

The pain and suffering in North-East Nigeria is too great to be solved by the Nigerian Government or the Nigerian Military alone. In fact, the US has been fighting Boko Harams twin (ISIS) for years.

The key to peace in North-Eastern Nigeria is not warfare, but our ability to cut off Boko Harams access to human capital.

Together we must fill the gap to enable entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.

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Links referenced in the article:

Crisis Group Documentary

Mercy Corps

Global Conflict Tracker

NewYorkTimes

Vizru

NST Grid