How literacy nurtures entrepreneurship
If you are in doubt of how literacy can raise the level of entrepreneurship in any country, then hear the words of Rohan Malik:
“When I spoke with entrepreneurs around the world, they said they were not given entrepreneurial education early enough,” Malik said.
“We need to raise entrepreneurial awareness in Nigeria early enough. Though there are peculiarities in different countries, most entrepreneurs would have wanted entrepreneurship education given to them at age five,” he added.
Rohan Malik is the partner for emerging markets and global deputy leader (government and public sector) for Ernst & Young (EY), a global accounting and services firm.
Malik and co, on behalf of EY, had prepared and released a report entitled, ‘From Classroom to Boardroom: Creating a Culture for High-impact Entrepreneurship’, where they laid bare the often hidden fact that there was a strong correlation between literacy and entrepreneurship.
Early last December, FATE Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, partnered Agusto &Co, a rating agency, to release a report entitled, ‘Review of the Nigerian MSME Policy Environment’. One key take-away from the report is that poor literacy and education translate into poor capacity, which is common among Nigerian entrepreneurs, leading to failure observed in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the country.
Out of 174 million Nigerians, 54 million cannot read, according to the country’s Federal Ministry of Education. This is worsened by the fact that 40 percent of primary six pupils can neither read nor write.
Amid this ugly situation, 10.5million children are not registered in school, as indicated by a recent United States USAID study.
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) announced recently that over 757 million adults worldwide still lacked basic literacy skills, with about two-thirds of them being women, mostly from Nigeria and other developing countries.
The 2013/2014 Global Monitoring Report (GMR) shows that countries like Brazil, China, Indonesia have attained 90 percent literacy rate, while Egypt and India have between 70 and 89 percent. Nigeria, Bangladesh and Pakistan are still below 70.
The scenario has negative impacts on entrepreneurship of the country and its economy.
An illiterate entrepreneur is not amenable to change and struggles to adapt to changing trends, research has shown.
It has also been found that five literate people working in a factory will be much more productive that 15 working in the same firm put together.
According to Ike Ibeabuchi, an entrepreneur and managing director of MD Services Limited based in Abuja, inability to read and write exposes an entrepreneur to cheats and reduces his/her capacity to think in a mobile and dynamic world.
“Even when they work for you, they are mostly unproductive,” Ibeabuchi said.
“Illiteracy affects productivity and can make a firm lose huge sums of money owing to errors and avoidable mistakes,” he added
Emile Kok-Kheng Yeoh and Kah-Mun Chu presented a paper at the University of Malaya in 2012. Here are their findings on the impact of literacy on an economy.
“Literacy helps to spread awareness among the people of their rights. People with good literacy skills enjoy a higher standard of living, have better opportunities of finding jobs, and are able to continue to learn new skills that will help them in the workplace,” Yeoh and Chu said.
“A nation with high literacy rate is more likely to attract a large pool of investors and entrepreneurs as well as the inflow of money which in turn have a great impact on the nation’s economy. A society’s economic prosperity and literacy have great influence on each other as they jointly grow together,” they added.
It is on the basis of these upsides of literacy that Lafarge Africa stepped in to help Nigeria achieve a high literacy level to ensure that little children are better equipped to face the challenges of tomorrow.
“Education is the bedrock of development of any country and the gateway to success in life. This is why Lafarge Africa is keen at creating opportunities and platforms where Nigerian children will be given the needed support to help them realise the potentials in them and achieve excellence. We recorded remarkable success from the first edition and testimonials abound. More importantly, its impact on pupils and on the development of education in Nigeria is gradually growing,” said Peter Hoddinott, group MD/CEO, Lafarge Africa Plc, while speaking on the initiative.
In partnership with the Ovie Brume Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), a program was developed called ‘Book on Wheels’ (BOW). The major target of this project is to organise mobile literacy sessions with pupils in public primary schools in Lafarge’s host communities. Following a training session, volunteers go to schools and spend time reading with children to enhance their literacy capacities in the areas of spelling, diction, comprehension and reading.
This has eventually led to the Lafarge Friends of the Community initiative and, in turn, the National Literacy Competition. The National Literacy Competition was borne out of the desire to equip young children, who are the future custodians of Nigeria, begin the journey to assert concrete foundations that will act as the basis of ensuring lasting legacies.
The competitions were successfully organised across 18 states in three regions to encourage students develop their literacy competencies. The second edition of the Lafarge National Literacy Competition was concluded in November 2015 and significant increases in literacy levels were identified among the children who participated in the program, ranging from 9 percent in Lagos, 19 percent in Sagamu, 23 percent in Onne, 49 percent in Ewekoro and 63 percent in Ashaka.
The Annual National Literacy Competition tests the vocabulary of the pupils by assessing their knowledge and understanding of the new words learnt throughout the year through a spelling bee competition.
Some of the pupils that participated in the competition in 2015 included Agene Joseph (Ifeoluwa Primary School, Agege, Lagos), Aguocha Chinyere (Ogbete River Pri School, Enugu), Elizabeth Nyime Dibiah (State School II, Alesa, Rivers State), Firdausi Muhammed (Research Model Primary School, Kawo, Kaduna) and Haruna Abdulraheem (Kogi L.G.E.A. School, Gegu-Beki, Kogi State), among others.
An average of NGN 40,000,000 is spent on this intervention annually, but beyond monetary figures, the programme is making remarkable impact on the lives of the pupils and ultimately Nigeria’s future.
ODINAKA ANUDU