Vantage Forum 2017 will chart an economic roadmap for Nigeria – Akinlabi

Godman Akinlabi, Lead Pastor, The Elevation Church convener of the Vantage Forum 2017, an entrepreneurial advancement initiative that will feature expert analysis of the Nigerian economic landscape, highlighting emerging opportunities and potential threats, tells BusinessDay that Nigeria’s economic situation has gotten too serious to be left to policy makers alone.

What is the Vantage Forum set to achieve?

It is an annual entrepreneurial advancement initiative of The Elevation Church focused on empowering individuals to achieve the highest levels of distinction in their businesses and careers through provision of resources such as business seminars, workshops and mentorship programs.
The quality of the discourse makes it an event more suited to senior business executives, owners of medium sized businesses and high net-worth individuals.

However, the kind of information one would get at a business event of this nature was typically the exclusive preserve of persons belonging to certain organizations or clubs that would not readily share such insight with the general public.
As a result, a good number of SMEs did not have access to the kind of information that would take their businesses to the next level. I strongly believe that knowledge should never be hoarded and with my team of leaders, we took on the challenge to plug this knowledge gap, and Vantage Forum was born.
Vantage Forum started in 2014 when it became clear that there was a knowledge gap between the policy makers, economists and those who were actually in business. We saw the need for a business outlook event that focused on the analysis of the economic and political terrain with a view to giving businesspersons a roadmap to run with for the year.
The Forum also provides an opportunity for a diversity convergence. Past attendees have been from a broad spectrum of the society, from different market segments and varied religious persuasions. Regardless of the fact that a church organizes it, Vantage Forum is primarily a knowledge resource that can equip Nigeria’s citizenry and contribute to the wealth and development of our nation.

Why the focus on business when you are a church?

The phenomenal leader Martin Luther King Jr. put it eloquently, “Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social condition that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.”

The church cannot be an ostrich in the face of obvious suffering. We are the salt of the earth and light of the world and this does not apply to ones spiritual existence alone. We must be positioned to be solution providers.

Where there is moral decay, we preach righteousness, where there is injustice, we must speak for justice and where there is economic ignorance, we must provide enlightenment. The church must be concerned about the total man and be willing to roll up her sleeves to solve real prolems with practical, implementable solutions.

What activities do you have planned for your upcoming Vantage Forum 2017?

The chosen for this year is: ‘New Frontiers, New Possibilities’, Vantage Forum 2017 holds on the 26th of January.

It will feature distinguished high calibre speakers such as the Okechukwu Enelamah, minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, John Tani Obaro, managing director/CEO of SystemSpecs and Ndidi Nwuneli, Founder of LEAP Africa, Co-Founder of AACE Food Processing & Distribution, Partner at Sahel.

Who can attend?

Vantage Forum is a seed we sow annually into the Nigerian economy so it is free.

However we require that you simply register online so that we make adequate arrangements for all the attendees.

How has past editions been received?

The past editions of Vantage Forum have been hugely successful with many reporting about how they gained the courage and boldness to launch into new business ventures.

We have been very blessed to have very good, well-informed and inspiring speakers- some of which have been Ladi Balogun, MD/CEO FCMB, Abdul Mukhtar, Chief Strategy Officer, Dangote Groups, Bismark Rewane, Ibukun Awosika, Chairman First Bank and many other erudite speakers.

It has always been very beneficial to the attendees and the ripple effects will continue to be felt in years to come.

Besides being a Pastor, you are an alumnus of the Manchester Business School, what suggestions can you give to help Nigeria get out of the current recession?
To boost our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we need to increase production. One of the key factors for production is the availability of human resources, which we have in abundance.

How then do we get Nigerians to be more productive?

Well, it is not news that the average Nigerian blames the government for a lot of the decay and unproductiveness eating into the economy. The government on its own has to think about ways of tapping into the innovative and creative ability of the Nigerian people. Most of our states do not have appreciable Internally Generated Revenue. This has to change.
The church on the other hand must take responsibility for their people and environment. We need to put skills in the hands of the people and empower them through skill acquisition and social intervention.
The moment the people have the right skills, we can drive the economy in the right direction. If a person is hungry or sick, it is hard for them to think productively. Therefore, churches should endeavour to make the weight easier by feeding people not just spiritually but also physically and mentally.
We need to deploy ourselves so that we are able to come out of this recession. We have industries that are still very green such as the IT, Agriculture and entertainment.

Our young people need to be mobilized in these areas with the right tools so that we do not continue to live under the burden of underdevelopment. The moment we put these skills in the hands of the people, they will be able to tap into opportunities locally and even at international levels.

Are you engaged in social initiatives too, what plans do you have for year?

At The Elevation Church we put service to God and humanity at the fore of our mission and we engage in several initiatives that benefit both members of our congregation and the un-churched community at large.

Our interventions include a specialized ministry we call ‘Elevate 200’. Elevate 200 is a special outreach church focused on empowering the less privileged in our communities through financial, medical, welfare and education interventions.

Worthy of note are the skill acquisition programs, which drive the mission. We are persuaded that ‘giving fish’ alone will not save the poor; you must teach a man to fish and in that way you can save his community and maybe even his entire generation.

The children in these communities are also given top priority and with our partners we are able to award scholarships to several of them and organize back-to-school drives where we give school supplies like back packs, stationery, textbooks, school shoes, socks and vests to children at both primary and secondary school levels.

We have engaged in rehabilitation efforts for dilapidated schools in different communities, conduct regular soup kitchens and free medical outreaches all around Lagos, and reach out regularly to the orphaned, widowed and physically incapacitated.

With the crisis in the labour market, we have a career empowerment arm called elev8impact whose sole mission is to help new to mid-level career persons enjoy success on their jobs. These are just a few of the ways we do our part in uplifting and spreading hope in our communities.