Chairman, Zinox Group, Leo Stan Ekeh, has
challenged thousands of Nigerian youth, professionals, students and entrepreneurs
to embrace the numerous opportunities for wealth creation which abounds with
the growing pace of digital revolution and the knowledge economy, noting that
wealth has become a right for all in the 21st Century.
He made this call at a mega entrepreneurship
summit with the theme – The ABC of wealth
creation and sustenance in the 21st Century – organized by the
Imo State University and the Alumni Association in partnership with pioneer
composite e-commerce outfit Yudala which held at the University Auditorium on
Monday December 12th 2016.
In attendance was the Executive Governor of
Imo State represented by the Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon.
Acho Ihim; Vice Chancellor, Imo State University, Prof. Mrs. Adaobi Obasi,
other principal officers of the University as well as several first class
traditional rulers and other dignitaries.
Ekeh who featured as the Guest Speaker at the
event decried the attitude to quality education among many Igbo youths – a
generational problem which he traced to parents who erroneously assumed that
education delays the progress of a man.
“The political leadership of the South East
for decades has bemoaned the falling enrollment in schools. However, the mindset
among many seems to be: Why do we need formal education when all we have to do
is find the fastest way of making clean money? ‘Make ye wealth first and all
the rest shall be added unto you’ or drawn straight from the Bible in the book
of Wisdom – ‘money answereth all’.
“This mindset should change to ‘knowledge
answers all’. In the 21st Century knowledge is your right and is the most
important capital before cash.
“Wealth creation would always be about
generating material values and accumulating same but the knowledge economy says
to us that the processes must change. These tools are to be used to reorganize
society and fire innovation. The knowledge economy has shrunk the global
village even further and our aspirations must rise above the tripod of Hausa,
Yoruba and Igbo battle for supremacy. The globe must be the platform for our
operations and it has been since 1859 but we need to look inwards if we are to
take advantage of the knowledge era.
“The Igbo entrepreneur would have to take
quality education more seriously as deficiency in this is already a minus to
her intellectual capacity to sustain her enterprise.”
Ekeh, a globally renowned digital
entrepreneur whose Zinox Group ranks as arguably Africa’s biggest Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) conglomerate, disclosed that building a
successful business requires a mix of ingredients including humility, focus,
determination to take pains before pleasure, identification of one’s passion
and making it commercially viable, constant innovation and a deep relationship
with God.
In his opinion, innovation which he defined
as when an invention meets a customer – represents one key success factor for
many budding entrepreneurs who seek to enjoy digital wealth.
“There are Igbo entrepreneurs, including my
humble self who have made huge investments in Lagos, Abuja, the UK, along the
East and West Coast of Africa who would have no choice other than make
investments at home given the qualified manpower and irresistible innovations.
The 21st Century venture fund would be delivered to innovations no matter where
they are found – China, Indonesia, South Africa, Israel, Brazil, name it.
“The point being made here is that the world
needs innovations – answers to challenges confronting humanity – and the 21st
Century Igbo aspiration should be to provide these innovations that are
technology driven so that the products would be cost efficient and cost
effectively reach more consumers world over.
Urging the audience in the packed auditorium
to embrace the revolution in ICT, Ekeh noted that there is a clear and urgent
need for training and re-training in a bid to reveal the potentials of ICT to
all.
“It is important that I make it quite clear
that what I am advocating is not that everyone must be an ICT professional.
What I am saying is that every professional or entrepreneur at least for
selfish reasons must be ICT literate enough to ensure that every sector of the
economy is ICT driven. It is accepted globally that only ICT can catalyze
national development at the pace that satisfies the high expectations in good
living of the 21st Century.”
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