Social entrepreneurship has been identified as a veritable initiative to building community, self-reliance as well as creating vehicle for organisations to meet their needs in a financially sustainable way.
This was a major discourse at the 30th edition of the Omolayole Management Lecture Series organised by the Alumni of the International Association of Students in Economics and Commercial Sciences (AIESEC.)
Guinness Nigeria Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Seni Adetu, the guest speaker, said social enterprises help create a vibrant and diverse economy with more opportunities for people of all abilities and backgrounds.
Social entrepreneurship explained
“All nations must be able to work with social enterprises through private investors to address the social, environmental, cultural and economic challenges no government can solve alone,” he added.
Adetu stressed that “the essence of social entrepreneurship has unfortunately largely been misunderstood in the past. At its heart is an approach to social and environmental problems, which combines innovation and opportunity just the way any entrepreneur would.
“The difference is that the primary purpose is not profit maximisation for shareholders but using revenues generated to drive transformational social change. Put very simply, I see it as what you get when you combine Richard Branson and Mother Teresa.”
“However, I realised that to drive change in the nation, the key is to educate future business leaders, and which informed my coming here today. Everyone must stand up to contribute to making Nigeria a better place which is not an exclusive right of the government but everybody, hence the need for us to take social entrepreneurship serious.”
Involvement of NECA
Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association President, Larry Ettah, who chaired the occasion, said the theme of this year’s lecture is apt and timely as it has become nationally imperative to address unemployment and proffer solutions.
NECA has been championing enhancement of resources and sustainable national development to help address unemployment.
Ettah explained that NECA hosted this year’s lecture because “it is expected that entrepreneurship will contribute to growth and employment creation in advanced, emerging and least developed economies alike.
“This is a reasonable expectation, one that is supported by recent findings of historians, economists and management scientists. And it is only great to associate with initiative like this that will catapult the fortune of our dear nation particularly in job creation.”
Omolayole fulfilled
Michael Omolayole, in whose honour the lecture series was instituted, explained its significance, saying it was the first time all the lectures in the series have been compiled in a book and launched.
His words: “I feel so fulfilled that this book could see the light of day and we are being able to place it on Jumia book store for everyone that may want to access the book.”
“In this book, the importance of innovative, high-growth entrepreneurship is emphasised and the important role of the state to support entrepreneurs (differently through different phases of development) is discussed.
“The book also argues for the need for entrepreneurial solutions to intricate global challenges, such as climate change, migration, and terrorism.
“With too many entrepreneurs, levels of aspirations in a country may rise – it is well-known that with increasing material wealth (or opportunities) people’s aspirations increase.”
AISEC Alumni Nigeria for several decades has played a leading role in defining the province’s field of social enterprise as a tool to build community and self-reliance.
Social enterprises – businesses operated by non-profit organisations for the dual purpose of generating income and achieving social, economic, or environmental goals – can be a creative vehicle for organisations to meet the financial needs of communities.
