Nigeria: Social Networking - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Paul Dada and Amarachi Egbeogu, 1 September 2012
 

Online Social networking platforms like facebook, twitter, Skype, yahoo messenger! WhatsApp! MySpace, Windows Live messenger, Google talk, AOL instant messenger and Blackberry messenger have become so much part of modern life to the extent that many wonder how they had coped before these cyber resources were invented and made readily available to all. In this report, AMARACHI EGBEOGU, Abuja and PAUL DADA, Lagos examine the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the phenomenon.

According to wikipedia, a social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on facilitating the building of social networks or social relations among people who share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections.


It consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his or her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet through such cyber tools as e-mail and instant messaging.

Social networking services have certainly changed the way we share information in radical, explosive ways that even their inventors might not have envisaged. They have made life a lot easier by putting a vast volume of information at the disposal of just anyone who could access the Internet and has greatly improved on both the time and cost of communication and doing business.

Businesses, organisations and individuals have come to depend very much on the opportunities offered by social network platforms like facebook, twitter, Yahoo Messenger, Myspace, Badoo and Blackberry Messenger to mention but few popular ones.

Writing on the power of social networking service, an online website, everyday-wisdom.com, stated: "It is cheaper to use online social networking for both personal and business use because most of it is usually free. While personal use is rather simple for anyone, the business functions are underestimated by many. In a social networking site, you can scout out potential customers and target markets with just a few clicks and keystrokes, adding a boost to your usual advertisements and promotional strategies.

If you want to fine-tune your business, then this is the way to go, whether on a budget or not."

However, despite the almost limitless opportunities available through social networking service, there is a dark side to the phenomenon. As in the real world, dangers abound on the social networking platforms in cyberspace. These include online scams, cyber-stalking or harassment, risk of failure of security in both personal and business context.

The criminally minded often seize on such personal information as the user's name, location, age and gender, credit card or bank account details to commit crimes, including harming the owners of such information, despite security measures put in place by most of the social networking websites.

The Good
 Mrs Vivian Okonji, an Abuja-based banker, told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND that she met her husband on facebook three years ago.

She stated:" I remember searching for an old high school friend via facebook and then stumbled on someone who shared the same first and last name as my high school friend. Out of curiosity, I sent a friend request. Today I am married to the namesake of my high school friend."

Hadasa Abraham, a mass communication undergraduate at the University of Abuja, explained how she used the social networking service to save her friend's life.

She said: "My best friend was diagnosed with a heart condition two years ago and was scheduled for an operation that year.

While her family tried to raise money on their own, I sourced for funds through facebook, twitter and Blackberry messenger and to the glory of God, people were moved and they responded. I was really moved by the power of social networking."

Tunde Aregbesola, a 31-year-lawyer who is into real estate said social networking services have been a very helpful part of his business.

His words: "I put up properties for interested clients to assess. I have sold many properties with the help of networking on the social sites".

Aregbesola concluded that social networking service had been a good tool for his line of business.

The Bad
 While Okonji, Abraham, Aregbesola have derived good dividends from using social networking service on the Internet, the experience of Kehinde Kariola has put a sour taste in her mouth following a case of hacking and identity theft perpetrated against her.

Kariola told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND: "Someone hacked into my two facebook accounts at the same time for two weeks. The person has been making a financial gain of my two accounts by telling people he was robbed and so on.

"I just gained access to one of the accounts now while the other is still denying me access. I got to know when he tried defrauding my brother. I've changed my password twice but the person hasn't stopped.

This hacker and identity thief had sent a distress message masquerading as Kariola purporting that she was robbed somewhere and needed money wired to a bank account to leave the location. This is one of the infamous ways fraudsters in the country employ to defraud unsuspecting friends of social networking websites users.

To counter this obvious scammer's intention of using her reputation to con her friends and family members, Kariola sent this message online: "Please deny his requests. I'm currently in UNILAG. I'm alive and healthy I know my parents and siblings number if I am stranded."

There is also the infamous "yahoo yahoo" scam often attributed to young Nigerians who send email messages claiming to have millions of dollars they what to launder abroad for safety purposes or aiming to establish bogus romantic liaison with lonely men and women seeking intimate relationship with the sole aim of defrauding them.

The scammers use a variety of tricks to get their victims, including changing their personality and identity, creating false images and making outlandish claims. They also impersonate prominent Nigerians to hoodwink their victims. Only last Wednesday, General Overseer, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor E.A. Adeboye, alerted the nation and the world to an on-going use of his name and identity to defraud people using online social networking services.

Confirming this, a source who pleaded anonymity told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND: "I know of a young man using a female porn star's pictures as his own identity on Blackberry messenger, giving the porn star a different name and all. He confessed that he bought the porn start's pictures from a site on the internet using a credit card in order to deceive unsuspecting men and lesbians who might pick interest in her."

There is also the concern about how slangs and fragmented words, or "textspeak," used on the social media affect the written language and the language skills of faithful users, especially the youths.

"What is troubling to those who value the written word is the developing slang and overall disregard for grammar and punctuation.

It has become common to gloss over any sizeable amount of text and look for the bolded statements that will give us information quickly. We want lean, witty one-liners instead of buckling down and reading an article or book," an article on firstbestordifferent.com observed.

The Ugly
 A slice of the dangers lurking in cyberspace, especially on social networking website, hit the country last month with the tragic news of the alleged murder of a 24-year-old young woman, Miss. Cynthia Osokogu, in a Lagos hotel room by a 'friend' she met and developed a cyber relationship with on facebook.

The only daughter of a retired Army general and postgraduate student of Nasarawa State University, Miss. Okosogu was allegedly lured to Lagos by another student, Nwabuzor Okwuoma, 33, using a business transaction as bait.

She met her untimely death by strangling in the course of being beaten, raped and robbed allegedly in the hands of Nwabuzor and his accomplice, Ezekiel Odera, 23, both of whom are currently standing trial in a Lagos court alongside two others.

For many active Blackberry users, strange stories abound on this social networking platform. One of the most recent of such stories was about an undergraduate from a private Christian university in Ogun state who thought she had met her prince charming on facebook.

The man in question took her on a dream vacation, buying her the most expensive of all gifts including the latest Blackberry device, ipad and wigs made of human hair so much beloved by fashionable women.

In the course of this romantic trip, however, the young lady fell pregnant and her man disappeared into thin air.

When she realised this, the girl, who reportedly shared her story on Blackberry messenger, became distraught because she did not have any concrete information on her prince charming, like where he lived or worked.

Worst still, she tested positive to HIV.
 Paedophiles are also on the rampage in cyberspace, especially on social networking websites where they hunt for unsupervised and vulnerable children to abuse online or even lure away from home, kidnapped and kept as sex slaves. A handful of children have fallen victims to these depraved minds globally, especially in the developed world.

Nigerians who spoke with LEADERSHIP WEEKEND on the merits and demerits of online social networking websites harped on the need for the Federal Government to protect the citizenry from harm by policing cyberspace in the country even better than policing in the real world.

Mr. Godking Chikaking said: "We are living in a scientific world. And any scientific advancement is to make life easier. However, many people have abused these inventions. For example, facebook is to help us communicate and to stay informed. If I have gathered information, I can relay it to my friends so that we can make contributions towards the growth of the society."

Chikaking linked some abuses of social websites with lax parental supervision of minors, which he said had continued to wane in the country.

He said slack "parental care has contributed to the loss of moral values, which is manifest in the way the social media is abused."

Also, Mr. Segun Ogundipe, said the Federal Government should establish an institution to censor the contents of social websites and block undesirable ones as is the practice in some countries like China.

But Mr. George Opara, a social scientist believed that there were limits to controlling abuses in cyberspace and advocated personal restraints and caution by users of social networking websites.

He also charged Nigerians to stay informed on the antics of criminals on the prowl in cyberspace.

Are Entrepreneurs born or made?

By Clive Siachiyako
Entrepreneurship has become the mainstream economic buzzword. It is supported by political leaders, championed by non-governmental organisations, reinforced by growing infrastructure of tertiary education and venture capitalists. As a result, entrepreneurs are now emerging from almost anywhere, in any shape and go any direction.

Entrepreneurs and pushed or pulled…i.e. some people become entrepreneurs due to circumstantial factors around them, while others are driven by their passion. Pushed entrepreneurs go into business either because they are retrenched, retired, declared redundant or dismissed or they switch to doing business as their only survival means. Circumstances ‘beyond control” force pushed entrepreneurs into venturing into business.

A pulled entrepreneur is attracted into business either out of passion or association with successful entrepreneurs or admiring entrepreneurial models that they emulate. Pulled entrepreneurs could be off-springs who start business because of their parents’ entrepreneurial nature or college graduates who venture into business after seeing older fellow graduates running successful business ventures.

Pulled entrepreneurs adequately prepare before launching in their enterprises. This gives them more chances of success than those who venture into business by circumstance.

Pushed entrepreneurs on the other hand are said to respond to unplanned and normally business through trail-and-error. They thus, exhibit lower rates of success. They rarely dream to be entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship begins with a dream. Success in entrepreneurship called for a lot of planning and preparations, taking into account all risk factors involved into each particular business venture one pursued.

Sources of business ideas
Business ideas come from different sources that are as varied as the businesses themselves.  When you’re looking for a business idea, do not look far; learn to look at yourself and the environment in which you leave. You can get a business idea from your trade or job. Ideas are got through the generation and mutations of random thoughts; some of which could be rejected by the minds as useless, while others could be seen as valuable and were retained.

Pursue the valuable ideas. It’s these ideas we consider valuable that cause our minds to generate reasonable grounds for belief, which in turn stirs the exceptional intellect or creative powers that reside within each one of us. Note that age is a non-factor to entrepreneurs. Dreams and the burning desire to achieve those dreams is what an entrepreneur needs.

Possible Sources of Business Ideas
 One’s job/trade:
A driver can easily:
    Start a driving school
    Run a taxi and/or mini bus enterprise
    Start a motor vehicle spares shop
    Run a car hire enterprise
A secretary can easily:
    Start a business centre/stationery shop
    Offer secretarial training services
    Offer computer appreciation courses
    Do secretarial related consultancies
An Electrical Engineer can easily:
    Run an electrical spares and appliances shop
    Run an electrical repairs workshop
    Engage in electrical installations services
    Run an electrical consultancy enterprise
A Nurse can easily:
    Run a private clinic or surgery
    Start a pharmacy or drugs store
    Start a home-based care centre
    Start a counseling centre
    Run an old people’s home

The list of examples of business ideas from one’s job/trade is endless. So as prospective entrepreneurs, use your knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience and contacts that you have gained on the job to start your own business. A wonderful future is waiting for you.

Shortages in your area:
Look around in your area and ask yourself ‘why there’s no one in this and that business. You look products/services that people often use in the area, yet they move long distance to access. Grab that chance; bring the products/services closer to the people in the neighbourhood.

You can get a lot of viable business ideas by just looking at products/services that are not readily available in the area in which you live or intend to settle. Make a simple survey to find out whether such missing products and services would be demanded in that area and ACT promptly and strategically. Do not just watch, act!!

Shortcomings in existing products/services:
On several occasions, some poor products and services have saddened you in your area and you have probably said to yourself “if I were the one running that business, I would not have produced such poor quality products/services.”

Keenly observe and capitalise on the shortcomings in the products and services of others and come up with some imaginations of how you would improve and change the image of such poor products and services if you were the owner. Use that imagination to aspire to start your own business.

Other business ideas can be from one’s hobbies, talent of interests. For instance, interest in hair plaiting can result into the establishment of a hair salon. Extra-ordinary use of certain products by people can be another source of a business idea. Man’s basic needs or changes in social custom always present an alert entrepreneur with a business idea.

Remember: entrepreneurial dreams do come true for those who take action and are willing to learn from their mistakes. Make your business dreams a reality.

Luapula: A haven of investment opportunities

By Clive M. Siachiyako
Luapula Province has abundant opportunities for tourism development, agriculture and mining.  The province has good arable land and rainfall patterns as well as abundant water resources. It is endowed with some of the unmatched natural wonders in Zambia. 

Across the entire province are a number of beautiful waterfalls and wetlands that host some of the rare species in the entire world like the black Lechwe and the shoebill stock. Luapula is also very rich in culture whose traditional ceremonies have become very popular tourist attractions.

The province has eight waterfalls, namely Lumangwe, Kabwelume, Chilongo, Finkula, Kundabwika, Ntumacushi, Mumbuluma and Mumbotuta. Lumangwe is the second largest waterfalls in Zambia after Victoria Falls. The province also has abundant wildlife and bird species that are only found in Luapula the world over, sandy beaches on the two lakes, traditional sites, hot springs, and Iron Age smelters.

Thirty percent of Zambia’s water resources are in Luapula. The province is the water haven, with high aqua concentration. Rainfall levels are high throughout the province with the Northern plateau and the Bangweulu swamps receiving the highest. The rainfall levels are ideal for agriculture activities.

The four major physical features of the province include the valley that run parallel to the Luapula River, Lake Mweru and Bangweulu. Lake Bangweulu has swampy areas to the east and south as well as beautiful and clean sand of Samfya beach on Lake Bangweulu, making the beach one of the best in the world, and a prime area for any type of resort facilities.

The province is a preserve for tourism. Its keys features for tourist attraction are the Samfya Beach, Bangweulu swamps, the eight waterfall, Lusenga Plains National Park, and traditional ceremonies like the Mutomboko. These tourist attractions are a very important resource for the development of the province.

The vast water resources of Luapula provide potential for various economic activities associated with sustainable water usage, such as hydro power generation, agriculture and irrigation systems.

According to provincial minister Dr. Boniface Kawimbe, Luapula sitting on 950 megawatts of hydropower potential that its rivers and numerous waterfalls offer for utilisation. Mining is the other resource of the province. The mining activities in the province have been largely for manganese which commenced as far back as 1953, on small scale. Iron ore occurrences are widespread in area which if exploited together with manganese would form a basis for large scale iron and steel industry in Luapula.

A wide range of known base metals, gemstones and industrial minerals are also found in Luapula. These minerals include ton copper, zinc, lead, feldspar, silica sand, talc, limestone, lithium, clays and gemstones (citrine, tourmaline, and garnet). Substantial deposits of limestone are found in Bukanda and Matanda.

The province has favourable climate and soil for palm oil trees.  Luapula has than 90,000 indigenous and 30,000 fully grown hybrid trees of palm trees. The hybrid trees are mainly grown by small holder farmers. These hybrid trees have the potential yield of 20 metric tonnes of fresh fruit per hectare, whose yield about 4.2 metric tonnes. The oil palm trees can grow up to 25 years with yield increasing as the tree grows older.

Regardless of all these investment opportunities in the province, most of them have remained untapped, hence making the province of the least developed in the country. Dr. Kawimbe has attributed the dismal utilisation of Luapula’s resources to lack of strategic investment initiatives, uncoordinated mining activities and lack of information resource centre to provide quality investment.

 “To do business one needs a lot of information found in different offices. There is need for a one central place where all business related information could be housed,” said Dr. Kawimbe. Speaking during the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) Trade and Investment Workshop in Luapula, the minister said Luapula needed a one stop information centre facility to reduce on time spent on seeking for information on buyers and suppliers of key materials or machinery for production.

The other hindrance to full exploitation of the province’s immense resources is the high cost of doing business. Most districts have no banking facilities, hence bank users have to travel to Mansa each time they want to deposit or withdraw money. Access to finance is a stumbling block to business growth as well. Being that unemployment is high in the province, most businesses cannot access bank loans as banks preferred lending money to employees (salary based loans).

These challenges have been compounded by lack of management skills by most business owners, inability to write bankable business ideas to access funding from the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission, poor saving and loan repayment culture and limited investment avenues. Other impediments the business community in the province faces is lack of information on the kind of financial products financial institutions offer for both micro, small and medium enterprises and large scale investors.

To address some of the barriers that retarded business in the province, ZDA in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce and Trade in Luapula have organised a regional office to provide key information to the business community in the province. Through the office, a data bank linkage will be created and connected to the ZDA information resource centre for the business community to access key information on affordable finance offers, market surveys, specialised trade agencies and suppliers and buyers of various goods and services that are utmost importance to their businesses.

As the pioneer of investment promotion in the economy, ZDA designated about 300 hectares of land for the establishment of a multi-facility economic zone in Chembe. The economic zone will accommodate various businesses involved in lighting engineering, construction and hardware industries, food industries, agriculture and agro-processing as well as chemical industries like biofuels.

These industries will stimulate a number of economic activities in auxiliary sectors such as agriculture, textiles industry, mining industry, food and beverage industries. Suppliers and buyers of end products from the economic zone will have abundant market for various products. Many support sectors to these industries that could be currently dormant will be boosted through developments in the economic zone.

With the involvement of the local people in the province in promoting investment and utilising the MSME strategies the Zambia Development Agency has initiated, it is hoped that Luapula will unleash its real economic value to national development, job and wealth creation to improve their livelihood. As the provincial minister put it “since we have got people interested in investing in Luapula, both our own local and foreign…then once we cement all these relationships, we can turn all these potentials into reality.”

SMEs: India's Economic Heroes, Lessons for Zambia Businesses

By Clive M. Siachiyako

For all its current economic strength, India remains a beacon of small and medium entrepreneurialism. Indian entrepreneurs are making waves across the world. Its micro, small and medium business firms are making acquisitions abroad and spreading their tentacles in various corners of the globe. They have flourished under globalisation and have proved all doomsday prophecies wrong.

Thus, India’s economy has been one of the stars of global economics in recent years mainly due to its robust SME sector. With its growth being supported by market reforms, rising foreign exchange reserves, both an information telecommunications (IT) and real estate boom, and a flourishing domestic direct investment (DDI) and capital market, India offers rewarding economic lessons to Zambia’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector.

According to the 2009 Economist Report on entrepreneurship, India is the ninth in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey of entrepreneurial countries. It is the highest among 28 countries in Necessity Based Entrepreneurship, while second among all nations in Total Entrepreneurship Activity. The country has been registering about US$3.6 billion annually from the ICT sector alone from SMEs prior to the economic crisis. The mobbed SME heroes of India were transforming small start-ups into global giants every year. They created business minded societies in several Indian cities by engaging in a frenzy of networking through partnerships and joint ventures.

India improved the growth of the SME sector after liberalising the economy in the 1990s by linking education and the industry. The country’s universities/colleges became its economic engines with proliferating science parks, technology offices, business incubators and venture funds. This helped to create a business minded class of graduates. The tradition entrepreneurship dates-back to basic and high schools in India. The trend has significantly boosted India’s DDI profile.

The country’s higher education system has also been designed to discover and develop first-class entrepreneurial skills. The system does not only inspire graduates to strike it rich, but to play their part in forging a new India with a double-digit economic and GDP growth and low levels of poverty. And through linking the education system to the industry, India began to reverse the brain drain. The country’s prodigal children were summoned home by economic offers of the native soil.  For instance, from 2003-2005, some 5,000 industrious Indians returned home from America. They trekked home to kick-start the country’s entrepreneurial economy and increase the DDI flow. 

These Indian transplants from the Diaspora promoted SME growth through mentoring, networking and education. Today their network has 12, 000 members and operates in 53 cities in 12 countries. The transplants helped to fill some of the skills gaps created by India’s recent boom. They also reinforced the country’s existing links with high-tech countries in the West like America and in Europe.  

The Indian SME sector growth model offers various fundamental lessons for Zambia’s MSME sector. The linking of the education system to the industry is essential to the ZDA, TEVETA and ministry of education strategies meant to strengthen entrepreneurship levels in the country. By collaborating with human resource training institutions, citizens will obtain an entrepreneurship spirit and learn the art of sustaining business at the appropriate age. They will thus grow up with an entrepreneurial mindset. Such a phenomenon can result into a knowledge-based economy, where the use of knowledge is the main driver of growth, wealth creation and employment across all sectors without much dependency on foreign investors.

Picking it from the Indian model, several skills training institutions under TEVETA, government run colleges and universities and those in the private hands can be a haven of entrepreneurial savvy and breeding grounds for businesses. The public-private partnership initiative can be a hallmark of linking the education system to the industry beyond public educational institutions. Business incubator programmes can be rooted into these institutions to blend business mindsets in students at the right time. The trend can descend further to basic schools and high schools in order to overhaul the Zambian mindset towards business. The strategy is paramount in enhancing government’s numerous programmes meant to meet long term developmental goals of attaining middle income status by 2030 among others.

Information telecommunications (ICT) is another significant parametre Zambia can tap from the India SME growth model to improve MSMEs’ business prowess. India’s enterprising heroes like Azim Premji transformed Wipro from a vegetable-oil company into a software giant. After liberalising the ICT sector, many Indian SMEs ventured into the sector. The cost of doing business equally reduced drastically. Internet use, calling rates and other related expenses fall. The sector became a lucrative business web.

With the ICT policy in place and other initiatives aimed at improving infrastructure, MSMEs can achieve and contribute greatly to the economy. Strategies such as multi-facility economic zones (MFEZ) meant to have necessary infrastructure in place for improved productivity can help transform dormant small enterprises into economic giants. Grounding MSMEs with competencies on how to utilise ICT to improve business efficiency is key in developing and discovering first-class MSMEs that can creating a strong buffer zone for the local economy. The current business reforms government is implementing fits well in promoting the MSME sector and the local economy as a whole.

The MFEZ initiative can help create a pool of MSMEs in various businesses. Various networks can sprout from these zones and help to uproot start-ups by providing them with key information on market offers and other business etiquettes. The start-ups can be both supplies and part of the global supply chains. With business linkage and joint venture initiatives already in place under the ZDA, Zambia can easily propel its DDI flow to supplement FDI. The net effect of such a combination will be increased economic growth, job and wealth creation as well as poverty reduction.

With well watched pace and coordinated policy strategies, Zambia can realise many new entrepreneurs onto the business sphere. The entrepreneurial spirit will begin to breathe new life into Zambia’s public and private sector and greatly revolve the economy. Zambians in the Diaspora will see the need to invest back home and translate Western ideas into local ideologies, combining them with acquired technological advances to drive economic growth. With such an economic atmosphere, Zambia, like India will be hopeful of having a brighter economic future.

 

Hunt for Successor 22: The Faceless Graduate

By Field Ruwe In writing about “The Faceless Graduate,” I am compelled to begin by citing S.E. Kiser on poetry: I have hoped, I have planned, I have striven; To the will I have added the deed; The best that was in me I’ve given; I have prayed, but the gods would not heed. I have dared and reached only disaster; I have battled and broken my lance; I am bruised by a pitiless master. That the weak and the timid call Chance; I am bent, I am cheated. Of all that Youth urged me to win.But name me not with the defeated. Tomorrow again, I begin.

Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture “The Thinker” is as important to many students on university campuses around the world as “The (Faceless) Graduate” is to students at the University of Zambia. Both are concierges that connote rational and logical thinking.

But unlike “The Thinker” nobody on the campus of the University of Zambia pays much attention to “The Graduate’s” intellectual symbolism, if they do they don’t comment publicly.

Simple in design, the Faceless Graduate created by Henry Nkole Tayali encompasses abstract and figurative art meant to conjure up images of intellectualism. 

Unveiled by KK in 1979, it is regarded as “the graduate who leads Zambian students to a higher and better understanding of the world and to nation building.” The sculpture symbolizes intellectual undertaking, discovery, and determination. 

After the histrionic closure of the university in 1971 and 1976, KK, whose relationship with the students was flustered, was hoping that “The Faceless Graduate” would restore the reverence of the university and again make it the most congenial oasis for Zambian intellectuals.

Yes, it was on 15th July, 1971, that KK, for the first time, ordered the closure of the University of Zambia following demonstrations by students at the French Embassy in Lusaka. It was not their first protest. Since 1966, the year the university opened, students had been voicing their concerns outside the British High Commission against the British government in support of KK’s stand on Rhodesia’s UDI and South Africa’s apartheid. 

But in 1971 they moved to the French Embassy following the French government’s sale to South Africa of a licence to manufacture Mirage jets against the UN ban. KK, enjoying cordial diplomatic relations with France, tried to quell the protest. Students turned on him and accused him of “commiserating with the enemy.” 

On July 7, 1971, students and the police fought running battles in what was dubbed the “Battle of Lusaka.” KK tried to intervene by urging them to calm down and to leave everything to him, but they were relentless.

The UNZASU executive comprising Ronald Penza as Secretary General, John Chileshe, Jonathan Momba, Ernest Kasula, Gerry Chabwera, and Cosmas Chola sent an open letter to KK entitled “Where are we going?” in which they attacked the president for leaving intellectuals out and trying to be Zambian’s superman on matters of foreign affairs.

“You are not omnipotent,” they told him. 

KK went ballistic, expelled them, closed the university, and sent the military, para-military, and riot police to evict 1500 students at gunpoint. It is here, ladies and gentlemen, that Zambian politics and Zambian intellectualism crossed swords for the first time—and the die was cast. 

Formerly a teacher, pupil headmaster, and welfare officer KK was enthusiastic about the creation of a Pluto “Republic” run by intellectuals who “combined comprehensive theoretical knowledge with the practical capacity for applying it to concrete problems.” When he became president he envisioned a Zambia teeming with doctors, lawyers, engineers, researchers, scientists, economists as well as inventors and innovators.

“Let us produce our own,” he often said. 

He was hoping we would be driving our own cars designed by the school of engineering; manufacture water filters, kilns, and irrigation pumps for our farmers and rural dwellers; create laboratories to combat and wipe out the mosquito; take over the mines and control the sale of our minerals on the London Metal Exchange; and ensure that all Zambians had an egg per day, if not two.

On October 24, 1964 he told us in his maiden speech that “the new country was born in order to take the rightful place among the nations of the world…Now we must work to prove our greatness.”

He immediately got down to work. With only 109 university graduates and less than 0.5% literates at independence, he instituted a free education policy. All Zambian children, irrespective of their status, were given a chance to have a primary education.

He concomitantly spearheaded the creation of the country’s first university. Zambians rallied behind him when he appealed for donations. Villagers donated goats, chickens, and pigs just to see a university built on Zambian soil. In 1966, Zambia’s “University of Bologna” with its own Constitutio Habita stood in a reclusive place off Lusaka’s Great East Road in the name of the University of Zambia (UNZA).

In March of the same year the first 312 distinguished scholars stepped into their new classrooms to the admiration and envy of fellow Zambians. UNZA became the fountain of knowledge, what Professor Muna Ndulo describes as “a birth place of fresh sight, vision, and an arena where fundamental ideas are pronounced, challenged, clarified and disputed in the most dignified and collegial manner.” The buildings appeared serene, austere, and islanded.

“My son is at the university,” were words of a very proud parent. 

KK was hoping he could create a think tank out of such men—a Zambian intelligentsia par excellence that would be engaged in political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues.

But hardly a month had elapsed when students staged their first peaceful demonstration outside the British High Commission against the Smith’s regime’s shooting of African freedom fighters in Rhodesia. On that day they vowed to make their protest an annual event in support of KK until UDI and apartheid were eliminated. They kept their word until the clashes and closure of 1971.

When the university sputtered back to life, six weeks later, it had a new vice-chancellor, Professor Lameck Goma. The previous one, who also happened to be Zambia’s first chancellor Dr. Douglas Anglin, a Canadian, and lecturers American Andrew Horn and Zambian-born Briton Michael Etherton were fired and faced deportation. Etherton and Horn were implicated in the protest. As for the expelled students they were allowed back after apologizing to KK. 

Some students used the closure to join the United Progressive Party and campaign for its president Simon Kapwepwe. They did not want KK to impose leader-worship mentality on them. When he got wind of it he labeled the university a “hot bed for sedition and subversion.” It was clear that the man who had dedicated his efforts to the creation of an educated stratum of professionalized intellectuals was now feeling threatened. 

He no longer saw UNZA students as doctors, engineers, lawyers, and economists in the making, but as radicals with a “reckless passion” to undermine his power, authority, and intelligence. They were telling him “you have no college degree. You must therefore listen to us.” 

He lost interest. He didn’t need them as his think tank. The funds for the maintenance of building infrastructure dwindled, input resources declined and salaries of lecturers remained meager. The foundation on which the citadel of Zambian intellectualism had stood was shaken and the official degeneration of both the campus building and its occupants began in 1971. 

When, in January 1976, UNZA activists and staff again staged a protest to try and force KK to support MPLA and not UNITA in the war in Angola, Kaunda quickly declared a state of emergency, closed the university indefinitely on February 9, 1976, fired and deported some foreign staff.

For almost three months, UNZA students remained at home and roamed the streets. KK was hoping they would learn a lesson. What he did not realize was that he was destroying the Zambian intelligentsia; that he was tampering with their concentration, absorption, and focus—with their ability to apply logic to theories and to find solutions. Many took to drinking in places like the Lusaka Theatre, Lusaka Central Sports Club—venues that would become their permanent rendezvous and the ruin for some.

When the university reopened, students had lost time. Motivation to do research was low. Most of the students were in a hurry to graduate because the university was becoming a dangerous place to learn. Academic standards and working conditions began to plummet—fast. Fearing another riot, lecturers began to seek jobs elsewhere. They abandoned their research projects and fled to countries like Botswana. The “brain drain” syndrome had begun. 

On July 14, 1979, KK appeared on the university campus to unveil The Graduate, a free-standing faceless sculpture depicting a graduating student in his flowing gown and mortar board hat. He holds in his left hand a book signifying progress through learning in the modern world, and the hoe in the right hand is the hard work and progress through agriculture. 

Critics say that Tayali should have given the graduate facial features. In denying the sculpture eyes, nose, mouth, and ears he removes the psychological association and dialogic interaction with its protégé—the student; it lacks the intensity of human understanding, and of deep personality; he makes it appear aloof, non-inspirational, static, introspective, unemotional, and therefore unhelpful. It is far from The Thinker whose facial expression depicts deep intellectual contemplation. 

Because he can’t see, the Faceless Graduate does not probe the future and ask the student about his objectives. In other words he does not allow his wisdom and intellectualism to seep through and manifest in the student. The student cannot speak to a faceless sculpture at the height of his trials and tribulations. He cannot express his troubles and worries or unconquerable problems. As a result he too loses face and resorts to protests. He did so again in 1982, 1986, 1990, and 2012. 

Who wins? The non-academic politician, of course. He seems to be the natural leader of the Zambian intellectual. He leads the Zambian intellectual elites through the economic and political intricacies that he barely understands. When university students protest he shuts down the damn thing. He doesn’t care whether the student takes forever to graduate or leaves with poor grades. 

In the real world he turns the intellectual into a sycophant, minion, flatterer, and apple-polisher. That’s what happened to the likes of Aka, Chitala, Katele, Chanda, Kawimbe, Nawakwi, and Sichinga. When an opportunity went begging they grew cold feet and blew it big time. Their dream of administering a nation through a merit based system was left to the disjunction devices of FTJ. He in turn made them facelessly polish his shoes. 

How about you the university student seated before the computer? You, the analyst, scientist, engineer, economist, educator, are you going to be faceless and join the list of cobblers or help to unleash the creative potential of the Zambian intellectual? Are you going to watch them maintain the status quo at a time when change is needed? Are you going develop legs for flight or help build a new government in 2016 or 2021 that will harness the full power of the technological revolution and make the average Zambian incomparably better off? Ask yourself why you went to university. 

Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate at George Fox University and serves as an adjunct professor (lecturer) in Boston. ©Ruwe2012

The Small Aggregation Initiative (SAI)

By Clive M. Siachiyako
Zambia mostly depends on micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in driving its economy forward. However, most of these SMEs in the past received lukewarm support from government until now. Nevertheless, a few SMEs are thriving and greatly contribute to economic growth, employment creation and national development in combating poverty. In order to facilitate industrial development through unlocking the potential of its SME sector, Zambia is learning from Southern Asian countries (especially Malaysia). 

Malaysia and Zambia were at the same level of economic development in the 1960s and 70s in terms of per capita incomes, but Zambia has remained behind economically and its manufacturing sector has not faired well as if both countries did not have similar initial endowments. It therefore becomes imperative that Zambia learn from such countries on how they managed to take-off economically with a focus on SME development.

Training (education), research and development, market availability and technological advancement through establishment of industrial linkages as well as the formation of Small Aggregate Initiative (SAI) were some of the outstanding strategies Zambia identified that could be used as a “key” to unlock SMEs’ potential as the country strives to meet some national and United Nations targets such as Millennium Development Goals in particular halving its poverty levels by 2015 and releasing its vision of becoming a middle income by 2030.

The Small Aggregation Initiative (SAI) is a Malaysian initiative that was proposed to Zambia for implementation through the Triangle of Hope initiative to bolster economic growth through SMEs. SMEs wish to expand but they face numerous constraints such as lack of credit among others. However, even when they get funds, the new machinery and equipment they acquire sometimes are “too productive” for limited needs. That is, they may have a market for 100 pieces but the new machinery now produces 500 pieces. In such a situation the government or the private sector may come in to help. How do they do it? By selecting an industry group that has similar needs of machinery, but where the end products are different, for example cupboards kitchen furniture, office furniture and the like, the initial machinery will be similar - sawing, planning or shaping, only the end product/finishing section will be different.

Therefore, the government or other coordinators select within the industry group, manufacturers of non-competing products and bring them together to form a joint venture company for expansion or modernisation purposes. The rationale of SAI is that if three companies are brought together - each can take 30% equity and the 10% held by the coordinators (government or the private sector). By merging the SMEs together, they acquire the strength of the medium scale industrialist and enjoy larger scale production advantages –purchase modern machinery or equipment and can better negotiate for loans from banks, rent bigger space or design joint marketing. If foreign companies can form joint ventures with local investors for profit - why can’t locals do the same?

Funds for Small and Medium Industries (Loans)
The small aggregate initiative also looks at ways of providing loans to SMEs. The initiative thus promotes collaboration with the Citizen Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) and other SME funding agencies to facilitate the acquisition of loans by SMEs. This initiative is aimed at promoting SME activities in export and domestic oriented sectors and also to help stimulate growth of SMEs.

Because the world is currently characterised by immense market competition, SAI initiated the Enterprise 50 Award. The Enterprise 50 was borne of a need to recognise such locally established businesses especially that in the age of intense competition, local companies (SMEs inclusive) are faced with tremendous challenges to be competitive globally. The scheme is to enable SMEs position themselves confidently for the future, especially that the world market demands adjustment to the dynamic changes in the market place survive.

Zambia’s Lessons from the Southeast Asian Experience
In order to implement the initiatives that were undertaken in Southeast Asian countries, Zambia needed some basic preconditions for economic take-off as evidenced in the Southeast Asian countries prior to their economic miracle. Preconditions such as strong and effective institutions, physical/social infrastructure, and stable political and macroeconomic environment would create the right business environment for private sector to flourish be it large or small. Why most Asian countries succeeded in their economic development was because they had an educated work force necessary for adapting the modern technology. This entails that unless the entrepreneurs are trained or rather educated no matter how the technology may be brought into the country say by multi national corporations, it will hardly trickle down to the SMEs. Chisala 2006 argues that upgrading the vocational centres and signing training agreements between the SMEs and the vocational centres coupled with increased investments in research and development like was the case in Malaysia would go a long way in improving the skills and technological transfer to the Zambian SMEs.

Zambia’s national industrial policy goal is to develop a competitive, export-led manufacturing sector that contributes 20% of gross domestic product by 2015.  This is a step in the right direction, and thus Zambia is implementing the multi-facility economic zone (MFEZ) much more similar to the export processing zones (EPZs) that Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries implemented during their industrialisation process. However, the EPZs in Malaysia were not sustainable due to the fact that the linkages between EPZs and the domestic firms were insignificant or rather weak and hence Malaysia embarked on Promotions and Investments Act (1986) that emphasised on inter-industry linkages through SMEs development. Likewise, Zambia may consider introducing deliberate policies that will ensure linkages between the MFEZ firms and the SMEs which currently is not in place. The ZDA Act thus need to include a clause that would compel the MFEZ firms to acquire a certain percentage of the raw materials and intermediate goods from the domestic market preferably the SMEs without violating the world trade organisation (WTO) rules on raw content requirements.

The underlying principle of SAI is that developing the SME sector through linkages to a great extent would sustain the success of the MFEZ in Zambia especially that Zambia’s foreign direct investment outlook seems to be very bright. For instance, for the first time, since the late 1980s, Zambia had a motor assembly industry launched by TATA Zambia in 2005. TATA Zambia spent US$3 million to revive the motor assembly plant, which is the only one in the country now that Rover Zambia in Ndola and Fiat in Livingstone ceased to assemble vehicles sometime back. In addition, TATA international through its subsidiary, TATA Zambia, recently bought Kabwe Tannery and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Zambia Development Agency meant to broker business linkages for small-scale farmers, abattoirs and slaughter-houses to supply hides to the TATA Tannery.

Similar linkages of local industries or rather the SMEs in other areas of the economy can be developed with other large companies in various industries to enhance and increase wealth and job creation in the country. In this way TATA (anchor firm) would transfer some skills and technology to SMEs and other local firms so that these firms produce components of acceptable international standards. For example, the garment manufacturing SMEs could be supplying materials to TATA car assembly for making seats whilst others in the metal fabrication could provide bolts and nuts, among others. Furthermore, a Malaysian cellular phone manufacturing firm M-Mobile in partnership with a local company Melcome established a mobile phone assembly plant in Lusaka at a total investment out lay of US$3 million. This operation will be the first of its kind in Zambia hence capacity will need to be built for SMEs if they are to become vendors to this mobile industry.

With such a mix of interventions that focus on specific sub-groups in the SME sector envisaged in SAI, Zambia’s long-term development objective, articulated in the National Vision 2030, of becoming a prosperous middle income country by the year 2030 would be fruitful. The SAI programme would thus contribute to this objective, in particular by stimulating investment, entrepreneurship and employment creation within the SME sector and through pro-poor business models.

References
http://africanpress.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/14-billion-in-fresh-foreign-direct-investment-fdi/
Bigsten, Arne and Soderbom, Mans (2005) What Have We Learned from a Decade of
Manufacturing Enterprise Surveys in Africa? World Bank Policy Research Working
Paper 3798
Buranathanung, Noppadol (1997) “Rationalization of Japan-based multinational enterprises' automobile components production in ASEAN” Chulalongkorn Journal of Economics, Vol. 9 (3) Pp 293-356
Chisala, Chibwe (2006) An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants of FDI flows to Zambia: A Stochastic Frontier Approach, GRIPS Advanced Development Research Paper.

Understanding the KAIZEN Model

By Clive M. Siachiyako
Private sector driven economies are increasingly relying on the private sector and strategic institutions’ innovativeness to stimulate desired economic growth and development. Globally, countries are faced with the challenge of narrowing the gap between ideal (desired) and actual economic development. Economic policy makers from Europe to America to Asia and Africa are facing difficulties in applying strategies that facilitate continuous improved productivity and quality control to realise lasting prosperity and improved livelihood of the citizenry.

Despite the above challenges, Japan has often found a way of floating-over those economic blizzards. The country has continued to innovate to improve the rate of its productivity, technological progression as well as economic growth and development. The strategic success of Japan is as a result of a number of factors that combined together created positive conditions for actualising desired economic development. These factors are mostly anchored on the KAIZEN concept.

Kaizen is a Japanese term derived from Kai which means “continuous” and zen meaning “improvement”. It also refers to “change” for the “good.” It simply means "continuous improvement". It was created in Japan during the country’s reconstruction period following World War II.  The philosophy is defined as making “continuous improvement”—slow, incremental but constant. It means doing it better, and making it better in all areas of life.

The concept involves every employee - from upper management to the cleaning crew. Everyone is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. It is not a once a month or once a year activity. It is continuous. The philosophy is based on making little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, product quality, safety and effectiveness while reducing waste.

Suggestions are not limited to a specific area such as production or marketing because Kaizen is about making changes anywhere that improvements can be made. “The Kaizen philosophy is to "do it better, make it better, and improve it even if it is not broken, because if we do not, we cannot compete with those who do," says concept coach in Zambia Mr. Nobuyuki Ogiso. Mr. Ogiso said kaizen is about improvement that includes both home and business life. It involves setting standards and then continually improving those standards. It also involves providing training, materials and needed supervision for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain employees’ ability to meet those standards on an on-going basis.

The concept has been adopted by many countries and has spread globally and recently reached Africa. In 2008, Zambia Association Manufacturers (ZAM) adopted the concept to stimulate efficiency, innovation, improved service delivery and good management skills among its members and auxiliary sectors in order to achieve the necessary economic growth and development in the country. The association has extended the opportunity to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to enable them learn business efficiency and graduate into big businesses thus imparting greatly on the domestic economy. ZAM opened an MSE desk through which they (MSEs) could access the kaizen coaching-ups by the architects of the philosophy. 

Kaizen brings a lot of hope to Zambia as it creates platforms through which effective analysis of productivity of each business becomes a trademark of the whole workforce, said ZAM CEO Roseta Mwape. The concept approach is paramount to national development and business management especially that most companies become pre-occupied with increasing productivity and deriving good returns at the expense of key pre-requisites for business efficiency such as safety, customer care and cleanliness among others, she added. Manufacturers are adopting kaizen to change the economic players’ mindsets, particularly manufacturers and MSEs to ensure overhaul improved efficiency to stimulate substantial domestic economic growth and development as well as product and service competitiveness in the region.

“Kaizen encourages value addition and use of scientific methods in production, monitoring and evaluation of production capacities of every entity,” says ZAM chairperson Mr. Chance Kabaghe. “It is about the core of an entity’s existence.” It promotes the creation of effective analysis systems that facilitate planning ahead of business/production challenges. It promotes quality control and production efficiency through continuous cleaning up of any ‘garbage’ in the system. Quality control is critical for any economy, something Zambia Development Agency champions in its export promotion and marketing missions to ensure quality standards are met by all exporters. The concept is valuable to the Agency’s mandates on promoting quality.

Companies that have integrated kaizen into their systems have ripped utmost profits from its insight. Zamshu general manager Richard Franklin said through the kaizen concept, the company managed to reduce the levels of shoe damages from 0.8 percent to 0.025 per cent per month. Zamshu improved its quality controlling system, increased production and reduced on wastage levels after the blending of kaizen initiatives in its operations. The concept also strengthened the company’s team work spirit.

Several economic benefits are foreseen from kaizen. The benefits are presumed in all sectors of the economy especially that the philosophy enhances improved production capabilities as well as market evaluation and monitoring. Most Zambian companies are expected to learn timely monitoring skills of business risks and integrate production methods that benchmarks international demands and maintain affluent returns from their business. Other returns will include improved business attitudes, safety, customer care, and other assortments that can help Zambia meet the set global product standards and then continually improving on them.

Being that kaizen involves providing training, materials and needed supervision for employees to achieve the higher standards and maintain their ability to meet those standards on an on-going basis, Zambia Development Agency’s product quality challenges among its exporters may be narrowed. Producers will learn to do the right thing at the right time and take advantage of market offers prudently. Currently, ZAM is facilitating the trainings on kaizen with the help from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). ZAM is however, spreading Kaizen to other sectors especially agriculture, which could be pillar of growth for the manufacturing sector and other sectors. With Kaizen, it is presumed Zambia will become a haven of knowledge-based business and a well-groomed economic development base.