OIC International to Play Key Role in New Entrepreneurship and Microfinancing Initiative Funded by the Central Bank of NigeriaMeeting Needs of 60 Million Unemployed, Under-Employed Youth

OIC International has been selected to participate in a far-reaching entrepreneurship development initiative by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) designed to meet the needs of that nation's estimated 60 million unemployed and under-employed youth.

The new Entrepreneurship Development Centers (EDC) program was announced by Professor Chukwuma C. Soludo, governor of CBN, which has committed some 205 million Nigerian Naira (approximately $1.6 million) annually to OIC International over the next five years "to focus on broad-based economic development by strengthening the microfinance sector and developing a new breed of entrepreneurs to represent Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, in the global economy."

"Our goal," Professor Soludo declared, "is to train 15,000 future entrepreneurs in the initial 18-month pilot phase and to replicate the program in all six geo-political regions of the country."

"OIC International, one of only three organizations participating in EDC's pilot phase, will develop and implement a composite, integrated training model to accomplish this ambitious goal," explained Dr. Alfred Tambe, the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based organization's vice president for programs and country representative for Nigeria. "It will be based on five components -

• Life Skills Training,
• Leadership Training,
• Entrepreneurship Development Training,
• Business Development Training, and
• Short-Term Vocational Skills Training.

"Implementation," he explained, "will utilize individual coaching, group training, exchange/excursion, multi-media, community service, mentoring, and business plan preparation."

OIC International is one of only three organizations participating in EDC's pilot phase, which will be implemented initially in three of the country's six regions. After the pilot stage, CBN will establish one center in each of the country's geo-political regions to increase the number of future entrepreneurs being trained to carry on their businesses more efficiently.

OIC International's efforts will be centered around Kano, the country's second most populous city, centrally located in Nigeria's North West region, to provide service for six north western states (Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, and Zamfara).

"Our role," Dr. Tambe emphasized, "is especially important given the goal of the Entrepreneurship Development Centers - to raise a new breed of Nigerian entrepreneurs and business owners who can compete globally and act as a catalyst for the industrialization of the country.

"Toward that end," he summarized, "and as one of the three organizations selected for the first phase of the EDC initiative, OIC International is expected to prepare a minimum of 5,000 fully trained future entrepreneurs annually or some 25,000 over the anticipated five-year life of the project."

"It has been estimated," Dr. Tambe pointed out, "that the middle class in Nigeria is less than 5% of the population, compared to developed countries where the middle class makes up two-thirds of the population. These future entrepreneurs will become the new middle class in Nigeria, and as the third largest microfinance market in the world after China and India, the EDC initiative provides the ‘conveyor belt' to give small-scale entrepreneurs access to loans."

Opportunities Industrialization Centers International is the oldest U.S.-based non-profit focusing on aid to sub-Saharan Africa - providing individuals with the education and skills they need to help themselves, their families, and their communities.

Founded in 1970 as a global extension of Rev. Leon H. Sullivan's "self-help" principles, OIC International today has a team of more than 300 management and technical staff in sub-Saharan Africa and the United States providing support to more than a million total beneficiaries annually.

In 1973, BLACK ENTERPRISE first reported on blacks in the corporate boardroom. On that list, our editors found 72 African American directors of roughly 100 major corporations.

One notable boardroom pioneer was the Rev. Leon Sullivan. Appointed to the General Motors board in 1971, the founder of Philadelphia-based Opportunities Industrialization Center fought against racial inequality and apartheid, the policy of racial discrimination enforced by the white minority government in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. By 1977, he developed the Sullivan Principles, a corporate code of conduct that promoted equal opportunity and human rights. In the 1980s, it was formally adopted by more than 125 corporations, which shut down operations and divested holdings associated with South Africa. Says James Lowry, a Chicago-based senior adviser to The Boston Consulting Group: "Rev. Sullivan was a very impressive, bold change agent when he was on the General Motors board."

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