If you are not online, you are not alive - Adedimeji

Date: 2015-11-10

Nigerians have been called upon to explore the vast opportunities that the internet provides for positive entrepreneurship purposes.

The Director of the Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ilorin, Dr Mahfouz Adedimeji, made the call penultimate weekend while delivering a lecture at the 2015 Digital Entrepreneurship Summit organised by the Institute of Corporate Administrators at Kwara Hotel, Ilorin.

In the lecture, entitled "Entrepreneurship Opportunities in the Digital Economy: A Communicative Approach", the don, who is also a Fellow of the Institute, disclosed that at the end of last year, at least 67,101,452 Nigerians were active internet users, citing the 2015 Internet Live Statistics.

He added that the internet penetration of many Nigerians, despite the "digital divide" between the developed and the developing worlds, will continue to increase and the transition of many activities online provides abundant opportunities for people with entrepreneurship spirit. He also noted that being alive in the 21st century is being online and he charged everyone to maintain online presence, a simple test of which is to Google one's name.

While defining an entrepreneur as someone who is able to look at the environment, identify opportunities to improve that environment, marshal resources and implement action to maximise those opportunities, Dr. Adedimeji said that opportunities abound where there are needs. He noted that as long as life exists, human needs will remain. He cited Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs to illustrate how physiological needs (air, water, food, clothing, shelter) and others like safety, love/belonging, esteem and self-actualisation will provide opportunities for those who provide such services.

The guest lecturer, who is also a prolific columnist with a number of newspapers and periodicals, said that the fact that more than 60 million Nigerians including many graduates are unemployed is a failure of innovation and ability to think out of the box. He then illustrated innovative thinking with the story of three Hindu brothers who inherited 17 cows that were to be distributed in fractions and how a suggested extra cow borrowed made the distribution easy ultimately, with the extra cow returned to the owner.

According to the don, graduates are not employed because of such factors as fixation on getting white collar jobs, not wanting to start small, desiring to work with one's certificate, not skills; considering formal employment as the goal of higher education, lack of innovation and innovative thinking, dearth of entrepreneurship spirit, low self-esteem and undue comparison.

He canvassed being unreasonable in the "Age of Unreason", a book he said Charles Handy wrote in 1989, while quoting George Bernard Shaw that a reasonable man adapts himself to the world while an unreasonable man persists in adapting the world to himself. In other words, he said, an unreasonable person is a stranger and blessed are the strangers.

The guest lecturer, who is also a Fulbright scholar, said that e-commerce, e-business, bulk sms marketing, online magazines, newspapers and newsletters, blogging, social media consultancy, virtual assistantship, graphic design, website creation, among others, are what any graduate with good communication skills can do with high returns.

He emphasised the significance of communication skills in the digital economy while urging the audience to improve on their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills through which they can receive and produce information, the engine and driver of the digital economy.

The high points of the occasion, which was facilitated by Mr. John Arunsi, included the induction and investiture of new Fellows, Members and Associate Members. Some of the Fellows inducted included the Registrar of the Kwara State University, Pastor M. O. Salami; the Director of the Technical and Entrepreneurial Centre, University of Ilorin, Dr. Umar Gunu; and the Admission Officer of the University of Ilorin, Mr. Mansur Alfanla.

Source

 

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Kwara Apc     Gbadeyan Gbadura Yomi     Eghe Igbinehi     Omu Aran     Emir Of Yashikira     Lola Ashiru     Ezekiel Yissa Benjamin     Yusuf Abdulraheem     Plat Technologies     Damilola Yusuf     Kwara State Government     Sherif Shagaya     Rice Farmers Association Of Nigeria     Yusuf Amuda Aluko     Hassan Saliu     Col. Adedipe     EndSARS     Abdullahi Samari     QuickWin     Al-Hikmah University     NIPR     Adeleke Ogungbe     Students Union Government     Shehu Alimi Foundation     Communication Network Support Services     Gobir     Kayode Ishola     VADA     Kabir Shagaya     Kayode Zubair     Federal Road Maintenance Agency     Read With Me     Dan Iya Of Ilorin     Kwha.gov.ng     Aminu Adisa Logun     Undergraduate Bursary     Ilorin East     Sa\'ad Alanamu     Abdulrasheed Na\'Allah     Moro     Public Holiday     Lafiagi     KWATMA     Mohammed Katsina Ahmed     Arinola Fatimoh Lawal     Valsolar     Ike Ekweremadu     Roheemat Hammed     Share-Tsaragi     Umar Saro     Shuaibu Yaman     Musa Abdullahi     Isau     Ajayi Okasanmi     Ilorin Water Reticulation     Tanke Flyover Bridge     Ganiyu Abolarin     Women Radio     Kemi Adeosun     Oladipo Akanmu Tolani     Saka Keji     Democracy Day     Coalition Of Kwara North Groups     Sobi FM     Imodoye Writer’s Enclave     Akande Idowu Ayoola Muhammed     Olufolake Abdulrazaq     Olabimpe Olani     Monthly Sanitation     Bamidele Aluko     Sa\'adu Gambari     Kassim Babamale     Ayobami Seriki     Wahab Agbaje     Offa Descendants Union     Sam Onile     NIPOGA    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Baba Idris     Aliyu Olatunji Ajanaku     Oniye     Jaiz Bank     Issa Memunat Moyosore     Owode Market     Rashidi Yekini     Kale Bayero     NIRSAL     Sola Saraki University     Ilorin Emirate Stakeholders Forum     Oyawoye     Tunji Folami     Bond     Rafiu Ibrahim     Olabode George Towoju     Arik     Aminu Adisa Logun     Hakeem Lawal     Omoniyi Ayinla     Usman Rifun     Kazeem Gbolagade     Olaiya Lawal     Savannah Centre For Diplomacy, Democracy And Development     Suleman Abubakar     Alabi Lawal     Aliyu Sabi     Olatunde Olukoya     Kehinde Boyede     Mahmud Durosinlohun Atiku     Awili Pedro     Bahago     NTA Ilorin     Shehu Jimoh     Mufti Of Ilorin     Tayo Awodiji     Abdulrahman Iliasu     Jumoke Gafar     General Tunde Idiagbon International Airport Ilorin     Kwara-SAPZ Project     Afin Descendants Union Of Odo-Owa     Ilesha-Baruba-Gwanara     Sebastine Obasi     Student Learning Support Helpline     Abubakar Abdulraheem     Ilota     James Ayeni     Playing Host     Adedeji Onimago     Ado Ibrahim     Joseph Alex Offorjama     Jelili Yusuf     Tescom.kwarastate.gov.ng     Ayekale     Aliyu Kora Sabi     Law School Scholarship     Nigeria Association Of Women Journalists     Magaji Are     Saad Omo Iya     Ilorin West/Asa Federal Constituency     Abdulrauf Yusuf     Chartered Institute Of Personnel Management Of Nigeria     Folorunsho Alao     Kayode Yusuf     Abatemi Usman     Elerin Of Adanla Irese     Ibrahim Akaje     COEASU     Yoonus Lawal     Oniwasi Agbaye     Ajibike Katibi     Atiku     Abdulhakeem Adelaja Amao     Razak Atunwa     MMWG     Yakubu Gobir     Mashood Abdulrafiu Agboola