”I never bothered looking for a job after graduation because no company will pay me what I want.” – Akinyemi Olasunkanmi
I spent some time with a friend, Akinyemi Olasunkanmi, over the weekend and we had a wonderful discussion that I felt every Nigerian could learn from, especially the youths.
Unemployment has always been a global problem that seems like it would never go away soon. Every year, the higher institutions of learning push out graduates into the labour market with fewer jobs being created. Therefore, making the labour market highly competitive for fresh graduates.
But what can we do in a country like Nigeria where the unemployment rate is abnormal?
Nigeria can boast of having many First Class graduates from prestigious universities in and outside the country but when compared to their relevance in the labour market, it is nothing to write about.
But I met a graduate with a difference. A long-time friend, Akinyemi Olasunkanmi is a First Class graduate of the University of Ilorin, where he studied Statistics. He later went for a Master’s degree in Cameroon on scholarship.
But what surprises me about him, he’s not working under any organization. Lasun, as we would always call him back then at the Federal Polytechnic Ede, majors in writing business plans, statistical analysis, content marketing and agriculture.
Here’s my discussion with the talented entrepreneur:
It’s been a while Lasun, how is life in general?
”It’s been great. I have been soaked into working on business plans on Fiverr and running my poultry as well.”
That’s unbelievable my friend, did you say agriculture?
”Yes, you heard me right. I have been into agriculture before I graduated from Unilorin.”
That sounds strange for a First Class graduate in Statistics, what’s the correlation?
”It’s not strange. It’s a game of self-discovery. I had to find out what I can do for myself before graduation instead of sitting and waiting for a dream job that seems not to exist but an illusion.”
There are many companies who would love to have you, have you ever considered that?
”Yes, but I never bothered looking for a job after graduation because no company will pay me what I want. Initially, I do give it a thought from the onset. Also, I try to be the boss of myself. Find my path and stick to it.”
That’s really inspiring. If I may ask, how did you discover your path?
”I learnt about fish farming when working for a boss in order to secure my third-year tuition. I saw a great potential in the business and decided, I would go into it. While serving at the base, I saw a huge demand for fish and had to do what no one ever did. I built a fish pond in the Navy Base and it became a hot cake.”
Wow! That’s really intriguing. Did you encounter any challenges?
”Of course, I did. When I completed my NYSC program, I came back to Ibadan and started a fish pond. You’d be surprised that all the fish I bought died. I was really discouraged and contemplated its continuity but being someone who doesn’t give up easily, I had to find the ’why’ and ’how’ to put it right.”
You said you write business plans too. How did you also discover that path as well?
”I started that a long time ago, even before I graduated. I started that on Fiverr. Mind you, I am not only writing business plans, I run statistical analysis and do content marketing as well.”
What are your future plans?
”That’s a great question. Honestly, I want to go deeply into agriculture. I am already building a pen. I want to use it for piggery. In the long run, I will add other farm produce.”
Piggery! Have you ever done that?
”Yes. I have reared pigs. That was before I went to Cameroon for my Masters. It’s a lucrative business that many people are not even aware of. I can coach anyone who wants to learn the business. Then, I would definitely further overseas. My dream is to become a lecturer and I’m definitely going for it.”
You seem to be a bunch of talents, my friend. I never doubted you from the onset. Here’s my last question for you, what advice do you have for graduates out there?
”Don’t wait for dream jobs. It doesn’t exist. A dream job is the one you create for yourself. Look out there, you’ll find one.”
Thank you once again, Akinyemi Olasunkanmi. You’ve really been an inspiration for the upcoming generation and I pray that your dreams come true.
Join me and Prof Doyin Salami, Lagos Business School faculty and the Chairman of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council to President Buhari, for something exciting in Lagos. It would be an evening of intellectual conversation and deep exploration into the mechanics of business.
Date is Oct 18th at 2pm. To request an invitation (free), click here.
To some, they go on a trip for work, events, and to visit their family. On the other hand, others likely travel to unwind and escape the work’s daily stressful grind.
Although reserving a flight and getting a hotel room becomes a lot easier today because of our digital and connected society, we have been missing the soul of traveling within ourselves.
Indeed, modern smartphones have their ways of making our lives easier because of their wide array of functions. However, these devices only operate with automation, which makes things efficient, but not exciting.
And that is why this effect will dwarf from the charm of the traditional traveler’s tool, a travel wristwatch. Why? Easily because we travel to have a memorable experience, and one way to achieve that feat is to travel like the old ways using a GMT watch.
What is a GMT Watch?
Manufacturers developed the GMT watches mainly for aviation, which includes the GMT and local time. Although these are the primary purpose of GMT watches, we can also use them in other ways.
We can use the GMT timepieces to know two time zones simultaneously, with the use of conventional positioning the GMT hand to the original GMT. Next, you can subtract or add to GMT to determine the current time of any country.
The complications of GMT watches are likely the most helpful features in a wristwatch, next to chronograph watches.
Montblanc TimeWalker GMT
This timepiece is a dress watch style that has a black leather strap attached to a stainless-steel case. The timepiece has a 42mm case diameter and a skeleton case back.
The Montblanc TimeWalker GMT contains a black dial together with silver-colored hands. It possesses rotating Arabic numerals along with stick hour markers with automatic movement.
The Montblanc brand is Swiss Made. As a real GMT watch, it has 24 hours of markings as well as minute markers throughout the outer rim.
Additionally, this watch is scratch-resistant and covered with anti-reflective crystal. It is also water-resistant at around 30 meters deep.
Why is Montblanc TimeWalker GMT Ideal for Travelling?
If you love to travel, you would want to wear a timepiece with a function that you can certainly use. The most apparent reason as to why a GMT wristwatch could be the most suitable timepiece for you is the complication of GMT itself.
Usually, by knowing the specialty of a timepiece does not fundamentally indicate that you will utilize it. On the other hand, you can always make use of the time zone function of GMT watches.
The complications of a GMT watch is not only an entertaining feature because it is entirely useful, particularly when you travel in a place that has a different time zone.
The function of GMT timepieces probably has the best complications that are still friendly to its user and possesses the most undemanding features you can find in a timepiece.
There is arguably no other device that could compete with the GMT watches’ convenience of knowing the local time of any country in the world by merely rotating a single part of it.
Furthermore, you can also use GMT wristwatches on a plane, and you don’t need to switch it off or shift it to flight mode. The functions of a GMT timepiece are indeed a classic example of a traditional device that can effortlessly beat any smartphone application.
To Conclude
While traditional in their design, you cannot certainly call modern travel wristwatches as timeless classics.
Wearing a timepiece that can display the time in several time zones holds an elegance that you cannot compare to any modern gadget. Besides, this kind of function can indeed stimulate the sense of adventure of its wearer.
World Bank’s IFC invests $10 million in Lagos-based CardinalStone Capital Advisers, a private equity firm. This investment is part of the IFC SME Ventures program that supports high-growth entrepreneurs in frontier markets by investing in funds that provide risk capital. The program also offers technical assistance on a range of issues, from management skills to accounting, to build a more sustainable environment for SMEs. SME Ventures funds have financed over 100 SMEs, which have created over 6,000 direct jobs, many more indirect jobs, and generated tax revenues for governments.
Press Release
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is investing $10 million in CardinalStone Capital Advisers Growth Fund (CCAGF), a private equity fund launched and managed by CardinalStone Capital Advisers (CCA)- an investment management firm, to expand access to finance for high-growth, underserved small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria and Ghana.
SMEs account for 96% of businesses in Nigeria and 85% of the private sector in Ghana. The growing middle class in both presents an opportunity for SMEs to scale up, however access to long-term capital remains a challenge. CCAGF will seek to support SME growth opportunities by providing long-term capital as well as operational expertise to ensure business sustainability.
Yomi Jemibewon, Co-Founder and Managing Director of CardinalStone Capital Advisers, said: “This funding represents a significant step towards catalyzing growth in small and medium enterprises in Nigeria and Ghana. We look forward to working with the IFC as a partner in this fund as we strive to continuously bring best practices in operating standards to our investments and investee companies.”
CardinalStone Capital Advisers is seeking $100 million in total for the CCAGF fund and has secured $50 million in capital commitments from the CDC Group, the UK’s development institution; Kuramo, a leading African investment firm; FMO, the Dutch Development Bank; and NSIA, the Nigerian sovereign wealth fund; among other investors.
“IFC’s investment in CardinalStone will spur growth of SMEs and facilitate much-needed job creation, while creating the ecosystem for a more robust local private equity and mezzanine financing market,” said William Sonneborn, IFC Senior Director for Disruptive Technology and Funds. “By supporting SMEs in fast-growing markets, we hope to bring best practices that raise the bar for operational improvements and environmental and governance standards across the investee companies.”
Despite being a first-time fund manager, the CCA team has experience investing in these markets, having deployed $29 million in capital in 5 investments across several sectors. Their investment in cassava starch production in Nigeria is already creating value for hundreds of farmers who can now transform their raw materials into value-added products, reduce reliance on imports and improve supply chain efficiencies.
This investment is part of the IFC SME Ventures program that supports high-growth entrepreneurs in frontier markets by investing in funds that provide risk capital. The program also offers technical assistance on a range of issues, from management skills to accounting, to build a more sustainable environment for SMEs. SME Ventures funds have financed over 100 SMEs, which have created over 6,000 direct jobs, many more indirect jobs, and generated tax revenues for governments.
Every writer, I suppose, has in mind a picture of his readers and what he expects to create in their mental imagination after reading the writing. Mine is a picture of a watercolorist. This article intends to paint in your mental memory a new and emerging narratives of Nigerian medical students. I will use experiences from my own classroom and classmates to achieve this. I hope to enrich the vocabulary that people use when they talk about medical students. Why be concerned with this? Because it is time to expand words used in describing a medical student.
When I attend events centered around digital and I introduce myself as a medical student I look strange. I am a stranger who is not supposed to be here. The reaction is clear. That is why I am concerned. Another reason is because we have been marginalized to certain things. When everyone talks about digital nobody remembers we can plug the power of digital into our health sector. Whatever new description you get from this I will want you to use it very well.
Questioning what we believe is difficult at the best of times, and especially difficult when we need to do it personally, but we can benefit from informed decision of others. The common words synonymous to medical students years back are bookworms, nerds, antisocial amidst a few. But gradually we have been on a surge that peaked in the last few years. The revolution to be described differently peaked this year in my own class. I will share some of the revolutions.
My classmates and few friends in other medical colleges are now introduced differently from what it used to be. Examples are, Tosin; a medical student and an entrepreneur, Progress; a medical student and a social entrepreneur, Omooba; a medical student and a blogger, and for few like myself the new description comes first before the introduction as a medical student. In fact, these days we do not want to be introduced as a medical student. We do not want that to define our entire youthful age. And if not been questioned appropriately many prefer to use their new description. I’m Tosin, an entrepreneur.
AGBOOLA PROGRESS
“Progress Agboola is a global health enthusiast, social innovator and medical doctor in training with over three years experience working on social impact projects and initiatives across Nigeria covering adolescent sexual reproductive health, HIV Prevention research, health financing and gender equality. Progress is a convening space working group member of the Global Health Workforce Network (GHWN) Youth Hub at the World Health Organization. He is part of the selected advocates for the Africa Free of New HIV Infections (AfNHi) Youth Cohort. He has been recognized as a 2017 fellow of Barack Obama Young African Leaders initiative (YALI), IFMSA 2019 delegate to World Health Assembly at Geneva Switzerland, 2019 Fellow of the Young Professionals Bootcamp, A Kectil 2018 colleague, Alumnus of Common Purpose UK, Youth Ambassador at International Youth Society”. Facebook- Progress Agboola LinkedIn- Progress Agboola Twitter- progress_md Instagram- progress_md
Personally, we are as surprised as everyone around. There is a paradigm shift from who we used to be to who we are now. I gathered a few reasons for this quest for revolution. I asked few of my colleagues why they started what they are doing now. I consulted myself why I have chosen to be doing what I am doing.
“In my 2nd year in medical school, there was an industrial strike action of about 6 months which was the period I used to discover myself more. I understood things I was passionate about and I became deliberate about it by volunteering, attending conferences and networking with colleagues and mentors that guided me in harnessing my potentials and in leveraging on opportunities to advance my growth. I strongly believe that as Medical students we are not too busy or young to make a difference and to contribute our quota in actualizing Sustainable Development Goal 3 by the year 2030. The Future of work is evolving so fast and as medical students we need to be well positioned and equip our selves with necessary skills and knowledge so that we won’t be left behind and to be able to compete globally. The bigger picture for me, is not just to be confined to the four walls of the hospital but to explore further in designing sustainable interventions that will save the lives of people and enacting policies that will influence the lives of millions positively”.
AGBOOLA PROGRESS
One major reason is that there is a containment that medical school brings that everyone is not comfortable with anymore. Medical school is busy and challenging. That is true. But we are making extra efforts to break out of that excuse less we reduce our lives to only bookworms. Medical school could be depressing. Apart from the joy of seeing patients’ smile and joy coming from passion for Medicine and personal motivation there is little or no source of happiness in the school. From morning reviews to ward rounds to call duties, the whole day could be rough and the cycle continues everyday. It is mentally draining sometimes. There are good days, but in total you are barely praying for a good day everyday. The scoreboard is another depressing board. The knowing that results of exams are coming out is crippling. In the midst of these, everyone decided to find a new description. If things are depressing with the name medical student I can shift into being a social entrepreneur for that moment. It is way out of depression. It is a way of finding a love. Many people started doing things outside Medicine as hobbies before it became something they really wanted to be describe with.
SULE OLUWATITOMI
“Sule Oluwatitomi is presently a medical student at LAUTECH. He is majorly into drawing but as a side view, he loves singing. He works on improving himself daily by taking active participation in challenges online and online courses as well. He is also a self-employed Android web developer. Why have I chosen to engage myself in drawing? Well for the most part, he sees art as being therapeutic because he is someone that does not think he is enough making him bury himself in it. He sees art as gently opening up his cover spread and peeping to see what others are doing and it is where he gets to open up too. And lastly, showing everyone that in everything there is a tint of beauty even in his incompleted art. His work can be viewed on his Instagram account. https://www.instagram.com/doc_titos/”. OLUWATITOMI
Overtime, everyone saw they could do more with their mental capacity. Everyone saw they could get another life degree while investing six years for MBBS certificate. It is running two different courses concurrently. It is demanding, but everyone has made up their minds to pay the sacrifices. While in school people are picking up entrepreneurship skills. I could tell you many of my classmates can compete with business management students. They might not get an hard copy certificate but they have experience certificates. My classmates are picking up entrepreneurship books and reading it. My classmates have businesses. I once built a mini media company with few of my classmates. Even though it failed after two years, we learnt. We earned a certificate from life experience. The point everyone has seen is that we can maximize our 6 years getting MBBS certificate and other certificates. I run online courses. By the time we are graduating, we are not coming out of school with MBBS alone.
“Imagine your license is withdrawn as a medical practitioner and you can’t practice anymore. What would be left of you? Of course, if you have been opportuned to be under training as a medical doctor, you definitely owe it your all. It is your primary assignment and it’s of uttermost importance that you take it as priority. Beyond being a medical doctor, what other value can you offer to people around you? I don’t pray so, but what if you license suddenly gets withdrawn, will you then become valueless? The world is constantly revolving and developing. The people that matter and will yet continually remain relevant are those who have been able to successfully identify a need in their society and are on the go to meet that need. Coming to realise this over the years, I decided to revive the business.This will serve as an inspiration to me that I have capacity to do much more as far as I can imagine.It will also serve as inspiration to other medics outside there who has abilities that are dying in them”. OLUWATOSIN
There are various reasons that we would need to call for a summit to discuss them. Students have seen loopholes in the healthcare system of the country. We are not taught leadership in school, but we are expected to head a medical team, how do we do that? We build ourselves personally. We are not taught emotional intelligence in school, but we expected to break sad news to people the best possible way, how do we do that? We develop ourselves personally. Some of these loopholes are the stimulating factors driving this revolution. If this revolution do not happen, in few years time we will not have the necessary skills to compete with our colleagues outside school.
ADETUNJI OMOOBAJESU
“My name is OmoobaJesu Adetunji, my friends call me Omooba (Or-moh-bah). I am a 4th year medical student who enjoys reading and writing. Those are by far my two favorite things to do, which is why blogging came naturally to me. I started blogging in twenty-fourteen mostly for self expression. Now my blog has morphed into a place where I share ideas on life and living and also document my journey through medical school. The latter part of which is cathartic for me. I often describe my blog as a med student’s hub, because I believe in the power of stories, how much more alike we are than we care to admit and how we can inspire, motivate and empower one another through vulnerability. I also believe in the power of one so as long as I get to reach one person and help them in whatever way, I am content and happy”.
Blog address: www.omoobaadetunji.com Twitter: @helloomooba Instagram: @omoobaadetunji
The revolution is not a form of distraction. It is surprising to know we are doing better in school as a result of this. We are driving depression away. Everyone is finding a definition of themselves. Everyone is happy.
“I’m Afolabi Aderonke Christianah(DR BAKER). I have acquired this skills of baking for the past 6years. Over the years, I realised that medical school is structured in a way that it doesn’t give room for any other thing except you create time for that other thing. The tension alone can make you give up whatever you are supposed to do.The funniest part of it is that after sacrificing so much, you will realise you could have multitask those things with your academics such that none will suffer and you will still do excellently in all. Multitasking is not easy but a life of a typical medical student is wired to be stressful meaning you can’t run away from stress,you will always have something to do at every minute”. ADERONKE IG; @-DrBaker
We can be contacted whenever you want to use any of these new words to describe a medical student.
ADERINTO Nicholas
Author: ADERINTO Nicholas
Email: nicholasoluwaseyi6@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Nicholas ADERINTO
