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| Austin Okere, Group MD, CWG |
Mr. Okere who recently returned after giving a
lecture at Columbia Business School’s Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center and
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Legatum Centre for Development and
Entrepreneurship, is to serve as an Entrepreneur in Residence at CBS, where he
would be heavily relied upon for his expertise in Entrepreneurship in an
Emerging Economy, having built the Computer Warehouse Group into a Pan African
Systems Integration Company with revenues in excess of $120m per annum, and a
staff complement of 650 specialists operating in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and
Cameroon.
A press statement made available to DigitalSENSEBusiness News, quoted Mr. Okere, as describing himself as an incurable
entrepreneurial advocate, who made a name for himself over the last 20 years.
DigitalSENSEBusiness News recalls that in 2012, Mr. Okere was named ICT
Man of the Decade by ICT Watch Africa Digital Network, and CWG was named the
Conglomerate of the Year.
The organizers cited CWG’s immense
contributions towardthe growth and development of ICT, youth empowerment
through ICT education, and nationbuilding. CWG was also named ICT Company of
the Year by Technology Africa Group.
Also, DigitalSENSE Business News
gathered that with this appointment, Okere’s schedule will require visit to the
United States of America (USA), at least, twice a year for two weeks during
spring and fall, and also spend a minimum of eight hours per month in online
interactions with Faculty and Students.
Noteworthy is that after CBS wrote a case study
on CWG in early 2009, Mr. Okere has been a regular visitor at the institution,
guest lecturing in New York and Boston.
Commenting on his entrepreneurial passion,
Okere explained that there is a systematic relationship between a country’s
level of economic development and its level of entrepreneurial activity.
“It is better to have a thousand millionaires
than ten billionaires. It is better still to have a million people with access
to a hundred thousand dollars, if they can be taught how to nurture and grow it
through entrepreneurial endeavor,” he said.
Stressing that he likes to put the story of the
Computer Warehouse Group out there, because such success stories, he said,
contribute immensely to the attraction of capital to the region, which combined
with the entrepreneurial acumen and the youthful population to unleash waves of
economic boom.
Africa, he said, has a rapidly growing young
population, which could bring a democratic dividend if optimally tapped, or
constitute a source of social unrest, if millions of Africans continue to enter
the labour market without any hope of employment.
His passion for entrepreneurial advocacy stems from his desire to
see the Human Capital gainfully engaged through sustainable Start Ups rather
than chasing non-existent jobs.
To buttress his point, Okere cites a survey of 3,692 MIT alumni
who graduated between 1987 and 2007, which showed that 40 per cent of
respondents have started their own companies, with 70 per cent doing so within
five years of graduation and 41 per cent of PhD alumni have a patent or
invention.
Okere said, this could not have been possible
without the strong entrepreneurship drive that characterises America.
Also appointed as ‘Catalyst’ by the Legatum
Center at MIT, Okere would be involve helping the institution to scout for
shinning Nigerian Entrepreneurial examples upon which case studies could be
written, to develop a library of African case studies.
Interestingly, the case study developed by MIT
on CWG is indeed the first and only one from Africa so far.
Okere’s knowledge and local expertise will be
brought to bear on closing the aforementioned gap, even as he will also help to
recommend worthy Entrepreneurs to share their experiences at the Annual Legatum
Symposium at MIT, which is a two day symposium for entrepreneurs, investors,
scholars and policymakers to convene to discuss global entrepreneurship.
Remmy Nweke/DigitalSENSEBusiness News
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
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