Shaping the Future at TEDxPAU 2024

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

It was the second edition of the Pan-Atlantic University TEDxPAU event with the theme: ‘Shaping the Future’ held at the Lagos Business School (LBS), Lekki.

The intellectual landscape brimmed with bright minds comprising entrepreneurs, students, creatives, industry leaders, with a passion for shaping the future.

The maiden edition of the TEDxPAU was a resounding success. In that spirit, the stage for the second edition was set recently, offering opportunities to drive conversations and provide a platform to network, build relationships with like-minded individuals with a crucial role in shaping the future of Nigeria and Africa.

According to Bella Victor, the event organiser, “The theme ‘Shaping the Future’ was inspired by the incredible power we hold as individuals and organisations to create lasting change.”  Distinguished professionals from diverse backgrounds, industries shared their insights, making it an occasion to remember.

Experts spanning fields such as oil & gas, banking, agriculture, law, IT, Fintech, construction, and academia share their perspectives as the event featured a remarkable lineup of guest speakers, each with a unique perspective and wealth of experience enough to drive conversations, project ideas, and inspire positive change.

This year’s TEDxPAU, marked by an impressive turnout of enthusiastic attendees, featured a stellar lineup of speakers, including: Ziad Maalouf – CEO/MD, Seven Up Bottling Company; Dr. Peter Bamkole – Deputy Vice Chancellor, Pan-Atlantic University; Dr. Cosmas Maduka, Founder of Coscharis Group; and Goodnews Igwe, CEO, Dantown Technologies.

Others are Adesuwa Ifedi – Senior Vice President, Heifer International; Prof. Fabian Ajogwu, SAN, Founding Partner, Kenna Partners; Dr. Owen Omogiafo, Group CEO Transcorp Group; Temitope Runsewe, CEO Dutum Group and Michael Oluwagbemi, CEO, Presidential CNG Initiative; Akose Enebeli, ARCON, RIBA, International and Award Winning Architect.

Interspersed with slight performances, covering music, spoken words, dance, the event kicked off with incisive, inspiring talks. Korty EO, a filmmaker & YouTuber, and Ibukun Awosika, Chairperson, First Bank of Nigeria, registered absence as they were billed to speak at the event.

A number of the speakers posited the use of resources within to transform and diversify sectors and overall improve the quality of life. A couple of others pointed at the mindset as a strong factor in achieving set purposes. The CEO Dantown Technologies, Goodnews Igwe who tried being a footballer, a musician, and fashion designer, before finding his feet in Fintech and real estate, spoke about how trying can create possibilities.

Using his story he emphasised how stepping into the unknown can open doors to opportunities of possibility that come with taking the right step.  Yes, he encountered challenges but that did not stop him. Rather he focused on value, believing that money will come. And eventually fame will follow.

“In Nigeria we have about lots of family living in abject poverty,” he beagn. As an undergraduate student studying Mathematics, an encounter challenged his broke status and changed his life for good, maintaining his dream of pulling his family out of poverty. For most people, financial stability is out of reach.

“But in this environment I dared to dream. By the time I turned 18, my both parents were retired. With no steady income, I watched them struggle to keep us afloat with a lot of children in the house. And this challenge made me to pick up a dream. I dreamt to create financial freedom for my family.

“And in the course of that, when I got admission to study Mathematics at University of Port Harcourt I learnt a skill while studying.” Thus began the journey to founding his company, Dantown, a real estate firm, two years later, further venturing into other trade and businesses. “What used to be a business that started from the side of my bed is now one that has grown with a lot of employees,” he stated.

Speaking about the foundations of legacy, how to build family business that lasts beyond you, CEO, Dutum Construction, Temitope Runsewe, shared how he purposefully in 2009 resigned from his job at JP Morgan in London having studied and worked returned to Nigeria to be part of his family business since the last 15 years.

Growing up at an early age, Runsewe started off wanting to prove that Africans can build and run trans-generational businesses and it gave birth to what became the vision and mission of the 35-years-old company through the design and construction of purposed built infrastructure that enhances socio-economic additions.

Runsewe believes that the core of family breeds the necessary tool that is required for the business to grow. The reason, he said, is because family business has the potential for people to have commitment beyond profit and beyond money. He is of the opinion that any business that only exists because of money is not going to last for a very long.

That there has to be something more fundamental than drives you and puts you together. “That as Africans and Nigerians we are very big on family. However, why is it that we have not been able to use that our core to develop businesses? Why is that? Because naturally, our nature is communal; our nature has a lot of family values,” he stressed.

Senior Vice President, Heifer International, Adesuwa Ifedi, spoke about simplification of concepts, and driving innovations in an ecosystem in Africa. A renowned expert in organisational transformation strategy and innovation, Ifedi draws from her experience, highlighting steps to changing communities, the world, and driving developments.

Passionate about financing innovation, Ifedi posits the biggest challenge in financing innovation, “is the fact that the financing community and the regulatory community sit on a very different table and the innovator sits somewhere else. And so the challenge that we face is how to bring these two together.”   

Prof. Fabian Ajogwu explored the need to rethink education plan in Nigeria, the delivery system, and the importance of education towards sustainable initiative and technological development and what is relevant to the people being educated. He tasked that Nigeria’s model of funding education in government colleges and the model of teaching be reviewed.

CEO, Presidential CNG Initiative, Michael Oluwagbemi, in his presentation reflected on life in the 80s as the period of great pain and great change for Nigeria. Looking at the economic indices of the period and the benefits of locally made produce like “Garri” that helped transformed the Nigerian economy then.

According to him, “The 80s and of course the 90s were also a period of great economic opportunity”. Drawing parallel on its availability, he based his discussion leveraging on the produce, said it’s catalyzing his approach to the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) sector that he’s blessed to lead the revolution.

“Most of the companies that you see around today in Nigeria today, becoming global and African champions were founded in that period. It was a period that you had to look inwards. This product for me was emblematic of the 80s, the 90s… The rise of garri and its utility, either its ability to be used for different conditions by the poor, by the rich for virtually everything.”

“Just like garri, just like our ecosystem tech talents, I strongly believe that we have another product, widely available and widely neglected, which is gas. And that I believe will power Nigeria into the next decade, a decade of gas. And I’m privileged that recognising this opportunity, I was asked by Mr. President to help lead this revolution.

“Gas has an uncommon possibility and opportunity for the development of our country. Everywhere in Nigeria is gas. We are the second largest gas flaring country in the world. Gas is the future of developing and industrializing Nigeria. Just like the way I know garri was the future, gas is the future.”

In his presentation, Ziad Maalouf, /MD, Seven Up Bottling Company and Chairman Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance (FBRA) identified something new he calls Scale-up Deficit Disorder. While there are many other disorders experienced by various individuals, the Scale-up Deficit Disorder he said he discovered is prevalent in most entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

“The difference between Scale-up Deficit Disorder and any of the other disorders is in any of the other disorders a maximum of 10 percent of the people has it. 98 percent of Nigerian entrepreneurs have this disorder.” Maalouf who has spent years growing SMEs and entrepreneurs attributes reason to the high percentage in the Scale-up Deficit Disorder. “It’s because this disorder functions differently than other disorders.” 

TEDxPAU “Shaping the Future” was made possible through the dedicated efforts of a team of young and passionate volunteers led by Bella Victor, an alumna of Pan-Atlantic University. Their tireless commitment and hard work ensured the event’s resounding success and was pivotal in its execution.

Dr. Peter Bamkole, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Pan-Atlantic University in his speech tried imagining a world without internet, a mobile phone and credit card. A distinguished academic and business leader, Bamkole compared advances in technology in recent times to some forty years ago as a young engineer without the internet. He talked about the transformation that has happened in the financial sector using his experience as an engineer pre internet era and beyond.

Buzzing with the sheer fire of accomplishment, Dr. Cosmas Maduka, Founder of Coscharis Group retold how he built his Coscharis multi-billion dollar businesses empire without university knowledge. It soon followed with a fireside chat session where he shared his leadership ideas, business model, and some of his enterprising spirits. He Emphasised the place of mentorship in enterprise development. He believes apprenticeship is the best school as it teaches unprecedented discipline for the challenges of the future.   

In addition to the inspiring talks and enlightening discussions, TEDxPAU 2024 also featured the presentation of awards recognising the speakers. This added a layer of prestige to the event and highlighted the commitment of Pan-Atlantic University to celebrating excellence given the invaluable sessions the occasion offered.