Izuchukwu OkosiPOLITICAL Economy and Management expert, Professor Pat Utomi, former Director General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Muda Yusuf as well as the West Africa Regional Director of Ford Foundation, Ms Dr. ChiChi Aniagolu-Okoye lead the roll call of speakers expected to grace the fourth edition of the Prime Business Africa’s SEEDS Webinar set to hold on Tuesday October 26, reports Prime Business Africa.
The monthly economic development solutions think tank holds virtually at 5pm every last Tuesday and is hosted by the Chief Executive Officer of Newstide Publications Limited, Dr Marcel Mbamalu, who is also the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Prime Business Africa.
SEEDS is an acronym for “Socio-economic and Entrepreneurship Development Series” and holds virtually every last Tuesday of the month at 5pm. The theme of this month’s conference (SEEDS4) is: “COVID-19: Business and Economic Recovery in Africa.”
Dr Yusuf, who, until recently, has been effectively leading the Lagos Chamber in its progressive drive for a robust engagement in public policy to boost trade and investments, has since confirmed his participation as Keynote speaker; the same for Utomi, a social economist, policy expert and anchor of the popular ‘Patito’s Gang’ the public enlightenment programme on national television. Prof. Utomi will be guest speaker at the webinar.
Utomi who is the founder of Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) is interestingly the Chairman of the Editorial Board of Prime Business Africa (PBA)
Joining Yusuf for the webinar are the trio of Timbo Drayson, Michael Olafusi and Catherine Chinedum Aniagolu-Okoye of the Ford Foundation.
Ambassador Otobo, the moderator, is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Global Governance Institite, Brussels. Otobo is also a director on the Board of Newstide Publications Limited. He is the moderator for Tuesday’s SEEDS 4.
Arts and Culture Ambassador, Mr Jahman Anikulapo, who was the Editor of The Guardian on Sunday for many years, will be co-moderator.
Otobo has participated in previous SEEDS, specifically the 2nd edition held on August 31, 2021 which was on Funding Higher Education in Nigeria: What Options?
The webinar has churned out quality themes with the last of them bordering on the impact of Tech Disruptions which was held on 28 September 2021.
Speakers had discussed issues on impact of Cyber security on Fintech, 5G and national development, achieving financial inclusion through fintech, and general note on impact of fintech on African Economies
The Speakers For Tuesday 26 November 2021.
1. Dr. Muda Yusuf – Lead Speaker
Yusuf will be the lead speaker at the webinar.
Yusuf is immediate past Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI). He is currently the CEO Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE).
Timbo Drayson:
Drayson is a former Product Manager at Google.
He Co-founded OkHi in 2014. The platform has a GPS-based technology that enables a business outfit to gather data about addresses of customers or clients and verify as accurate.
Drayson ‘s motive of developing OkHi was to address challenges faced by businesses as a result of poor data about customer or client addresse and the overall impact on the national economy especially in a developing country like Nigeria.
Drayson had previously worked with Googgle corporation during which he oversaw the launch of Google Maps in emerging markets and also hDisruptions and the Future of African Economies.”
2. Michael Olafusi – Speaker
Olafusi is a Financial Modeler and business data analyst
3. Catherine Lagos Abuogolu – Okoye – Speaker
Aniagolu-Okoye, the Ford Foundation’s Regional Director for West Africa, will be speaking on the role of organisations like Ford in advancing post-COVID recovery process in West Africa.
Speaking on the October Edition of SEEDS webinar, Dr Mbamalu, publisher of Prime Business Africa, noted that although the initial dire predictions of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Africa, in terms of rate of infections and deaths, have not materialised, African governments should not be be lulled into complacency, as a significant rise in COVID-19 caseload could overwhelm the region’s fragile health systems.
Mbamalu observed that many African countries are now experiencing their third wave of COVID-19.
Dr Mbamalu noted that the weaknesses in Africa’s health sector had been laid bare in the inadequate testing and tracing capacity, insufficient hospital spaces for COVID-19 patients, and in the lack of medical equipment, all of which reflect the continuing inadequate public investment in the health sector.
This, he said, is contrary to the 2001 Abuja Declaration commitment to allocate at least 15 percent of annual budgets to the improvement of the health sector in African countries.
“COVID-19 will have both short and long-term economic impacts; COVID-19 has led to Africa’s economic contraction in 2020 in order of -3.4 percent, although a recovery of 3.5 percent is projected for 2021,” Mbamalu said.
According to the CEO of Newstide, COVID-19 has hit hard the sectors that employ low-income people such as tourism, hospitality, and small and medium enterprises. Many recent forecasts projected recession in most African countries in 2020, and, according to the United Nations, nearly 30 million more people could fall into poverty.
Mbamalu noted that E-Commerce is a rapidly developing economic phenomenon globally and that the COVID19 pandemic has helped to turbocharge its growth. “This trade enhancer,” he said, “is yet to gain much traction in most African countries, but its potential positive impact on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is not in doubt.
“With the growing adoption of technology by the youths, who constitute the higher percentage of the population, e-commerce resources will be well received and this is why we are bringing on board this October SEEDS, Timbo Drayson, Founder of OkHi and former Product Manager at Google, to contribute to this discussion,” said Dr Mbamalu.
Dr Mbamalu, therefore, surmised that “the purpose of this forthcoming SEEDS is to examine the long-term business economic, and social impacts of COVID-19 on Africa and propose the policy measures that African countries should adopt in response.”
The distinguished media expert gave Zoom and Facebook live stream links for the Tuesday virtual conference as: https://tinyurl.com/PBASEEDS4 (Zoom) and https://tinyurl.com/PBASEEEDS4-FBLIVE (facebook)
The Publisher of Prime Business Africa enjoined African business leaders, policy makers, health and tech experts as well as students of Business and Economy to log in, participate and contribute to the all-important discourse.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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