CaneVillage.com
“…
Building a Thriving eCommerce Enterprise
Around an Agelong Artisan Community.”
PIN PROFILE
Paradigm
Initiative Nigeria (PIN), which started in 2001 as on online volunteer team
with the main objective of connecting
Nigerian youths with ICT opportunities, is a social enterprise seeking to help deliver ICT-enabled socio-economic
opportunities in Nigeria.
Having worked with government, civil society, private institutions and
international organisations, PIN has set standards
in ICT education, telecentre support, ICT applications in rural areas, and
other ICT4D interventions in Nigeria.
PIN
works in five key areas including Consulting,
Research, Telecentre Support, Youth-led Social Technopreneurship and ICT
Capacity
Building. In pursuit of
these objectives, PIN delivers assignments and projects that help connect
individuals, people-groups, institutions and communities with the
socio-economic opportunities that ICTs provide.
PIN’s
projects (some of which are delivered in partnership with various institutions
and communities) include Ajegunle.org and CaneVillage.com.
BACKGROUND
The cane
villages
in Maryland, Victoria Island, Alapere and Ajina
(all in Lagos, Nigeria) house about 30 cane
furniture makers and their apprentices. Each workspace where most of the work
is done (and tools are kept) is an open space with spartan shades scattered
over an area of about 200 square meters. At each cane village, a breed of
bamboo is processed and shaped by several means (including, but not limited to,
weaving, spinning and stripping) into several articles of furniture. From
preparing raw-materials to finishing each product,
the artisans carry out their work manually and thus, the typical production
cycle is about 3 weeks (a span of time which can be shortened with adequate
support).
The present annual income of the business community
is put at approximately eight hundred thousand naira (N800, 000) per workshop,
totalling about N24.4 million for the community. It is estimated that
each workspace makes an annual “after all expense” profit of N200, 000
(below $1,600). Considering the prime location
of the village and exotic nature of its products, this business community is
under-performing for many reasons. This project offers the much-needed help, and does so with a unique model.
CANEVILLAGE.COM
A social enterprise initiative of
PIN, the three-phased project is aimed at:
- increasing the business
capacity and improving the livelihoods of cane furniture makers in an
under-performing artisan market Nigeria;
- strengthening an existing market
and creating new ones by maximizing technology
opportunities and leveraging on the skills
of Nigerian graduates;
- encouraging entrepreneurship and creating employment opportunities for Nigerian youth.
In achieving these stated
objectives, a series of activities will be organised culminating in
establishing a business that will increase demand for cane furniture and in
turn increase production capacity of cane village furniture makers (and other
cane furniture makers who are interested). The business name and internet
address for CaneVillage.com (Cane Village Enterprises, www.canevillage.com and www.canevillage.com.ng) have been
registered by PIN to ensure successful transition in the project’s phases.
These events will run in three
phases, including Business Capacity
development, Business Plan
competition and Business
establishment.
PHASE I
Business
Capacity Development
Most of the furniture makers at
the cane village in Maryland, Lagos, have little or no formal education and
mostly lack relevant business skills – production, marketing, ethics, etc. For CaneVillage.com to be effective, some
efforts must be put in place to raise the business capacity of those who work
the mill.
Our effort will be channelled
towards bringing relevant business information and education to this
under-performing business community which has admitted the need for such help.
This help will not be limited to the first phase of the project, since the
community will form an integral part of the eventual business chain, and will
thus be prominently taken care of in the business plan.
The efforts will be a series of
workshops covering such topics and issues as:
- Fundamentals of business management
- Personal/project finance
- Project management
- Time management
- Business record keeping
- Customer relations
- Best practises
- … and other skills as will be considered appropriate
For the sake of convenience and to
record a high level of participation, these workshops will hold both within the
cane village in Maryland
and at other venues as may be decided. The language of instruction and
discussion will be flexible enough to accommodate the languages predominantly
spoken by our target audience (pidgin English and Yoruba).
PHASE II
Business
Plan Competition
The competition is aimed at
arriving at a suitable and home-grown business plan for the CaneVillage.com
business, maximizing the evident business skills that dot the Nigerian
landscape – with special focus on young MBA students.
Announcement
The competition will be announced
in July 2007, at a press conference in Lagos.
The announcement will spell out the objectives of the competition, and expected
outcomes.
Period of
Competition
Participants will have a period of
eight (8) weeks from date of announcement to turn in their entries.
Eligibility
Only Nigerian MBA students, who
will be graduating by, or before, September 2007, are eligible to participate.
Mode of
Entry
Interested and eligible candidates
will be required to submit:
- Five printed copies of a business plan for Canevillage.com, with
accompanying soft copy on CD
- A cover letter detailing the content of the business plan
- A letter of identification duly signed and stamped by a member of
faculty in the candidate’s institution of study
- Multiple entries are not allowed
Publicity
Following the announcement of the
competition at a press conference, the following means of publicity will be
employed to ensure adequate coverage of the target audience:
- PIN website, and the CaneVillage websites (for the period of the
competition)
- Hand bills and posters
- TV and radio jingles
- Newspaper and magazine adverts
- Classified adverts in some industry specific journals
Panel of
Judges
Selection of judges will be done
in good faith, and they will be men and women who have demonstrated good
understanding of business, technology and Nigerian youths’ need to embrace
entrepreneurship. Judges shall be selected from:
- The academia and;
- The industry
All nominated judges will be
contacted and given enough time to confirm their willingness to participate.
Prizes
The author of the
business plan adjudged as the best will be rewarded with the following:
- A total refund of MBA fees,
- A seat on the management team of the canevillage.com,
- A laptop computer, and
- One year subscription to a business journal/news magazine of
choice (Lagos Business Review, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, The
Director, Fortune, etc)
The 2nd
prize winner will receive:
- 25% refund of MBA fees,
- A laptop computer, and
- One year subscription to a business journal of choice
The 3rd
prize winner will receive:
- A laptop computer, and
- A one year subscription to an international business journal of
choice
CONCLUSION
Not Just Another
Competition
The CaneVillage.com project is not
just another competition, neither is it just an ambitious project. It is a
deliberate multi-phased effort aimed at building a thriving eCommerce enterprise around an agelong artisan community.
The project offers a win-win scenario for all stakeholders.
While PIN sees this as a potential platform through which its social enterprise
principles can be met with technology opportunities; the existing business
community will derive multifaceted value (business skills’ acquisition,
economic growth, increased visibility, etc); and project partners will be able
to support the initiative as an investment opportunity.
We believe that our partners will
find value in the process, and will have the first-comer opportunity to invest
in the CaneVillage.com busisness.
Our partners will not just serve as donors but investors with both social and economic returns on investment. For enquiries, please contact ‘Gbenga Sesan
or Korede Asuni by eMail – info@canevillage.com.
APPENDIX
Meet the Project
Managers
Oluwakorede Asuni has recently completed undergraduate work for the award of a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago- Iwoye, Nigeria.
He is the author of the Student’s Survival Kit and coordinator of the first ever student support portal in Nigeria, www.thestudentsurvivalkit.com. He is the recipient of several awards in
recognition of his exemplary studentship and leadership, among which is the Outstanding Student of The
Year, Faculty Of Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University
(National Association of Science Students, 2002); the OLUBI SODIPO Award for Exemplary Studentship (Olabisi Onabanjo
University Convocation Awards 2004).
His interest spans project
development/management and human capital development, and has a bias for youth
development. He is the Program Manager of CaneVillage.com at
Paradigm Initiative Nigeria
‘Gbenga Sesan is a social entrepreneur and Information Society researcher, and he was Nigeria's first Information Technology Youth Ambassador. He is quick to express passionate belief in the potentials that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) hold for developing economies, and has expressed this at various local, national, regional and international fora – through speaking opportunities with over 400 audiences in twenty countries. His consulting experience includes assignments completed for numerous institutions, including Harvard University (USA), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Ethiopia), Res Publica (USA), International Telecommunications Union (Switzerland) and Computer Aid International (UK). ‘Gbenga was Vice Chair of the UN Economic Commission for Africa’s African Technical Advisory Committee, adviser to numerous youth-led non-profit projects and pioneer Program Manager of the Lagos Digital Village. He was appointed (in 2006) as the youngest member of the Nigerian Presidential Task Force on the Restructuring of the Nigerian Information Technology and Telecommunications sectors.
He is presently promoting and supporting pan-African youth-led social entrepreneurship as Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, Partner at Generis Solutions and Volunteer with the African Youth ICT4D Network. ‘Gbenga is an author, guest columnist, regular feature on two of Nigeria’s most popular television shows and Vice President of the Alliance of Change Empowerment Speakers (ACES). In recognition of his dynamic efforts, ‘Gbenga was a recipient of the 2007 The Future Youth Advocacy award, 2006 International Telecommunications Union YES Scholarship award, 2006 The Future Best Use of Technology award, 2005 Stockholm Challenge Champion honor, 2004 NiPRO Excellence in Information Technology award, 2003 JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) in Nigeria award, 2002 JCI Ten Outstanding Great Ife Alumni (TOGA) award, 2002 Journalists’ Frontier of Technology in Nigeria award, and the 2001 ITU African Youth Fellowship award. He has been profiled as one of the 35 Icons of ICT in Nigeria, has just been announced as a 2007 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship award winner, maintains his personal website at www.gbengasesan.org.ng and keeps a blog (www.gbengasesan.com/blog).