The Imo State Government, through the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser and its One Kindred, One Business Initiative (OKOBI), has recorded about 600 group-owned businesses with more than 20,000 members since the initiative commenced about 40 months ago.
The Chief Economic Adviser to the Governor and promoter of the initiative, Prof. Kenneth Amaeshi, disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen in Owerri, ahead of a town hall meeting for 65 community-owned OKOBI businesses scheduled to take place in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on Tuesday.
Prof. Amaeshi explained that the OKOBI initiative was introduced to promote group-based entrepreneurship and encourage people to move away from the traditional practice of establishing and running businesses individually.
He said the initiative was designed to bring together people with common interests to establish and manage businesses collectively, stressing that the term “kindred” does not necessarily refer to members of the same family or community, but to people who share common interests.
According to him, an OKOBI group can comprise three or more people who come together to establish a profit-oriented business. He added that the initiative also encourages autonomous communities across Imo State to establish businesses capable of contributing to their economic development.
Prof. Amaeshi, who is a Professor of Business and Sustainable Development at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, said nearly 120 communities in Imo State had so far subscribed to the community-based component of the initiative.
He explained that the state government supports the communities throughout the process, from generating viable business ideas to developing bankable business proposals, after which the businesses are formally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
The Chief Economic Adviser, who also holds the Samuel Asabia/First Bank of Nigeria Chair at Lagos State University, identified five major requirements for businesses under the OKOBI initiative: group ownership, profit orientation, job creation, formal registration and location within Imo State.
Prof. Amaeshi said the success recorded by the OKOBI initiative in Imo State had attracted attention beyond the state, noting that the Federal Government had adopted the model as a national strategy for addressing unemployment.
He added that other states, particularly in the South-East, could adapt the model to suit their local economic circumstances.
The Imo State Chief Economic Adviser further disclosed that interest in the initiative had extended beyond Nigeria, with individuals from countries, including Bangladesh, seeking information on how the model could be adapted to their respective environments.
He also noted that some institutions of learning were beginning to incorporate the OKOBI concept into their entrepreneurship programmes.
According to him, the initiative has also been extended to students through the establishment of student OKOBI businesses and clubs in tertiary institutions.
He listed K.O. Mbadiwe University, Ogboko; the University of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (UAES); and Claretian University, Nekede, among institutions where the student-focused initiative has already been introduced.
Prof. Amaeshi added that discussions were ongoing with other institutions, including the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, and Imo State University, on possible adoption of the initiative.
He explained that the student-focused component was designed to expose young people to entrepreneurship at an early stage and encourage them to consider business creation and collective enterprise rather than waiting until after graduation to begin searching for employment.
Prof. Amaeshi said the broader objective of OKOBI was to promote sustainable enterprise, create jobs, strengthen communities and foster an entrepreneurial culture in which people could collectively build businesses that would remain viable beyond any particular administration.
Report By Fredrick Njoku