Njideka Harry

Pioneering the Youth and Technology
Movement in Africa and Beyond

Case Narrative

ENTREPRENEURS ARE MADE NOT BORN

When I was growing up, my father often said to me, “They can take everything else
away from you, but they can’t take away how much you have in your head.” His words
have resonated with me throughout my life. Perhaps that is why, when I started Youth
for Technology Foundation (YTF) from a cubicle at Microsoft in 2000, I became so
obsessed with my vision that I had no choice but to pursue it. Fortunately, I did not
have to convince my husband, Telema, that my vision for YTF was worth pursuing; he
soon joined me as cofounder.

Let me provide a little background. Born to an American mother and a Nigerian
father, I have lived most of my life in Nigeria, a developing country, which has had a
profound effect on my view of the world. My father was the only child in his family to
finish a postprimary education. When the Biafra War broke out in Nigeria, he was one
of just a few people to earn a scholarship to study in the United States. It was there he
fell in love with an American woman, my mother.

My mother was the first entrepreneur I knew. In the early 1980s, she opened
La Pâtisserie, the first outdoor French restaurant in Nigeria. A mere ten years old, IO
learned at her feet, at first just running small errands. I later became a marketer and,
finally, a host. I remember my mother working very long days. She not only had an en-
trepreneurial enterprise to manage, she also had to deal with the unique challenges of
being an American woman trying to do business in Nigeria. She learned to cut through
red tape to secure contracts with dignitaries and government officials. I sometimes
would wander into the kitchen for a glass of water in the middle of the night and find
my mother preparing elegant displays for some catered event. She inspired me to solve
problems creatively, and thus to work to change the world.

Njideka U. Harry is the President and CEO of Youth for Technology Foundation. She
earned her BBA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and her MBA from the
Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She completed her postgrad-
uate studies at Stanford University where she was a Reuters Digital Vision Fellow, E
where Harry is an Ashoka Fellow and a World Economic Forum Social Entrepreneur.

© 2015 Njideka Harry
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Njideka Harry

In the 1980s, Nigeria, I was scarred by dictatorships, large-scale corruption, a si-
lenced press, police brutality, and frequent human rights abuses. Nigerian universities
were plagued by inadequate funding, a lack of respect for their autonomy and academic
libertà, and poor service conditions. This continued into the early 1990s, when efforts
to restore the system often pitted the Academic Staff Union of Universities against the
government at both the federal and state level. These conflicts had a devastating im-
pact, resulting in a decline in funding and facilities, an authoritarian administration,
and a depleted academic staff, all of which led to the fundamental decay of the univer-
sity system.

To put it plainly, the situation in Nigeria was not good. During this time, I experi-
enced the ups and downs of my country’s quest for development, first under military
rule and in the 1970s and 1980s under a nascent democratic regime. The situation was
constantly changing, and stability was a far-off dream. Measures such as the Structural
Adjustment Program were adopted to tighten the nation’s finances after the devalu-
ation of the Naira, Nigeria’s currency. On top of all this, the so-called War Against
Indiscipline —the anti-corruption and anti-indiscipline campaign was criticized for
poor planning.

Amid these tumultuous conditions, I embarked on a journey to pursue a college
formazione scolastica. With my father’s blessings, a half-full suitcase, and a dream, I left for the
United States on January 20, 1993. In America I was met by my mother, who was pur-
suing her master’s and doctoral degrees at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. IO
was fortunate not to be alone in my new and very different environment.

I had nine months to fill between my arrival in the U.S. and when I started col-
legge. I kept busy by learning as much as I could about American culture. My mother
insisted that I enroll in Katharine Gibbs, a girls-only prep school in Boston that trained
young women for office management. My first job in the U.S. was as a legal assistant
to a high-profile bankruptcy lawyer on Newbury Street in Boston. I began every work
day by taking notes of proceedings, which I then typed up. Not long after I started, IO
returned home one evening to find a voicemail from my boss: “Njideka, your typing
speed isn’t fast enough, I have to find someone else.”

“Welcome to America,” I thought. It was a rough start.

FORAY INTO CYBERSPACE

On weekends, my mother and I visited colleges; I applied to 19 before deciding to at-
tend the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In my naïveté, I chose UMass for two
reasons: I wanted to attend a school whose name included the word “university,” and I
fell in love with the pictures in the brochure they sent me, which captured the beauty
of Amherst in the fall. I know, not the best reasons, but my mind was made up. Look-
ing back, I recognize that it provided an excellent foundation for what was to be my
life’s calling.

One of my first classes was Freshman Writing, and I found myself surrounded by
classmates who were comfortable using the Internet and related technologies. Grow-

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Pioneering the Youth and Technology Movement in Africa and Beyond

ing up in Nigeria, even in our upper-middle-class home, I did not have access to this
technology. I felt overwhelmed during the first few weeks as I tried to figure out how to
navigate the cyber world.

I eventually caught up with my more digitally inclined peers by spending a lot of
time practicing on computers in the lab. Infatti, I spent so much time in the lab that
my classmates asked if I worked there. I didn’t, but I did think it was a brilliant idea.
So, armed with my minimal but growing knowledge of basic PC operations, I applied
and was accepted for a job as a technology lab assistant. In just a few months I had
gone from being a self-taught student of technology to a resource, and my fellow stu-
dents now regarded me as the person who could figure out their computer problems.
I was in!

Shortly after graduating from UMass, I accepted a job at General Electric. I worked
in several financial positions and eventually joined the internal audit staff at GE Nuovo
Pignone (GE Power Systems) in Florence, Italy. My team’s assignment was to investi-
gate cost discrepancies for gas turbine units, which we found boiled down to one basic
issue: outdated and asynchronous technology systems. Yes, it was that simple. It was
about the technology.

After my assignment in Florence, I was burned out. The excitement of late nights
at work capped off by fancy Italian dinners with colleagues quickly became old. I was
lonely, tired of all the travel, and longed for something more. I returned to the U.S.
and spent some time living in Seattle on a special assignment for GE, and I loved
Esso. Home to such major corporations as Amazon, Boeing, and Microsoft, Seattle is a
highly technological town. The local coffee shops often feel more like a computer lab
than a café. I had a burning desire to learn more about technology and its impact in
the developing world. I thought that working for Microsoft would be an interesting
challenge and a way to get back to Seattle, so I took a big step: I applied, interviewed,
and got an offer.

YOUTH FOR TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION IS BORN

During my first few weeks at Microsoft, it was difficult to accept the reality that I—
someone who knew nothing about technology only a few years earlier—was working
for the world’s largest software company. I couldn’t wait to tell my friends back home.
My interest in technology flourished at Microsoft, and I found myself thinking about
how software, computers, and related technologies could be used to bridge the digital
divide between the haves and the have nots, the developed and the developing worlds.
Only a few months into my job, I shared my thoughts with my manager. She encour-
aged me to learn as much as possible about what Microsoft was doing in the developing
mondo, particularly in Africa. My very supportive manager even gave me time away
from my core responsibilities as a product manager to consult with the Microsoft Com-
munity Affairs Program. It was an interesting coincidence, given that Microsoft was
looking to expand its presence in sub-Saharan Africa at that time. Having lived there,

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Njideka Harry

my knowledge on Africa was invaluable. I shared my experiences about life on the con-
tinent, the challenges, and the vast opportunities to increase market share.

One Friday afternoon I was looking through Micronews, Microsoft’s employee
newsletter, and came across an article about a group of employees who had donated
software and books to a library in Cambodia. I went home feeling that I was living
selfishly and not fulfilling my life’s purpose, and I felt a strong urge to give back, to do
something that would change the fate of people less fortunate than I, to unlock oppor-
tunities for others, particularly those living in developing or low-income communities.
On Monday morning, I went back to work and invited some friends to lunch. IO
shared my story with them: living in a developing country, moving to the United States,
and feeling challenged by the amount of technological knowledge my peers had been
exposed to early in life. I told them I planned to start a nonprofit, which I had named
Youth for Technology Foundation with a mission to eradicate the “digital apartheid”
experienced by people in developing countries. I believed that these young people
should be taught to use technology not only to get employment but also to create em-
ployment and spur innovation, which defined our simple but powerful mission: “To
create enriched learning communities where the appropriate use of technology would
create opportunities for youth and women.” Part of YTF’s modus operandi would be to
inspire the creation of digital villages, which we later called Community Technology
and Learning Centers (CTLC). The CTLCs were to be stepping-stones to opportuni-
ty in the form of educational facilities where computers and related communications
technology are available to people who otherwise have no opportunity to learn to use
them. The CTLCs would provide low-cost or free access to computers in an environ-
ment that encouraged curiosity and was supportive of learning for girls and boys.

That afternoon, I called my parents and told them about my idea for YTF. My
mother shared with me the importance of fulfilling one’s life purpose and urged me to
stay connected to the essence of who I was; she also reminded me to take care of myself
along the way and to reach out to others. My dad and I had a debate over whether to
call the organization YTF or YFTF. YTF sounded so much better and prepositions usu-
ally aren’t included in acronyms anyway, so that was it. Youth for Technology Founda-
tion would be YTF.

I garnered the support of several colleagues at Microsoft by uniting us around a
shared purpose and giving each a role to play. In just a few months we organized a
book and software donation event in the cafeteria. Hundreds of Microsoft employees
came to make donations and find out how to participate. In December 2000, I traveled
to Nigeria to conduct a feasibility study to determine where our first CTLC would be
located. It was important that we locate it where we could get support from the local
and state governments, as we had no seed investment—not from family, friends, O
even fools.

We hoped the government would provide accommodations, telephone lines, UN
backup generator, security, and contribute to what we called a “community commit-
ment fund.” We were considering four Nigerian states: Lagos, Imo, Rivers, and Oyo.
Lagos was high on our list, as it had the necessary infrastructure, and Rivers was at the

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Pioneering the Youth and Technology Movement in Africa and Beyond

center of Nigeria’s oil-rich, youth-poor Niger Delta region. After too many conversa-
tions to remember, we settled on Imo, which was in fact my home state. The determin-
ing criteria were the community’s severe disadvantage, the financial and in-kind sup-
port we could expect from the local population, government interest, the availability
and cost of infrastructure, security, and the population’s entrepreneurial zeal. The state
government agreed to donate an eight-classroom building with a backup generator, E
made a donation to the Community Investment Fund equivalent to about US$10,000. This was telling of the level of support YTF could expect—or so we thought. I returned to Microsoft, and to the rigors of my job, after the new year, and it left little time to focus on my dream. From my condo in Redmond, I spent countless hours on the phone with people representing various stakeholder groups in Nigeria and, with the assistance of YTF volunteers there, I was able to assemble a local team of trainers, technologists, development officers, and social workers. By March 2001, we had re- cruited a team of six people who would serve as YTF’s pioneer staff in Nigeria. After our first fundraiser, we realized that the “donate what you can” model was simply not going to sustain our vision, so YTF applied for seed funding from the Mi- crosoft Community Affairs Program. In July I received an email stating that Microsoft would support YTF’s work in Nigeria. This was our first major breakthrough. Tuttavia, our Nigeria team had become impatient, and by July no one I hired in March was still around. We started the recruiting process again, but this time we hired local people who had a true passion for the work, and who also understood the culture, the lan- guage, and the challenges we would face. Our new country manager lived only a few kilometers from our office. YTF and Microsoft signed a memorandum of understanding in which Microsoft agreed to cover costs in the first year for two staff members, including training and technical support, as well as computer hardware, LAN installation, and office equip- ment. YTF was responsible for deepening the relationship with the local communi- ty, developing the curriculum, recruiting and training students, the cost of installing non-computer equipment, and security. THE BUMPY ROAD We were set to launch what we had named the Owerri Digital Village on September 11, 2001, at 4 pm. I was staying at a small bed and breakfast, and I came downstairs that morning to find several TV screens all tuned on CNN. I was witnessing the terrible reality of the 9/11 attacks, and my heart sank as I thought about my family, colleagues, and friends. I feared the worst. I immediately called our YTF country manager and the other involved parties, and we agreed to postpone the launch. On September 21, 2001, my 26th birthday, we finally launched the Owerri Digital Village, the first community technology center of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa. The center was positioned to provide a constellation of training that included basic digital literacy skills, life skills, and entrepreneurship skills, with a particular focus on youth and women. We wanted youth growing up in developing countries like Nigeria to have innovations / volume 10, number 1-2 65 Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/10/1-2/61/705014/inov_a_00230.pdf by guest on 08 settembre 2023 Njideka Harry access to the same type of information most youth in developed countries are able to access. We understood the power this would have to keep a child in school or help a young person create a business. We did not simply want to prepare youth for the job market, we wanted to teach them how to create jobs themselves. By that point we had overcome a lot of challenges, and now the real work was to begin. Working with other likeminded organizations, the government, small business- es, and schools, we would do our best to live up to our slogan “Delivering to the Com- munity. Bridging the Digital Canyon.” By September 2003, a mere two years after the launch, we had trained 200 youth in the YTF Academy, which is our flagship program. My Best Life: Post-Microsoft In 2002, I knew I had reached a crossroad and had to decide whether to remain at Mi- crosoft or to focus fully on building YTF. My long work days were affecting my health, and I knew I would crash if I continued. So, I chose not to crash. YTF needed me and I needed YTF. My life thus far was the sum total of my experiences, none of which I wanted to be wasted. This was my calling. I left Microsoft in the summer of 2004 to attend Stanford University. I sold most of my personal possessions, put my condo on the market, and moved to Palo Alto. It wasn’t an easy transition, as I was going from the comfort of a luxury cubicle (near a window!) to a life that lacked any form of security: no office, no paycheck, and no health insurance. I found strength in a quote from Arthur Ashe: “From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, Tuttavia, makes a life.” I knew I was ready—to learn, even to fail, and to try again. The goal of my program at Stanford was to use information and communications technology (ICT) to improve the lives of people in the developing world. I was in a class of 14 “technologists” who were addressing how information technology could re- solve developing world problems. One of my classmates was Megan Smith, currently the first female chief technology officer for the United States. For me, access to edu- cation was a social justice issue and an equalizer. Given my experience growing up in the developing world, varying levels of access to technology further increased the achievement gap. My idea was to bridge the digital divide between those in developing countries and those in the developed world; a key driver being to level the playing field. In my wildest dreams I had never imagined I’d be called a “technologist,” much less one on par with my brilliant classmates. Little did I know. In 2005, I was invited to join the board of the Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet), a national network of U.S. community technology centers. I glad- ly accepted, as I saw this as a tangible opportunity to learn from others and to share our experiences at YTF. At CTCNet I met my friend and mentor Stephen Ronan, who shared invaluable suggestions on how to sustain the work of YTF and how to navigate some difficult funding terrain. Through CTCNet I also met Don Samuelson, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria, from whom I learned the power of social networks before the term had been coined. I learned a tremendous amount from these two about the space, the complexities, and the beauty of working in community technology. 66 innovazioni / Inclusive Finance Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/10/1-2/61/705014/inov_a_00230.pdf by guest on 08 settembre 2023 Pioneering the Youth and Technology Movement in Africa and Beyond In the summer of 2005, after a nearly four-year delay, the Imo State government honored its financial commitment to YTF’s community investment fund. Before it came through, we weren’t sure we would be able to keep our doors open and began to offer fee-based consulting services to local businesses to keep our operations afloat. È interessante notare, we learned that people don’t really want free training and that our clients valued our services more when they were required to pay a minimal fee. So we began charging for our programs, though our prices were well below market rates. As funding was extremely tight, we began to use hundreds of volunteers via the United Nations Online Volunteer portal, four of whom were instrumental in YTF’s expansion, first into Uganda and then Cameroon. At one point, between the UN On- line Volunteer portal and the Stanford University alumni database, we had 250 vol- unteers who were contributing about 600 hours each week to our work at YTF. We were the 2007 E 2012 winners of the UN Online Volunteer Award, which is given to the organizations best able to use volunteers to increase the impact of their work. But even as we were getting good publicity, we were facing new challenges in Nigeria. The national elections brought a change of government, and we were told we’d likely lose our building, which had been donated by the previous administration. I then received dozens of letters telling me YTF was to vacate the premises. One of the last letters read, “As you are aware, this is a new administration. We ask that you and your staff vacate the premises as this building has been reassigned for another purpose.” Although we produced official documentation of our right of occupancy, tension continued to build. In March 2007, police officers raided the original location of the Owerri Digital Village, damaging doors and threatening to remove all our property. And that was it. Our staff members and students were at risk, so we had to take action. With absolutely no back-up plan, we moved our office equipment to the homes of several committee members. Our classes were still going on, so we needed to find a new home quickly; two weeks later we did. From this experience, we learned the hard way that we could not and would not rely on any local or state government in the future. We will remain nonpartisan, and will operate independently but in collabora- tion with the public sector, including schools, so that we can be immune to changes in administration and policy, and insulate ourselves from bureaucracy. GROWTH FOR GOOD At YTF, we believe that affordable technology should be available to everyone on the planet, and that in today’s global community it should be a basic human right. How- ever, YTF is about people first, then about how technology is serving the people. YTF therefore employs a social franchise model, which involves building partnerships with communities to design sustainable programs that address the real needs of the poor, and then working together to fulfill the community’s vision. With our model, the cli- ents identify their needs, and together we explore what tools, including technology, will help them meet those needs. Even our expansion into other countries is initiated by the client, usually another nonprofit or an individual in a given country. innovazioni / volume 10, number 1-2 67 Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/10/1-2/61/705014/inov_a_00230.pdf by guest on 08 settembre 2023 Njideka Harry Since our founding in 2000, we have built on our social franchise model, expanding into Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, and Colombia, where we support more than 1.54 million youth and women in more than 3,000 rural communities. We chose to focus on Africa first because of our experience there. We knew Nigeria intimately, and the need there was huge. We are not limiting our growth to the continent, Tuttavia, and are considering countries that have similar sociodemographic challenges, such as youth unemployment. Our expansion into Latin America, Colombia specifically, was recom- mended by a classmate while I pursued my MBA at the Kellogg School of Management, and it was initially supported financially and in kind by several other classmates. We consider expansion opportunities initiated by people or grassroots organiza- zioni, and are not intimidated by private-sector companies looking to use corporate social responsibility as a way to gain market entry, and provided their mission and purpose is aligned with ours. We have limited our work to communities in rural areas, where “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches are complementary. We tailor our programming to each local environment (top down), and ownership of the initiatives remains in the hands of the local community members (bottom up). We are co-developing programs around af- fordable technology, including mobile phones and Internet, which are better able to provide the services and products people really need. The flagship program of these community efforts is YTF Academy, which we like to call the heartbeat of our organization. Our partners and funders come and go, but the Academy remains constant. Inoltre, it is supported entirely by YTF’s program and investment income. As YTF has helped communities identify their problems, we have found that most relate to agriculture, formazione scolastica, entrepreneurship, and health. The Academy curriculum is therefore focused on developing our clients’ knowledge and skills in these four problem areas by providing training modules in technology, ranging from basic digital literacy to software and mobile application development, entrepreneurship, and life skills. We recognized quickly that stimulating local entrepreneurial talent and the sub- sequent growth of indigenous companies is good for the rural areas we serve, as this creates jobs and adds economic value to a region while keeping scarce resources in the communities. We wanted to build a critical mass of first-generation entrepreneurs, so the curriculum at YTF Academy covers the basics of how to start and sustain a busi- ness and the benefits of entrepreneurship. Our life skills curriculum includes a module on financial literacy—the basics of saving, cashless banking, bookkeeping, eccetera. These programs are 100 percent sustained by our paying clients, who are youth of both gen- ders and women. YTF’s auxiliary programs are funded by our partners, which include private companies, the public sector, and NGOs. We understood that it is imperative for those at the bottom of the pyramid that we design useful and affordable programs together with them, as value creation is paramount. We are selective in partnering with 68 innovazioni / Inclusive Finance Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/10/1-2/61/705014/inov_a_00230.pdf by guest on 08 settembre 2023 Pioneering the Youth and Technology Movement in Africa and Beyond private-sector companies whose business strategy is geared toward developing prod- ucts and services that address the problems of poverty. Two years after we launched the Owerri Digital Village in Nigeria, it became clear that we could no longer offer free services, even to bottom of the pyramid clients. How- ever, we were not willing to sacrifice the quality of our programs and training. We found that working with likeminded NGOs and other community partners enabled us to create a solid array of training programs, and these collaborations became critical to our expansion plans and our sustainability. THE YOUTH WE SERVE Ninety-seven percent of the youth who enroll at YTF Academy say they want to change the world, but only 15 percent of them believe they can do it through entrepreneurship or consider entrepreneurship a viable career. This is before they become our students. Part of our work is therefore to encourage a cultural mind shift, so we don’t talk about alleviating poverty but creating wealth, and we present entrepreneurship as an avenue to create wealth for future generations. Several of our youth participants commented that their mothers would benefit from our training programs. Isabella Anoruo, Per esempio, a 19-year-old graduate of Comprehensive Secondary School, was the only one of ten children to complete sec- ondary school. Isabella explained that her mother’s shops supported her entire family and that her mother would benefit from some of the same bookkeeping and ICT skills Isabella was learning. At YTF we want every girl to have a picture of what a woman entrepreneur is: someone who makes decisions that affect her life and plays an active role on the social and economic scene. We knew that providing financial education to people at the BOP had a positive impact on their communities, so in 2006, YTF added financial literacy to the life skills curriculum at YTF Academy. Our thinking was that, if our students acquired skills such as expense management, budgets, and savings tools, they could share what they learned with their parents, especially their mothers. People living in rural communities are severely underserved by financial institu- zioni, if they are served at all. This lack of access means that young people lose the opportunity to develop financial management understanding and skills. YTF’s financial education for youth includes positive financial behaviors, whereas our services such as providing access to savings accounts, promote: greater financial security; increased ac- cess to education, investment, and business opportunities; improved confidence; con- trol over their lives and their family’s well-being; and the ability to set long-term goals. Youth who receive financial education are more likely to have higher aspirations than those who do not. This effect is most pronounced among low- to moderate-income youth. YTF has identified a number of actors to support youth financial education: university personnel and school committees, parents and community groups, financial innovations / volume 10, number 1-2 69 Scaricato da http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/10/1-2/61/705014/inov_a_00230.pdf by guest on 08 settembre 2023 Njideka Harry inclusion clubs, and local finance professionals who mentor students and help them make a successful transition from school to work. THE WOMEN WE SERVE, THEIR MOTHERS At YTF, we recognize that women in Nigeria have long been a neglected national re- source, and that women are the primary caregivers and often the main providers. We also know that an educated mother will produce healthier, more stable, and better informed children, and provide greater security. Therefore, In 2007, when the Unit- ed Nations Development Fund for Women asked YTF if we would partner with it in launching a program to train women entrepreneurs in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region to use information and communications technology, we readily accepted. The goal of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program was to provide women with training and increased access to ICT facilities, which would enable them to get the information they needed to make good economic decisions. Up to that point, we had not partnered with any development organizations to train women, but I was confident that my team had the right skill set and passion to implement this project successfully. We agreed to take on the challenge. Working with local government councils, YTF recruited women entrepreneurs across three states to participate in the program. YTF’s role was to conduct focus groups with the women to get a better understanding of their needs, and to implement training customized to those needs. The project was designed to help the women gain technical and entrepre- neurial knowhow using interactive technologies, including the radio and computers, so they would have the knowledge they needed to start and grow a business. It also gave them equipment such as sewing machines, farm implements, and oil-processing equipment. PEOPLE FIRST, THEN TECHNOLOGY The Nigerian Women Entrepreneurs and Mobile Value Added Services program was launched in 2012 to help women entrepreneurs gain the business management, capac- ity-building and technology skills they need to expand their businesses and broaden their access to financial services. Women entrepreneurs in developing countries face countless barriers to economic and social empowerment, not to mention challeng- es specific to business growth like limited access to adequate marketing channels, insufficient training opportunities, and limited opportunities to network with other entrepreneurs. YTF works with women entrepreneurs in four primary industries: hospitality, light manufacturing, retail/wholesale, and social services. Since the program’s inception, YTF has trained women entrepreneurs in 12 stati. Participants undergo ten hours of classroom and online training and attend “Power Hour” networking events designed to promote an exchange of experiences between women. They are immersed in a range of entrepreneurial development activities such as experiential workshops, hearing guest 70 innovazioni / Inclusive Finance Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/itgg/article-pdf/10/1-2/61/705014/inov_a_00230.pdf by guest on 08 settembre 2023 Pioneering the Youth and Technology Movement in Africa and Beyond speakers, and site visits. Participants also receive weekly SMS messages that include business and leadership tips; they can respond directly or call our office for additional follow-up or support. In November 2015, YTF will launch the Madame Frances Cash-Ugwuegbu Me- morial Fund for Women Entrepreneurs in Nigeria, which will provide seed funding to businesses owned by women in the “missing middle”—those whose businesses gener- ate between $7,000 E $32,000 in annual revenue and are too large for microfinance
institutions but too small for commercial banks. The fund will support women like
Mrs. Grace, who owns a building material and supplies business on 6th Avenue in Fes-
tac Town, Lagos. Although her business has been around for seven years and she has
four employees, she doesn’t feel ready to work with the commercial banks. “I want to
be able to sleep at night,” she says. “I have children, and if I owe the bank, I won’t have
peace but fear.” Through this fund, women like Mrs. Grace will receive the financing to
grow their business and at the same time be able to access services that will help them
understand the language of credit.

Since the launch of the Mobile Value Added Services project, and with support
from private-sector players like MasterCard, YTF has led more than 500 business and
financial skills workshops, training 6,500 women entrepreneurs. More than 90 per cento
of these entrepreneurs have reported increased business activity, E 18 percent have
expanded their businesses to multiple locations. Equally important is the fact that 78
percent say they feel more confident in hiring employees, 97 percent have better book-
keeping practices, E 90 percent feel more empowered within their households and
communities as a result of the workshops.

ENDING FINANCIAL EXCLUSION

Our ultimate goal at YTF is to give people the tools that they need to lead sustainable
lives, which means that they are able to provide a decent life for themselves and their
families. We recognize that entrepreneurship is one avenue for achieving this, and that
the biggest challenge entrepreneurs in Africa face is access to safe and affordable credit,
without which they cannot even start a business. Mobile banking has expanded access
to financial services, and it can increase the security of people and their assets. Howev-
er, the personal touch is vital to those using these services, hence the need for on-site
banking agents. In Nigeria, as in many developing countries, physical proximity to a
bank branch is the most significant barrier to accessing basic financial services. In a
2011 poll of Nigeria’s unbanked people, 61 percent expressed a desire to have an ac-
count, but there was no bank near enough to make this simple wish a reality.

In Nigeria, 36.9 million adults are financially excluded. 57.9% of the excluded
population is women. 37.9% are youth, between ages 18 E 25 E 39.1% have no
formal education, E 47.8% live in rural areas. When the Mobile Financial Services
for Women in Nigeria, a partnership with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women,
Visa, and First Bank Nigeria, was launched in 2014, YTF was selected as a training
partner, due to our track record with the earlier project. This affirmed what I knew:

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Njideka Harry

people don’t readily buy into your vision until you have grown, sviluppato, endured,
and sometimes suffered.

YTF is now providing business and financial skills training to 2,500 women en-
trepreneurs who will be given the opportunity to become agents in the retail network
of First Bank Nigeria, a leading financial services provider. The women are using an
innovative mobile technology solution, FirstMonie, which will enable them to reach
thousands of Nigerians living in rural and underserved areas, and provide them with
branchless banking and mobile financial services. YTF aims to enable a greater number
of female entrepreneurs to enter the electronic-payment value chain in Nigeria, a sector
that is poised to grow tremendously in the coming years.

THE 5P’s

In 2011, YTF’s work received global recognition, as I was selected as an Ashoka Fel-
low. We were recognized again in 2013 by the World Economic Forum. This gave us
confidence that we are moving in the right direction and creating sustainable change.
While we don’t have any set formula for success, we do have what we call our recipe for
progress, or our “Five P’s”, as our work at YTF is always in progress—not a destination
but a journey. We think this is a good thing.

• People: The people are what make an organization. Build a great team of people
who can do the work better than you can. Bring them together to work toward the
common cause, and thank your people when they work hard and deliver results.

• Passion: This is non-negotiable. An idea you pursue must be genuinely yours. You
must be obsessed with it to the point that you are not satisfied until you solve the
problem. Your team members should share your passion and have an insatiable
desire to fulfill the mission.

• Persistence: Be prepared to receive a lot of “nos.” We didn’t get our first real break-
through until 2006, six years after we began, when the United Nations Develop-
ment Fund for Women engaged us to work with them. Do the work well and have
a meaningful impact, and publicity will follow—not the other way around. IL
truest form of publicity is word of mouth from your clients, not paid public service
announcements.

• Partners: Create an entrepreneurial ecosystem that involves win-win partnerships
with other likeminded organizations and multi-stakeholder groups. These can in-
clude the public sector, other NGOs, and the private sector. While forming these
partnerships, you must understand that your most important partner is the client,
without whom your work will be in vain.

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Pioneering the Youth and Technology Movement in Africa and Beyond

• Performance-Driven: Data matter, and having an impact means not just tabulat-
ing how many people you have trained but what changes have been achieved (so-
cioeconomic and otherwise) in their standard of living as a result of this training.
We spend a good chunk of time on rigorous evaluations to assess the impact of our
programs, doing so while being respectful of the people we are collecting the data
on and telling the story of their lives. All our programs have a budget for monitor-
ing and evaluation, which are integral to our work.

My story began when I was learning at the feet of my mother, an entrepreneur who
understood that nothing of value comes without sacrifice. Since then, all my life expe-
riences have shaped me as a person and as a leader—the loss of loved ones, my dear
mother included, gender discrimination, and many other deeply trying challenges. By
reflecting on these events, I have come to understand myself and the values I hold
most dear. Although it may seem that luck was involved, it wasn’t. We were prepared to
recognize and meet opportunity, and knowing when to seize it accounts for 90 per cento
of our success. From my dreams as a little girl of coming to America and then giving
back in a way that’s bigger than myself to work in Africa and beyond, I know my 3
young daughters have witnessed from my work with YTF that almost always experi-
ence brings patience, and patience realizes hope.

1. The War Against Indiscipline (WAI) was Nigerian legislation enacted in March 1984 by military de-
cree. The program’s intention was to instill public morality, discipline, social order, and a sense of civic
responsibility, and to promote nationalism. It was criticized by some for poor planning, for engaging
in draconian punishments like public flogging, and for giving unreasonably long sentences for minor
offences.

2. The Community Affairs Program describes its work as follows: “Microsoft has been using technology
to ignite the potential of individuals and communities around the world since 1983. We are commit-
ted to providing resources, innovative technology, and creative ideas to help our non-profit partners
realize the hidden potential in everyone, as well as finding sustainable technological solutions that
make a real and lasting difference in people’s lives.” Available at https://www.microsoft.com/hk/giving/
caprogram/default.mspx.

3. YTF partnered with the Cherie Blair Foundation to implement this program in Nigeria in 2012. Oth-

er partners included Nokia, MTN Nigeria and Exxon Mobil.

4. The states are Lagos, Kogi, Taraba, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Delta, Imo, Ondo, Rivers,

and Edo.

5. The Madame Frances Cash-Ugwuegbu Fund for Women Entrepreneurs http://www.youthfortechnol-

ogy.org/frances-cash-ugwuegbu-memorial-fund-women-entrepreneurs/.

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