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How to create more Olajumoke's rags-to-riches story 12 Apr 2016

It is the typical Cinderella story. Only this time, it happened in real life and it is still trending on social media. You would be forgiven if you haven't heard of the Olajumoke Orisaguna story. That is, if you are not in Nigeria. This previously obscure lady is now the most-searched individual on Google in Nigeria.
    
On that fateful day, she was hawking bread on a Lagos street when she walked in on the set of a photoshoot by TY Bello, renowned Nigerian photographer. TY Bello, who was on the set with English hip-hop artist Tinie Tempah, intuitively took Olajumoke's photo with the tray of bread balanced on her head. That shot appeared in a popular weekly Nigerian Lifestyle Magazine and that is how she became famous.

For a platform that was known for featuring professional models, the photo of a “model” selling bread was a runaway hit. A search commenced on social media to find the mysterious lady and she was eventually found.

As brands and corporate bodies fell over themselves to support her and her career, Olajumoke got a luxury apartment, scholarships for her children, among many other benefits, privileges and sponsorships.

The seemingly improbable story of 27-year-old Olajumoke could be instructive in dealing with Nigeria's intractable problem of youth unemployment. The mother of two was hawking bread probably because she could not afford a stall to display her wares. She probably sold about 40-50 loafs with a turnover of around N4,000 ($20) to N5,000 ($25) per day. If you considered a very generous profit of 20%, what she made daily was probably around N800 ($4) or N1,000 ($5), or N20,800 ($104) – N26,000 ($130) monthly.

Of course, with this meagre level of income, the journey out of poverty for Olajumoke (and millions of other people at her level of income) was going to be difficult and steep. The World Bank puts Nigeria's poverty rate at 46% (2009) of our population (which is circa 78 million individuals). They live on less than $2 a day; have no access to decent accommodation, education or healthcare. They live on selling petty wares like bread, salt, sugar or other consumables and artisanal work and peasant farming. Sadly, many of the children that grow up in such conditions continue in the vicious cycle of poverty.  

At 27 years of age, Olajumoke falls within the bracket of about 130 million Nigerians that are below the age of 30. Of this number, about 40% is either unemployed or underemployed – meaning they are engaged in unproductive and, perhaps, illegal activities. The truth is that the formal educational system or formal employment market cannot cater for this growing number of young people. Even if the present government keeps its audacious promise of providing 1 million jobs every year, it will take at least another 60 years to provide for all the unemployed youths in the country -- and this is not taking into account population growth.

Olajumoke is not the prettiest lady or the most talented model around. Hers was a case of being at the right place at the right time. Given the right opportunity, despite having no formal education or training, her innate talent found expression and blossomed. Every individual has got innate and latent talents. The job of the society, policymakers and governments is to create an environment where these talents can be unleashed in the marketplace. For instance, the creative, entertainment, media, internet and sports industries offer us huge opportunities to create meaningful employment for our youths – including those who are graduates but cannot find white-collar jobs as well as those that have not been properly educated but can express themselves using their talents.

The inspiring story of acclaimed actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, comes to mind. She just accompanied a friend to an audition and got a role on the movie, despite having no formal training. The rest, as they say, is history. Several other professionals in the industry share similar stories. With low entry barriers, they get in and are able to hone their skills and have meaningful livelihoods.

The question now is: Can the isolated fairy tale of Olajumoke be used as a template for deliberately scouting out young talents and supporting their development? I present a few thoughts below on how this can be achieved.  

1.    We need to provide the supporting hard and soft infrastructure to enable the creative industry to thrive. For the soft infrastructure, the industry thrives when there are clear-cut and consistent laws regarding patents, copyrights, piracy and trademarks. Young people will be willing to stake their all on an idea if they know they can get a patent and that patent can be monetised. Financiers would be willing to fund movies, adopt models and the likes if they are sure the environment is safe and they can cash in without losing their investment to pirates.

2.    We also need to offer incentives and tax reliefs to individuals and organisations that want to get involved in the creative industry. We need to encourage more investments in this industry, especially in hard infrastructure like studios, pitches, courts, distribution networks, internet availability and the likes. Incentives will enable corporate organisations to get involved in providing hard infrastructure that the industry can thrive upon. No matter how many models, actors, comedians or footballers we produce, if there are no strong distribution networks or facilities for them to rehearse and train, they will remain stagnant.

3.    We also need to create an atmosphere of risk-taking among potential financiers in the form of venture capitalists, individual investors, record labels, modelling agencies, sports agencies and the likes. These individuals and institutions come in at an early stage, take huge risks on talents and hope to reap in the future. These agents need to be encouraged. Again, tax breaks, incentives and regulation could help spur the growth of these agents that are necessary in discovering and nurturing the next set of Olajumoke's in a structured manner.

4.    We also need to deliberately inculcate sports, creative arts and media into the fibre of our school curriculum. This starts from the primary school to the University. The American system is a good model in this regard. School children spend as much time learning the formal subjects as they do the “informal” subjects. They have a grasp of both aspects of learning and they can decide which they want to specialize in. So it's not uncommon to find a professional basketball player who could have easily excelled in a law firm. Or an investment banker who is proficient in acting, dancing or directing. We need to formalize the informal subjects, if you will.
    
Olajumoke captured the hearts of Nigerians, politicians and even faith-based organisations because of her rags-to-riches story. But through her story, we can build a structure to lift many others out of poverty and give those without formal education the opportunity of a decent career and income. More importantly, the next time you see a hawker in the streets, look closely, she or he might be a celebrity in a couple of months or years.