Africa needs shift from charity to enterprise-driven prosperity – Caleb VC

Prof. Olalekan Asikhia, the Vice Chancellor of Caleb University, says Africa needs a decisive shift from charity-based poverty reduction to enterprise-driven prosperity anchored on innovation, entrepreneurship and accountability.

Asikhia spoke at the 57th Inaugural Lecture of Babcock University, titled, “It Is Time to Use Functional Businesses to Kill Poverty in Africa”.

This was stated in a statement issued on Tuesday in Lagos by Mr Olawale Adekoya, the Information and Media Officer of Caleb University.

“Africa does not lack potential, talent or resources. What we need are functional businesses, visionary thinking, integrity and institutions that work.

“In 2022, 546 million Africans were living in poverty, the continent currently carries the highest global proportion of the world’s poor, and projections for 2025 suggest extreme poverty may reach 43.9 per cent, affecting more than 438 million people.

“Nigeria holds the largest share of global extreme poverty, while South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Madagascar are projected to record some of the continent’s highest rates,” he said.

He identified the root causes as income inequality, weak governance, policy inconsistencies and institutional deficiencies, insisting that a continent so endowed in resources cannot afford to remain trapped in poverty.

Reviewing decades of poverty alleviation efforts across Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia, Asikhia argued that many programmes failed because they distributed money rather than creating wealth.

“The missing link is that Africa has spent too long sharing cash instead of deliberately building functional businesses capable of generating wealth,” he said.

He proposed a paradigm shift anchored on what he termed a ‘Functional Business Model’ — enterprises designed not only for profit, but for societal development, civic value and sustainable prosperity.

“Functional businesses embed themselves within the community, co-creating wealth, generating livelihoods and ensuring equitable distribution of value.

“Africa will not escape poverty through donations but through deliberate creation of businesses that share wealth, build capacity and give people dignity,” he said.

On the role of universities, Asikhia challenged higher institutions to move beyond theory to practice, serving as hubs of innovation and enterprise.

“Findings from a survey of 581 SMEs in Nigeria showed that only 15 per cent of wealth created contributed to poverty alleviation,” he said.

To reverse this trend, he called for practical entrepreneurship to be embedded into every curriculum, formal registration of student start-ups in partnership with the Corporate Affairs Commission, and the transformation of university-owned ventures — water production, bakery and agribusiness — into instruments for community empowerment.

He further advocated the adoption of SEPA (Social Entrepreneurship for Poverty Alleviation), enabling students to engage in community development projects, grant writing, research and business incubation.