Oloruntoba: Why It’s Important to Equip Youth for Climate-smart Innovation

Bankole Oloruntoba is the Chief Executive of the Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre. In this interview with Funmi Ogundare, he explained why his organisation partnered Oando Foundation, researchers, and academia on the Green Youth Upskilling Programme, to build technical capacity for young people, and the need for youths to think of innovative solutions that will bring about climate change opportunities and improve their livelihood and the economy. Excerpts:

How has NCIC evolved under your leadership in terms of driving climate-smart entrepreneurs in Nigeria?

The NCIC started with just a piece of paper, and when I took up the role, all the NCIC had was a piece of paper and an empty office. So, we started with me and a youth corps member, Tosin Ajide, who is currently our head of partnership. At that time, we set the vision and mission of the NCIC, designed the structures and programmes that the NCIC was supposed to run. But most importantly, we wanted to create a centre that gives opportunities for everybody, from academics to businesses, government, innovation, and research. When we set up that system, we realised that it was also important to create a governance system. So, we decided to put up our board structure and all those different things. Practically, what we did with the NCIC was to take a concept note and then turn it into a full-fledged organisation. Under my leadership as the founding CEO, I focused on establishing the right partnerships that would enable us to secure our first project. We began by building an ecosystem. I have a background in ecosystem development. I established the first innovation hub in Abuja and managed it for approximately five years.

I literally just built the whole Abuja tech innovation ecosystem. I adopted the same mindset at the Climate Innovation Centre in Lagos, and I also helped establish the Nigeria Climate Innovation Centre by building an ecosystem around the kinds of people who needed support.  I sought to understand what the government wanted, and I grasped their role in building this.  I understood the role of the private sector for finance and also for manufacturing opportunities. I understood the role of academia in terms of research support and development sectors, as they often have access to substantial funding.  I also understood that there’s a fifth stakeholder, which is the innovation ecosystem. These are the places where young people are. We conducted multiple programs to help these groups of people understand what the NCIC is about. This now led us to our first incubation program,  about two of them. We got funding from All-On, a Shell Impact Investment company.

They were our friends. In fact, one of them sits on our board. They were our first funders ever. They were the first people who ever gave us money for anything. All-On, then, was being headed by a Dutch-Nigerian. He grew up in Jos, and as a result, he has a deep understanding of Nigeria and speaks Hausa. So, we had a very good conversation. He loved our programs, and then they committed to funding us for three years to build renewable energy ventures that they could invest in. We also received another kick-off funding from the federal government, through the Vice President’s office, to build our structure and expand our capacity. That now helped us to create a program where we were able to train over 100 ventures.  

Then, we were able to award about $24,000 to about 24 of them.  I believe the total project we undertook with that fund provided us with access to nearly 100 innovators. And then part of those, innovators, about 24 of them, were being funded. So, we funded 8 in each set for $10,000. All this funding came from All-On.  This project alone was instrumental in helping us establish the green economy ecosystem in Nigeria. With what we did, we received a significant number of entries from all parts of the country, including Sokoto, Plateau State, Kaduna, Borno, and even the South-South and South-East regions. So, our program at that point was what opened the green economy innovation programs for Nigeria. And that’s why, in Nigeria now, you can see a whole lot of innovators, startups, and businesses that are going green.

When we started seven years ago, nobody was really focused on green initiatives; the closest we had been renewable energy installers and installations. However, when we came on board and started creating webinars, programs, knowledge activity sessions, and other initiatives, it helped a whole lot of innovators, young people, researchers, academics, and coaches understand that there’s actually an opportunity here. And these same programmes were what helped the financial sector in Lagos to understand that there’s an emerging economy within the climate space, before they didn’t. I mean, most people in Lagos never understood anything about climate, but when our programme started and we began to shed light on how climate innovation can work in Nigeria, how entrepreneurs can make a strong case out of climate challenges and turn them into quality products and businesses that are ready.

Would you say this was what motivated your partnership with Oando Foundation on the Green Youth Upskilling programme?

Our relationship with the Oando Foundation dates back about two years, when I met Tonia Uduimoh, the head of the foundation in Abuja. We then began discussing possibilities related to the foundation and the green economy. At first, people never thought that because it was green and the climate, you didn’t have to work with oil companies. However, for us, it was entirely different. Everybody is a partner. Everyone has an equal opportunity to partner with green economic provinces. As a result of multiple conversations spanning almost 24 months, we took action with Oando. There was a bit of back and forth. We had to follow their programmes to see what they were doing, and they also had to follow ours for a while to see what we were doing.

Then we kept talking because we needed to create a program that is not like every other program you find around the country. Oando Foundation was very specific. They said they wanted to create a program that would have a direct impact in the long run, a program that would truly benefit Nigerian youth in a profoundly positive way. So, we kept thinking that because we had done startup / SME innovation programs, we had also done women in business programmes, and we had even conducted an academic research program, but that wasn’t what Oando was looking for.

What spurred our relationship was that we started making a list of almost 10 project ideas, and then we submitted and began to work them out, mixing and matching, until we came up with this project. This project came at the right time, as Oando’s development focus is on youth skills engagement and development. So, with what Oando has done with the ‘Change our World’ project in secondary and primary schools to build capacity, interest, and change their world through sustainable models, they found out that building technical capacity for young people as well can further improve their livelihood and improve their opportunities in life.  

We wanted to ensure that it was something that has a direct impact on Nigeria’s economy and environment, and also something that is scalable, allowing us to implement it from one state.  and also end up doing in 36 states, including the FCT. Our relationship with Oando began based on a shared mindset and interest in creating climate-related impact. Under the leadership of Tonia, who was resilient and also understood what she wanted the foundation to achieve between us, we were able to come to a common ground. However, I will attribute this more to the Oando team, as they were very strategic and knew exactly what they wanted. They provided us with all the support in building the strategy, program, and even designing the budget, all the way down to the programme’s launch.

How do you intend to measure the impact of the programme and ensure its sustainability?

The impact of this programme is very clear. There are businesses that we have already engaged with, and some of them were in that programme. They were going to take the youth that we are training, and that’s our placement. When we wanted to start, we didn’t want to just conduct training and then claim to have trained 100 youths, only to find that there was no placement. The most creative part of this project is the placement.  So, the placement means that we needed to work backwards from the answer back to the question. The answer is that it was important for us to fund businesses ready to off-take the kinds of skill sets that we have. While we were designing the criteria for the types of people we wanted, we also designed the criteria for the kind of businesses that we think these youths should intern with, and at the same time, continue to sustain their jobs.

So, we have businesses that are already taking all the people we are currently training. All 25 of them already have places where they will be sent. Based on our own research and assessment, there’s a skill gap in the technical aspects of their work. For the renewable energy sector, you might think that it’s not a problem, but you will find that it’s challenging to find genuinely qualified individuals who are interested in maintaining, managing, and running field projects. With this program, many renewable energy companies and non-renewable energy companies were already stating that they had solar projects and needed maintenance personnel. So, we are ready to uptake. In fact, one company said they were ready to take up five, but we said, ‘No, you can’t take five, worst case scenario, you can take two.’ We have found multiple businesses, but these youths will first do an internship with them.

We see another relationship building, so we put them in an internship after the training, and we’ll also continue to follow up with the host businesses to understand how their behavior and attitudes are in the workplace. So, we are not just getting them and leaving them there; we are also going around to check on them, visiting, talking to their employers, and asking the right questions about them. One of the aspects we also observe regarding the sustainability of this project is the interest of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), which aims to scale the project even further beyond its current scope. The fund is exploring how this expansion can enhance engagement in Lagos state. As you can see, sustainability is already evident in this project.

We know that by the time we reach this level, one of the scaling opportunities will be to increase the number after this set, hopefully, and also to expand the location. When you look at the application, it’s interesting to see that large number; it’s also heartbreaking to see that we could only take 25 because we had over 7,000 applications. We initially selected 50, but since the project was signed off and agreed upon based on 25, it was very challenging for us. Additionally, the Oando team was able to make changes. We believe that with this pilot, once we achieve the right fit and gather feedback, an end-of-line report will also be generated. This report will focus on the host businesses that are hosting this talent and the skills we are developing. We see a very good growth. We see opportunities, and we see a very good skill and sustainability model.

Why do you think youth engagement is critical in tackling climate change, especially in Nigeria?

I think it’s very key because every generation has to pass the baton to the next. Generations of investors must build a new generation of investors. Generally, a growing generation in engineering must build a new set. For us, in the climate change space, we see that young people must adopt a different approach to how climate change will be handled in Nigeria. We don’t see typical meetings, conversations, writings, and events without any tangible action. However, what we see is economic-driven interventions within an economic-driven solution model and research-backed solutions. We see investment possibilities around this space. So, it was important that we let our young people not get derailed, to think that climate change is just about protest and activism.

Climate change has a direct, tangible economic impact, and so we are helping Nigerian youths cultivate a positive entrepreneurial mindset to recognise the opportunities that climate change challenges pose to our country every day, including the need for effective policies. We are building capacity from all fronts. We’re building capacity from an entrepreneur’s perspective. We’re building capacity from a finance perspective, from an innovation through technology perspective, and as well, from  policy and government relations perspective, because we know that with the right group of people who share the same mindset around the economic side of climate change, that can help us unlock all the different possibilities that can help us mitigate and as well adapt to all the climate change challenges that we face in the country.

What advice do you have for young Nigerians who are passionate about climate change and want to make a real impact?

I think that for young people who want to make a real impact, you have to understand where your strengths lie. For those who love activism projects, why not go ahead and do your programme? But the most important thing is you have to understand what you’re advocating for, how that affects your country as a whole, and how that also affects the kinds of opportunities that you find in your country. We see a lot of youth advocating for certain kinds of solutions that we see in Nigeria, which will lead to other disruptions and impact economic issues. And so that, again, relies on the fact that Nigerian youth need to really think, they really need to read, engage, and understand how the opportunities in climate change challenges help us improve a growing economy.

I mean, banning might not be the end of the solution, but the core of the solution will be finding innovative solutions that can improve accessibility or opportunities based on either fossil fuel-driven solutions we’re using or improving them to become cleaner and more climate-friendly. Nigerian youth should view opportunities from an economic perspective, whether it’s in policy, activism, knowledge management, research, innovation, finance, or investments. They need to read a little more and ask themselves questions. How does this positively impact us as a country?

So that they don’t continue to follow Western or Global North narratives. I think that if we continue to follow the narratives of the global North, it will have a profoundly adverse impact on our country. However, I believe that Nigerian youth will find cleaner solutions to the multiple challenges that climate change poses to us. I believe that Nigerian youths have the capacity to sustain the work that many pioneers, like us and others within the system, have done over the last decade. I believe that Nigerian youths have the capacity to build dynamic solutions that address Nigeria’s challenges, while also supporting Africa’s opportunities.