To end poverty, cultivate innovation | Efosa Ojomo

TED Business

TED

Business, Modupe Akinola, Ted Business Podcast, Business Leadership Podcast, Ted Talks Business, Ted Modupe, Ted Talks

4 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What turns a developing country into a prosperous one? For years, Efosa Ojomo has been trying to answer this question. And what he has found – through starting his own nonprofit in Nigeria, doing research at Harvard Business School and writing a book called The Prosperity Paradox with Clay Christensen – reverses many of our existing ideas around aid.

In this talk, Efosa lays out a new approach to fighting poverty that identifies innovation as the key driver of prosperity. But how does one build an innovative business in a developing market? In environments that can be as unfamiliar and unpredictable as they are full of opportunity? Stick around after the talk, where Modupe and Efosa discuss the unique mindset that this type of business requires.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective In their 20s, my parents left everything they
0:10.6	knew in West Africa and moved to the U.S., which led to opportunities, a job, a home,
0:16.7	and the ability to transform their lives and the lives of so many others like mine and
0:21.8	our family back home.
0:23.3	It's like when you get that job and you get a work visa, man, this weight is lifted off
0:29.2	your shoulder.
0:30.2	Yes.
0:31.2	That was Eiffosa Ojoma, who similar to my parents told me that he left Nigeria when
0:36.2	he was 16.
0:37.7	And so figuring out how do I give that to others too, you know, it's critical.
0:43.8	Just like my parents, Eiffosa had a really unique opportunity, but he wasn't sure how to
0:48.6	use it in a way that would meaningfully help people.
0:52.4	So he started reading about aid and economic development, about how to alleviate poverty.
0:58.3	And after a few years in the U.S., he returned to Nigeria to start a nonprofit.
1:02.7	They dug wells, gave out mosquito nets, funded educational programs, but he wanted to make
1:07.7	even more of an impact.
1:10.0	Transferring these resources, providing this aid, it's a short-term fix, right?
1:14.5	We're fixing symptoms of a bigger problem.
1:16.8	And when I did that for a few years, I realized this isn't really working because the goal
1:22.8	is not to just alleviate poverty for a little bit.
1:25.2	The goal is to create prosperity.
1:28.4	It's to make people prosper dignity.
	...

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