Objective –  Support civic and business education including citizenship and credit advisory services for economic influencers and local entrepreneurs.

Program approach:
1.    Support a partner to conduct local needs assessment and/or collate resources on identified information needs by the community around government institutions and NGOs, including the Nigerian constitution and economic and development policy;
2.     Develop a website with these resources as well as local, state and federal economic/ enterprise policy and reforms, and seed WhatsApp and Facebook groups with these materials in local languages based on local areas;
3.       Partner with community based organizations in various cities and towns in Nigeria to create online or offline spaces where community members can go to obtain specific resource materials, such as;
          What is expected of them as citizens to keep the government accountable to the law and their policies and mandates
           Who is a local government official and the roles of public officers
     How to start a business and where to access capital and customers
     Where to go if a family member/friend is experiencing debt problems
     Where to get tax forms, building approvals, etc.
     How policy affects them – e.g. What one’s rights are as a tenant, how to be tax compliant, local business and job opportunities, etc.
     How to change local business policy or contribute to economic governance.
4.       Such spaces will be staffed by volunteers and potential influencers who will be trained to understand that their actions can impact the wider population;
5.       Staffers will also be trained to deliver advice in a specific way, what advice is needed in most common requests, and how to refer people to other agencies better qualified to deliver help;
6.       The staffers of spaces will be trained to be able to obtain this information by:
     Searching for it on the internet, already seeded WhatsApp/Facebook group,
     Having it sent to them by another influencer in their network,
     Putting out a call to another local message board, Facebook or WhatsApp group

 

Pilot – Innovative ideas to further the spread and reach of these resources will be supported with an implementation plan and access to funding tied to milestones and benchmarks.

6 thoughts on “INVEST – Innovative Ventures for Economic Stimulus (2018 – 2020)”

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