The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Interswitch, Mitchell Elegbe, will from tomorrow join 48 other exceptional entrepreneurs, representing 49 countries across the globe, to compete for this year’s EY World  of the Year title.
The yearly event, which runs through June 9 in Monaco, France, is a gathering of Ernst & Young (EY) used to recognise and celebrate global business leaders whose vision and innovation are transforming the business landscape through their inspiring entrepreneurial success stories.
Winners will be inducted into the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year ‘Hall of Fame’ for their exceptional entrepreneurial achievements and also vie for the award at the global level.
Speaking on the award, Senior Partner and EY Entrepreneur of the Year Leader for West Africa, Ashish Bakhshi, said the global event serves as a veritable platform to inspire today’s successful entrepreneurs so they could share their incredible entrepreneurial stories.
According to Ashish, this unique set of individuals is part of the larger collective, fueling the world economy, bringing new business concepts and products to market, as well as creating jobs and wealth.
“On behalf of EY West Africa, I want to wish Mitchell the very best of luck as he joins other top global entrepreneurs to compete for the world title. We, EY Partners and the entire staff in West Africa are proud of his achievements in the business world not only in Nigeria but on the Africa Continent”, Ashish said.
The first and only African to win the prestigious EY World Entrepreneur of the Year award was James Mwangi, the Group Managing Director and CEO of Equity Bank, Kenya.
Other past winners were Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder and CEO of Chobani Inc (USA); Olivia Lum, Group CEO and President, Hyflux Limited (Singapore), Guy Laliberté, Founder and CEO, Cirque du Soleil (Canada), Narayana Murthy, Founder and Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited (India) and Cho Tak Wong, Chairman, Fuyao Glass Industry Group (China).

The Resident Representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) office in Nigeria, Ari Aisen, has said Nigeria needs to efficiently raise revenues and manage its expenditure if it wishes to resolve its debt issues.
Aisen made this remark at an event organised recently.
Corroborating the Debt Management Office’s (DMO) position on the need for Nigeria to address current revenue shortfalls, Aisen said, “The DMO is just trying to do its best in terms of financing the spending needs of the government.
“However, it is very clear that to resolve the debt issue of Nigeria, there is a need to concentrate on revenues and expenditures”.
He further explained that Nigeria’s high expenditure on its low revenue base is contributing to the country’s rising debt.
According to him, “Nigeria’s debt position has deteriorated because the government is spending more than it’s getting in revenues”.
He advocated for fiscal discipline, highlighting it was a major way to reduce excessive spending and ultimately address Nigeria’s current debt position.
“Fiscal discipline requires, as in any household, that you cannot permanently spend beyond what you raise in revenues simply because it becomes unsustainable. You must rely more on your revenues, to finance your expenditures”, Aisen said.
The IMF resident representative tasked Nigeria to efficiently target its spending towards enhancing social welfare and improving the standard of living.
He, however, noted the importance of revenues for infrastructural development, improving social welfare and avoidance of issues relating to Ways and Means Advances.
“The issue of revenue is existential for Nigeria, because on one hand, you need more revenues for spending on social needs and infrastructure that is efficient, but you also need more revenues to avoid having to get financing from the central bank, which is extremely inflationary.
“Therefore, the revenue piece in all this is highly essential for Nigeria to achieve macroeconomic stability, reduce inflation and rein in on the liquidity in the market on one hand, and on the other hand, raise resources to spend properly on efficient spending that will contribute to inclusive growth, creation of employment, infrastructure, health, education and social protection. This is the challenge for Nigeria”, he stated.
Aisen advocated for good governance and efficient tax administration whereby all entities are paying taxes and seeing its impact on national development.

According to him, “the willingness of corporations and individuals to pay their taxes goes hand in hand with good governance and use of funds. One aspect of it is you cannot rely only on a few corporations paying the entire tax bill. Bringing everyone into the net to contribute”.

The President of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA), Eze Mike Elechi,  has solicited for partnership with TotalEnergies on the development of Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the region.
Sir Elechi made this known when he led the Executive members of the Chamber on a courtesy visit to Total Energies in Port Harcourt, recently.
He explained that the objective of the Chamber was to promote growth and development of business activities in a conducive environment in the state and Niger Delta region.
To achieve this objective, Elechi said, there’s the need to partner with Corporate International and national private sector organizations.
The PHCCIMA Boss stated that their Chamber consists of mainly MSMEs and SMEs members representing all sectors of the national and state economy.
According to him,  the partnership with TotalEnergies on strategic MSMEs development programmes will be the needed catalyst in developing viable business ventures across all sectors within the area under their coverage.
Other areas of interest  he mentioned  included entrepreneurship and human capacity development programmes, covering such areas as Agriculture, and ICT.
Responding on behalf of the Company, the Executive Director, TotalEnergies, Obi Imemba, described the visit as a welcome development and expressed their enthusiasm in partnering with the Chamber.
Imemba explained that in keeping with the company’s corporate social responsibilities with their host Communities, TotalEnergies has built plastic recycling plant at Elelenwo Community.
This, he explained,  was part of the strategies of empowering and encouraging local talents and job creation among the youths.
He continued that the Company also sponsors skills aquisition programmes, adding  that partnering with PHCCIMA will boost the success of their programmes.
Highlights of the visit included presentation of souvenirs by both Leaders of the Organisations.

By: King Onunwor