Corporation for Economic growth Among Muslims in Nigeria.

1. Corporation for Economic growth Among Muslims in Nigeria. Major drivers: Islam rural transformation job creation youth empowerment rural growth financial inclussion Jubril A Salaudeen

2. Focus on Muslims in Nigeria vis-a-vis emerging economy country experiences specifically Brazil, China, India and South Africa • Informed by the Current positions of the Muslims in Nigeria and the huge un-taped reserves • Aim: - to help to look at the solution to make us and the generation behind us better Muslims. To engage the Government on Rural Transformation in Nigeria - to inform the development of Proper Islamic empowerment in Nigeria. Presentation

3. Very few papers discuss religion and empowerment and religion and microenterprise.

4. Rural societies of Brazil, China, India and South Africa comprise 25 per cent of the world’s population • They are undergoing a process of change unparalleled in history, whether in scale, speed or potential consequences for humanity as a whole • Such transformation is taking place in a context that is full of fundamental uncertainties: climate change, the impacts of growing scarcity of land and fresh water, the triple impact of the food, energy, and financial crises • This rapid change is creating conditions of enormous risk and vulnerability for rural people ……… • yet new opportunities are emerging linked The Context

5. The process of change is made ever more complex for the Muslims in Nigeria as it deals with the heavy weight of realities: • poverty • inequality and injustice • dual agrarian structures • lack of rights and social marginalization of large groups in the rural population, including women and tribal and indigenous peoples • lack of access to health, education and other basic services • insufficient private and public investment • Despite the challenges we can turn around the tide. The elite must be involved. The rural poor has no voice. The Context

6. Four countries – Four approaches?

7. In the case of Nigeria, statistics from the 2004 statistical bulletin of the Federal Bureau of Statistics indicate a gradual but consistent upsurge in the incidence of poverty from 18.1 million people (28.1 percent) in 1980 to 86.0 million people (88.0 percent) in 2002. The trend also indicates fact that majority of these poor people are from the Northern Agro-climatic zone of Nigeria which is predominantly Muslims, and whose poverty portends intergenerational transmission. This is because while majority of the adults apparently live precariously on the margin of physical survival, the children school enrollment is also very low relative to other regions of the country (see: Nigerian Economic Summit Group, 2002; and Federal Bureau of Statistics, 2005).2 According to Mustapha (2006), such educational disparity started with the Colonial masters in an attempt to create an alternative Anglo-Muslim aristocratic civilization in Northern Nigeria. Informing a framework for transformation

8. For this type of transformation to occur, we identified an agenda based on four pillars: • Significant and continued investment is needed for inclusive, sustainable and diversified rural development to occur • Need for the right governance systems, institutions and policy processes • Need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public policy and programmes • Transparency in Policies and Implementations The rural transformation envisioned is about human development, as opposed to simply the development of assets

9. 1.Reducing poverty and inequalities, not only those inherited from past policy decisions and social structures, but also the new poverties, gaps and inequalities being created by the process of rapid change itself ( engage the government) 2. Ensuring food security, accelerating agricultural development, and securing a relevant role of and opportunities for small-scale producers and family farmers in national, regional and global value chains ( investment in Agriculture) 3. Creating more and better jobs and economic self-sufficiency in rural areas, including in small towns and intermediate cities ( Government/ Awqaf) A. The imperatives for rural transformation

10. 4. Stimulating the growth of rural towns and intermediate cities and strengthening the links between them and their rural hinterlands ( Technical schools/Cottage industries) 5. Managing the complex and sensitive issue of rural–urban migration ( Education) 6. Meeting the climate change and environmental challenge, enhancing environmental services, making much more efficient use of scarce natural resources such as land and water, promoting renewable sources of energy that can only be created in rural areas, and leveraging a green agenda for new jobs and sources of income for the poor ( Functional Education) The rural transformation imperatives (cont.)

11. 7. Securing universal access by rural populations to basic public services including education, health, housing, fresh water, electricity, transport and communications, with improving quality standards 8. Developing land reform and land tenure systems that balance objectives of social equity, economic growth and environmental sustainability, and that can evolve rapidly as many young and better-educated people join new non-farm rural jobs or out migrate 9. Securing widespread access to efficient and sustainable financial services and capital, without which the benefits of the rural transformation cannot be realized in full The rural transformation imperatives (cont.)

12. 10. Promoting innovation, research and development focused on the needs of rural people and rural producers and firms, and making much better use of the opportunities offered by the ICT revolution 11. Putting in place social support schemes including cash transfers, pensions, employment guarantees, and subsidies for the most vulnerable that secure the basic human dignity of every rural dweller The rural transformation imperatives (cont.)

13. Sadeq (2006) classifies poverty into hardcore and general poverty. Accordingly, he stated that the former refers to the degree of poverty in the context of the concepts of miskin and faqir. General poverty on the other hand, refers to a situation in which a person's residual wealth after meeting his and his dependents‟ basic needs is less than the zakah nisab. Interestingly, Rahman (1974) as cited in Ahmed (2004) argued that in Islam, an improvement in the material well-being of individual impacts directly on the spiritual well-being; which also explains why poverty is detested because according Sadeq (2006), it is a social and ideological evil “Poverty alleviation would be easy if it was only a matter of ‘bricks and mortar’ projects and of spending more money, but we know that this is not the case” B. Poverty and the Role of the Ummah

14. The term ‘rural’ is no longer synonymous of agriculture or food production • Rural includes small towns and intermediate cities • Rural people include much more than male farmers • The agro-sectoral rural lens of the past needs to be urgently replaced by a place-based lens that recognizes inter-connections between places at national, regional and global levels • Rural development does not live in the shadow of urban development - instead rural development calls for a deliberate investment in rural social and economic infrastructure for the growth of rural economies Major governance, institutional and policy challenges

15. The challenge of coordination across government levels (from central, to State, to local) and across sectors (agriculture, education, health, environment, infrastructure and so on), and across and between market, state and civil society actors • The challenge of building the capacity of accountable local governments • The challenge of private–public partnerships, particularly when there is no/limited private sector available or willing to join in partnership Major governance, institutional and policy challenges (cont.)

16. The huge challenge of the most disadvantaged regions and social groups, like the tribal areas, badly lagging regions and the rural destitute • The continuing challenge of refashioning gender relations on the basis of equality • The challenge of strengthening civil society processes and structures so that they can better contribute to and be drivers of rural transformation Major governance, institutional and policy challenges (cont.)

17. I will like to propose a few quick fix; • Let us be Muslims and forget the small organisations that has taken us to nowhere • Let us keep the associations and have a narrow focus on Key specifics ( Health, Education, Agriculture etc) • Form investment clubs and commence cottage industries • Lets us strengthen Monitoring and Evaluation of government projects and how it relates to us. Quick Fix

18. Let us think tanks among us that will review • PR Machines that works • Heavy focus on the rural areas, women and the Youth • Better understanding of impacts of agriculture policy of large emerging economies on local, regional and global socio-economic outcomes and on other agriculture outcomes (production, trade and nature of farming) Call for shared learning

19. Rural finance and financial intermediation models e.g. mutual guarantee groups in China • Engage the private sector in rural transformation • Funding raising mechanisms for our programs and projects must stop • Policies that enable rural migration • Setting up of marketing cooperatives • Deployment of highly skilled scholars to the rural areas • A change in the curriculum of Grade 2 / NCE and MadrasatSylabus • Efficient Islamic Micro Finance Institutions Call for shared learning

20. Thank You Discussion End of Presentation