Calling: To restore enabling and self-sufficient Structures for the common Good of the People

Jubril Adeojo initiated this research-to-innovation journey with the aim to resolve the burning issue(s) framed around the alarming unemployment rate, widening gender and income inequality, and harsh disregard for the rural communities, forcing famine in Nigeria. His research vocation is to develop, together with his colleagues at CISER, indigenous integral forms of entrepreneurship and banking rooted in diverse cultural systems in the country. This research seeks to contribute towards co-creating sustainable socio-economic development for the common good of the people with a special interest to transform indigenous communities from being Aid-Reliant to Self-Sufficient economies. Other co-researchers include: Dr. Basheer Oshodi, the founder of CISER, who specializes in Islamic finance and developmental economics; Father Anselm Adodo, a driving force in rural communities development and revitalizing indigenous healthcare; Akeem Oyewale focusing on development and financing of youth entrepreneurship; Yusuf Adeojo specializes in financial inclusion towards rural communities development via community banking; and Folusho Titiloye specializes in development of indigenous education curriculum rooted in the Nigerian cultural heritage.

This forthcoming Integral Innovation resonates with, and is fortified by Muhammed Yunus’ saying that “Poverty is not created by the poor; it is created by the structures of society. Change the structures, as Grameen has done, and you will see the poor changing their lives.” The calling is hence to restore enabling and self-sufficient structures for the common good of the people.

Innovation Ecosystem: A local Group of developmentally minded Nigerian Bankers

Through adoption of African Transformative Hermeneutics of the eastern path of Renewal of the Integral Research process the lead researcher uncovered the need to co-join an innovation-driven ecosystem with his brother, Yusuf Adeojo, a co-researcher on this journey, within their immediate community in Lagos. Firstly, they joined CISER to rejuvenate its societal essence through their inner social vocations. They furthe

r joined an activated innovation ecosystem co-created by Father Anselm Adodo in his immediate community, Ewu Village in Edo State of Nigeria. Adodo ensured that the ecosystem is comprised of key local and global figures engaging in a co-creative process to address the burning issues at large. Within the ecosystem, we have the Ewu Development and Education Multipurpose Cooperative Society (EDEMCS) as the steward to identify viable indigenous entrepreneurs in the village, and lead talks with monarchs toward promoting the transformative works of Pax Herbals and CISER. CISER, Heritage Bank (via Jubril and Yusuf) and Sterling Bank (via Dr. Basheer Oshodi) act as catalysts to enable access to the right loans for the co-created and identified indigenous entrepreneurs within Ewu village. In ensuring that identified entrepreneurs are viable and sustainable, PaxHerbals has also formed an integral part of the ecosystem toward co-creating sustainable indigenous business opportunities as well as access to the enlarged market(s) for indigenous entrepreneurs to blossom. Finally, Trans4m leads exogenous knowledge research to understand the voices of the worldviews while CISER and Africa Centre for Integral Research and Development (ACIRD) focus on indigenous knowledge research by working closely with the voices of the locals in the country.

Integral Innovation: Towards Integral Entrepreneurship and Banking Models in Nigeria

Integral Research was adopted as a transformative methodology to give birth to integral entrepreneurship and banking models. Reframing our thought-process and mindset from Trans4m’s Integral Worlds approach, CISER adopted a rounded way of research and social innovation that is shaped around interaction between the four worlds of the South (nature), East (culture), North (science) and West (economy). They further adopted the African Critical Theory as the co-creation and emancipation methodologies on their collective transformative research journey to discover and critically review various exogenous views and forms of entrepreneurship and banking toward co-creating indigenous forms that are grounded in the indigenous cultural literacy of Nigeria and Africa. Through this process, they introduced an indigenous entrepreneurship form called “isejoseneurship” formed out of Yoruba cultural literacy. Ise literally connotes work or task while jose means do together. Isejoseneurship is then defined as a process and system of starting and managing viable and sustainable indigenous businesses in a communal manner towards the common good of the society. This is the collective cause of our innovation ecosystem within Ewu community, to co-create isejoseneurs who will create livelihoods and distribute wealth for the common good of the people in the village.

In addition, CISER has introduced an Integral Banking framework that is centered on co-linking established people and enterprises in excess of funds and other in-kind resources with the relegated indigenous ones in need toward co-creating isejoseneurs via localised elemental banking and modern financing practices across different communities in Nigeria and enlarged Africa. The figure below illustrates the nature and objects of its integral banking framework to co-create isejosneurs in praxis.

Integral Impact: Towards the Co-Creation of “Isejoseneurs”

This research-to-innovation is still work-in-progress, but already led to the re-activation of CISER to marshal the quest to carry out indigenous research rooted in Nigeria to develop locally beneficial socio-economic models. Through this collective calling, CISER, in collaboration with Father Anselm Adodo, intends to further engage with the Ewu village with the goal to co-create isejoseneurs via providing new forms of access to finance, via Nigeria’s Heritage Bank and Sterling Bank.