Mustafa Bello Foundation for Small Enterprise Development (MBFSED)

The Mustafa Bello Foundation for Small Enterprise Development (MBFSED) was conceived and Incorporated in the year 2000 as a Non-Governmental, wholly Private Sector Oriented, Organization (NGO) to provide Business Development Services (BDS), Technical and Financial Assistance to the low income, economically active, rural poor population for Small Scale Enterprise (SSE) development and drive the Financial Inclusion Program of Government to the rural poor and the under-served.

About MBFSED

MBFSED initial operational base is in Niger State, with its office headquarters located in Minna, the State Capital while its pilot program started in Kontagora the home town of the Founder, Mustafa Bello, Engr., FNSE.

It planned to grow its schemes organically within the State (Niger State) spreading into States contiguous to Niger State as a deliberate policy of achieving significant out-reach to the rural communities. This mode of spread will ultimately reach as many States of the Country as possible.

Our Aims

Is to improve the culture of Entrepreneurship in Niger State in the initial instance and in Nigeria in the ultimate, extending entrepreneurs’ professional knowledge to the ignorant and the un-exposed and enhancing the competitiveness and power of Small Enterprises in rural and Semi-Urban areas.

To strengthen and scaling up the capacity of the capacity of those SSE’s that remain on the non-profit sector, to facilitate their economic prosperity, profitability through access to small facilities (or Credit, Capacity Building, Skills development, etc) and inviting the attention of political leaders and decision makers to the class that are least in access to opportunities and the minority groups.

To mobilize awareness to these ignorant groups in new areas of opportunity through test plans and pilot programs that will expose many others to new means of survival.

Our Current & Future Line of Products

Capital Leasing

Clusters of 11-persons with one as the group head, Meeting once every week and at which meeting information sharing is exchanged from both the Foundation and the beneficiaries for regular monitoring. It may be most cost-effective to organize the group of 11 from same Ward as the project progresses but the 1st Cluster of 11 should be diverse so as to use that to train leaders in each Ward.

The maximum we shall start with in facility advances shall be N30,000.00 per head and all Members of the Cluster MUST guarantee each other to be sure they know each other, they trust each other and will work as a team in harmony with growth as their future plan. Upon one year cycle of successful relationship the facility is scaled up to N40,000.00 per head and by the 2nd year of another successful relationship it is scaled up to N50,000.00 per head interest free only subject to Service charge (to part fund the cost of management) and Insurance to secure and support the Capital asset. This program is already running with 6-Clusters made up of 66-participants to date.

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Capital Asset Leasing

(Refrigerator, Freezer, Wheelbarrows, etc)

The Foundation notes that costs of Refrigerators/Freezers of recent have gone very high as such may not present a very good business case unless a more detailed study is undertaken of its viability, however;

Wheelbarrows leasing on Daily Facility program can be explored on pilot basis under Secured Lending Program designed by the Foundation to assist those youths who hire such equipment for goods movements within markets from beginning of the day to the closure of the market by evening to get them self-employed or even be in position to generate their own capital to own one or more.

Clusters for Responsible Boys

Research by the MBFSED of facilities advanced the Male categories by other successful such projects (Grameen Bank of Bangladesh as a very good example) revealed that the default rates are extremely high, nearing 77% - 90% as such extending such support facilities to the Male class may be wasteful. However, the MBFSED designed same type of “Cluster” Plan for the male groups to test that as another window of extending support to identified very serious such groups fully secured by personal Guarantees and collaterals as identified below;

• Yan Taula (Wheelbarrows water vendors) that move about Water in 20-Litre jerry cans as a Cluster to also benefit from the Capital Leasing program but under Secured Lending and not exceeding N30,000.00/head to enable them to construct the vehicles and purchase the containers enough to support the Cluster members rotate use in turns.

Animal Rearing

(Home backyard) Group/Cluster-based facility, in any of the following formats;

• Cows (for Diary development), Sheep, Goats (2-female + 1-Male), etc., We will study how this can be started on pilot basis to drive both interest and explore success.

• Within house poultry, another test project under review and study for the best model given its potential high risks associated with such projects from previous experiences by others (not MBFSED).

Value Chain development products

Groundnut Oil processing (Mangyada), Sheanut Butter processing (Mankade) & other Value Chain development products in a Cluster of 11 persons (As designed and stated earlier). The market for the Sheanut Butter would first need be identified first to guarantee the feasibility of the project.

Zobo (Soborodo)

Zobo (or best known as “Soborodo” in Hausa) Processing into packaged drinks value chain.

Daily facility Program

Under this Program that is designed by the MBFSED to enable individuals receive between N5,000.00 daily to higher amounts (for persons who, for example, purchase Bread from bakery to sell and return the amounts advanced by evening) to those who need to scale up their capacity to support Mini-Restaurants meet the daily food requirement of a particular zone that may require about N15,000.00 daily, MUST have to deposit a collateral equal in value to 2-3 times what is being advanced and it must be an asset that belongs to that person and can be converted into cash easily upon establishment of default or abscondment. Such a person must sign to an undertaking that the asset he/she is tendering truly belongs to her/him and that he/she authorized (Set Off) that should such a situation occur MBFSED is allowed to auction to recover the facility including all charges and deliver and excess to the beneficiary of the facility.

Types of collaterals to be tendered as Security:

Motorcycle, TV Set, Jewelries, Bicycle, Mobile phone, Market shop Documents, etc as the Foundation may deem suitable or appropriate or both.

Community Bakery

To develop Community Bakery (For about 10-100-Members); This shall require a more rigorous analysis in terms of feasibility, team leadership and guarantees to be advanced to enable the project to be supported.

Other Products and Services

The Foundation shall open itself up to new ideas advanced by proponents of any BDS support or as may emerge from practitioners of the type of Business the MBFSED is into as situations dictate from time to time in the global business space to help uplift the living conditions of our rural and ignorant poor who possess so much zeal and hidden skills unknown to them but for the kind of the BDS support the MBFSED and other similar organizations keep rolling out.

Profile of our activities

To drive inclusiveness, MBFSED engages in consultations with communities and Women leaders in designing Plans and Programs to meet the needs of the people.

This is driven by the Business Development Services (BDS) and the Technical and Financial Assistance Services (TFAS) Programs as clearly spelt in the Home page.

As an outcrop of the Business Development Services (BDS) Program.

To continue to develop new Products and Services within the scope of the Design Parameters of the MBFSED

Our Main Target Group

Women, Family Businesses that are challenged with stagnation; Youth Startup Programs; Niger State in the initial instance and other State Citizens in the ultimate, Collaborative engagement with other NGOs locally and on a global scale.

Scope of our Services

Financial Assistance Program
Professional Consulting, Lobbying, Monitoring

Financial Assistance Program

Wealth creation: Or addressing the challenges of Poverty that will lead to its ultimate eradication, will depend on some carefully designed economic growth plans and strategies befitting to both the rural, semi-urban and the urban economically disadvantaged. Labor-intensive agricultural practice supported by Machine power enhances agricultural growth as an essential element in drives for poverty reduction and is further driven generally by access to both agricultural innovation and successfully designed and developed route-to-markets programs. Access to markets requires adequate infrastructure and an environment that allows urban demand to be efficiently transmitted to rural suppliers. In this process Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) are essential drivers of growth in this direction. MBFSED is exploring with partners the best options to bridge critical market failures faced by SMEs in accessing financial services, route-to-market opportunities and the unavailability of business mentoring through Business Development Services (BDS) Programs and Access to Finance Opportunities.

Professional Consulting, Lobbying, Monitoring

MBFSED has developed overtime, diverse knowledge and experience in consulting and monitoring the appropriation of funding given to enterprises on several occasions for performance measurement purposes. We carry out many other projects associated with Community Developments, and we examine whether monies are spent in line with the aims and regulations of the program, and we sum up our experience in reports. Indeed, the entire idea behind the “Ward Development Projects” Program practiced by one of the previous Niger State Governments emanated from the ideas of our Founder on “Wards Administration & Development” Plans which is designed to bring both Governance and Development to the ignored rural poor and integrate them into the Semi-Urban and the Urban Development Programs of Governments. The Program renews the Governance Structure of the Late Premier of the Northern Region of Nigeria under the “District Officers or DO’s” Model with an advanced mode added to its operations using Technology and Digital Transformation Planning (DTP) integrated into it.

MBFSED had created a methodology and a workable culture and practice around the financial needs of the poor, and created Access to Finance facilities on reasonable terms enabling the poor to build on their existing skills to earn a better income in each cycle of trading facility advanced.

Our Trading Facility gives high priority to building Social Capital, innovative thinking and pro-poor growth. It is promoted through the formation of groups known as “Clusters” and Centers anchored by the Cluster Team Leader. To develop a Social Agenda owned by the beneficiaries, for them and with them at the center of it. It gives special emphasis on the formation of human capital and concern for protecting environment. It monitors children's education, provides scholarships tied to a separate program under the Northern Nigeria Development Fund (NNDF) and where necessary student loans for higher education.

Our services may include

To offer collateral-free Access to Finance opportunities whose conditions are not legally enforceable contracts but guaranteed through personal undertakings and group bounded contract that ties every member to the contract of every other member of the group, a process which goes through thorough due diligence of individuals to agree to form such a group known as a “Cluster”. It is a trust-based system and not a legal procedures process or system.

The MBFSED focuses on working with the supported participants in building a Capital base that can further support the inclusion of more participants into the program and projects. Our major concern is identifying persons with integrity to be on-boarded into the program because politics had over time changed the mindset of several rural poor, semi-urban and the urban population to believe that participation in politics is a quicker window for access to free money as a result such people oriented plans and programs end up being viewed in the same mode which makes it even more difficult to just hand over project development funds to individuals without thoroughly undergoing through due diligence and the group guarantee arrangement as the right tools for secured lending.

Capturing Impact

Through our programs, we’re empowering individuals and communities to achieve sustainable growth. Here’s a glimpse of the impact we’re making.

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Transforming Lives Through Proven Programs

Driving Sustainable Change: Empowering Communities Through Proven Programs and Measurable Impact

Our Focus & Strategy

Women Empowerment

Women, in particular those based in the rural areas, happen to be the most vulnerable group of our societies and by coincidence the poorest of the poor. They lack access to resources including Finance, Knowledge, Technology and the usual general support any living being requires. Because of the absence of exposure to these necessities of life, the condition of women became even more adversely worsened.

The consequence is that, for them and their ignorant dependents, life becomes hopeless and compounded by the lack of knowledge of opportunities to Access to Finance and Business Development Services the average life expectancy of such category of Women remains below average. It therefore became imperative on responsible entities (Individuals, Institutions and Government) to invest efforts at liberating this extremely vulnerable group through the type of intervention Program MBFSED has designed to improve their living conditions and move them from the “Poor” state to that of Hope and subsequently, “Prosperity”.

Our strategy is designed around delivering both Access to Finance opportunities along with a Business Development Services Program that helps them in building up Skills and the required Capital as well as properly structured Route-to-Market exposures and opportunities. We are studying the possibility of a structured Production Chain that links one product to another production process so that by the end of the day all the “Clusters” are inter-related supplying diverse products to either a single consumer or a group.

The Mustafa Bello Foundation for Small Enterprise Development (MBFSED) Objectives are, but not limited to:

Empowering rural women economically, socially, politically and thereby promoting sustainable development;
Promoting popular participation and bottom-up approach in Policy Design and decision making;
Investing in Business Development Services: Specifically for developing or scaling up of skills, improving knowledge, promoting culture of consultation in decision making process;
Inclusivity: Giving the rural poor women a comfortable feel of sense of belonging and the opportunity to benefit from the stated opportunities and contribute to the development of Niger State and Nigeria;
Access to Finance opportunities: To enable Access to Financing directly to people at the lower level with the capital needed to establish small-scale businesses,
Exposure to variety of Route-to-Market Opportunities,
Facilitating the creation of employment opportunities at the lowest levels of the society,
Improving the standards of living of the poorest of the society,
Creating, by default, the formation of informal Cooperatives (“Clusters”) that by extension promote development consciousness,
Embedding discussion groups for exchange of ideas and sharing of opportunities,
Facilitate scaling up of economic activities in the rural areas and reduction in rural to urban migration that further impoverishes the rural communities.
Develop a sustainable Model that supports a popular wealth creation strategy and an effective vehicle for successful women’s economic transition, transformation, empowerment and liberation from poverty.

Youth Empowerment Scheme

Statistical reports reveal that a sizeable number of the youth, or of the younger generation, are engaged in informal sector activities as shop assistants, farm hands, clerical assistants, typists, stewards and cooks in homes, hotels and restaurants, in petty street trading and hawking, casual labor providers and, at a disturbing dimension, illegal activities such political thuggery, touting, stealing, armed robbery, kidnapping, dealing in prohibited substances such as drugs, narcotics, and on extreme cases driven by poverty, prostitution. Only a small proportion of youth are engaged in the formal sector, public and private.

Many of them, male and female, are to be found along the streets of major cities, selling apples, oranges, telephone cards, telephone handsets, calculators and other assorted goods. Most employed youth are in the informal sector, some of them as skilled hairdressers, dressmakers, petty traders, etc. A large proportion of youth are thus underemployed, working long hours under poor working conditions, for little remuneration mainly in the informal sector. There are too many youths without the necessary qualifications and training for good productive jobs, too few jobs, and too many unproductive jobs with poor remuneration. The quality of jobs available to youth is therefore important.

Thanks to IT revolution that today provides an opportunity for many of the young to use their handphones and other handheld devices as windows for trading and other productive commercial activities into which the MBFSED has invested and trained some of our younger ones in variety of IT Skills successfully.

Many young women drop out of school because of incapacity to sustain funding the education, teenage pregnancy, marriage or other challenges. Furthermore, girls spend more time doing domestic work than boys, leaving them with less time for study, this leads to poorer performance in school and sometimes withdrawal from school on grounds of poor academic performance. Girls therefore end up with less education and fewer skills than boys, this increases discrimination against them in the labor market a challenge MBFSED decides to take on under its carefully designed programs.

Our focus on the youths and the young shall be to integrate the younger girls into a composite of access to education, access to skills and access to finance program including the “Daily Facility” Program to enable them attend schools, support their parents as well as undertake in some productive activities while for the boys we will sustain and intensify where necessary the Skills acquisition Program availed those interested by the Information Technology Industrial space to acquire Knowledge and Skills that can support them “Grow a Business and Earn a Living”.

Aims & Core Objectives

The MBFSED believes that youth should be empowered to take advantage of the numerous opportunities available in the Business Development Space availed by globalization and overcome the challenges of idleness, redundancy and lack of ideas so that they can make their contribution to the economy through enhanced Access to Financing and more productive jobs and opportunities.

Administration

Governance: Board of Trustees

Engr. Mustafa Bello, FNSE, COREN.Regd

Chairman, Board of Trustees

Bello Mustafa-Bello

Member

Ali Mustafa-Bello