PRESENTATION OF EXPLORATORY PROPOSAL FOR THE SETTING UP OF AN EDUCATION GRANTS PLATFORM UNDER THE GENERATION90 EDUCATION ENDOWERMENT FUND(GEEF)

Good day Ladies and Gentlemen,

My presentation will commence by listing the problems, challenges and/or constraints facing the GEEF Program. You would also be patient with me while I also list the problems that will militate against the success of the proposal if it is to be implemented.

The proposal is in numbered sequence to allow for item by item deconstruction as may be required:

  1. GEEF is faced with expanding requirements and dwindling and/or insufficient resources.
  2. GEEF targets for students to support are not being easily met.
  3. GEEF outreach to G90 outsiders has not been hugely successful.
  4. Emerging from the immediate successes of the GEEF program and the above-listed challenges, it is believed that it is time for Generation 90 to set up a crowdfunding platform to connect needy students to sponsors, mentors, and supporters.
  5. What is crowdfunding? Crowdfunding (a form of crowdsourcing) is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, today often performed via Internet-mediated registries, but the concept can also be executed through mail-order subscriptions, benefit events, and other methods. A digital excursion on the internet will bring you to crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, NaijaFund etc.
  6. I asked the Welfare Officer who has kept the GEEF Program alive what he thought militates against the raising of funds from the public in Nigeria and this was his answer. “The success of such a platform in Nigeria these days is narrow due to the fact that many people have come to know that fraudsters hide under the guise of NGOs to defraud people. For obvious reasons, a call to such aid may not yield expected results but one can equally give it a try.”
  7. I read this message off our WhatsApp group,” Good day all pls here is a reminder: this is August and our GEEF Appeal Cards should be returned by the first week of December 2016. Thank you”
  8. To best tackle all these and meet or surpass our set goals for GEEF we must innovate. We have been gifted with tools to explore our world far beyond boundaries ever imaginable and we must take full advantage of these tools to advance our cause. G90, through GEEF, having shown that it is distinctly possible to intervene in the academic pursuits of indigent but intelligent students and pupils should, using its past successes as a springboard, evidence of competence and proof of concept, reach across to millions of people and organizations across world to help poor  Nigerian kids have access to the education that will provide them with the tools to survive in an ever increasing and competitive knowledge-driven world. If ISIS can recruit for evil from anywhere in the world why can’t we recruit for good?
  9. GEEF can create a crowdfunding platform for example ( www.edugrants.org) where students who need help can be listed and public-spirited individuals and organizations who believe that by giving, humanity is served to connect to them. These sponsors, supporters or mentors may choose to fully sponsor listens or contribute a token to the general fund that will be administered by GEEF. The platform will contain past success stories, ongoing interventions, list of waiting for students, list of supporters or sponsors and a payment channel for seamless payments. The finer details of the management will be dealt with later as it is not the intent of this presentation to delve into that.
  10. To tackle the issue of integrity and skepticism by the Nigeria public and even the international community we must be ready to deploy and showcase our proof of concept and evidence of success, expertise and experience, contact and network, integrity and endorsement from entertainment stars like Julius Agwu, Kanu Nwankwo, Francis Duru and others that we may have access to.
  11. Today with our GEEF cards and the Welfare Officer working to seek out students we have access to only as many persons that are known and approached by the 32 members of G90 and the numbers of schools the Welfare Officer and his GEEF committee can reach. But with the platform and the internet, we can reach 3,424,971,237 people who have access to internet across the world with 86,219,965 of them in Nigeria.
  12. We may, as we prepare to upgrade our website, consider bundling this platform with it or request for expert advice from our prospective web designer.
  13. The question is can we do it, yes we can. Should we do it, yes we should.
  14. My personal take on education interventions is that they should be repayable grants or loans other than outright scholarships. This allows for sustainability and
  15. Questions, Questions