Stakeholders have tasked entrepreneurs and marketplace leaders to build on their capacity while also maintaining ethical practices in their transactions towards advancing the economy of the country.
The call was made over the weekend at the 2025 Marketplace Leadership Conference organised by Maime Foundation in partnership with The Metropolitan Church with the theme: “Diplomatic Kingdom Affairs – Dynamics of Personal, Corporate and Organisational Diplomacy.”
In his address, the host, lead steward of the Metropolitan Church and executive director of Maime Foundation, Manasseh Dogon (the disruptive marketplace mentor) said the conference is with the vision of harnessing, developing and coaching marketplace leaders, corporate executives, innovators and emerging entrepreneurs on economic development.
According to him; “The essence of this conference is to be able to mentor and to be able to give perspective to entrepreneurs and marketplace leaders, to be able to understand how the dynamics of power function, how to be able to understand the power of diplomacy, how to be able to engage in negotiation on certain business tables.
“This conference will help us to develop, reinvent ourselves, to develop our capacity mentally as leaders in order to be very efficient in our respective industries and systems. The problem of Africa is that most of us look at ourselves as an inferior race based on the reflection of our colors. When it comes to the negotiation table, you must understand the difference between you and a white man. The difference between you and another person is just the skin.
“When it comes to taking decisions, you must understand that we are all part of the decision-making process. We must understand that regardless of you being a black, a Nigerian, a Kenyan, a Ghanaian or coming from Togo, it does not reduce your capacity. As leaders, we have to believe in ourselves and what we are capable of doing as leaders. We must learn to understand the strength of policy, that we are part of the table.
Dogon, who lamented that leaders in Africa are yet to accept the importance of personal reinvention, called for more investment capacity development.
“We cannot be able to administer our position as leaders if we don’t understand the importance of recognising how strategic we are in leadership.
“Now, when talking about business from a global perspective, we must understand that the function of ethics has been so underrated by Africans. We are not ethical. When it comes to being ethical and understanding how to relate to the corporate system, we are not ethical. We are not men of our word. We say one thing that will mean another.
“These days, you cannot even trust certain Christians with certain deals. Years before now, you can have an agreement with a Christian and you will go and sleep. But now, you cannot anymore. You have to back it up with prayers and everything.
“So our responsibility in this conference is to be able to teach us how to be very ethical in our approach to business, understanding the biblical principle that emphasizes doing to others as you expect them to do for you. And as leaders, I believe that being ethical is going to help us to be able to understand how to be able to engage leadership and business globally.
“When you get to understand that there are certain premises you get to as a businessman and as an entrepreneur, you require more than just your skills. You must understand how to engage the principle of ethics, how to be very ethical, how to mean what you say, how to say what you mean. In the words of Jesus, say, do unto others what you expect them to do for you.
“The future of the change that we’re expecting in Africa, in Nigeria, and around the world is dependent on us, on how you’re able to adhere to ethics and the importance of your capacity in advancing the economy of the nation.”
