By Isa Isawade
A professor of Engineering and Law and an entrepreneur, Dr Dayo Sobowale on Wednesday explained the distinction between skill acquisition and entrepreneurship at opening ceremony of the Osun State University (UNIOSUN)’s training for 2025/2026 session held at the Olagunsoye Oyinlola Auditorium, Main Campus of the institution in Osogbo.
The theme of the lecture was Entrepreneurship Studies and Innovation: Transforming Students’ Ideas into Business Enterprises
The Computer Engineer who was the guest speaker at the event said the topic of the day was a keyword that Nigeria as a nation has missed.
Sobowale stated that: “A lot of people do not understand what entrepreneurship is. People always mistake entrepreneurship as skills acquisition. They are two different things. Entrepreneurship is transformation of an idea to make profit. Once you have an idea that can be converted into profit making, you become an entrepreneur.”
He made a distinction between learning or doing a craft which is skill acquisition and converting the craft or skill into a profit-making venture, saying entrepreneurship is creating an idea to make profit.
He added that the individual might not even have learnt the craft or the particular skill to produce certain product or service, that he may have to employ experts to do it but he is an entrepreneur if he could convert the activity into a profit making one.
Sobowale further explained that a skilled person has the skill but lack idea, an entrepreneur might lack the skill but has the idea and how to convert the idea into profit.
“It is easier to have skill than to have an idea,” he argued.
Having skill, he said, makes one a professional while creating an idea to solve problem and make profit makes one an entrepreneur.
He lamented that because this was missing in Nigeria, we became a nation of consumers rather than producers.
He said difficulty in effective communication made someone to sit down, think and create an idea that brought telephone.
He asked the audience to be focused on creating ideas that make them producers who create wealth and not mere consumers.
He cited an example of China who produces the phones we use and does not allow usage of Google and Facebook in the country because, according to him, China sees them as distractions.
He explained that China generates ideas, produces products from the ideas for others to consume, thereby creating wealth for herself and her citizens.
He added that the same China who does not participate in the World Cup football event is the one who built all the artificial fields used for the World Cup. That, he said, is focus.
“Anything you see today is an idea. After creating an idea, draw out a plan on how to realise it,’ he advised, urging the youths to spend their time on creating ideas that will lead them to success rather than wasting it on endless chatting and pornography watching on social media platforms.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Professor Odunayo Clement Adebooye, in his remarks at the ceremony said the objective of the university was to build minds.
“Our objective is to build minds. The university is not set up to produce artisans. The university is set up all over the world to produce thinkers, so that anywhere you find yourself you will be a problem solver. That is what university is all about. And that’s what we are doing here today. We’ve been doing it every year to make the students see the areas where they can key into the economy and make a difference,” Adebooye explained.
He urged the students undergoing the training to take the advantage of technology and the entrepreneurial workshop to think and create ideas that would bring success to them and the country.
“When mobile phone came to the country in Feb. 2002, the best of phone that time was Samsung blue face, and then you have Nokia 3320, Nokia 3310. Then, there is one that has long horn, Trium. Anybody that had Samsung blue face at that time was envied.
“Who could tell then that at a time telephone will come that will recognise your fingerprint? Who could tell that at a time telephone will come that will capture television signal? Who could tell at that time that at a time you could have a phone that will record voice note, even about 50 meters away, it will capture the voice? Who could tell that time that we will have a phone that will record video and also capture whatever is impossible? Here we have today! Now we have artificial intelligence. Who knows what will come after artificial intelligence?
“So therefore, students find a space in the global field of knowledge. The vehicle of knowledge is moving very fast and people who have the zeal are launching themselves into the global vehicle of knowledge,” the erudite professor of Engineering and Agriculture admonished.
He said the current generation of students at UNIOSUN was lucky to have access to technology and the entrepreneurial programme of the school.
He told the audience that Osun State University had built plants that produce palm oil and garri from cassava without human intervention, urging the wife of Osun State Governor, Mrs. Titilola Adeleke who was the Entrepreneurship Mother of The Day to inspect the plants after the ceremony.
Prof. Adebooye told the participating students: “I want you to take advantage of the opportunity presented by this entrepreneurship training. Don’t joke with it.”
He pleaded with Mrs. Adeleke to thank the governor on behalf of the university for his unrelenting support and commitment to the institution, saying things that bigger universities have not dared, UNIOSUN has achieved due to the enabling environment created by the governor.
Other participants at the programme included the CEO of Abiola Electrical Machinery Ltd. who was the Entrepreneurship Father of The Day, Engr. Abiola Abe; Young Entrepreneur of The Year, Mrs. Rofiat Afolabi; the programme Host and Director of Centre for Entrepreneurship Studies and Innovation, Prof. Adepeju Adigun; Deans of Faculties at the university; the media, and the students from the institution’s campuses across the state.
