By Onyekachi Victoria Philip
The name MUSIAD may not be familiar to many Nigerians, but the Turkish organisation has built a major network of businessmen, entrepreneurs and companies with activities extending beyond Turkey.
MUSIAD, which stands for Müstakil Sanayici ve İşadamları Derneği, is known in English as the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association.
It was founded in Istanbul in 1990 by five young businessmen and has since grown into an international business organisation with members and business networks across different countries.
Today, MUSIAD says it has more than 14,000 members representing nearly 60,000 businesses, with an international network spanning dozens of countries. Its stated mission includes promoting production, entrepreneurship, business ethics, sustainable development and the expansion of its members’ trade capacity.
But MUSIAD is not simply an association where businessmen meet.
The organisation operates as a platform for business cooperation, international trade, investment, market access and networking. It organises business meetings, foreign trips, trade activities, seminars and meetings between its members and international business delegations. It also provides members with information on foreign markets and commercial opportunities.
Its international structure is particularly important.
MUSIAD’s overseas organisation is responsible for developing branches and representative offices outside Turkey, strengthening relationships with international organisations and helping its members develop commercial relationships in foreign markets.
The organisation says its overseas activities are also designed to strengthen economic, political, social and cultural links between Turkey and host countries.
This international business network is where MUSIAD’s earlier relationship with Nigerian tourism entrepreneur Otunba Wanle Akinboboye becomes significant.
How Akinboboye became connected to MUSIAD
The documented relationship dates back to December 2016, when Akinboboye’s Motherland Beckons entered into an agreement with MUSIAD in Turkey.
At the time, Motherland Beckons was being used by Akinboboye as a platform to encourage Africans in the Diaspora and lovers of Africa to visit the continent, invest in it and potentially return to establish themselves there.
The MUSIAD partnership as part of the wider activities of Motherland Beckons, which had already attracted bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding covering tourism, entertainment, culture and business.
The agreement was therefore not simply a courtesy visit between a Nigerian tourism entrepreneur and a Turkish business organisation.
It was a formal attempt to build an economic bridge between Africa and Turkey.
The Africa-Turkey Trade Centre
One of the biggest developments to emerge from the agreement was the creation of the Africa Turkey Trade Centre, ATTC.
According to reports on the partnership, Motherland Beckons and MUSIAD jointly formed the ATTC, with its headquarters in Konya, Turkey, and corresponding offices in Lagos and Accra. There were also plans at the time to establish offices in 53 other African countries.
The proposed network was designed to connect Africa with the world through Turkey and Turkey with Africa.
This gives a clearer picture of what Akinboboye was trying to achieve through the MUSIAD relationship. It was not only about bringing Turkish tourists to Nigeria or promoting African tourism.
It was also about creating a channel through which businesses, investors and entrepreneurs could find opportunities across both regions.
The partnership also placed emphasis on trade and technology transfer between Africa and Turkey.
Reports on the agreement stated that the ATTC was expected to facilitate trade between both regions while creating opportunities for the transfer of technology and knowledge.
The MUSIAD partnership therefore gave that vision a business component by connecting it to an established Turkish network of entrepreneurs and companies.Education and tourism were also included
The partnership also envisaged educational programmes around tourism and entertainment development.
This meant that the proposed relationship was expected to create opportunities for people in both regions to learn from one another and develop skills connected to the tourism and creative sectors.
For Akinboboye, this was consistent with his long-standing position that Africa’s cultural resources could become economic assets if properly developed.
MUSIAD, on the other hand, brought a business network through which such ideas could potentially be connected to entrepreneurs, investors and companies.
Culture was another major part of the agreement
The relationship between Motherland Beckons and MUSIAD was also designed to encourage cultural exchange between Africa and Turkey.
The Konya meeting of January 2017
In January 2017, the relationship moved beyond the initial agreement.
Under Akinboboye’s leadership, Motherland Beckons took a delegation to Konya, Turkey, where business interests and exchange programmes between Africa and Turkey were discussed.
THISDAY also reported that the event formalised the relationship between Africa and Turkey following the December 2016 agreement between Motherland Beckons and MUSIAD. The report said the three-day programme involved business interests and exchange programmes, with deals also discussed.
The President of MUSIAD was present, alongside 35 African ambassadors in Turkey, while the Governor of Konya was also involved in the programme surrounding the opening of the Africa Turkey Trade Centre.
The Africa Turkey Trade Centre was officially opened
The opening of the ATTC headquarters in Konya became one of the major highlights of the January 2017 programme.
The event was attended by MUSIAD’s president, 35 African ambassadors and the Governor of Konya.
Akinboboye used the occasion to restate his commitment to African development through tourism, culture, entertainment, business and mutually beneficial trade and investment opportunities between Africa and Turkey.
The event therefore demonstrated how the MUSIAD partnership had moved from a signed agreement into a physical platform intended to support Africa-Turkey interaction.
Business opportunities for African investors
Another important part of the relationship was the attempt to expose African investors to business opportunities within the MUSIAD network.
Reports at the time stated that thousands of business opportunities available through MUSIAD could potentially be financed by high-net-worth individuals and company executives in Africa and Turkey.
This was linked to Akinboboye’s wider Business Bridge initiative, which encouraged Africans in the Diaspora to invest in small and medium-sized businesses in Africa.
The objective was to shift the Diaspora conversation from simply returning home for tourism to also investing, establishing businesses and participating in economic development.
The Konya programme also produced an unexpected cultural development.
Artists from Akinboboye’s Atunda Entertainment worked with Turkish musicians, leading to a musical collaboration between African and Turkish performers.
The Africa-Turkey Music Amalgamation, ATMA, emerged from the January 15, 2017 opening event of the ATTC in Konya, where Akinboboye and the MUSIAD president were among those present alongside 35 African ambassadors.
The musical collaboration therefore became another example of how the original business relationship expanded into culture and entertainment.
Akinboboye’s relationship with Turkey went beyond MUSIAD
The MUSIAD connection also formed part of a wider engagement between Akinboboye’s Motherland Beckons initiative and Turkish tourism and cultural interests.
Reports from the period documented further Africa-Turkey activities involving tourism and entertainment, showing that Akinboboye was attempting to establish relationships across several sectors rather than limiting his Turkish engagement to one business organisation.
This is important because MUSIAD was not an isolated name in his Turkey activities.
The importance of MUSIAD in Akinboboye’s story becomes clearer when the events are placed against the background of his Motherland Beckons initiative.
Motherland Beckons was built around the idea of encouraging Africans in the Diaspora and friends of Africa to visit the continent, discover its opportunities and contribute to its development.
The MUSIAD partnership gave that idea a stronger international business dimension.
Instead of looking at tourism only as a means of attracting visitors, Akinboboye was also looking at how international business networks could help create trade, investment, technology, education and cultural opportunities.
That is why the 2016 agreement with MUSIAD remains an important part of the history of his continental-building activities.
Its current structure includes overseas branches and representative offices, while its international organisation focuses on helping Turkish businesses develop commercial relationships abroad and building institutional relationships with organisations in other countries.
The organisation also runs MUSIAD EXPO, a major business exhibition designed to bring together companies, investors, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, chambers of commerce, business associations and representatives from different countries.
This explains why an organisation such as MUSIAD can be important to African entrepreneurs.
It provides a network through which companies can explore markets, meet potential partners, obtain information about foreign markets and participate in international business activities.
In December 2016, Motherland Beckons and MUSIAD entered into an agreement aimed at strengthening economic and cultural connections between Africa and Turkey.
That agreement led to the proposed Africa Turkey Trade Centre, with a headquarters in Konya and offices planned for Lagos and Accra, alongside ambitions to expand the network across Africa.
The partnership was designed around trade, technology transfer, tourism, entertainment, education, investment and cultural exchange.
By January 2017, the relationship had moved into a major programme in Konya attended by the MUSIAD president, African ambassadors and Turkish officials, while the opening of the ATTC provided a physical platform for the Africa-Turkey business relationship.
The same programme also produced the Africa-Turkey Music Amalgamation, showing how the relationship crossed from business into culture and entertainment.
For Akinboboye, the MUSIAD relationship was therefore consistent with the larger idea behind Motherland Beckons: to use tourism, culture, entertainment, business and investment to build stronger connections between Africa and the rest of the world.