APPRENTICESHIP (IMU AHIA/IGBA BOY)

THE Igbo have a unique form of apprenticeship in which either a male family member or a community member will spend time (usually in their teens to their adulthood) with another family when they work for them. After the spent time with the family, the head of the host household, who is usually the older man who brought the apprentice into his household will establish the apprentice by either setting up a business for him or giving him money or tools by which to make a living. Its purposes were and still remains to spur economic growth and stability, and sustainable livelihood by financing and investing in human resources through vocational training.

This practice was exploited by Europeans who used this practice as a way of trading in enslaved people. 'Olaudah Equiano,' although stolen from his home, was an Igbo person who was forced into service to an African family. He said that he felt part of the family, unlike later, when he was shipped to North America and enslaved in the Thirteen Colonies. 

The Igbo apprenticeship system is called “Imu Ahia or Igba Boy or Igba-Odibo/Imu Oru” in Igbo land which became more prominent in among the Igbos. After the Nigerian civil war, in a quest to survive the £20 policy which was proposed by Obafemi Awolowo that only £20 be given to every Biafran citizen to survive on regardless of what they had in the bank before the war and the rest of the money were held by the Nigerian government.

Petty trade was one of the only ways to build back destroyed communities as well as Farming, but then, farming required time that was not readily available at that moment.

Basically, most people went into trading.

This “Imu-Ahia/Igba Boy” model was simple, it works in such a way that business owners would take in younger boys which can be relative, sibling or non-relative from same region, house them and have them work as apprentices in business while learning how it works and the secrets of the business. After the allotted time for the training was reached, 5-8 years' time, a little graduation ceremony would be held for the Nwa Boy (the person that learnt the trade). He would also be paid a lump sum for their services over the years, and the money will be used to start a business for the Nwa Boy. 

Today, Imu Ahia has grown to become a cultural heirloom in the Eastern region of Nigeria. The Igbo apprenticeship system has produced more millionaires than all the Federal government's poverty allievation systems. Imu-Ahia started because Igbo people needed to take back their futures - futures that were already truncated by the war. Jim Nwankebie, a retired civil servant, tells Stears Business. “When the war ended, people couldn't go back to school or their homes outside Biafra. Petty trade was the only way to build back destroyed communities. Farming was another alternative, but it required time that was not readily available. In the absence of money in the Eastern region, that was the only way money could flow.”

Even as Imu-Ahia grows and is now getting adopted by other tribes in Nigeria, there have been calls for Imu-Ahia to be a route to university credit. This is a sentiment shared by Stears Business journalist Aisha Salaudeen. “There might be arguments that these people have made lives for themselves without the need for University, but as the world changes, so do the dreams of people. An academic program will provide a young Igbo boy that has completed Imu-Ahia choices - the ability to go to the university or a polytechnic while crossing entrance hurdles will provide better quality and well-rounded people.”

To Be Continued...