Air Peace, United Nigeria partnership reflects benefits of business cooperation – Okonkwo

By Dickson Omobola Executive Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Professor Obiora Okonkwo, has said the Igbo entrepreneurial model must be reformed, not discarded, to remain competitive in today’s global economy. Okonkwo, who was the facilitator at the 2026 Annual General Meeting of De Imperial Philanthropic Family in Lagos, delivered a talk titled: ‘Recalibrating the Igbo Entrepreneurial Model for the Emerging Global Economy’.

He said although the model’s strengths, including individual initiative, self-reliance and a long record of commercial success, remained valuable, the challenge was not to abandon the traditional model but to recalibrate it. Okonkwo’s first proposal was to reformulate the Igbo apprenticeship system to equip apprentices with competencies in digital commerce, financial technology, data analytics, artificial intelligence, international marketing, business management, intellectual property and export procedures.

He advised that these competencies should be added while retaining the scheme’s practical, mentor-based character. He criticised universities that conduct research without considering how it could be commercialised, arguing that academic institutions needed closer ties with industry. He also urged enterprises to create opportunities for young people to contribute ideas and encouraged businesses to keep learning and experimenting to ensure indigenous firms remained dynamic.

He further proposed closer exchanges between universities and markets to enable academic knowledge to complement skills from the informal sector. On recalibrating the Igbo entrepreneurial model, Okonkwo said businesses must collaborate more instead of engaging in unhealthy competition and rivalry. He said that although individual initiative remained a strength of the tradition, the complexity of modern production made collaboration essential.

He pointed to shared production facilities as a way of reducing the costs that small and medium-sized enterprises would otherwise bear individually. He said: “A typical example of collaboration is my relationship with my dear friend and brother, Allen Onyema of Air Peace. This provides a practical illustration of an alternative approach. Many expected us to engage in bitter rivalry, but we rejected that and have developed a mutually beneficial and worthy partnership whose significance has resonated within the aviation sector.

Collaboration can create opportunities for partnerships and shared growth. Very soon, you would be able to buy Air Peace tickets and fly United Nigeria Airlines with it. These are the kind of things collaboration among us can bring because there is more to gain than to lose.”