Mahlania_Flores
Mahlania Flores
My Business Training
Jabir Umar
About Jabir Umar
Jabir Umar is a hardworking visionary and aspiring entrepreneur from Bauchi State, Nigeria. He is pursuing his dream of launching Rahama Block Industry, which will be a comprehensive concrete block-making business designed to meet his community’s construction needs.
Inspired by his father’s masonry skills and equipped with hands-on experience, Jabir is dedicated to creating a thriving business that supplies high-quality, affordable building materials.
His vision includes uplifting others through job opportunities and mentorship, focusing on innovation, excellent customer service, and community development to make construction materials accessible to everyone in his area.
Jabir Umar
Business Goals
Jabir’s business will be built on honesty, respect, hard work, and service. Rahama Block Industry aims to be known for quality products and empowering others through mentorship.
His vision is to offer opportunities to all who work with or buy from him. He plans to provide concrete blocks, interlocks, kerbs, and more. He hopes to create a space where customers, especially local builders and contractors, can find all the materials they need in one place.
Jabir hopes his success will enable him to create jobs and offer apprenticeships, empowering young people in his community to build sustainable livelihoods.
Jabir Umar
Obstacles
Jabir has two years of hands-on experience in block making, gained through apprenticeship at a local company. Guided by a trusted mentor, he has learned to mix materials, use molds, cure blocks properly, and maintain quality.
While he enjoys watering well-formed blocks, carrying them under the hot sun is a major challenge. His greatest obstacle, however, is lack of capital. He needs funding to buy land, machinery, and raw materials, as well as hire labor.
Limited workspace and high transport costs also hinder progress. Though he saves consistently, these financial barriers delay the launch of Rahama Block Industry.
Jabir Umar
Our Partnership
Jabir is seeking mentorship, funding, business guidance, and tools from Leadership Initiatives to overcome financial and logistical challenges and officially launch Rahama Block Industry. He hopes students can help him refine his strategies, manage finances, and attract customers.
With the right support, he aims to purchase a vibrating block-making machine to improve product quality and speed. Jabir envisions providing stability for his family and creates job opportunities for youth.
One of his long-term goals is to become a trusted supplier in Bauchi. A personal dream would be to provide his family with a better quality of life.
My Grant Proposal Presentation
As part of the International Leadership and Business Internship, I collaborated with top development experts to help grow and strengthen my business partner’s infrastructure.
At the end of the program, my team presented our final proposal to a panel of judges from the Leadership Initiatives Grant Committee. This formal pitch allowed us to apply our entrepreneurial skills, showcase our strategic plan, and advocate for meaningful change in our partner’s business.
Our team was awarded a grant that will fund the implementation of our business partner’s plan, providing life-changing support that will expand operations, improve financial stability, and create new growth opportunities. Over the next year, this grant will help transform the future of their business and improve the quality of life for both the entrepreneur and their community.
My Grant Proposal
Throughout the program, we worked closely with Jabir Umar to gain a clear understanding of their business goals. Though Jabir has leveraged their skills and years of experience to create their business, they face obstacles hindering the expansion of their work.
Guided by their vision, we crafted a proposal detailing the infrastructure materials that would support the growth of their business. We devised a plan that would allow Jabir to optimize their business through a new budget and financial tracking system.
This new budget enables Jabir to allocate funds toward essential materials and equipment, supporting the optimization of their services. Effective financial tracking will be crucial for managing growing profits and preserving assets, ensuring the business’s long-term growth and stability.
Internship Highlights
Our business development journey began with a one-on-one Zoom meeting with our partner, Jabir Umar, and our Nigerian project coordinator. This initial conversation laid the foundation for strong collaboration and helped us better understand Jabir’s background, family, goals for the business, and the specific challenges they were facing.
Hearing directly from Jabir gave us the insight we needed to begin brainstorming practical, personalized solutions. Each morning, our team held focused discussions to refine our ideas, reflect on expert advice from the day before, and adjust our timeline to move our plans forward efficiently.
Throughout the process, on-staff project coordinators and business development experts guided us, helping us ask the right questions and turn our ideas into meaningful, actionable strategies.
I had the unique opportunity to visit the New Zealand Embassy, where I gained insight into the role of diplomacy in fostering strong relationships between New Zealand and the United States.
The embassy functions as a center for international collaboration, working with partner countries and global organizations to address pressing issues such as poverty, gender inequality, and climate change. Through this visit, I learned how diplomats engage in meaningful dialogue and policy development to create sustainable, people-focused solutions.
Officials from the New Zealand Embassy shared how they partner with local communities to identify needs and implement programs that empower individuals and strengthen long-term development. This commitment to community-driven impact inspired my team and me as we worked to develop our own business proposal focused on creating lasting change.
During my visit to the Embassy of Mongolia, I explored how diplomacy shapes international cooperation and development. The experience provided a deeper understanding of the embassy’s role in promoting peace, fostering economic partnerships, and addressing shared global challenges.
Embassy representatives discussed how their work supports cross-cultural exchange, advances policy priorities, and strengthens relationships between Mongolia and the United States. I learned how embassies serve as bridges, connecting governments, communities, and organizations to create innovative solutions for global issues.
This visit broadened my perspective on international leadership and inspired me to think critically about how collaboration, cultural awareness, and strategic planning can drive meaningful progress, principles we applied while developing our business proposal.
Throughout the internship, our team had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with top experts in business and economic development from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
One of the highlights was a session with Carla Brooks, Business and Development Officer at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. She gave us a crash course in marketing and advertising, breaking down the key elements of what makes a campaign actually work. Her insights helped us think bigger and more strategically about how to position our partner’s business for success.
With support from Ms. Brooks and other global leaders, we sharpened our ideas, refined our strategy, and built a powerful pitch deck to present at the end of the week. Their guidance helped us take our business proposal to the next level creating a plan designed not only to launch a venture, but to transform our business partner’s future.