The best companies in Nigeria have not been established. If anyone tells you that all the opportunities are gone, respectfully ignore him or her. If Nigeria is operating at its optimal productivity level, its GDP should be $3 trillion (well above the current $500 billion). If you do the math, it means Nigeria needs 6X multiples to attain equilibrium. About 90% of the companies in Nigeria today are not wired for that type of leverageable growth. Yes, even if they try, the anchored elements upon which they are built cannot enable them to experience that redesign.
Only new species of companies will provide that growth under new tenets, driven by new business models, energized by new policies. Hope you get the point why our insurance sector has less than 2% penetration, electricity companies deliver darkness to more customers than light, potable clean water nonexistent, using 65% of workers to produce hunger, [add your list].
People, the best companies for Nigeria have not been founded. Yes, they have not. It is safe to blame customers. But I take you back to the 1990s when new generation banks came, and brought many citizens to believe in banking services. We need that type of redesign in insurance, water services, electricity, education, healthcare, and more. The companies that would make such to happen are scarce today!
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I wrote yesterday how South Africa spends an extra $100 billion on its budget despite having less than 30% of people compared to Nigeria. Named Ndubuisi which is about life and the promises of the future, I remind ALL that we can make that Future amazing!
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The companies have not been founded, but to stand a chance, effective education is fundamental. The talent supply is currently weak and virtually nonexistent, so it’s not a given that Nigeria currently boast of talents who can create and grow those transformational and profound companies, within. It may not be too obvious from the surface, until you decide to go big on something.
What we call education here needs a complete rethinking and re-engineering, to be able to produce builders, managers and experts at scale, and not complainers and amalgam of small-minded school leavers.
The more time wasted, the more complicated it gets; to have a great 2050, the work should start right now, and not in 2035. Reality does not care about your feelings and wishes, it is just what it is.
One is out there, Dangote Group.
We need ten more of that Group’s exploits.