You want to scale your business out of Nigeria? Pay attention to countries within the CFA franc currency zone especially in the West African axis. In 2014, 1 CFA franc exchanged for 25 kobo; today, that is about N272 kobo. Yes, the money they use in Togo, Cotonou’s Benin Republic, etc, has gained about 10X over Nigeria’s Naira in a decade. In other words, Togolese, Malians, Chadians, etc, are the new “Americans” as they have a stronger currency, and can buy things at better positioning in Nigeria.
Partly, some of the recent trade surpluses Nigeria is recording is as a result of that. Simply, the trade flow is changing. In the past, we used to go there to buy, but increasingly, they come to us. Of course, I am not sure we have to celebrate this as Nigerians, considering that Lagos’ Eti Osa Local Government’s GDP is possibly bigger than some of the GDPs under discussion here. Period, any trade surplus, within West Africa, anchored on currency deterioration for Nigeria should not be celebrated; we want that surplus to come via innovation.
But as Nigeria reorganizes for that innovation-anchored growth, merchants and businesses must pay attention to these markets. If you develop a market in a CFA franc zone, you can find growth out of Nigeria, because they’re actually buying made in Nigeria products these days.
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We are majoring in minors, but again, there’s no honour in mediocrity. For over a decade now, we haven’t grown one bit, economically; it doesn’t matter what they tell you. All we have been doing is to try to reach our previous heights, before we can qualify for conversations about growth. Our situation is that pathetic, but we make the loudest noise.