Companies exist to solve customer problems. It requires moving the customers from friction spot (A) to the solution spot (B). I see it as a projectile where you create many trajectories to move from A to B. What happens there is this: there are many paths from A to B, and if you focus on developing a better path, you can find opportunities even in places which have many trajectories.
Let’s say you want to build a new financial institution, you do not follow the path which First Bank pioneered centuries ago, to go from A to B. Rather, you create a new path (like the Paystack guys) to move from A to B, and to a large extent accomplish the same result of providing a specific financial product.
If you have this mindset, you will agree that the greatest company in Nigeria has not been launched, because the possible paths from A to B are infinite – and you can create a better one in any sector than whatever anyone has there.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
They say the insurance sector is competitive in Nigeria (!) even though they have less than 5% penetration. Can you create a new path to fix the friction? Think of electricity, education, etc.
Simply, the best companies in Nigeria have not been founded. And 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 unbounded, unconstrained, and compounding leverageable growth with accelerating returns. Yes, even if they try, the anchored elements upon which they are built cannot enable them to experience that redesign.
Only new species 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], and banks serving less than 50 million unique customers in a nation of about 210 million citizens.
People, the best companies for Nigeria have not been founded. So, begin to #BUILD.
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
Another business wisdom from the Professorrrr!
Our biggest companies can’t still generate $2 billion as quarterly revenue, that tells you all you need to know.