Across sectors and regions in Nigeria, let me remind you that we are still at infancy in nearly all of them. In other words, the opportunities are still there in our largely inventive societies. From my simple calculation, the capability parity value, after considering the resources in the nation, points to a GDP of at least $3 trillion. But we are less than $500 billion right now. You know the implication? Every value and opportunity can be multiplied by a factor of 6. That is how I see our nation – and that motivates me.
The best companies for Nigeria have not been started. If you look at Dangote Group and you think it is big, just note that it remains a company within a $500 billion economy. There are opportunity-moments for $2.5 trillion space available. If you look at banking and you think we have max’d all opportunities, I will remind you that Nigeria’s largest bank by market cap, GTBank, at less than $3 billion, is a huge testament that our banking sector is still at infancy. The big buildings should not fool you – the Nigerian banking sector has not reached up to 10% of its natural value even though First Bank may have clocked a century! Yes, in those years, no one has pioneered a credit system which is a legal money multiplier in an economy.
Why must you have 100% of cash before you can buy a car, build a house, go on vacation, send kids to school? Nigerian banks have not received the memos. Sure, no credit system is in place for them to build – and you cannot blame the banks; banking remains the most innovative sector nonetheless. But the fact that the credit system has not been done makes my point: opportunities abound ahead and the future is one of abundance.
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.
We have no electricity, we have no roads, and we have an educational system that needs redesigns. If less than 8% of measurable adults in Yobe state can read and write, it means in Yobe state alone, there is a huge market on education. More than 37% of farm produce are wasted yearly, reminding everyone that preserving the little we produce could have real impacts on our agriculture sector and the wellbeing of our citizens. In aviation, the airports are so few that you wonder what we have been doing for decades. Yes, you fly from Lagos to Owerri, and you have to drive five hours to get to Ohafia. You fly from Abuja to Lagos, and you have to drive hours to northern Ekiti state.
Simply, Nigeria is an opportunity because we have not even started. Do not allow any human being to confuse you: every market opportunity in Nigeria is a fair game to compete right in and win. We are still at infancy and the best companies in this nation have not been started. Yes, tons of free range chicken opportunities that can come with no disruption.
Yet, it is not always necessary for a company to disrupt for it to grow. To explain that disruption is not always required for growth, I will use free-range chickens, found in most African villages, to create an analogy. A free-range chicken “is a bird that is allowed constant access to the outdoors, with plenty of fresh vegetation, sunshine and room to exercise”. As a teenager, I grew some and it was a very good business.
[..]
I want us to consider the need of creating new markets in Africa even when we are not disrupting any firm or sector. It is not always that one has to disrupt, but it is mandatory that one has to create, in order to find growth. My free-range chicken blossomed by finding its own paths and at the same time did not participate in any competition for my time. It used its creativity to survive and grow without disrupting (yes, disturbing) any person.
In the past, I have listed the business opportunities in this nation – they remain.
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
Am glad to be opportuned to hear this . We will keep developing capability and find grounds to maximize our resources to lift this nation out of poverty to properity. Thanks for this sir .
This is an eye opener. A lot needs to be harnessed in the Nigerian economy.
We are never good when it comes to numbers, and that’s why we keep congratulating ourselves, thumping our chests, as though we have even achieved 20% of our potential as a people.
We need at least 1000 universities now, but how many do we have? Less than 500, but many people already believe the number is too much, because they cannot make sense of numbers. How many airports do we have? Still less than 50, yet 100 airports won’t be enough; just imagine if 40 million unique Nigerians are flying, obviously we will be in trouble.
Our biggest problem is a faulty visioning capability, and a modelling construct that plans for future as though it will be same as today, without considering the population growth that is geometrical here, and that’s why our paralysis is always permanent, because we never had any robust expansion plan in our modelling.
If ten million couples produce a child each per year, it means we can easily add another 10 million Nigerians, and in another 40 years, we are heading over 300 million; where are the schools, roads, airports, houses, energy, foods, hospitals, to take care of this number?
While you are at it, there are millions outside here, including foreigners waiting to join us, once Nigeria rises!
Vision builds nations. We need to dream BIGGER. It is very painful that Owerri and Enugu are only 2 airports in SE while in SW, remove Lagos, you are out of luck. Then in SS, out of PH, Uyo and Calabar, what next? Then move north, it becomes even more challenging that to fly, you may have to drive hours just to get to airport. Everywhere – you will see infancy in markets and sectors.