The last time I visited Lagos, I spent good time in Oshodi market. I also took a bus to Yaba. I wanted to see Lagos and understand the evolution. The fact is this: nothing has changed that much. You have a higher chance of making money in Nigeria offline than online. In other words, for everything you do, you must have an offline strategy because the customers are still offline. You are not running a business in Nigeria if all you have is internet-based strategy. The customers and most of the richer citizens are not here.
In this video, I explain why you need to think less of what you get from Silicon Valley. UNWIND and be real; Lagos is not New York. No Director General in any government establishment will take you serious if you do not come in person. And I promise you that no one will respond to any email to the info@ unless you have written to congratulate them for doing a great good. In that case, they will respond to thank you. But anything business must be in paper and blood. That is where we are today.
It is irrelevant if your app runs on low bandwidth, your website is pure HTML or you can make the video download faster on a slow network. You are just pursuing a very small percentage of your potential customers.
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This is what I suggest: get offline, go and build a business. You can mix it, to serve today’s customers while you plan to serve the evolving digital ones. But being purely digital, for most businesses in Nigeria and expecting to see success, is an illusion.
Nice write up sir. Thanks for the insight. I have learnt about having the proper offline-online strategy mix to succeed in today’s Nigerian/African business.
Absolutely – a hybrid or as you noted MIX is the game plan
Nice write-up Prof! Entrepreneurs needs to be enlighten on the fact that his business does not have to be in Ikeja mall to sell. I must generate a businessidea that solves a local need, with people willing to come to me in my neighborhood to get it.
Awesome. Local needs indeed
Hello Ndubuisi, this is an amazing perspective and I am happy to read you on this. There is this subconscious assumption that anything put online is available for worldwide reach. While the percentage of people online are quite huge, it is nothing compared to the capacity of what we have untapped offline.
Thanks again. You have provided insights that will inform further application of know-how. Know-how is important but know-what is more important for strategic direction. You have enriched the discussion on retail omni-channel strategy.
Thank you Udu. We need to go where the customers are today while mapping our ways to handle the future trajectory.
I can’t thank you enough for this article. I’m just on the verge of launching my startup. This information is invaluable. Thank you very much sir.