Okay, thinking back, last week, thursday, I attended a programme, organised by the Nigerian Consulate office in south africa for Investors wanting to go invest in Nigeria.
The programme included a speech from the Ambassador of Nigeria to South Africa, One from the Consulate-Generale... of the same office, and then one from 3 top executives from three South-African companies investing in Nigeria.
The first two were very impressive. For someone who left Nigeria a couple of years ago, I'm always eager to hear of news from/about home. The speech were filled with sweet tales(or information) about the riches and reasons for one to invest in Nigeria, most of which One must have heard before. There were new ones about the natural reaches of Nigeria, which made one shake his/her head, considering the manner in which Nigerians seem to be repelled rather than be attracted and attached to the wealth.
However, the touching part of the programme came when the foreign investors gave thier speeches about Nigeria. Firstly, A Manager(Nigerian) from a consultant firm(Philips, of who's origin i'm not sure of)gave a detailed and well researched talk about the pros, cons, barriers and other aspects affecting the posibilities of investement opportunties for South African companies in Nigeria. This was followed by a presentation by the present Network Manager of MTN South Africa, who was formerly working in Nigeria, a Presentation from the CEO of Johnnic Inc. (A multi-media bizz co.) and then by SVC(A transport and Logistics company).
The passion with which these fellows spoke was very interesting. They were able to talk about Nigeria in a way, a lot of Nigerians can not. For a period of time, I saw a group of people, foreigners, who have gone to Nigeria, talking about Nigeria.
Many of my movement through africa has given me the encounter with All forms of Africans. They mostly do have something or the other to say about the Nigeria. Without going into the contents of thier comments, they are mostly un-educated comments.
They were not just trying to woo the investors. They were very practical. They did talk of the pros and the cons. The problems present in Nigeria, which is mostly the lack of a dependable utility provision, bad road and communication systems.... and so on. But then, they talked of the potentials of the country. Of why they would invest so much money that, it will take them 8-10 years to get any return on investment (in the case of MTN-Nigeria). And if the information given at the talk was true, Makes me wonder why I should slave myself away for another man's land when foreigners can see so much potential and hope for my country. They did talk of thier fears, owing to the politically unstable past of the country, as well as the very different people in the country. But after working for a couple of years, the results are very promising.
Brian, the Johnnic Inc. CEO runs the Johnnic under Johnns communication group of companies, the same one that owns the South african sunday times. The Johnnic in Nigeria is currently involved in the sales of movies in the form of VCDs and is distributing for Numetro, Warner bros(if i'm right) and a couple of other companies. He gave a short story about thier success in Nigeria. He was very particular about the fact that, what worked in South Africa, and many other countries normally doesn't (won't) work in Nigeria. A typical example is that of selling imported dvds and music disks. These normally go for an amout of $10.00 and in South Africa for about R100.00. In Nigeria, the equivalent cost of that would be around 2000.00-Naira. Why would anyone buy that when you can get the pirated one for 200.00 Naira? The Johnnic company, on getting to Nigeria, were faced this problem. To solve it, they focused on marketing the advantages of buying an original product, and working hard to mark the price of a vcd(of an international movie) down to about 260.00 Naira. The company had to undergo many more 'out of the box' thinking in order to have a ground in Nigeria. The issue of road-side markets also had to be properly considered as compared to an all-supermarket sales which is the norm in other parts of the world. After 3 months of production in Nigeria, the success rate of the company is something the CEO is very proud of.
The examples given by the other presenters showed people who were interested in Doing business in Nigeria. They did thier homework- proper market research before venturing into the business. They were very practical about the Nigerian issues and thus, they were successful. The MTN-Nigeria was able to make more money than they've made in any other country in thier business history.
There are still many markets left untapped though. Issues like the transport system,which, could still be a complete duty of the government for upkeep/upgrade is in a pity state. Many of the potentials of Nigeria as a nation are kept in that potential state due to clamping and clogging factors like transport, as well as other infrastructures. Hope lies in promises and projects in the way by the present government to solve these issues.
In as much as the programme was eye opening and spirit lifting, I hope to draw on the courage and insight of those people in fueling my aim to go back home. But first, I must finish this Masters Thesis!, so I'm back to some more C++.
