The best companies in Nigeria are yet to be founded. When someone tells you that the opportunities are gone, respectfully smile and ignore. If Nigeria were to operate even at the barest optimal productivity level, our GDP would be no less than $3 trillion. Today, it hovers around $500 billion (take your number, some will say $300B). Do the arithmetic – we need at least a 6X redesign to attain equilibrium.
Unfortunately, about 90% of our existing firms are not wired for that type of scalable growth. Their foundations, no matter how polished, were built on fragile anchors incapable of carrying the weight of a new economic order.
It will take new species of companies to deliver this growth – institutions designed under new tenets, energized by fresh policies, and structured with business models that can compound prosperity.
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Look around: insurance penetration is still below 2%, electricity firms illuminate more darkness than light, potable water is a luxury, and agriculture employs 65% of the workforce yet produces hunger. Add to the list: education that is not educating, healthcare that is undercare, logistics that delays, and financial inclusion that excludes. These dysfunctions are opportunities coded in problems, waiting for innovators.
History gives us a blueprint. In the 1990s, new generation banks emerged. They redefined trust, expanded access, and brought millions of Nigerians into the formal financial system. That redesign was catalytic. Today, we need similar rebirths in insurance, power, healthcare, water, food systems, and education. The firms that will execute this renaissance are still scarce, but they will come – bold, mission-driven, and re-engineered for leverageable growth.
Do you know that South Africa’s stock exchange is about $1 TRILLION larger than Nigeria’s? Do you know that South Africa spends close to $100B more in its national budget than Nigeria while carrying less than one-third of Nigeria’s population. That is the divergence we must correct?
My name is Ndubuisi, meaning “life is the first promise of the future.” And I remind all: Nigeria’s finest companies are still unborn. And they should arrive to redesign sectors, unlock abundance, and make that Future amazing.
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