Despite the data on the downward trend in the country’s inflation figures, prices of food commodities have continued to rise. Some with as much as a hundred per cent increase. Getting by has become ever more difficult especially for the more than 80 million Nigerians who are below the poverty line. In his October 1, 2021 speech, the President again mentioned that it is realizable to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty but many Nigerians still contend with extreme poverty amid much Federal Government’s poverty alleviation schemes. It could get worse in 2022 with the planned complete removal of petrol subsidy even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had projected a single-digit inflation figure by mid-2022.

Coping mechanisms is something Nigerians know all too well. Irrespective of the state of the economy, they find ways to cushion its effects. Many have ditched brand consciousness and gone for cheaper alternatives when shopping. Others have taken up extra employment or set up side businesses to get by. For some, it’s all about withdrawing past savings and living on them. Irrespective of the coping mechanism employed, one phenomenon that cuts across is that individuals and families have lowered consumption. The general reaction to rising prices has been to cut back on food, clothing and entertainment expenses. This can have negative effects especially in health, nutrition and even quality of education for children.

Not being able to keep up with needs can affect mental health; many have also reported that financial pressures are causing extreme difficulties in their lives. For the country, inflation has decreased international competitiveness. It has been reported that foreign direct investment in the country fell to its lowest in 11 years in 2021. Nigeria also currently ranks 131^st out of 190 countries on ease of doing business. All these continue to exert a significant negative impact on economic growth which is further hampered by recurrent banditry and kidnappings.

Between January and August 2021 alone, there have been more than 100 cases of kidnapping and attacks on mostly rural communities and settlements. Northwest and Northcentral are the worst hit while we still battle terrorism in the Northeast. There is also separatist unrest in the Southeast where more than 150 Police officers and civilians have been killed in 2021 alone. Abductions have become prevalent, more than 1000 people have been abducted from schools in 2021, many released after ransoms were paid. It is unprecedented in the country’s existence.

The Federal Government has spent more than 8 trillion Naira in the past seven years yet terrorists and bandits have so far managed to resist military operations. Beyond acquiring military gadgets, the government must clamp down on corruption at all levels, it must also improve intelligence gathering and policy execution.

Long-term strategic investments in human and infrastructural development must also be consolidated. The Local Governments are essential to the wellbeing of the people, therefore, there should be concerted efforts to strengthen local engagements where it matters.

The realities of inflation and insecurity have heightened hostility towards a government already accused of grossly underperforming. The only means of regaining favourable standing is through the pursuance of policies that can bring about positive and timely change.

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I want you to ponder on this: Aliko Dangote is worth about $19.2 billion. He is up by  $1.44 billion since Jan 2021 in this year of the super-rich. Then the big one, according to Bloomberg: Dangote  holds $3.48 billion in cash!

In the Igbo Nation, my best Igbo author, Tony Ubesie, in Isi Akwu Dara N’ala will call it the tree which produces money as the leaves. If you read that novel, he described Chike as the man who controlled industries. Yes, big trees which produced money as the leaves. Ada, his wife, had messed up in the heat of the Biafra War, but Chike was back.

(Ubesie was a great novelist but many would not know because he wrote in Igbo and died young at 44 with limited works. His Ukwa ruo oge ya o daa was quintessential. In Okike, which Chinua Achebe edited, Ubesie and FC Ogbalu, brought the significance of analogy in Igbo literature. Holding a piece of Okike while in FUTO as an undergraduate engineering student was like understanding Igbo literature before Pita Nwanna wrote Omenuko. The great ones have gone indeed!)

People, Dangote Cement is a tree which is producing money as the leaves. If not, how can a man have $3.48 billion  in cash in Nigeria? This is a real financial anointing! You can get a part of it by reading my book on him. You need to plant a new type of tree and the leaves will produce cash.

Invent, innovate and drive organizational transformation, performance, and growth. Capture emerging opportunities in changing markets while optimizing innovation and profitability. Digitally evolve your business or functional area, turning digital disruption into a competitive capability and advantage. Master the concepts of building category-king companies, and thrive.

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It has to be viable for it to have any chance in the market. And how minimum you keep it before you bring the product-hypothesis for the market to validate is ideally the first important decision you are making as an entrepreneur. Why? The MVP (minimum viable product), if not viable, will fail!!! So, the validity threshold is a big call.

Every business idea there is largely valid but not every idea is viable. And that others are already executing that idea must not mean that no opportunity exists therein.

Here is the deal: there are many routes to travel from Lagos to Abuja. Each of those routes will offer different things on time of travel, safety, cost, etc. Simply, you can attack an existing problem with new ideas, and if you do well, your moment has arrived.

You got a business idea? Great – but is it viable?

Comment on LinkedIn Feed

Comment 1: Interesting! Thanks for sharing Sir.

This is similar to what I wrote on my wall earlier in the week about what characterizes Startups. They don’t necessarily have to create something new, they can work on existing business model and create innovative ways to adapt it to suit market problem (s)

Rather than trying to benchmark the big or successful businesses, they can carry out research on what is working in the market, if there are loopholes, fill them with your solution(s), or create cross related services within same market since the existing model already works.

This will help maximize the company’s chances for Success. A typical example is Twitter, without Jack Dawson creativity and problem-solving skills Twitter would never have been born. There is need for quick and reversible decision-making skills, comfort with failure because failure can be a useful learning experience and it’s important to have people on board with you who thinks in similar way.

Comment #2: “They don’t necessarily have to create something new, they can work on existing business model and CREATE innovative ways to adapt it to suit market problem (s)”.

If the assumption here is that modifying an existing technology or business model doesn’t equate to something new, then it’s a bit misleading. This is why you often see people dissing at multi-billion dollar companies because the said companies are modified versions of something else and hence not “original”.

The process of modifying or altering an existing business model or technology also begins with an idea and that idea has to be viable in relation to it’s mission and vision because once you alter something, it’s no longer what it used to be and as such, you have created something entirely new, albeit based on an existing framework. Copycats just as much as originals, fail all the time. It doesn’t really matter. So, copying and modified something that already works doesn’t necessarily increase or decrease your chances of success.

Nevertheless, I get that the point he’s making is that ideation is originality agnostic which I concur with.

Comment #3: Personally, I think there’s a better way to approach innovation than conventionally looking for ideas or viable ideas.

Startup founders, by convention, often seek out ideas first and then spend millions later to define the mission, not that there’s anything wrong with it, but I think the opposite should be the case. This way, you will need less luck because innovation will be influenced by the character of the mission rather than the probability that you will find a viable idea. Hunting for ideas should be for the purpose of expanding perspective on the mission. Missions, although robust, are still concrete, but ideas are versatile.

Instead of hurtling through space-time in search of viable ideas, innovators can just establish a mission and seek out ideas within the boundaries of that mission. Say, “I want to end world hunger, what goes?” A mission may have a lot of width and depth, but your chances of finding viable ideas within a defined mission is better than just hurtling through the boundlessness of reality in search of ideas that are viable. By the time you’re done solving the math within a defined mission, a lot of things will be very clear to you.

What do you think?

My Response #3: “Instead of hurtling through space-time in search of viable ideas, innovators can just establish a mission and seek out ideas within the boundaries of that mission. ” – I think you may be referring to that wasteful venture of assembling people together in a hub and tasking them to come up with a business idea to pursue. They call it Innovation Hub or whatever. I do not believe in that.