The richest man in China makes and sells bottled water. Yes, Zhong Shanshan is ahead of Alibaba founder Jack Ma  on the mantle. Bottled water has brought an estimated $94 billion empire to him, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He is also the 7th richest person in the world, well ahead of Warren Buffett and Google Co-founder, Sergey Brin.

People, who says a pure water manufacturer in Nigeria cannot ride to the mountaintop? Now, you can understand why the government should not be selecting winners with preferential treatments here and there. Even the techies must not have it easier when benchmarked with those packaging groundnuts. For all the vibes of Chinese technology, the king is a bottle water man. That tells you where the real beats are.

Yes, besides coding, there are many ways to ride to the top; I made that same point in a well received article in the Harvard Business Review a few years ago.

• Chinese billionaire Zhong Shanshan is the richest person in Asia.
• The 66-year-old billionaire, who chairs both bottled water company Nongfu Spring and vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise, made more than $70 billion in 2020.
• Zhong’s lifestyle appears to be much more low-key than that of Asia’s previous richest man, Mukesh Ambani, who’s known for living in a reported $1 billion home and mingling with Beyoncé and Hillary Clinton.
• Zhong is known as the “Lone Wolf” and rarely makes public appearances or speaks to the media.
• He lives in an apartment in Hangzhou’s Xihu district, which borders the city’s scenic West Lake.(source: Business Insider)

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In Nigeria’s case, we kill one to save the other. We wanted rice farmers to succeed, so we needed to close the borders and kill off any business that relies on land borders to survive. And in order to keep the herders and their cows happy, we need to sacrifice the crop farmers and their farmlands.

To keep the BDCs in business, we need to kill the naira, so by creating multiple exchange rates, we can mint new millionaires by mere roundtripping. To ensure that no part of the country grows faster than the other, we need to kill innovation and meritocracy, while scaling mediocrity.

To send every kid to the university, we need to kill quality, just erect buildings and name them universities and then keep the fees low; only to mass produce illiteracy.

Is there a sector where we are not killing something to give life to the other? This is Nigeria’s story, a story of people with misguided notion of what essence of existence is.

Do not be in a hurry to blame it on politics or a particular group, most creatures here have warped and pitiful understanding of what it means to live, rather than mere existence.

If we spend more time in reflection and introspection, maybe minds can be liberated and elevated.

Something to remember.

No company does it better. Join me to congratulate portfolio Eonsfleet Prosolutions Limited for finalizing its next generation technology to digitise and optimise the logistics value chain across Africa and provide support to growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the supply chain and logistics industry.

Today, our solution, Eonsfleet Logistics Control Tower Solution, delivers seamless, end-to-end integration and visibility of all resources and assets across a company’s distribution network, and beyond. With the tower, your assets are visible, anywhere you have them located!

Congratulations to our CEO Tokunbo Olaitan Arannilewa who continues to lead this company from one phase to another. And to our team, gboza.

Unless you can measure it, you cannot improve it. Talk to Tokunbo for a roadmap.

The business icon of corporate boards, and a leader in capital markets, who has written cheques of hundreds of $millions, investing and funding companies, across Africa, is coming to Tekedia Live, the live session of Tekedia Mini-MBA. Yes, Toyin F Sanni – Business Leader Gamechanger Investment Banker is coming to discuss AfCFTA and effects on companies & SMEs; more details in the Board.

We also confirm that a Mastercard’s Director is scheduled on payment and fintech. I will begin Tekedia Live this Saturday, and then we will begin to make the schedules available in the Board.

Tekedia Institute – learn from the best!

Good People, to those who flew Vetifly (uber-for-helicopter) today, thank you so much. We are truly honoured that you joined us as we begin a new history in global business. Vetifly is a category-king business and we are so excited to fix frictions in markets, through premium services in the domain of transportation and logistics. The Victoria Island – Ikeja route is live; more routes are being added.

Please go and download our app. here

I will be home very soon and together, we will ride.

In a world ravaged by COVID-19 pandemic and divided by multilateral interests, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment as the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has come with daunting tasks. As the first woman and the first African to occupy the position, she is confronting a world that is expecting gender and racial statement.

Her confirmation as the DG of WTO was delayed due to the objection of the past US administration. Former president Donald Trump had questioned her qualification to be at the helm of the international trade organization amidst its much needed reforms.

The Trump administration had been critical of the organization’s handling of world trade, alleging bias toward China, vowing to continue to support Okonjo-Iweala’s opponent, South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee, as they believed she has the experience to lead the organization and effect the needed changes more than her Nigerian counterpart.

A statement from the US Trade Representative, which advices President Donald Trump on trade policy said Yoo had “distinguished herself as a trade expert and has all the skills necessary to be an effective leader of the organization.”

Apart from multilateral conflicts among the members of the organization, there are also irregularities that the United States said are stymieing international trade.

“This is a very difficult time for the WTO and international trade. There have been no multilateral tariff negotiations in 25 years, the dispute settlement system has gotten out of control, and too few members fulfill basic transparency obligations. The WTO is badly in need of major reform,” US trade rep added.

From conflicting international economic interests, US-China trade dispute, to COVID-19 vaccine distribution, Okonjo-Iweala is inheriting a WTO full of challenges that will put her qualification to the test.

WTO has struggled to maintain conflict-free international trade since it was created in 1995. Recent trade spat between the US and China is a loud example of the organization’s many internal crises. The 164 members have failed to reach consensus on many multilateral trade fronts, particularly, opposing interests of world leading economies.

Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged the need for reform in the organization.

“It feels exciting and it feels daunting at the same time,” she said during an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. “I look forward to the challenge … deep reforms are needed to rebrand and reposition the organization.”

The needed reform is among the reasons it took long for the Geneva-based body to appoint a permanent director-general after Roberto Azevedo abruptly stepped down last year August, creating a-six month leadership vacuum. Trump was counting on Yoo who he believes has the trade experience to steer WTO to the right direction.

In defense of US’ challenge to her trade qualification last year, Okonjo-Iweala said her career spans across many fields including trade.

“I am a development economist and you cannot do that without looking at trade. Trade is a central part of development. So, I have been doing it. My whole career at the World Bank, I was working on trade policy reform in middle and low-income countries at the bank,” she said.

Outside trade, the disparity in vaccine distribution due to alleged hoarding by developed countries has become a concern that needs urgent attention.

Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters in an interview that her priority would be to ensure the organization does more to address the COVID-19 pandemic. She described the disparity as “unconscionable”, urging WTO members to lift export restrictions on medical items.

In her pool of experience as a two-time Nigerian finance minister, a 25-year veteran of the World Bank who worked herself up to the level of managing director. She was also special envoy for the World Health Organization on COVID-19, and the former chair of the board of global vaccine alliance Gavi.

Okonjo-Iweala was globally endorsed for the job, having the support of European Union, China and a host of other countries across continents. Her confirmation has been hailed as the game-changer in the conflict-stricken international trade.

Experts believe her most daunting task will be to bring China and US to the same page. But there are other pressing issues of international interest.

The WTO is yet to reach a consensus on the issue of waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 drugs, because it is opposed by rich countries. There is also the issue of fisheries subsidies that spilled over to 2021, due to the organization’s failure to reach a deal deadline by the end of 2020.

Okonjo-Iweala has described facing the challenge as “Reforming the Unreformable”, making reference to her book about reforming Nigeria’s broken institutions, but added that she can solve the problems.

“I feel I can solve the problems. I’m a reformer, not someone who talks about it. I’ve actually done it,” she had told Reuters.

The Harvard alumnus has won the support of many in and outside the WTO to succeed. Former WTO chief Paschal Lamy described her as “a good choice”, saying she has the experience, network and temperament of trying to get things done.