If you do not know that the Nigerian market is totally different from the western market, then you might be building a business that will fail on day one. While it is good to watch videos from successful business owners around the world, prominent marketers around the globe, it is also very wise to learn from locals. I was a victim of this for a very long time and I learnt from painful experiences. I alienated myself from the African professionals that I took everything that has been taught by westerners hook line and sinker.
This post is to help you as a Wantpreneur and even for entrepreneurs reading this as well. You might have been having setback on sales, progress and growth and you know for sure that your strategies are right. Well, it might be but maybe not for this market. Few things to note;
Freemium Model doesn’t work effectively here: In Nigeria, we’re very used to anything that is free. If your business model is built just like that of Netflix where you put a free package and you expect that with time they’d see a need to upgrade to premium packages, I’m sorry to let you know that you may fizzle out waiting. A typical example is Medium Blogsite. It started out as free then placed a three-free-articles-monthly offer then you need to subscribe to get exclusive contents, a lot of Nigerians with time will abandon your products. I once had a friend complain about why Medium will have to use such strategy and had to quit reading on Medium.
Another good example are apps that give us free features then tell us to upgrade to enjoy better features. Most times, we get comfortable with the archaic features because we don’t want to upgrade. A good example is the jotterpad app I’m using, I can type and edit but to upgrade to more features for a certain amount looks stressful to me.
Aggressive system of marketing works here: If you’ve read Seth Godin, on marketing, you’d want to totally buy the idea of FREE which I did. The FREE strategy works well in the western world where value is appreciated but you will have issues here because Nigerians will want to take you for granted if you’re not smart about it. You will end up being used and not valued in the long run. There’s a way to strike a balance between offering services for free and letting people know your worth, the earlier you figure this out, the safer it is for you.
Services works better than products: The only products that work without having glitches are products that we all cannot survive without. Aside from that, we take products as second option. Service company’s seem to have an upper edge because people are quite aware that they cannot get some tasks done without paying for services. If you can strategize on how you can convert your product offering into a service offering without altering any other profession, the better it will be for you.
With these few tips, I expect that you stay safe in the Nigerian market and not get consumed by the anomalies in the behaviour of the market, understanding that buying behavior here is unpredictable and varies.
Water supply in Nigeria is a topic we don’t hear very often. Today, it is almost an alien discussion when one brings up the issue of water supply in Nigeria in any conversation. Where did we get it wrong? How did we miss the fact that just like electricity, provision of potable pipe-borne water is a basic necessity.
Water is an essential requirement for the survival of every living thing. Water supply is critical to sustainable development and economic competitiveness of any nation. As the human population increases, as people express their desire for a better standard of living, and as economic activities continue to expand in scale and diversity, the demands on freshwater resources continue to grow.
Water can be obtained from different sources including; ponds, lakes, springs, streams, rivers, infiltration galleries, wells, and stored rainwater.
Though, Nigeria is naturally blessed with tremendous water sources, Harnessing this water to meet the provision of clean water for the populace is still an issue. River Niger and River Benue is a national treasure, cutting across the wide Nigerian landscape, not to mention the presence of the endless body of the Atlantic ocean in Southern Nigeria.
A few statistics about water resources in Nigeria can be found in WhatcWash.com. They are quite focused with providing water data from various countries around the world. Ranging from a countrys’ population with access to basic water to her population with without. You will find the statistics quite incredible.
Problem
It is no news that the water from our various bore holes might already be contaminated with faecal matter and other dissolved chemicals such as iron and manganese and a lot of man made contaminants like fuels and infiltration of chemicals from dumpsites. In Lagos alone, there are countless septic tanks and “suck-away” pits surrounding almost every house in any neighbourhood. So clearly, we know that our borehole water is not entirely potable, that is, not totally safe for drinking and even cooking in some cases.
Water borne diseases is still prevalent in the rural areas, while the urban centres rely heavily on thousands upon thousands of sachet water popularly known as “pure water” and bottled water, of which a number of persons have even made choices on NAFDAC approved brands that are good for their health and those that are not according to their own personal judgement.
The menace of pollution arising from improper disposal of the used sachet and bottled water can be seen in various places as they cause environmental pollution and block flood drainage channels.
Possible solution
I was having a conversation with a colleague one day and we were talking about the possibility of a private municipal water provision. Talking about the possibility of people investing in water processing plants. Plants capable of providing pipe borne water to homes. To me, it is a welcome idea. It portrayed an example of thinking outside the box. People spend thousands of hard earned Naira on a weekly basis to buy potable water to mount on their water dispenser. How about a time when fully processed and disinfected water no longer have to come to people’s homes through big cans and bottles but come through pipes and collected with a turn of a tap? I will not say it is not possible. It is possible! Afterall, Iju water works in Lagos still provides pipe-borne drinkable water, maybe not just sufficient enough to go round.
The Future
There are many ways to improve the standard of living of the populace.
John D. Rockefeller started a big crude oil business in the US that thrived, Aliko Dangote is building a refinery that will serve refined crude oil to millions.
Africans must change their minds and action. The key to building your continent depends on your will-power, persistent effort and action towards self liberation. Lailah Gifty Akita
Technology has taken over; ideas now rule the world.
The future of municipal water supply may not be so clearly defined under government policies and interests but how about us?
There is a probable future, a future that can help save the environment, protect lives through proper sanitation, provide employment for the unemployed and avail business opportunity for the entrepreneur. A time great individuals will invest in the business of provision of clean pipe-borne water to every home.
It is no longer news that the rate of unemployment in Nigeria is alarming. Many people who were job seekers had become job hunters, all to no avail. There are so many unemployed graduates chasing fewer jobs. That is the reason why for one open position, thousands of people apply. For those who are busy at work, most of them are underemployed, being underpaid for their services.
According to a former Minister of Finance, Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in 2014, no fewer than 1.8 million graduates in the country move into the labour market each year. A survey carried out by Jobberman in 2016 , estimates that 47% of Nigeria’s university graduates are unemployed. That is so shocking, considering the number of Nigerians that graduate from our Nigerian Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, as well as Monotechnics, each year.
One of the issues encountered by these job seekers- who have become job hunters, is the issue of cheap labour. A research conducted by Stutern in 2016 as part of the Nigeria Graduate Report, showed that 1 out of 4 graduates earn less than N20,000 ($40) each month as salary for entry-level jobs, while over 80% of employed workers earn not more than N150,000 as monthly salary. According to their report, about 36.26% of recent graduates are currently unemployed, 50.09% of the respondents currently working full time (including self-employed/freelance, voluntary or other unpaid work, developing a professional portfolio/creative practice or an internship). Also, about 8.6% are currently engaged in full-time and part-time further study, training or research, while the remaining 5.05% are presently preparing for further study or professional exams.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Q3 report for 2018 estimated the unemployment rate to be at 23.1% and underemployment rate at 16.6%. According to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, it is projected that the unemployment rate for Nigeria will reach 33.5% by 2020.
What are the reasons for the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria?
1. Inadequate Preparation for the Job market : It has become a popular saying, that the reason why most graduates cannot get jobs is because they are unemployable. This sounds absurd, but what if it is true? Most of our institutions do not prepare the youths for the future. Most of these youths graduate with obsolete skills no longer needed in the job market. They are taught with a 19th century syllabus in a 21st century world. Even in an age of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, etc, most of our Computer Science graduates do not understand any of these concepts. How would they, when their lecturers and professors hardly teach with a computer? As a result, we see graduates who do not have any practical knowledge of what is obtainable, as they are so used to theory. Assignments, tests, and exams are still written on paper, when there are computers everywhere! Therefore, there is a skills gap. For those who could not afford the fees to undergo expensive trainings, to re-learn and unlearn, they remain stuck.
2. Nepotism : This is one of the vices that is slowly killing us as a nation. People are no longer employed based on merit, but based on whom they know – connections. Therefore, if one is occupying a top position in government or in a private firm, instead of making the recruitment process free and fair, he/she automatically submits the name of the child, niece, nephew, cousin or even friend, as a preferred candidate. As a result, we see situations in which qualified people remain unemployed, while those who are unfit get to sit on their seats. Most times, positions are advertised on the public domain, but the preferred candidates had already been selected. The Directors and Employers already know those that are going to heaven. These ones already have their tickets kept, and offer letters typed in advance. What an irony!
3. Corruption: This is slowly eating into the fabric of our nation. In every institution, from the higher institutions to our public offices, corruption has become a reoccurring decimal. Bribery has become the norm of the day. We have heard cases in which people are told to pay huge sums of money to secure federal government jobs. Despite the fact that most people dismiss such as scams, there are people who actually pay and get those jobs. Nobody wants to do the right thing anymore. They claim that the system is already corrupt, and that they weren’t the originators of the corruption. As a result, we see corruption at play everywhere, from the ports, to our security checkpoints, to our classrooms, to our bid for contracts, etc.
4. White-Collar Job Mentality : An average Nigerian graduate would tell you that he/she wants to work in an Oil and Gas firm, a Bank, or even in the Aviation/Maritime sector. They believe, that is where the money is. Nobody wants to go into agriculture, anymore. People no longer see the need for entrepreneurship. All they want is to put on a tie, and go to the office, from 7am to 7pm, everyday. Nobody wants to be on the farm, because they see it as the place meant for old men and women in the villages. They want to be in the city, where things are happening. So sad!
Youth Unemployment in Nigeria
The Untold Stories of our Job Hunters
All over the place, you would find job adverts. They are on the internet, newspaper pages, magazines, as well as on our walls as posters. Every person has become a Recruiter, hence the need to regulate the HR profession more than ever before. Most of these job ads are not real, but scams. These scammers lure these desperate, innocent job hunters to buildings in the guise of conducting interviews for them. Some of these jobs hunters have not been so fortunate. Some have been killed, hypnotized into transferring all their hard-earned money, while others have been raped, robbed, or even threatened. At the end of the day, they are farther away from the non-existent jobs they have gone to hunt. What an Irony!
How about these other recruitment firms where you are asked to bring a copy of your CV, with a pen and a paper. Sometimes, you are even told that you have gotten the job. You get there only to realize that it’s a network marketing firm, where you are expected to sell drugs and supplements, as well as register people under you. These ones you have registered become your disciples, and as they bring more people, the gospel is spread (I am being sarcastic). These people preach more than our preachers. The only difference is that our preachers emphasize on repentance, while these ones emphasize on success and the need to make money, without working for anybody. They have different meanings for different acronyms. They believe that Education is a scam, thereby making you rethink why you went to school. The most surprising thing they do, is that they ask you to register with money to be recruited into their firm, or to pay for their training -which they never disclosed earlier.
What needs to be done?
The time has come for the government, and all well-meaning Nigerians to come together to see how the rate of unemployment in the country will be reduced. People should be supported and empowered to start-up a business, and given grants to do so. They should make entrepreneurship attractive, and encourage low-interest loans by banks to entrepreneurs. Also, firms must partner with tertiary institutions to accept students for internships for them to acquire relevant experience. We must remember, unemployment leads to crime, violence, youth restiveness, prostitution, and other vices. If we can work together to make this our priority, we would have succeeded in making our society a paradise for all. We can walk safely on our streets without fear, and escorts. Our talented youths would not have to emigrate to other countries in search of greener pastures. At the end, we would have succeeded in building the Nigeria of our dreams, cherished and loved by all.
Something is happening in China, the land of Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu; Costco, an American warehouse club chain, is in town. The Chinese peoplecould not overcome the joy of going to shop for really great bargains in Costco despite the digital shops in their smartphones! The demand was so huge that the company was forced to “shut down in the afternoon because of overcrowding”. Yes, customers wanted something new: great value.
American shopping giant Costco got an unexpectedly frenzied welcome from zealous Chinese shoppers. Costco opened its first warehouse club in China today (Aug. 27), in a suburb of Shanghai. Just a few hours into business, it had to shut down in the afternoon because of overcrowding, according to screenshots of messages (some links below in Chinese) sent to customers around 2pm circulating on China’s social media Weibo. Local media reported that local residents swarmed to the store—with cars queuing up to enter half a kilometer (0.3 miles) away, footage from news portal Sina showed.
Costco charges membership fees and uses the money to subsidize prices of items which are typically bought in bulk. Costco stores look simple because it has never been opened to the fashionista way [expensive stores] as it wants to focus on what customers really care about: great value for money.
Back to Nigeria, Nigerians have shown that they like Shoprite predictable quality despite the marginal higher cost compared to open markets. Costco is essentially a Shoprite where only people with membership cards can shop, typically buying in bulk.
Building companies like Shoprite and Costco may not sound fanciful but they are just the type of retail businesses that would be here for long in Africa. Yes, no one will see them as being fashionable but they will be solidly successful. Ecommerce will make the news but physical stores with inventive business models will keep the profits for a really long time in Nigeria.
Of course, very few investors would like to see such business plans when the mantra is that “software will eat the world” even though there is nothing electronic in the Nigerian ecommerce without a national postal service.
This article is for everybody – male and female; young and old; employed, yet-to-be-employed and unemployed (yes, I strongly believe there is a difference between the yet-to-be-employed and the unemployed). Please, don’t say that because it is the duty of the other gender to manage a family, this article doesn’t concern you. Directly or indirectly, we are affected.
I was actually pushed to share this piece after speaking with a man, who insisted that his wife should wait until their children are old enough to leave home before she can start a business (because obviously no one will want to employ her by that time). I’ve had sessions with women who want to wait till their children are older before they can find a job or something. Some of them have a change of mind after our sessions, some don’t. No matter what, I don’t think it’s a wise decision for a woman to sit down at home and leave her husband to be the sole provider in the family. I will come back to this after a little insight into my own mistakes.
I resigned from a job when I was pregnant with my first child. I couldn’t withstand the stress of combining my life as a wife, a mother-to-be and a career woman. It was just too much for me to bear. The school I was working with wasn’t making it any easier for me. I was too young and wrongly advised to think that the only way out was to leave my job.
Then I was just four months gone into my pregnancy. When I stayed at home for just two months I couldn’t bear the unproductive life any more. I went in search of another job, not minding my protruding bump. That was the time I truly acknowledged the discrimination women are facing. Nobody wanted to employ a pregnant woman. The ones that were kind enough asked me to come back after I have delivered and weaned my baby. There was one, I don’t want to mention the company’s name, that didn’t mind my condition because the panel saw that I was the best option among the candidates and decided to give me a chance. The director of the branch where I was supposed to collect my appointment letter took one look at me and seized the letter. Like joke like play, he withdrew the offer because he was the one I will work directly with. The decision of the panel didn’t matter to him. Anyway, that is story for another day.
Now, I decided to carry my pregnancy jejely and look for a job later, after all, as people kept reminding me, I have my husband as the breadwinner of the family. But you know what, he lost his job a few days to my son’s delivery. Having no other source of income, we faced our little savings and finished it within a few months. So anytime I talk about being in a financial mess in my articles, try to understand that I wasn’t saying that just for talking sake.
Well, I had to go back into the labour market later and vowed never to see what I saw earlier. Of course I got offers. That’s one good thing about being a teacher – there is always a job waiting when you are ‘ready’. This time, I tried to recoup all my lost savings, so I had several side hustles. I was doing tutorials (though I couldn’t go for home tutorials); I was doing minor importations from Aliexpress to sell; I was buying hair extensions from Onitsha to sell; I was sewing and selling bed sheets; you just name it. So long as that business will bring in a little change, I am all for it.
To ensure that I saved as much as I could, I didn’t employ nannies for my children, I didn’t employ any paid domestic help (and I wasn’t comfortable with bringing minors either), and I didn’t buy machines that could help me with some domestic chores. I was literally doing all the house chores and market purchases alone because I didn’t want it to look like I ignored my domestic duties in my quest for ‘wealth’. Funnily enough, I wasn’t even making much from all my side hustles (except the Aliexpress importations). Life was just too stressful for me until it started telling on my health. When my blood pressure started shooting up, I had to soft peddle and work smart, and not hard (don’t judge me, please). That was the moment I decided to change some of my lifestyles.
If you look at what I just shared up there you can easily point out where I made my mistakes. But I will still discuss them here.
The first thing is that I took a wrong advice and left my job while pregnant. Then, I didn’t have anyone that could tell me how to get around my difficult boss (this is why I still cherish social media because it brings the right people closer to you). Leaving that job was a very wrong decision on my side and it was done at a very wrong time. If I had talked to my boss, maybe he would have found a way to make things lighter for me.
I didn’t have a side hustle when I left my job. It would have acted as a cushion until I got back to my feet. Then, all I do was going to work and going back home to watch television and socialise, after all I cannot come and kill myself.
When I finally got back to the labour force, I was so afraid of re-meeting poverty and deprivation that I put all my energy into money-making. This almost cost me my life. I was actually working too hard without being smart about it.
Because I wanted to save as much as I could (I listened so much to those that advocate saving before spending), I didn’t use the money I made to buy help, be it machine or human help. This is a terrible mistake that most of us make.
Ok, I am going to give my reasons for believing that every woman should find something that will generate income for the family. But before I go into that, I would like to enjoin everyone that will say that his or her life won’t be like mine to think otherwise. I didn’t plan my life to be the way it was then. Of course I learnt from my mistakes and have been making some adjustments since then. In as much as our paths are different, you never can tell yours until you hit it. Well, these are some of the reasons women need to find sources of income:
In Case of Tragedy: Any woman I tell this always says “God forbid”. Yes o, God forbid indeed. But those young men that die, did they do anything in particular that caused that death? What do you think will become of their young wives if they don’t have a source of income? I have seen women that lost everything because they couldn’t provide for their children after the death of their husbands. We don’t pray for tragedies (be it death or divorce) to befall us, but we have to find ways of cushioning their effects should they come by. Anyway, let me not go into that here.
Reducing Stress for the Husband: I believe this is self-explanatory. Everybody here understands the tension of providing basic needs for himself not to talk of when dependents are involved. Sharing such a responsibility helps a lot.
Pulling Resources together to Finance a Family Project: Most projects undertaken and financed by both parties always come out successful.
They can plan better for the family
Having mentioned some of the reasons why women should work, I will now state the strategies working women employ to balance their family and work lives.
Don’t Try to Be a Perfectionist: Like one woman told me then, I have been trying to be perfect in carrying out both my work and family duties. When we try to do both so perfectly, it tells on our health. Besides, it is almost impossible that we can achieve that.
Buy Comfort with your Income: I learnt this from my mother. I was with her one day when she asked one woman, “What is the essence of making all these money if you can’t spend a little bit of it to make yourself comfortable?” I’m not saying that we should spend all we earn to make ourselves comfortable. But at least, we need to be able to relax after a long tiring day, don’t you think?
Employ Help: I learnt this from one of the women groups I belonged to on Facebook. When one woman complained about the stress she passes through in her home after coming back in the evening, one of the comments she received was, “Why not use some of your income to buy machines that will make it easier for you.” This statement says a lot. So, I’ll say, “Employ both human and machine helps.” But if you are more comfortable with just one of them, go for it.
Get your Partner to Help: There’s nothing wrong with your husband helping you out with some chores at home. Ask him first and take it from there.
Train your Children to Help: This is one place African mothers are experts, though some of them are falling out here. We can train our children to help with little household chores depending on their age. This helps a lot, I can testify to that.
Tailor your Side Hustles: See, side hustle is a must-do right now. In fact saving without side hustles is very difficult. The only thing I can say here is that you should tailor your side hustles so that they don’t add more stress to an already stressful life. Like I said in this post https://www.tekedia.com/20-side-hustles-for-nigerian-civil-servants/ find a side hustle that you love doing and that doesn’t put pressure on you.
Outsource some Domestic Chores: I learnt a lot about this while I was in Ibadan. Some women get people to do their washing for them even though they had washing machines. Some buy food in large quantities from food vendors to store in the freezers for the family (they usually do this for soup, sauce, moi-moi and things like that). And then ironing of clothes is usually outsourced to laundry shops. Some women equally buy things from the market and pay a little price for it to be processed there. For example, people now buy chicken and have it prepared in the market; we buy okro and they chop them for us there; ugu leaves are picked and cut in the market; and so many others. These are ways of making life easier and more bearable for working wives and mothers (as well as generate income for others).
Have a ‘Me’ Day: Most women will understand this. This is every woman’s Achilles heel. If a woman doesn’t have a day to pamper herself, or have others pamper her, she will turn out antsy and grumpy. So, I’ll say, make out a day every month to have yourself to yourself. Life isn’t all about money. And those children, don’t worry, they will be fine. (I’ll come back in another post on ways we can have a successful ‘me’ day).
Sleep and Rest Well: I laughed so hard yesterday when I watched a comic video clip where the character was complaining about motivational speakers telling people not to sleep too much and all. Alright, here it is – everybody needs to sleep very well to be very productive. Try not to lose your sleep over that job or business. I usually take Sundays afternoon as my nap-without-disturbance day. Find yours too. It is quite refreshing.
Dear women – mothers, wives, single and married – don’t tell yourself to wait any longer before you find a source of income. Please, go for that job you so much crave for. Don’t worry, you can balance your career and family lives. I just gave you my own strategies. You can adopt it or you might find other ones. But please, find something doing if you haven’t yet.
