Happy Worker’s Day to the Employer!
So many people have built their lives and generations on salaries; salaries happen because one person built a business. Today is also a celebration of all the bold entrepreneurs crazy enough to dare to build a business in what has always been a tough place to do business – Nigeria. No SBA loans, no PPA loan, no 0% APR business credit card, no grants just tenacity and grit to deal with low buying power, infrastructure dearth, multiple taxation, local louts, a tough regulatory environment and FX fluctuations YET so many people wake up and decide to start businesses in the face of all these. They are the real heroes.
My life trajectory was changed when my old bosses brought me into the world of management consulting. Before then, I was a computer whiz who had built technology-inclined businesses and was so convinced that my long-term career was in digital marketing and social media. Their singular decision to start a company and hire people changed the trajectory of my life. I owe most of my later success to that decision. This is the power of entrepreneurship. It’s why I make sure I pay all the people working for me across my small businesses enough money to live a good life because that monthly salary can change the trajectory of their lives in more ways than you can imagine. The first car I bought, and the first house I built were all done using money saved from salary payments. None of that would have been possible without my salary and that salary would not have been possible without the bold steps entrepreneurs take every day to build and scale businesses.
The next evolution of the Nigerian enterprise has to make it easy for anyone to start a value-creating business and not have to worry about high blood pressure. Many years ago, I was involved in a project where we won a bid to build a single window portal for businesses in Nigeria; that SME Launchpad would have been the single biggest thing to significantly move the needle for the Nigerian SME ecosystem but guess what happened? Okey Enelamah did not return as Minister and that project died a painful death just like every other transformative thing in Nigeria when power changes hands. It is still extremely difficult to start and scale a business in Nigeria today, the percentage of those who make it remains less than 5%. We have to build a society where the majority make it more than those who don’t.
The other day we saw Sim Shagaya talk about the fate of Konga vs other similar eCommerce businesses that started in other climes, those other businesses grew and succeeded but Nigeria happened to Konga. Nigeria must stop happening to our businesses, relationships (japa), children (ASUU strikes), and health (NARD/NMA strikes), the list is endless!
What can Nigeria do better? There’s nothing below that has not been written before, so many white papers and briefing notes have said these things but they still have not been implemented, I will repeat a few:
- Simplify the process of starting and scaling a business: Reduce the number of agencies and licenses required to start a business. Introduce an online registration process and provide clear guidelines for compliance – the Ministry of Trade, Industry and INvestment already have the blueprint for this, just implement!
- Provide access to affordable funding and resources: Establish a national entrepreneurship fund with affordable interest rates and flexible repayment terms. I know various versions of this kind of fund has been created before but they never seem to go to the people who actually need them. These people are forced to take loans at exorbitant rates from commercial banks. This should not be so.
- Streamline taxation and regulations: Harmonize taxes and reduce the burden on small businesses. I have worked on revenue and tax codification and harmonization laws across Nigeria, it can work!
- Encourage innovation and value creation: Invest in research and development, and provide grants for innovative projects, introduce tax incentives for entrepreneurs who create jobs and contribute to economic growth. Support the development of local industries and encourage exports.
- Celebrate and support our entrepreneurs: Create a national entrepreneurship award to recognize and celebrate successful entrepreneurs. Provide mentorship programs and training initiatives to support start-ups and small businesses, the CEDR program introduced by the NUC in schools and the SAED in NYSC needs to be revamped, it does not work. Young people should grow up wanting to start their own businesses
- Patronize small businesses: Government should make it a duty to patronize small businesses to ensure they continue to succeed, similar to what the US does with SAM.
- Wishful thinking but can we ever solve our infrastructure challenges? Yes we can, we can fix power, we can fix internet, we can fix roads. We can and we will.
Government, please let’s work together to build a Nigeria where entrepreneurship thrives, and everyone has a chance to succeed. We owe it to ourselves, our children, and the future of our country.
Miracle Roch.