20 Year ago, I got a job in Shell Nigeria. I was part of the project team working on a rig somewhere in the Swampy area of Delta State. We see kids running around with rounded kwashiorkor bellies staring at us and probably dreaming to be like us someday. They had beautiful names like Destiny, Faith, Gift and Boma. Beautiful names with beautiful dreams yet no plan to complement it all.
What do we do as Shell worker? We wave past and feel cool with our status as compared to theirs. 20 years later we have 20 year olds holding guns and killing people. 20 years ago, we could have stopped it by helping that kwashiorkor kid get a life. We chose to look the other way. Now, he has a gun and no education to put him in check.
By the way, 20 years ago, I was not in Shell and most definitely, I was not in the Delta region. A friend of mine was and part of my narration is based on his real life experience. I was too young to work but older than Destiny and obviously luckier. I was in a boarding school somewhere in the middle belt. Mine was a Nigerian dream. Well, partly. I choose to set the record straight in case Destiny or Boma remember the incident. Just be sure I was too young to have seen you hungry.
20 years later, it's amazing I don't have a gun too. We have our own type of guns too. The pen guns. Not like double-0-7. Much lethal. We rob entire countries with it. And worse still, we get away with it.
Now I live in the Delta region where everything seems to have gone wrong. Look at it like the human body with a hole in the heart. The body manages to survive by resting often and doing light tasks. However, Mr. Body fails to fix the problem by plugging the hole. Then one day, the heart fails and Mr. Body is in a critical state.
Nigeria has had a hole in the heart for a long time. The heart in this analogy is the Niger Delta. The heart is failing now. Let's hope it's not too late. There are many ways to fix a failing heart. A transplant is the only option if the heart don fail patapata. if e remain small, a surgery will do. (that if the doctor says it has not failed completely. who is the doctor? What stage are we in? Do we even have hope for surgery? Time will tell.
Who caused this problem? The oil companies blame Government, Government blame the Oil Companies, the Oil Companies all blame Shell. Shell in the middle.
Personally, I blame the Oil Companies. I wouldn't say Shell specifically but I am not impressed with the operations there either. They are the agents and it is the agents task to ensure a strategy is formulated to guide the company through the future. The agent had the responsibility to ensure a bright future for the principal 20 years ago. 20 years ago, the agents failed. The heart ticks on. Slowly but...
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Nigerian Business Opportunities
I have been scanning the Nigerian environment for business opportunities and I can categorically say there are too many opportunities staring at us.
What is missing is the guts to take the bold step. I have a full time job which does not pay badly but I have made some money by the side a couple of times in between. I notice the more you earn in paid employment, the less time you have to earn more money outside. Talk about the opportunity cost of the choices we make. That means i make less money by the side now that i earn more on the inside.
So, what are the business opportunities I talk about? I have designed websites for clients. The return are not so great but 100k after a 2 week job is not bad money. I have sold Kilishi in Port-Harcourt as an experiment. And I think it should be categorized as a fast moving consumer good (FCMG). For those who don't know, Kilishi is a dry meat popular in the Northern part of Nigeria. The returns are as high as 30% if you plan the logistics efficiently. 30% return on a weekly investment is not bad business if you ask me. My weekly estimat is overstated. You can turn this around in two days.
Let's assume I loose my job (which takes too much of my time anyway) or I choose to resign (which crosses my mind even while I sleep), why can't I focus on my website business and also start my Kilishi export (without custom tariffs and delays - amen) by the side? The only excuse I see is belief in what you do. And also our get rich-quick mentality. I discussed my Kilishi idea with my brother in-law a few hours ago and he washed it down like a bottle of stout. Look at the McDonalds and Starbucks. The story is usually that simple. Look at the Virgin group. Even simpler. You need to appreciate his arbitrage strategy in filling up a plane.
Nigerians need to start looking around for missed opportunities. There are many out there other than selling Diesel and generators. The truth is many of this markets are saturated and the returns highly exaggerated. WHich explains the infiltration of adulterated products (China & Condensate). I believe our Abuja politicians have only succeeded in creating an illusion of wealth. Nigeria is not as rich as we like to believe. The good news is that we have so many opportunities to create wealth. Remember, wealth is created not conjoured like our natural resources. Think about countries like Japan who have no oil. How do they sustain themselves? Brain power baby. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I know my suggestion sounds to simplistic and we have too many hurdles to cross. For one, Government's lack of transparency. That is a challenge if you choose to pursue Government opportunities. The problem is that Government opportunities as it is is not wealth creation but wealth depletion. Look at my Kilishi business. Buy at X naira, sell at X+Y Naira. You get the point. Chase opportunities that require minimal Government interference (apart from taxes). That should be your strategy.
This is my suggestion to us all. Let's try and increase the size of the cake rather than think the cake is fixed in size and cannot be increased.
You wonder why i tell you about my Kilishi opportunity. It is not a secret. People were doing it before me. And some will after me (maybe many). The problem is patience and a properly structured business plan which guarantees return well into the future. I can tell you what I do but that does not guarantee you can do it the way I do it. The market is big for us all. And as they say, the more the merrier. If you choose to saturate my market, no problem. Time to scan the environment again. As I said in the beginning,there are way too many opportunities to make the cake larger.
What is missing is the guts to take the bold step. I have a full time job which does not pay badly but I have made some money by the side a couple of times in between. I notice the more you earn in paid employment, the less time you have to earn more money outside. Talk about the opportunity cost of the choices we make. That means i make less money by the side now that i earn more on the inside.
So, what are the business opportunities I talk about? I have designed websites for clients. The return are not so great but 100k after a 2 week job is not bad money. I have sold Kilishi in Port-Harcourt as an experiment. And I think it should be categorized as a fast moving consumer good (FCMG). For those who don't know, Kilishi is a dry meat popular in the Northern part of Nigeria. The returns are as high as 30% if you plan the logistics efficiently. 30% return on a weekly investment is not bad business if you ask me. My weekly estimat is overstated. You can turn this around in two days.
Let's assume I loose my job (which takes too much of my time anyway) or I choose to resign (which crosses my mind even while I sleep), why can't I focus on my website business and also start my Kilishi export (without custom tariffs and delays - amen) by the side? The only excuse I see is belief in what you do. And also our get rich-quick mentality. I discussed my Kilishi idea with my brother in-law a few hours ago and he washed it down like a bottle of stout. Look at the McDonalds and Starbucks. The story is usually that simple. Look at the Virgin group. Even simpler. You need to appreciate his arbitrage strategy in filling up a plane.
Nigerians need to start looking around for missed opportunities. There are many out there other than selling Diesel and generators. The truth is many of this markets are saturated and the returns highly exaggerated. WHich explains the infiltration of adulterated products (China & Condensate). I believe our Abuja politicians have only succeeded in creating an illusion of wealth. Nigeria is not as rich as we like to believe. The good news is that we have so many opportunities to create wealth. Remember, wealth is created not conjoured like our natural resources. Think about countries like Japan who have no oil. How do they sustain themselves? Brain power baby. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I know my suggestion sounds to simplistic and we have too many hurdles to cross. For one, Government's lack of transparency. That is a challenge if you choose to pursue Government opportunities. The problem is that Government opportunities as it is is not wealth creation but wealth depletion. Look at my Kilishi business. Buy at X naira, sell at X+Y Naira. You get the point. Chase opportunities that require minimal Government interference (apart from taxes). That should be your strategy.
This is my suggestion to us all. Let's try and increase the size of the cake rather than think the cake is fixed in size and cannot be increased.
You wonder why i tell you about my Kilishi opportunity. It is not a secret. People were doing it before me. And some will after me (maybe many). The problem is patience and a properly structured business plan which guarantees return well into the future. I can tell you what I do but that does not guarantee you can do it the way I do it. The market is big for us all. And as they say, the more the merrier. If you choose to saturate my market, no problem. Time to scan the environment again. As I said in the beginning,there are way too many opportunities to make the cake larger.
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