How to turn Nigeria’s biggest problems to biggest businesses by Mutiu Iyanda
Editor’s note: Mutiu Iyanda, the Legit.ng partner blogger, in his latest piece, writes about how to turn Nigeria’s biggest problems to biggest businesses.
His blog is: www.enterprations.com
He could also be contacted via: +2348141374490, +2348062544816
More details in Legit.ng’s step-by-step guide for guest bloggers
Internet search activities of Nigerians and other nationalities in the world from November, 2016 to November, 2017 have indicated that the biggest problems facing the country during the period constituted biggest business opportunities, according to Enterprations’ opportunity discovery research.
We found that 99.9% of Nigeria’s biggest problems form biggest business opportunities. Our finding aligns with the position of co-Founder Singularity University, Peter Diamandis, who hinted some years ago that “The world’s biggest problems are also the world’s biggest business opportunities.”
The biggest problems
One year’s searches of problems facing the country established that Nigerians and people living in the country experienced different difficulties in the areas of fish farming, publishing, property management, insurance, mineral and lack of employment.
READ ALSO: BREAKING: Yusuf Buhari discharged from Cedarcrest Hospitals
A total of 3,373 searches were done on fish farming, making it the most searched problem while insurance and mineral had 3,660 and 3,009 searches respectively. Publishing recorded 2,954 searches while property management was also looked for significantly with 2, 823 searches.
The period is also significant for people who are interested in the rate of unemployment in the country. Unemployment was searched more than 2,000 times.
Emerged opportunities
Further analysis shows that fish farming remained the only query related to fish farming problem itself. This is an indication that people are interested in knowing the nitty-gritty of doing fish farming.
Pet insurance, travel insurance, burglary insurance and actuary-profession were the queries associated with the insurance search, signifying people’s curiosity in understanding the insurance problems or seeking information about companies offering such solutions.
For the mineral problem, a lot of people were interested in existing mineral resources in Nigeria, examples of mineral salt and mineral salt in particular. Like other problems, publishing and property management also recorded a number of associated queries.
Corel draw, Microsoft, writer, advertising, academy, word processor, electronic commerce, media and library were mostly related with the publishing. With these, people are either in search of specific information about the queries or in need of companies rendering the services.
Property management as a problem was associated with landlord, asset, renting and building. On a 2.0 scale, we discovered that fish farming and insurance problems corresponded based on 2.0 score recorded while unemployment and fish farming with 1.4 score are also related.
Where the searches came from?
The search on these problems was instituted from different states. For instance, the insurance related queries were mostly from Oyo, Osun, Nassarawa, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross Rivers, Kaduna, Kwara and Sokoto while unemployment queries came from Adamawa, Kwara, Osun, Enugu, Cross Rivers, Plateau, Kaduna, Ogun, Oyo and Ondo. Though, Nigeria is ranked 101 out of 137 countries with best entrepreneurship ecosystem for 2018, these outcomes have shown that Nigerians have the ability to detect business opportunities.
Enabling ecosystem
The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute in its 2018’s Global Entrepreneurship Index asked; does the institutional environment make it possible to act on those opportunities? Answer to this question from our research is not encouraging.
We found that 0.9% of the Nigeria’s entrepreneurship ecosystem examined by the Institute related with those opportunities. Opportunity perception, startup skills, risk acceptance, networking, cultural support, competition and opportunity startup corresponded with the opportunities.
Technology absorption, human capital, product innovation, process innovation, high growth, internationalization and risk capital did not support the opportunities. This indicates that business environment still replete with a lot of problems that could impede effective performance of entrepreneurs.
Be financially essential with 18 most use essential oils in Nigeria
Across the continents, over 3,000 plants exist and suitable for the extraction of essential oils. In the last one year, essential oil has been trending on the Internet.
From November 27, 2016 till November 27, 2017, the term has been searched more than 3, 000 in Nigeria and 4, 630 times in the world. With over 46% of variation, Nigeria’s search of essential oil is related with the rest of the world.
This indicates that people in Nigeria and other countries in the world are seeking for information that could lead to increase in knowledge of various essential oils or making informed purchase decision. Within the period, Almond, Olive, Coconut, Neem, Garlic, Tea Tree, Ginger, Lime, Moringa and Carrot oils were the related queries to essential oil.
Essential oil market has been projected to reach $13.94 billion by 2024 globally, according to a new report by Grand View Research. The demand for the products was 178.8 kilo tons in 2015 and is expected to exceed 370 kilo tons by 2024.
“Increasing awareness as well as willingness to buy organic and natural products is expected to force market participants to employ essential oils in the production process. The shift of focus from synthetic to natural products is likely to trigger market growth over the forecast period,” Grand View Research noted.
Grand View Research adds that “Food and beverages industry was the leading consumer of essential oil and accounted for 34.6% of total market volume in 2015. It is also expected to witness the highest growth of 9.0% over the forecast period.
Europe was the leading regional market and accounted for 43.5% of global demand in 2015. High demand for food and beverages and natural personal care products will spur the regional market growth in upcoming years.”
Despite the huge market opportunity, Nigerians and other Africans are yet to harness it fully especially farmers. This has contributed to seeing the continent as consumer rather a major player in the industry.
The industry looks attractive for the farmers, who want to diversify and aspiring entrepreneurs who have interest in creating value added components.
When the different oils are produced, entrepreneurs have food and beverage, cosmetics and toiletries, aromatherapy, home care, health care, and others as the potential markets ready the consumption.
Food and beverages market remains the largest over the world. Globally, the United States, Western Europe and Japan have a significant number of consumers with the projected increase of about 10%.
Mutiu is a research and communications professional. He has a special interest in qualitative and quantitative methods of finding solutions to social and communication issues.
He currently works with Enterprations Limited, a management consulting company, which also provides a platform for working class professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs to own their business.
PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigeria’s #1 news app
Enterprations offers strategic tools such as business plan, growth plan and turnaround plan among others for established and aspiring businesses.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of Legit.ng.
Legit.ng welcomes writers, bloggers, photographers and all sorts of “noise makers” to become a part of our Bloggers network. If you are a seasoned writer or a complete newbie – apply and become Nigeria’s next star blogger.
Send us some info about your career, interests and expertise and why you’d like to contribute to the Blogger Network at blogger@corp.legit.ng Also, please send us the link to your blog and three examples of your work.
More details in Legit.ng’s step-by-step guide for guest bloggers
What must President Buhari do to regain the trust of Nigerians? - on Legit.ng TV
PAY ATTENTION: Unlock the best of Legit.ng on Pinterest! Subscribe now and get your daily inspiration!
Source: Legit.ng
