EKEING A LIVING

Its eight p.m and quite a crowd have congregated at Ali-dada Street in okota, Lagos. Shoving, pushing and with a lot of chatter, everyone is trying to make a last minute rush for Chidima’s bean-cakes, popularly called ‘akara’ in local parlance. Her staffs patiently try to meet the growing crowd’s anxious demands; wrapping up bean cakes and stuffing them hurriedly in paper bags and into the grateful hands of the customers.  

 The whole scene looks easy on the eyes, but only four years ago, Chidima prematurely became a young widow; her husband had died leaving the welfare of four children in her care, a very gargantuan task especially when she had just the basic educational training- a primary school education. With no chance at securing a well paying job, she joined the army of young Nigerian self-starters.  ‘I began the trade four years ago with my little savings’ she said ‘I was barely able to break even, making almost no profit, once I even thought of packing up the whole thing one thing’ chidima continued.  

Fortunately she ploughed more of her resources into the business that has no become some sort of family business. Chidimma now makes a profit of three thousand naira daily and makes sales mornings and evenings.

The future appears bright for this enterprising road side caterer having set up more selling points in different locations around the area; amazingly she has also become an employer of labour. ‘So what makes your business tick?’ I asked the young entrepreneur ‘I try to find the best locations and start up very early in the morning, not forgetting my night customers, because the customers are very important’

Emeka is another self-starter, having dropped out of school as a result of his parent’s inability to pay his secondary school fees; he decided to withdraw his savings, plugging it into commercial motor-cycle transport

 Seven years on the business looks very good, at the moment he has four motor- bikes in different locations and is thinking of expanding his frontiers. ‘God has been my helper through the years’ according to Emeka.  There are also constant challenges he faces ‘sometimes armed robbers pose as passengers and abduct them to unknown locations, and there is the fear of accidents’ Emeka said as he rounded the bend to my destination.

But then it is evident the gains by far eclipse the risks involved for there is ample to cater for his children, a wife and even a concubine.

Emmafemi CONNECTAFRICA

BUSINESS MY WAY

 

Getting a well paid job in a developing sub-Saharan country has always being a Gordian knot leaving several youths resorting to starting up their businesses.  A small scale businessman is what you get if you tramp the trail in several of Africa’s sub-Saharan urban cities. But very few of these entrepreneurs put their best foot forward; many go into small scale business without carefully considering the cost of going solo

So what would you consider as a hindrance to setting-out? The number one prerogative would be the right amount of capital. Without sufficient capital many of Africa’s upstarts are left in a tailspin, in a jiffy  many who were euphoric of being their own bosses are left in the lurch; debt-ridden and bankrupt, sometimes as early as year one. Another group of young businessmen are handicapped due to poor government policies; no one is sure when the musical chairs will begin the next spin.

So where does that leave the rest of us? The answer unanimously lies with the banks; several banks in Nigeria had emerged three years ago with great hope, promising different loan schemes, but like renegade politicians have reversed their plans for more investor- friendly interest rates. A number of young businessmen learnt the hard way. Most of these loans given out attract astronomical interest rates and the banks are usually not patient enough for the long haul. They grant to you the credit facility on the one hand and on the other hand like shylock demand for a quick return even before you say Jack Robinson.

But then getting the loan, capital and a good government policy isn’t everything, many businesses have closed shop in Nigeria because of abysmal power supply. Nigeria has a legendary power sector where even a change of name failed to bring succour to investors. It is even jocularly said to foreign investors nowadays BYOI; bring your own infrastructure. Almost every genuine businessman now uses a generator as fixed power supply and public power supply as an alternative just to break even; but then are a number of smart alecs who are still doing fairly well…but that’s a story for another day

Emmanuel.F, CONNECTAFRICA

THE INVESTOR’S LAST STAND

                             

      In 2005, the governor of the central bank of Nigeria, Professor Charles Soludo caused a stir when he announced the minimum capital base for every bank in the country would be 25 billion naira which is approximately 211 million dollars. At the end of the consolidation exercise the number of banks in Nigeria stood at 25, pruned down from a princely one hundred and five. The purpose of the recapitalization exercise according to Prof. Soludo was to shore up the banks financially against liquidation and to help provide long term credit facilities to investors and perhaps provide the momentum for the renaissance of Nigeria’s small and medium enterprises industry and consequently the economy. So three years after has the Nigerian economy really been strengthened, I believe merely cosmetic, after all every banking year-end casual readers like me are stunned by the jumbo and rather astronomic profit reports several of these banks announce in non and audited reports. I do not argue with the growth of the banks; many have indeed outgrown their 2005 figures, even tripling their capital, no thanks to immoderate trading in the Nigerian stock market. In the same strength the federal government claims the triple A rating it has received from notable international financial institutions in the past four years is an indication of the brewing confidence international investors have in the Nigerian economy. Nigeria’s economic growth is inching closer to double digit figures but the haunting question is why has all the goodwill not translated to Eldorado for the man on the street. The answer is obvious; with a weak and failing small and medium enterprise sector, Nigeria remains precariously an almost import driven economic platform. Former president olusegun obasanjo had once joked tooth- picks were now being imported from china. The recent attention being given to micro-finance institutions is creditable; the commercial banks had either out rightly refused to give loans to small investors or scared the bold ones who dare come forward with outlandish requirements and discomforting interest rates. Even when the CBN governor tried to influence the banks to soft-pedal on the interest rates issue, the banks’ bosses only paid full lip service, now we are back to square one. I support the micro-finance institutions demand for a regulatory body different from the central bank for Nigeria evidently the CBN is pre-occupied with the commercials and many doubt if they possess the stuff necessary to liberate the small and medium scale sector. The real test for the newly approved micro finance institutions is to stick to plan A which is conscientiously supporting the small and medium enterprises and not repeat the grave mistakes of the past where many of such banks gravitated into commercial banks; the fairy tale ended for them when most of them were liquidated

 

Yemi, CONNECTAFRICA