The founder of IrokoTV rips into the Nigerian banking sector and deems it to be ineffective in helping young companies grow.

He chronicles his personal experience with Zenith Bank and suggests that the banking sector is corrupt, incompetent and unwilling to actually help create value.

December 2013. Mrs Njoku was worried. A few months earlier we had just became parents with our first born and she needed some security. As a Nigerian Nigerian, she looked upon startup equity with a measure of scepticism. It was all too casino-like, negotiation-heavy and emotion driven for her. She needed something solid.

Mrs Njoku was concerned that we were living in rented accommodation and rather than me trying to remedy that, I was busy trying to buy Rolexes, Hublots and such things. Very immature of me. Rightly so, she was very worried.

So I relented. I’m a grown up, a father in fact. I have to do the right thing. So I told her to find a house in Lagos. Let me go find the financing. Contrary to what most people think, the Njoku’s are absolutely not rolling around in dollars. That $40m raised was for Iroko. Iroko does not = Njoku.

I am a founder, CEO and shareholder, and still have to negotiate my salary with my board etc. If they see fit to not increase it, they can 100% refuse to. But granted, I am not complaining. I’m pretty well paid and would sit in the top 3% of salaried earners anywhere in the world. If I lived in London or NY or Paris, I could pretty easily get a $1m mortgage without too much effort. (this isn’t me bragging, it will be apparent shortly).
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http://amore.ng/are-nigerian-banks-useless/

finanacing the real key to business.

OK