i wonder if all those luxury transport owners can be regarded as 'creative entrepeneurs'

asha 80:

i wonder if all those luxury transport owners can be regarded as 'creative entrepeneurs'

They used to be. When they blossomed in the 90s. ABC transports had a good strategy but unfortunately lacked the necessary marketing skills to back it up. And then they started selling ads on the buses, which was not the case in the 80s with Osondu motors and the rest. They should consider wireless internet if possible.

Interesting post, Sefago.

Kobojunkie:


How much did Depearl start up with? A loan from Grameen bank?

I don't think it would take a lot of capital to start up. The main costs imo would be:
1)The inventory you have in stock ($2-5k, max?)
2) Advertising/marketing (not sure of the cost of this in Nigeria or the best way of doing it. Perhaps radio, print. . .)
3) Paying someone to setup the website (a site like that would be $2-5k or so in the US, probably much cheaper if you outsource. No clue how much Nigerian designers would charge.)
4) Storage facility for your goods

The site is well-designed, and the dress shirts I looked at on there aren't badly priced. Depearl also has an AJAX app for customer support on the site, which is a nice feature.

Nigerians are simply very good at 'talking the talk' but not good at 'walking the walk'.

Using the UK again as an example, there are thousands of Nigerians working in IT in the UK and this has been for well over 10 years with a lot of them having attained senior positions and accumulated a vast amount of experience and expertise in various fields in IT, but till date we do not have a single Nigerian owned innovative small, medium or large scale IT or IT services company of any sort that I know of! Not even a small but up and coming one!

So definitely infrastructure, finance etc are not the issue, as these are plentiful in the UK.

One of the issues I believe is the Nigerian irrational obsession with education qualifications which results in a lot of our brightest brains spending the most creative years of their lives mindlessly seeking/pursuing that extra masters or phd degree, thereby killing any entrepreneurial spirit and abilities that they may have had, and which also makes it virtually impossible for them to go into any sort of business after piling up all these degrees but rather seek a white collar job that will 'befit' their qualifications.

Nigerians are also afraid, in fact, frightened of failure due to that syndrome 'what would people think of me if this venture fails?'. To be successful in business or any venture, you have to accept and prepare you mind that you may fail initially, but be resilient enough to try again and again and again and not give up at the slightest hiccup. Risk taking does not come naturally.

Even though mentally capable, Nigerians are happy to let someone else do the 'real' thinking and/or actions for us as this for some inexplicable paradoxical reason seems to mean 'we are having one up on them'  - 'using their brain' as it were.

Other potential issues are; unwillingness to see beyond today, a penchant for 'ready made things', happy to go with the jones, not wanting to get our 'hands dirty', 'bigmanism', too complacent in our comfort zone, social vices – spending too much time on a wide array of unproductive activities – too happy for our own good.

ADint:

Nigerians are simply very good at 'talking the talk' but not good at 'walking the walk'.

Using the UK again as an example, there are thousands of Nigerians working in IT in the UK and this has been for well over 10 years with a lot of them having attained senior positions and accumulated a vast amount of experience and expertise in various fields in IT, but till date we do not have a single Nigerian owned innovative small, medium or large scale IT or IT services company of any sort that I know of! Not even a small but up and coming one!

I think you should stick to speaking more on subjects you are more conversant with please. Other than that, I probably agree to a large extent with some of the other points you made.

^-- I found his statement surprising too.

There are these three Nigerian dudes I kick it with sometimes on the weekends. Here is a short description of each:

A) 27 yrs old, is one of the co-founders of a somewhat well-known tech startup (or at least, well-known within the social media/Web 2.0 world) out here that is considering an IPO.
B) 25 yrs old, founder of a web development company. Seems to be doing pretty well; has done work for some pretty big corporations.
C) 25, works for a biotech startup.

Granted, these guys don't necessarily speak Yoruba well and have lived mostly in the US rather than Nigeria, so maybe some might question their "Nigerianness." But overall, they are pretty good examples of entrepreneurship, I think.

Kobojunkie:

I think you should stick to speaking more on subjects you are more conversant with please. Other than that, I probably agree to a large extent with some of the other points you made.

Do you care to name a few of them in the UK?

eku_bear:

^-- I found his statement surprising too.

There are these three Nigerian dudes I kick it with sometimes on the weekends. Here is a short description of each:

A) 27 yrs old, is one of the co-founders of a somewhat well-known tech startup (or at least, well-known within the social media/Web 2.0 world) out here that is considering an IPO.
B) 25 yrs old, founder of a web development company. Seems to be doing pretty well; has done work for some pretty big corporations.
C) 25, works for a biotech startup.

Granted, these guys don't necessarily speak Yoruba well and have lived mostly in the US rather than Nigeria, so maybe some might question their "Nigerianness." But overall, they are pretty good examples of entrepreneurship, I think.

Are these companies based in the UK?

One of Abuja or California. Take a guess which.

ADint:

Do you care to name a few of them in the UK?

They may not be huge but there are quite a handful of folks out there running their small business IT shop there.

A plethora of reasons are responsible for this sorry state.

1. The most obvious for Nigerians in Nigeria is shoddy infrastructure. In developed nations, many businesses fail even with stable power, good transportation network

2. Finance is not readily available; how do you make a profit if you have to finance your project at 22%. The net present value of your project will most certainly be negative if you use the standard term of 30 years

3. Education in Nigeria has been going downhill for years. I think someone said that with good infrastructure, Nigeria may have had call centres but that simply ignores the good educational system in India which has prepared India adequately for this industry

4. Risk aversion and complacency - Caucasians usually take risks with their lives; when you can do that, take risks on your finances is not such a daunting task. This is one of the biggest factors and can usually be traced back to our forefathers who didn't really build empires. There is one Queen in England but there are over 300 kings in Nigeria. An ambitious king should have aggregated all the small and distinct kingdoms in Nigeria. Similar to what occurred in Europe. The desire to conquer or prevent being conquered led many European states to become creative and innovative. In Africa, our fore-fathers had so much time on their hands that they just had many kids.

5. Crab mentality - Most Africans tend not to support one another. There are often instances of family members who go out of their ways to prevent another family member from succeeding

6. Laziness - Some Nigerians want the champagne lifestyle but are not ready to put in the hard work required and are not even patient enough to be successful without resorting to dubious means. Drug pushers, kidnappers, ritualists, politicians come to mind. Also, people that you employ are ready to rip you off. I know one hotel in Lagos where the attendants give you 70% discount as long as you pay into their pockets instead of into the books. If you open a shop and are not present, the shop assistants will bring in their products to sell while your inventory remains static. Many Nigerians accept this because they are looking for bargains then complain when they become victims.

7. Unstable political climate - IBB, Atiku, OBJ, GEJ and many others

8. Crude oil - Nigeria had more legitimate millionaires before the discovery of oil than it currently has. People are so dependent on contracts associated with the oil industry that they refuse to be creative and innovative

Katsumoto:

4. Risk aversion and complacency - Caucasians usually take risks with their lives; when you can do that, take risks on your finances is not such a daunting task. This is one of the biggest factors and can usually be traced back to our forefathers who didn't really build empires. There is one Queen in England but there are over 300 kings in Nigeria. An ambitious king should have aggregated all the small and distinct kingdoms in Nigeria. Similar to what occurred in Europe. The desire to conquer or prevent being conquered led many European states to become creative and innovative. In Africa, our fore-fathers had so much time on their hands that they just had many kids.

I just had to LOL at that. But seriously, having many kids is not in itself the problem. Multi-ethnicity is the real problem. For example, in the Middle East., the Saudi and UAE nations were formed by tribal chiefs (with many kids) teaming up to create an empire. The binding factor was Islam in that case. In Nigeria, the Ijebu man feels he has nothing in common with the Egba man. So you couldn't really blame Lugard for welding us together by force.

Katsumoto:

3. Education in Nigeria has been going downhill for years. I think someone said that with good infrastructure, Nigeria may have had call centres but that simply ignores the good educational system in India which has prepared India adequately for this industry

Call center workers do not require advanced education. All you need is to be able to speak English with a clear-enough accent so that the Americans you are speaking to on the other end can understand you well. Plenty of such folk in Nigeria.

The only comparative advantage India has for this particular business is that they have stable power and high-speed internet access, and we do not.

For higher-end industry, yes, you'll need better education. But it makes sense to conquer lower-end stuff before moving up.

AjanleKoko:



I just had to LOL at that. But seriously, having many kids is not in itself the problem. Multi-ethnicity is the real problem. For example, in the Middle East., the Saudi and UAE nations were formed by tribal chiefs (with many kids) teaming up to create an empire. The binding factor was Islam in that case. In Nigeria, the Ijebu man feels he has nothing in common with the Egba man. So you couldn't really blame Lugard for welding us together by force.

But neither conquered the other; that is my point. Multi-ethnicity stops being a problem with a dominant ethnic group. Note that English is a germanic (Saxon) language which the anglo-saxons took with them when they invaded England. English replaced the various languages spoken in parts of england and wales.

Having many kids was not the problem; it was that they had too much time to do it and they did it while Europeans were building nations.

most of the important points have been brought up.
another one is security if it hasn't already been mentioned. there is very little state protection of property rights. this can discourage or de-incentivize potential entrepreneurs.  

In Africa, our fore-fathers had so much time on their hands that they just had many kids.

hahah that's so harsh
they need helping hands on the farms now. and children to take care of them when they are old. there is no government social security in naija o. your social security is your many kids. lol i'm sure ur parents are reaping their effort when you send money home every month. lol

eku_bear:

Call center workers do not require advanced education. All you need is to be able to speak English with a clear-enough accent so that the Americans you are speaking to on the other end can understand you well. Plenty of such folk in Nigeria.

The only comparative advantage India has for this particular business is that they have stable power and high-speed internet access, and we do not.

For higher-end industry, yes, you'll need better education. But it makes sense to conquer lower-end stuff before moving up.

Ability to speak English is not the only requirement. Some of these call centre workers are required to have some knowledge of Western countries. Also, Nigeria's association with fraud means that no one will establish call centres in Nigeria. I alluded to these in one of the points I raised.

Katsumoto:

Ability to speak English is not the only requirement. Some of these call centre workers are required to have some knowledge of Western countries. Also, Nigeria's association with fraud means that no one will establish call centres in Nigeria. I alluded to these in one of the points I raised.

If it is just tech support (e.g., what are the tradeoffs for these 5 different computers I'm considering, how do I turn on my laptop, how do I install software X), things like that one can be trained to do pretty quickly. Honestly, a halfway competent Nigerian college grad can do phone tech support pretty easily. They hire high-schoolers at Best Buy; the education levels in Nigeria are not so bad that a UNAD grad cannot handle this.

I do agree that getting financial business will be difficult. My CC example was probably poor (though they seem to have no problems outsourcing the tech support for my CC to India  )

You can Google around a bit for a similar thing that was done in Ghana. I think I first heard about it 5 or 6 years ago. Not sure of the current status of the centers in Ghana though.

Risk aversion and complacency - Caucasians usually take risks with their lives; when you can do that, take risks on your finances is not such a daunting task. This is one of the biggest factors and can usually be traced back to our forefathers who didn't really build empires. There is one Queen in England but there are over 300 kings in Nigeria. An ambitious king should have aggregated all the small and distinct kingdoms in Nigeria. Similar to what occurred in Europe. The desire to conquer or prevent being conquered led many European states to become creative and innovative. In Africa, our fore-fathers had so much time on their hands that they just had many kids.

LOL, everyone in NIgeria wants to be an Igwe

eku_bear:

One of Abuja or California. Take a guess which.

Hmmm. . . Is Abuja or California in the UK??

What is the averse mentality to risk and price of Nigerians, this is a critical question to answer.

What is little discussed is the economics of creativity. Econ 101, (atleast some theory) shows that the effect on growth stems, labour, capital and technology. But innovation or creativity can also had additional expenses to development of a company or product. What I have learned in NIgeria is that they prefer the cheap things, cheaper labour, higher capital but cheaper technology. This put a dent on creativity. I remember some sectors I know about that a company was the pioneer, they brought in the first equipment and charged 50% or more above cost, but as many people got into the industry, the prices went down, the products quality(reports) went down and basically corruption killed the sanity of the sector eventually. Nigerian businesses, are averse to things that cost money, innovation although, can lead to cheaper products in the long run, but the initial stage cost a lot of money, it is also takes risk. I have been selling products in Nigeria and to tell you people are less inclined to take chance. Look at simple computer products. Most people with money (government or corporate contractors) prefer HP, to me Hp, is not that better than DELL, SONY or even Toshiba, but if you quote those three products you are better sure that you know the man in charge because you are likely to loose the job. These behaviour is pronounced among market women, take a good/better product to them than the common one in the market, whether Nigerian, American European or whatever, they would first tell you they have never heard of it, they can't even try it if it is not on credit and they who are ignorant of the production process would tell you it is fake, even though the major brand has been diluted into a mixture of China products or original ones.

Katsumoto:

A plethora of reasons are responsible for this sorry state.

2. Finance is not readily available; how do you make a profit if you have to finance your project at 22%. The net present value of your project will most certainly be negative if you use the standard term of 30 years

Good point. This is definitely one of the most important factors.

4. Risk aversion and complacency - Caucasians usually take risks with their lives; when you can do that, take risks on your finances is not such a daunting task. This is one of the biggest factors and can usually be traced back to our forefathers who didn't really build empires. There is one Queen in England but there are over 300 kings in Nigeria. An ambitious king should have aggregated all the small and distinct kingdoms in Nigeria. Similar to what occurred in Europe. The desire to conquer or prevent being conquered led many European states to become creative and innovative. In Africa, our fore-fathers had so much time on their hands that they just had many kids.

Do Caucasians usually take more risks? Have some studies been done (not a rhetorical question, because psychological or economic studies certainly could be done to determine this) to support this idea convincingly?

I doubt that the ability of one's forefathers to build or not build empires is a significant factor in creative entrepreneurship. What empires did the Jews/Israelites build? Yet they are some of the most creative businesspeople on the planet. Just look at Mark Zuckerberg.

As for Nigeria having 300 kings, I'm not too sure about that. There are only a few real kings in Nigeria, in the proper use of the term. The rest are really the equivalents of dukes, counts, barons, priests of traditional religions, etc. and a few are even just recently (after British establishment of warrant chiefs/colonization or maybe even post-independence) self-proclaimed monarchies.

And some Nigerian societies did not have the inclination towards monarchy so empire building could not even have arisen. Those that did have such an inclination did not brutally oppress the territories they ruled over like the English wanted to do to the Irish and Scottish. So I guess your message is that groups with military advantages were not ruthless enough or lacked sufficient ruthless ambition to create a superior kind of state, but this might be a good thing, otherwise some Nigerian peoples might have become as extinct as the Picts. I think the extreme cultural/political division of Nigeria should not be seen as a result of the failure of the kingdoms that existed to overrun their neighbors but as a natural (and not necessarily unfortunate) and unchangeable fact of life. I also believe the emergence of one supreme ruler in places like Turkey, Iran, Britain, Mali, Ethiopia, does not indicate a superior ability of those peoples to take risks.

I don't think that the fact that there is one Sultan of a large Caliphate, and the fact that the rest of the political leaders know that they are only emirs or waziris and don't dare call themselves sultans, suggests that the Hausa-Fulanis would be more gifted in creative entrepreneurship than their southern neighbors. The English/Scottish/Welsh only came to have one king/queen over a large (not that large physically, actually) domain in the 18th century with the unifications, but the Hausa-Fulani were only a century behind them in this regard. Yet there has been a world of difference between the entrepreneurship drive, creative or not, between these groups for multiple centuries and up to this day.

5. Crab mentality - Most Africans tend not to support one another. There are often instances of family members who go out of their ways to prevent another family member from succeeding

Too true.

6. Laziness - Some Nigerians want the champagne lifestyle but are not ready to put in the hard work required and are not even patient enough to be successful without resorting to dubious means. Drug pushers, kidnappers, ritualists, politicians come to mind. Also, people that you employ are ready to rip you off. I know one hotel in Lagos where the attendants give you 70% discount as long as you pay into their pockets instead of into the books. If you open a shop and are not present, the shop assistants will bring in their products to sell while your inventory remains static. Many Nigerians accept this because they are looking for bargains then complain when they become victims.

Wow @ that Lagos story.

7. Unstable political climate - IBB, Atiku, OBJ, GEJ and many others

Somehow I suspect that this doesn't have to much to do with it. This might affect foreign investment, but indigenous creativity should not necessarily be hampered by this.

8. Crude oil - Nigeria had more legitimate millionaires before the discovery of oil than it currently has. People are so dependent on contracts associated with the oil industry that they refuse to be creative and innovative

Did Nigeria really have more legitimate millionaires? Or just  more people who were famous for being business moguls/millionaires because being one was a greater rarity at that time? Or maybe you mean a higher ratio of millionaires to non-millionaires, in which case you're almost certainly right. The ratio of poor people and non-rich people who never became rich to people who became millionaires is probably greater now than during the 50s/60s, but maybe that's only natural and not evidence of some major failure.


Also, before the discovery of oil, a "naira" was equal to a dollar, right? Then earning a million naira made one a millionaire. While prices have been adjusted (e.g. paying 1500 naira for one small meal at some cheap restaurant), to match the change in the naira's worth, it's not certain that people aren't paying less because the prices for every product and service have not been adequately adjusted (raised) to what they should be to make companies wealthier, while still keeping their prices low enough to be competitive. Of course this would be the fault of the companies themselves but the point is maybe all this relative cheapness of products and services on the part of companies is significantly decreasing profits. Just an idea.

Somehow I suspect that this doesn't have to much to do with it. This might affect foreign investment, but indigenous creativity should not necessarily be hampered by this.

I would differ in this regard. In Nigeria, like most countries, politics and business are intertwined. Would expand on this later

SEFAGO:



My big question is this though- Why are Africans uncreative entrepreneurs? I get and understand Nigerians who live in Nigeria, but what about all the Nigerians in the US and the UK? [/b]While Mittal was able to build the largest steel company in Europe, [b]No Nigerian in diaspora has been able to do anything.

There might not be enough creative entrepreneurs in Nigeria relative to the population of Nigeria, but I'm not too sure about this claim about Nigerians abroad. On linkedin dot com searches of common Nigerian names, I do come across owners of companies in both the US and the UK. The question then might be, how big these companies are (how successful), which is a whole different thing.

One example that comes to mind is Kase Lawal. But then again that's oil money, and is thus "irrelevant" to this discussion of creative entrepreneurs.

Examples of Nigerians with creative entrepreneurship abroad that I can think of are Nosa Omoigui, Kingsley Idehen, and Johnson Edosomwan. But their companies might be too small to merit being considered within the context of this discussion. I really don't have a definite grasp of how big their companies are, but they're probably much smaller than the companies being previously discussed.

Anyways, when you consider the fact these three people are all from one small population (from one city, actually), I'm certain that within the population of the rest of Nigeria there will almost certainly be many times more creative entrepreneurs to be found abroad. Regardless, the real problem though, is the much larger problem of Nigerians in Nigeria, not those in diaspora. And anyways, the establishment of a large Nigerian diaspora significant enough in size to have entrepreneurs here and there is a kind of recent thing (late 1980s onwards). The majority of Nigerians abroad are just students or non-business man/woman professionals whose children are students. The parents, or the students, should take a hint from the Westerners in their immediate environments and start up creative, innovative businesses, but that's a LOT easier said than done. It's a lot easier to just go through life with the rest of the herd.

From the linkedin dot com profile for J.A. Edosomwan. It seems he may be painting a comically over glorified picture of himself on his linkedin profile but I visited his company's website and he seems legit:

Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan’s Summary
Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan is the Chairman and CEO for JJA CONSULTANTS, Inc., the Chairman and General Manager for the Johnson A. Edosomwan, LLC, and the Group Chairman for C.I.C. His is an executive consultant to over 6000+ public- and private-sector organizations. He has completed over 1300+ consulting projects, developed 630+ performance improvement tools, and trained over 290,000+ executives, leaders, and professionals around the world. He is a pioneer in continuous performance improvement and author of over 66 books and 325 papers including the most recent books, “World-Class Leadership Competencies” and “One Race: Human Diversity Solutions”. Dr. Edosomwan is the recipient of 175+ awards, honors, citations, fellowships, and commendations, including the following: “Men of Achievement in the World”; “Who’s Who of Intellectuals”; “Who’s Who of Intellectual Distinguished Leadership”; “Personalities of the Americas”; “Who’s Who in Technology/Innovation”; “5000 Personalities of the World”; Fellow, IIE, ISPQR, Paul Harris, EBAT®, Social Science Research Council, NIOSH, Burger King; “IIE Technical Innovations Award”; “Outstanding Young Engineer”; “Innovative Business Entrepreneur”; “IIE Pride Award”; and the IIE Electronic Industry Division Award”. He is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, Alpha Pi Mu, and Sigma Xi honorary societies. Dr. Edosomwan is the holder of over 16 certifications in several academic disciplines and holds the following degrees: B.S.I.E. and M.S.I.E., University of Miami; P.Engr., Columbia University; and Doctorate of Science in Engineering Management/Economics, George Washington University. Dr. Edosomwan is the founder of the University of Miami, Johnson A. Edosomwan Leadership Institute. The following awards were established by University of Miami in his name: Johnson A. Edosomwan Productivity and Quality Scholarship Award, Johnson A. Edosomwan Researcher of the Year Award, Johnson A. Edosomwan Scholarly Productivity Award.

Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan’s Specialties:
Executive Coaching, Leadership, Performance Improvement, Customer Service, Process Re-engineering, Baldridge, Diversity and Strategic Planning

Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan’s Experience
Owner
JJA Consultants, Inc.
(Management Consulting industry)
Currently holds this position

Dr. Johnson A. Edosomwan’s Education
Columbia University - Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science
Professional Degree , Engineering
The George Washington University
Doctorate of Science , Engineering
University of Miami
Masters of Science , Industrial Engineering
University of Miami
Bachelors of Science , Industrial Engineering

Then of course there's Kunle Olukotun, who's company was bought for millions by Sun Microsystems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afara_Websystems


That's innovative enough.


But this thread was about creative Nigerian entrepreneurs, not creative American entrepreneurs.

Katsumoto:

A plethora of reasons are responsible for this sorry state.

1.  shoddy infrastructure.
2. Finance is not readily available3. Education in Nigeria has been going downhill for years. I think someone said that with good infrastructure, Nigeria may have had call centres but that simply ignores the good educational system in India which has prepared India adequately for this industry

4. Risk aversion and complacency 5. Crab mentality - Most Africans tend not to support one another. There are often instances of family members who go out of their ways to prevent another family member from succeeding

6. Laziness
7. Unstable political climate
8. Crude oil - Nigeria had more legitimate millionaires before the discovery of oil than it currently has. People are so dependent on contracts associated with the oil industry that they refuse to be creative and innovative

There are way too many reasons you gave for a very straightforward question. But again considering the question things like shoddy inrastructure- which to me is down to a poor maintenance culture- political instability and available finance should not even be on the list as they don't really explain the dearth of creative investors of Nigerian extraction vis a vis the coountry's size and geopolitical position.

Take for instance political stability. Is Nigeria more unstable than the likes of Lebanon and Pakistan? Obviously not. Yet these nations produce a disproportionate amount of enterpreneurs and investors.

Crude oil . Again no, as only a tiny proportion of the populace benefit directly from crude oil anyway.

However to be fair, risk aversion , complacency, the go it alone syndrome and the quality and direction of the education system  are the main impediments to enterpreneurship in Nigeria

I think the 'go it alone' syndrome is a very good reason for lack of enterprenural innovativeness. I once introduced an idea and called up about four heavy weights around my business community and asked that we form a company and make a killing, they politely declined, and to my surprise, started investing on my idea differently. The idea is working, but had we pulled resources together and set up a big outfit, we could have made billions in less than 10 years.

tensor777:

There are way too many reasons you gave for a very straightforward question. But again considering the question things like shoddy inrastructure- which to me is down to a poor maintenance culture- political instability and available finance should not even be on the list as they don't explain the dearth of creative investors of Nigerian extraction vis a vis the coountry's size and geopolitical position.

Take for instance political stability. Is Nigeria more unstable than the likes of Lebanon and Pakistan? Obviously not. Yet these nations produce a disproportionate amount of enterpreneurs and investors.

Crude oil . Again no, as only a tiny proportion of the populace benefit directly from crude oil anyway.

However to be fair, risk aversion , complacency, the go it alone syndrome and the quality and direction of the education system  are the main impediments to enterpreneurship in Nigeria

Entrepreneurship spirit can be passed between generations. There are many families in the US today that derive their wealth from ideas generated by a few generations before them. Besides, many Nigerians in diaspora still face many issues that hinders their creative spirit. I don't need to state the obvious.

Who are these entrepreneurs and investors in Lebanon? What industries are they in? Most of these Middle-eastern and asian countries, inc India, have dynasties. Each country in the world has rich individuals. You need to compare the number of rich people against population.

What drives the Nigerian economy? Is it not crude oil? Receipts from oil go to each state which trickles down to citizens in many forms.

PhysicsHD:



Good point. This is definitely one of the most important factors.

Do Caucasians usually take more risks? Have some studies been done (not a rhetorical question, because psychological or economic studies certainly could be done to determine this) to support this idea convincingly?

I doubt that the ability of one's forefathers to build or not build empires is a significant factor in creative entrepreneurship. What empires did the Jews/Israelites build? Yet they are some of the most creative businesspeople on the planet. Just look at Mark Zuckerberg.

As for Nigeria having 300 kings, I'm not too sure about that. There are only a few real kings in Nigeria, in the proper use of the term. The rest are really the equivalents of dukes, counts, barons, priests of traditional religions, etc. and a few are even just recently (after British establishment of warrant chiefs/colonization or maybe even post-independence) self-proclaimed monarchies.

And some Nigerian societies did not have the inclination towards monarchy so empire building could not even have arisen. Those that did have such an inclination did not brutally oppress the territories they ruled over like the English wanted to do to the Irish and Scottish. So I guess your message is that groups with military advantages were not ruthless enough or lacked sufficient ruthless ambition to create a superior kind of state, but this might be a good thing, otherwise some Nigerian peoples might have become as extinct as the Picts. I think the extreme cultural/political division of Nigeria should not be seen as a result of the failure of the kingdoms that existed to overrun their neighbors but as a natural (and not necessarily unfortunate) and unchangeable fact of life. I also believe the emergence of one supreme ruler in places like Turkey, Iran, Britain, Mali, Ethiopia, does not indicate a superior ability of those peoples to take risks.

I don't think that the fact that there is one Sultan of a large Caliphate, and the fact that the rest of the political leaders know that they are only emirs or waziris and don't dare call themselves sultans, suggests that the Hausa-Fulanis would be more gifted in creative entrepreneurship than their southern neighbors. The English/Scottish/Welsh only came to have one king/queen over a large (not that large physically, actually) domain in the 18th century with the unifications, but the Hausa-Fulani were only a century behind them in this regard. Yet there has been a world of difference between the entrepreneurship drive, creative or not, between these groups for multiple centuries and up to this day.

Too true.

Wow @ that Lagos story.

Somehow I suspect that this doesn't have to much to do with it. This might affect foreign investment, but indigenous creativity should not necessarily be hampered by this.

Did Nigeria really have more legitimate millionaires? Or just  more people who were famous for being business moguls/millionaires because being one was a greater rarity at that time? Or maybe you mean a higher ratio of millionaires to non-millionaires, in which case you're almost certainly right. The ratio of poor people and non-rich people who never became rich to people who became millionaires is probably greater now than during the 50s/60s, but maybe that's only natural and not evidence of some major failure.


Also, before the discovery of oil, a "naira" was equal to a dollar, right? Then earning a million naira made one a millionaire. While prices have been adjusted (e.g. paying 1500 naira for one small meal at some cheap restaurant), to match the change in the naira's worth, it's not certain that people aren't paying less because the prices for every product and service have not been adequately adjusted (raised) to what they should be to make companies wealthier, while still keeping their prices low enough to be competitive. Of course this would be the fault of the companies themselves but the point is maybe all this relative cheapness of products and services on the part of companies is significantly decreasing profits. Just an idea.

1. Yes, Caucasians do take more risks. Lets look at travelling for instance. Many Nigerians usually only go the the UK or US for leisure. How many Nigerian students go back-packing? How many do you see volunteering in places where they can be killed? Evidence suggests that you will find Caucasians volunteering in Afghanistan, China, India, Iraq?

2. People are inspired by what their parents did. In western europe, you find individuals who continually strive to compete with what was achieved by their fore-bearers. What are the rich people doing in Nigeria if not having or trying to have sex. Little wonder that Nigeria has become a decadent society with old pot-bellied men sleeping with girls young enough to be their grand kids. Even young guys have caught that bug. They make small dough and immediately spend it drinking and paying for sex.

3. History suggests that expansionist states were successful even though all empires will crumble eventually. Having 300 kings in a place like Nigeria suggests that the individuals at that time did not really have any grand ideas. They were content with their little villages. England and Wales were under one Saxon king before William the conqueror in 1066. Scotland was conquered several times before the Acts of Union in 1707. The picts did not become extinct; they became assimilated by a superior group and their language died. Did the Cornish people of Cornwall become extinct or their language did?

4. Please find Nigerians today who can compare to these past Nigerians - Sir Odumeghu Ojukwu, Sanusi Dantata, Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony, S. L. Edu, Emmanuel Akwiwu, Odutola, Ade Tuyo. Don't mention individuals who derived their wealth from stolen funds and monopolies protected by successive governments.

Please find Nigerians today who can compare to these past Nigerians - Sir Odumeghu Ojukwu, Sanusi Dantata, Sir Mobolaji Bank-Anthony, S. L. Edu, Emmanuel Akwiwu, Odutola, Ade Tuyo. Don't mention individuals who derived their wealth from stolen funds and monopolies protected by successive governments.

True. Even up till now these names are still giants. I grew up hearing about the business exploits of these group of people. I doubt I will be telling my kids about IBB or Mike Adenuga

Katsumoto:

Entrepreneurship spirit can be passed between generations. There are many families in the US today that derive their wealth from ideas generated by a few generations before them. Besides, many Nigerians in diaspora still face many issues that hinders their creative spirit. I don't need to state the obvious.

Who are these entrepreneurs and investors in Lebanon? What industries are they in? Most of these Middle-eastern and asian countries, inc India, have dynasties. Each country in the world has rich individuals. You need to compare the number of rich people against population.

Again very good points . This idea of having a family dynastic tradition has never really caught on in Nigeria. Its not just in business but also in academia the military and other professions.