Welcome on board. This thread is for the education of the returning Nigerian diasporan interested in doing 'genuine' SME business in Nigeria.
Please be warned that this is not a get rich or overnight money thing. So if you are looking for such here, you are in the wrong place.

If you are completely ignorant of what to do, start with an intellectual property idea, also known as IP. What is IP? We shall know tomorrow. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp7IAYJYIfo&feature=relmfu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfGCKD3fsac

Thanks for your time today. Thanks to Mr grasscutter too, who diverted us off our path a bit. This post will appreciate more from helpers than sellers.


An intellectual property is a trademark, patent, process, design, technique or knowledge that is owned by a person or an institution.
Of what business use is this to me? IP is an already made business looking for people to buy into and in most cases with feasibility done.
A ready example is the processing of ethanol, in commercial quantity, from cassava produced by OAU in Ile-ife. Also with the process is the machinery to use.
Do you know that Bill Gates bought the DOS program as an intellectual property, and made a multi-billion dollar industry out of it.


How do i get information about the institution, both government and non government, free of charge? You would know in the next post. Thanks.

To my avid readers in the Diaspora, i say thank you for staying with the post. Did you go through the WIPO link? I am sure you have a better insight into what IP is about now.

Whao! The Nigeria IP information looks scattered, but i would try to compile it for your benefit.

The ministry of commerce and industry is in charge of registration of trademarks, patents, designs and administration of IP rights in Nigeria.
If your IP is any of the above, it's filing through an IP lawyer, is done in this office. The web address is www.ipong.com. Unfortunately it is not working.

For anything music, art or culture related, the Nigerian copyright commission, under the ministry of information and culture is in charge of the filing.

The federal ministry of science & technology and institutions of higher learning is where our interest lies for business.
No database exist online for IP business in Nigeria, but i wil direct you, for free, to important sites of immense help.

However i leave you with the website of the national office of technology acquisition and promotion. This office is a major player in the promotion and commercialization of IP in Nigeria.
www. notap.gov.ng

Happy new month, thanks for staying with the thread.

Did you go to 'notap' website? Anything gained from it? Notap, under the ministry of sci. & tech is supposed to be the submission point for all IPs from government research institutes and institutes of higher learning, through their IP & technology transfer offices (IPPTO).

A list of all participating institution ought to be on notap site - whose mandate include registration of technology agreement and IP advisory services - however it is not.

For this reason, i will take you through each institute, their url and their IP jurisdiction.
Have a nice weekend. Thanks.

Happy new month, thanks for staying with the thread.

Did you go to 'notap' website? Anything gained from it? Notap, under the ministry of sci. & tech is supposed to be the submission point for all IPs from government research institutes and institutes of higher learning, through their IP & technology transfer offices (IPPTO).

A list of all participating institution ought to be on notap site - whose mandate include registration of technology agreement and IP advisory services - however it is not.

For this reason, i will take you through each institute, their url and their IP jurisdiction.
Have a nice weekend. Thanks.

Good day. What a tragedic weekend for we Nigerians. May God grant their families the fortitude to bear the loss. I intend writing on infrasture development opportunities, when done with IP business.
Most accidents of such magnitude occur in Nigeria due to lack of adequate or modern infrastructures. We intend to look into existing opportunity in this area. Moreover, a lot of solicitation for PP partnership is being done by the federal goverment of late. So follow the thread.

However, i leave you with the links to parastatals that are IP loaded and waiting earnestly for investors like you to tap into it. Note: the domain of nigerian natural medicine development agency is up for sale.
www.fmst.gov.ng/parastatals.php

Thanks for being there for the thread. I am sorry for the typographic errors in yesterday's post.
I hope this thread have been quite helpful. I await your questions and of course, feedbacks for me to serve you better.

Did you go through the links? I bet you, with a minimum of N2 million you can start some. Like i said earlier in the thread, the feasibility study coupled with cost implications and every other thing required for the success of the project is done by these agencies. So for you,it is just a matter of walking into a ready made business.

Oops! What about the intellectual properties residing in the federal government institutions of higher learning?
Check www.warima.org . To be discussed tomorrow. Thanks.

Good day my friends. This thread would have been nothing without you. I appreciate you all.

Did you go to the url i gave out yesterday? Despite having the IPPTO offices in all institutions, these institutions prefer to flock with their likes, hence the need for warima.
West African Research and Innovation Management (warima) consist of institutions of higher learning along the West African coast. It also has the mandate for commercialization of intellectual properties across it's jurisdiction. Fortunately, the headquarter is in Nigeria at UI, 1st floor, university advancement centre.

Now that I have this much information, how do I go about it?
Let us make it a date tomorrow.
Thanks.

Good evening friends, thanks for making it a date.

With the horde of information you have at your disposal, you are eligible for any IP business.
Albeit, this few advice would be of help;

Enquiries through the web may not yield much. I did it once and I am yet to recieve a reply after a year. Go to the research agencies and the institutions for needed information, or you ask someone to do that on your behalf.

Do not represent yourself or sign any agreement by yourself. A lawyer with the bias for IP law is a must. They will help you understand the give and take of the deal.

Do not make a back door agreement with an individual, make everything official.

Ask questions and understand the terms before committing your funds.

Tomorrow we shall see other businesses we can make out from IP. Thanks.

Hi friends, good afternoon. I can see another post hijacking.

Recall that I said there are other big time businesses you can make out from IP.

IP marketing is a big business. The awareness is very low. I bet that some of us, if not for the thread, have never heard of IP.

Here we go. Make contact with the IP institutions and negotiate for payment for any referral who takes up a project via you. Make a brochure and do things that can
raise awareness and follow it up to a logical conclusion. It is worth giving a trial, within your fellow diaspora.

We will look on the next option next week. Thanks.

Hope you all had a splendid weekend. Thanks for your presence.

Lawyers with bias for IP can effectively educate their fellow Nigerian diaspora and gain from being their lawyer to any IP agreement in Nigeria. It is just a matter of helping others to help yourself.

A Nigerian military doctor, some few years ago, took his kidney dialysis machine to USA. He registered the patent and a company took it up, the rest is now story. What does this story imply?
You could search for promising IP from 'notap', market it on behalf of the owners, for a fee abroad. This will invovle you filing the IP via a lawyer and looking for a suitable organization for it.

An independent IP advisory service combined with provision of valuable report needed for economic or research purposes. The report, may be on an annual basis, will be the point of reference for IP in Nigeria. The bloomberg type of thing. This is a very promising niche.

Please on a scale of 1-10, help rate this write up on intellectual property.
Thanks! Thanks!! Thanks!!!

Hi friends. Sorry for the break yesterday. I will appreciate we give ourselves break during holidays and weekends.

Is there any grey area in intellectual property you want us to revisit? I await such request.

Now that we have come to the end of IP business, our next business idea will be infrastructure development.
There is no gain saying that out dear country has a huge deficit in infrastructure.

For Nigeria to meet its MDGs, she needs to develop infrastructures critical to economic advancement - World Bank. All said, our present economy, due to concurrent budget deficit, cannot take up infrastructure development as it ought to be.
For this reason, the government has embark on public-private-partnership to solve the problem of lack of infrastructure. The partnership involves building, operating and maintaining infrastructures on agreed terms with the government.

We shall be looking into existing opportunities at the 3 tiers of governments, starting tomorrow.
Thanks.

Good day friends. Starting at the highest level of government - the federal government, PPP(public-private partnerships) projects are often advertised in the major newspapers. These projects are often bidded for.

The PPP projects at this level are often worth billions of dollar. These projects cut across construction of roads, bridges, dredging, mass housing, extractive industry and its likes.
It is not a terrain for small players with a few million of naira - that is the truth.

It is a good choice if you love Abuja, bureaucracy, have billions, the expertise and experience.

Which federal offices serve as sources of these projects? We will see them tomorrow.
Thanks.

Hello friends. The FGN agency handling the regulation, promotion and building PPP framework for use is the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC). It is chaired by His Excellency E. Shonekan and other notable government personnel from the ministries invovled in infrastructure building and financing.

A link to the works' ministry, for available expression of interest is present on the icrc site. Some items to be bidded for are presently available on icrc site, to close by June 20.

Tinkle with the site over the weekend.
www.icrc.gov.ng
Thanks.

Hello, there. I think starting a fast food business is an excellent idea. Nigeria is like spending money on that kind of food, so I think a person can make good money in that field. But, it won’t be easy. The competition is rough and you will have to struggle for your position. I suggest you to study market well. See who your target customers are. Also, don’t be afraid of being innovative and creative. Talk to someone who has recently started with similar business. I hope you will manage with all of that. I will keep my fingers crossed.

@Keemax

Are you based in Nigeria? I see that you're very interested in IP. Here's a thread I created a while ago and would like to get your opinion on it.

https://www.nairaland.com/917649/could-this-growth-catalyst-nigeria

A trial will convince you.

nice thread

Thanks akin101. Wallie, I went through your thread and I doff my hat for the in depth insight you have about IP being a growth catalyst for our nation.

Please spread the gospel of the abundant IP opportunities in Nigeria, both far and near. Our hope for economic advancement lies in it.

Thanks.

[img]http://www.50centloseweight.com[/img]so excited!

what about gold mining? anyone know about the gold mining industry? i could possibly get some investors to invest in mining gold.

Hi keemax>>>>i am looking to start a haulage business in Nigeria.Please give me some advice on how to go about it.Thanks.

Oil_Cabal: Hi keemax>>>>i am looking to start a haulage business in Nigeria.Please give me some advice on how to go about it.Thanks.

for you to do the biz you have to know the common brand of lorry in Nigeria transport industry It's either Mack which is the toughest or man depending on the area you want to concentrate and whether you should buy single axle or double axle ,next you can either run it yourself by either registering it in a park and be marketing your service for would be buyers It's very important that you put trackers on your vehicles to allow you to monitor your vehicles movement at any point in time and to forestall any Sharp practice from your staffs It's also important that you buy your parts yourself and use more than one mechanic to make cooperation between your driver and mechanic difficult .You can specialize in transportation of sand,container or general goods or you registered with a company and they will give you specification of vehicles they want or better still you can buy and lease to already existing transportation company for more info you can mail me @ opaf2002@gmail.com

civil engineering (road) construction company is a very good business in nigeria due to development going on everywhere.
you can contact me if you have interest on this field

A country that cannot give out loans to its graduates and its done with padi padi sentiments

A country rich enough to start a social security scheme and get to carry its youth along by paying at least 20000 naira for unemployed people infact every citizen

What a nation ruled by heartless people

Hi friends, I hope you all had a nice weekend. @oil cabal, I think kiyosaki1 have done justice to your inquiry. From experience I know it to be a lucrative business, however I would not fail to mention the human factor kiyosaki1 made mention of. That is the main problem.
So I implore you to come home for at least a month internship with any haulage
company - preferably a private one, and see the problems first hand;then write your business plan if still interested.

If you would eventually go into it,I strongly advice you not to entrust the business to anyone at it's onset.

Wish you luck.

Hello friends. I hope you went through the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission website. Do not forget that it is the FGN's tool for Public-Private Partnership projects at the federal level.

Before we go further on PPP,it is important we know the requirements expected of us if we intend to bid for any of these projects at all tiers of government.
You will require an evidence of tax payment, letter of business incorporation in Nigeria, statement of account showing millions of millions.
These are the minimum, variations may occur at the state or local government level.

Our focus will go to the state level tomorrow. We will adopt a different strategy that will allow us go for work even if there is no expression of interest on it.

Thanks.

Hi friends. I had wanted to limit PPP projects to BOT(build, operate and transfer), being the most common in Nigeria. However, it is important to know that seven variants of PPP exist. With this variance comes different laws and agreements.
In the course of generating PPP based business, I will inform us of the variant to use.

Where do we look to for PPP at the state level? My humble anwser is public utilities. What are utilities? Services provided for the public by government. Like what? Water, electricity, schools, roads, health facilities, motor parks and all its likes.

You would agree that we need massive improvement in our utilities. Have ever been pressed to use the toilet at a motor park, but behold, no such facility exist there? For the savvy investor, a business opportunity is beckoning at you.
In an urban place like Lagos can you count the number motor parks without toilet?

Let us meet tomorrow.
Thanks.