Opportunities For Innovation In These 5 Nigerian Sectors.

A typical Nigerian busy street

Nigeria is an emerging market. And according to Wikipedia, an emerging market is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market but does not fully meet its standards. This is not to say that the Nigerian economy is not doing very well. In fact, in 2013 Nigeria was having the largest economy in Africa; its re-emergent manufacturing sector became the largest on the continent. Nigeria has the potential of becoming one of the top 5 largest economies in the world as against being 27th in the year 2013.

There’s room for improvement and this article will show the need and the opportunities for innovation in 5 Nigerian sectors that will get Nigeria to win back her seat as the “Giant of Africa” and this time it wouldn’t just be by the landmass and population but by GDP.

These sectors include

1. Transportation
2. Agriculture
3. Tourism
4. Education
5. Energy

There’s a lot to say about these sectors and over time there have been several changes made in these sectors. But I do not think that justice has been done to get Nigeria out of its present economic situation as of 2021.

One by one, I will give you reasons why there is still a need for technology innovation even in sectors where it seems like they’ve figured things out. African Futurists are seeking ways to develop sustainable solutions for developing countries in Africa to improve the standard of living.

Transportation

Nigeria has a landmass of 923,768 km² which includes the inland bodies of water which is 13,000 sq. km and having an estimated population of 208 million individual as of 2020. And the Nigerian population increases every year with over 2 percent. (Statistica and indexmundi).

These statistics show a promising future for the transportation sub-sector. The private and public transportation business can exist mutually and remain profitable. There is a lot of untapped opportunities in the transportation sector that needs discovery and utilization.

Nigeria has the following means of transportation

• Taxes, Buses, Motorcycles and Rental Cars — Taxis are plentiful in Nigeria, and in some cities they outnumber buses. These are the most regularly used means of moving around the cities because it is convenient and affordable. Imagine the amount of combustion produced by these automobiles when they are out on the roads and the period they are on the road daily, gives no room for clean air inhalation by the inhabitants in places where these automobiles are densely packed. The need to be innovative can come into play to ensure that clean air is assured. What can be done to promote and prolong the lives of people who take in this populated air due to the uncontrolled and unregulated use of automobiles? What role should the government play to make locals safe to breathe in clean oxygen? And how best can they ensure that the value and cost of movement from place to place within the city are improved? Multiplicity has been a great issue in the transportation sector, so instead of more motorcycles, and more tricycles what else can be introduced?
• Water Taxis and Ferries — Lagos ports have set the pace for other states surrounded by water to take a cue from. According to iexplore, Lagos is a port city and there are regular routes around the Lagos Lagoon operated by the State Ferry Services Corporation. There are also several private water taxi services, such as CityLink Marina Ltd, which run on-demand demand to destinations around the lagoon and up some creeks. The Nigeria map shows that there are two major rivers which are the Niger and the Benue river. And these rivers pass through states within the country. As it stands currently, Nigeria has only 6 major seaports. Nigeria has seaports in Apapa and Tin Can Island in Lagos; Onne and Port Harcourt in Rivers; Warri in Delta; and Calabar in Cross River. It is believed that the cost of doing shipping business at the ports, has remained high with no sign of relief in sight and therefore, Nigeria’s seaports have made the nation’s gateway uncompetitive. There have been several failed attempts by the administration to reform the sector over the years. This is a call for serious concern as this is greatly affecting the Nigerian economy. Waterways are a great avenue for business but with a Nation that is known for being compromising, they use that avenue to extort business owners through illegal payments according to Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide. A petition was sent to the President and the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Custom Agents and they sent out a list of factors that have contributed to the high cost of doing at the ports to include gridlock on the port access roads, delay in scanning and physical examination, duplicated charges and charges not tied to services, cargo dwell time/ lengthy port procedures, and block stacking of containers.
  Other factors are lack of holding bay and trailer parks; unethical conduct of shipping companies and terminal operators; infrastructure problem; customs procedure and associated delays.
  This brings us to the question of what can be done differently to grow this sector?
• Trains and Buses — In most blogs, you will find this starting phrase “Nigeria has a train network of a north-south line between Kaduna and Lagos, and Kaduna and Port Harcourt.” Lagos state is on a major project to construct a light rail system under a public-private partnership (PPP) and to link Nigeria to other neighboring West African States. Which is a job that deserves a pat on the back. But what happens after the project is completed? What enterprise software will be used and to run the administrative processes while the rail station is in full operation? The bus network on the other hand is extensive, connecting all major cities with long-distance services. As of the time of this article, there is no system to estimate the time of arrival like the Uber application for long-distance bus transport services due to some obvious factors. There is also no seamless connection between buses of the same transit company to keep a track record of activities that take place during transit just like the black box in an aircraft. In all of these, there’s no guarantee for safety on the Nigerian roads which is a topic for another article. There is so much opportunity for innovation in the Nigerian transportation sector of the economy to boost GDP and to improve the standard of living.

Agriculture

Shutterstock photos

The Agricultural sector is one of the sectors contributing to the nation’s GDP by about 18% and almost one-third of employment. In the article “ Nigeria to Increase Beef Consumption by 1.3 Million Tones By 2050” by Adesina, he states that Nigeria has 19 million head of cattle, the largest in Africa. But compared to the Nigerian population, Agriculture has failed to keep pace with the rapid population growth, so that the country, which once exported food, now imports a significant amount of food to sustain itself. This concludes that the agricultural sector suffers from extremely low productivity, reflecting reliance on antiquated methods.

The opportunity for innovation in the agricultural sector cannot be overemphasized. What innovative methods can be put in place to help businesses, landowners, and farmers to develop the knowledge and technologies that will make modern farming more sustainable, resilient, and productive in soil and water, livestock and regenerative agriculture?

Tourism

Tourism, another sub-sector under Services, is one of the most downplayed sectors in Nigeria. According to Wikipedia, Tourism in Nigeria centres largely on events, due to the country’s ample amount of ethnic groups, but also includes rain forest, savannah, waterfalls, and other natural attractions. The World Travel and Tourism Council estimated revenue related to tourism and travel in Nigeria will exceed USD 1 billion in 2007 and will account for approximately 6% of the gross domestic product. The industry suffers from the country’s poor electricity, roads, and water quality. This is a slap on the face to the government of Nigeria and the past and present administration. With the right innovation and the absence of intense corruption, the sector will be one of the highest contributors to the nation’s GDP. Israel and the UAE are very good examples of nations that leveraged the power of tourism to boost their economy. So many amazing sites in Nigeria are lying fallow, unkempt and becoming a breeding ground for reptiles and harmful creatures instead of being organised and regulated to cause an attraction to locals and foreigners. The need for innovation in this sector is largely overlooked and this is one of the easiest ways the country can recover from pressing and embarrassing economic and financial situations.

Education

Education in Nigeria is in a mess from top to bottom.

Amongst all the sectors of the economy, education is one of the most sensitive sectors because it is responsible for the production of the future workforce of the economy. Like a computer system, the educational system follows the same GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) rule. A lot of the reason the economy is where it is today is because of the products of students that are being released into the economy year in year out. And the same country labels these same students unemployable, thereby making the majority of them unemployed. Half baked students seep into the economy and work in various sectors, bringing the results that we see today.

This concludes that the reason for the depletion of the Nigerian economy is not far fetched.

Expatriates are mostly at the helm of affairs in major multinationals and even indigenous organisations because the country cannot produce the quality of skills necessary to fill sensitive roles.

The advent of technology has helped lots of students to pave their own way to succeed and climb the ladder of demanding organisations both within and outside the country.

According to www.theconversstion.com it is stated that “Nigeria’s educational system is in assorted crises of infrastructural decay, neglect, waste of resources and sordid conditions of service. The country has over 10 million out-of-school children. That’s the highest in the world. Another 27 million children in school are performing very poorly. Millions of Nigerians are half-educated, and over 60 million – or 30% – are illiterate.
On top of this, many eligible young Nigerians can’t gain admission into public universities. At the same time prohibitive tuition fees, among other factors, are a barrier to the country’s private universities.”

In this COVID-19 era, there has been a little bit of shift to new methods of learning, but a lot of work still needs to be done.

It is not enough to let student study from the comfort of their homes because that alone is dependent on some obvious factors. But what innovative idea and facilities will be put in place to improve the standard of education in Nigeria and to reduce the brain drain of the nation who are the real national treasures?

Energy

The focus of this section is on the power distribution in the Nigeria energy sector. It is grossly disheartening that the issues faced across the power generation value chain, was only resolved by the introduction of a regulatory body — the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in 2005 - the unbundling of power assets and the implementation of the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) formed to address issues of insufficient electricity generation.

How is this power generated?

Nigeria major source of power is from traditional biomass and waste, which account for 83% of total primary production. The rest is from fossil fuels (16%) and hydropower (1%).

Electricity – production: 18.89 billion kWh (2009)
Electricity – production by source:
fossil fuel: 61.69%
hydro: 38.31%
nuclear: 0%
other: <.1% (1998)
Electricity - consumption: 17.66 billion kWh (2009)
Electricity - exports: 40 million kWh (2003)
Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (1998)

With this data, a question is posed to the power sector. Why is there no sufficient power within the country?

The introduction of prepaid meter is a good way for consumers to manage their power consumption rate.

Thanks to companies like Buy Power that have given consumers the power to monitor their consumption rate, buy power and pay some utility bills by the introduction of a mobile application.

How long are citizens going to rely on the federal government to provide power for them to run their homes and businesses?

What other source of power can the nation adopt?

Why should there be a power theft and sabotage if the cost of power is affordable?

With about 60% of the country’s population without access to electricity supply, the enforcement of a cost-reflective tariff system could offer an opportunity to reach more customers and provide a more sustainable solution to the distribution problems currently affecting the industry. In addition, policies that promote the adoption of alternative sources of power must be properly implemented so as to meet the rising electricity demand.

In Conclusion

National treasures are to be protected at all cost. Be it people, power, infrastructures, lands and properties, plants and livestock, etc. residing in a given geopolitical region, are to be developed with respect to the times to foster sustainability and improve the quality of livelihood and governance. Innovation is an evolving action word that can never be overlooked. Time is a factor in which we all live in but change is one thing that remains constant.