Since Nigeria attained her political independence in 1960, the
problem of rising unemployment and poverty have remained a puzzle that the
various successive administrations in Nigeria have not been able to solve. While
several economic programmes and policies have been implemented at the federal,
state and local government levels to address this twin problem, the average
Nigerian have become more and more impoverished as such policy
measures/programmes only succeeded in creating avenue for the operators to have
their own share of the national cake.
I have decided to write this note, at a time that many Nigerians
are looking up with great hope for a change in their living condition from the
incoming administration in Nigeria. I am not a pessimist but it is important I explain
some facts to my audience so that they do set themselves up for another
disappointment.
Firstly, I want you to understand that there is no nation, anywhere
in the world where the government has succeeded in providing full employment
for her citizens. For instance, from 2004 to 2010, U.S. micro-businesses
created a net of 5.5 million jobs. In Canada, Small businesses play a large
role in net job creation, creating 77.7 percent of all private jobs. In almost
all the Asian countries today, small businesses have become the engine that
drives their economies. So, it is practically impossible for any administration
in Nigeria to create jobs for the million under/unemployed Nigerians.
Secondly, poverty is a universal factor. Even in America, more
than 45 million people, or 14.5 percent of Americans, live below the poverty
line. And the reason is this, as long as you remain a consumer and not
producing anything, you will always remain within the poverty circle. Let me
give you an illustration. Let us assume that President Buhari decides to fight
poverty by giving every Nigerian N10,000,000 each. Within a period of one to
two years, you will observe that those who have means of production in Nigeria
will become richer by over 50%. For instance, the food stuff sellers will be
making more money, car dealers will be making more money, sellers of building
materials will make more money, etc. but those who have nothing to sell will
soon run out of cash because their target will be to get all the good things
they desired in life.
Some of the questions that most participants at our monthly business
seminars usually ask are:
-
How can one
survive in business in Nigeria where there is no light?
-
How can one
raise money to start the kind of business that he/she desires?
-
What is your
own question? You are free to send it anyway.
These kind of questions is what I will devout my time to be dealing
with in this write-up and subsequent posts on this my blog.
According to Stephen Dooley, Jr., “A man who wants to do something
will find a way; a man who doesn't will find an excuse.” So, I am writing this
post for those who truly want to go into personal business as a way out of
unemployment and poverty. But those who believe they prefer to wait for the non
existing job, I wish them well, but, don’t forget that time does not wait for
any man. You might be adjusting your age downwards in your resume but the fact
remains that for each day that goes bye, you are getting older.
Do you truly wish to start your personal business but power supply
and capital is your problem? There is no problem; I’ll only plead with you to
give a trial to what I will be sharing with you in this blog.
You can start small
With the advancements in information and communication technology
(ICT), starting a business today in Nigeria is as simple as ABC. You might not
need to rent an office space, you might not need a generating set, and you don’t
even need to worry about overheads. That is why at Thinking Minds Integrated Business Solutions, we try as much as
possible to help our clients redesign their ideas to fit into a more feasible
and workable scenario where the business can satisfy its purpose of providing solutions
to customers at a relatively cheaper way.
One of the major advantages of micro businesses is that, they can
be established with zero or minimum capital, it’s size makes it easy for the
owner-manager to manage, mistakes and errors can be easily absolved and
rectified, operating expenses are usually very minimal, etc. (Watch out for part two).
Thinking Minds Integrated
Business Solutions organizes monthly
sensitization seminars on the practical ways of establishing micro,
small-medium scale enterprises. For free consultancy services, call:
2348033291724, 2348052833097. E-mail: thinkingminds@ymail.com.
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