Nigeria’s innovative entrepreneurs are thinking beyond Nigeria as they plan or embark on aggressive expansion to tap offshore opportunities.
They are aware that playing locally is not enough at the moment, as global push affords them the opportunity to earn foreign exchange while tapping emerging opportunities.
Many, by the nature of their business, are online already, which makes global expansion easy.
Blessed Ilukor Idornigie founded IbakaTV in his sister’s room in 2011 with just N1 million. From a small business with few viewers, he has been able to raise funds that enabled him to reach more than one billion viewers. Through his channels, Nigerians in the Diaspora can now watch movies while paying in dollar.
He leveraged YouTube to reach Nigerians and Africans in the Diaspora, having acquired premium partnership with the video-sharing platform, which opened doors to channels such as IbakaTV|Nollywood, IbakaTV|Yoruba, AfricaMagicClip and IbakaTV.
“You can pay in naira but it converts automatically into dollars. The success story is that it is like a DSTV on the internet. But this has no limitation,” he told Start-Up Digest in an earlier interview.
“I started with N1 million. Over time, I brought in investors. The initial fund that came in was N100 million. With that, we were able to start. From there, we were able to expand. We started on YouTube and we had over $2 million, which we pumped into Ibaka,” he said.
Blondie Okpuzor creates soaps, lotions and other beauty and skin care products using unconventional raw materials such as jollof rice and goat skin milk.
As the chief executive officer of BathKandy, a beauty company that creates dessert-inspired beauty treats, Blondie uses locally available raw materials to create value for Nigerians, saving the country some foreign exchange.
She has a small manufacturing set-up in Lekki, Lagos, and has established a second store in Abuja.
“We sell internationally now. We do have a lot of international demands and we can get across to buyers in five business days,” she said.
“We are looking more internationally. We are looking at Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, because these are the biggest beauty markets in Africa.”
Another entrepreneur, Steve Babaeko, has his legs in Nigeria and other parts of Africa. He is the CEO of X3M Group, made up of X3M Ideas, X3M Music, and Zero Degrees, among others. He is doing well in advertising and entertainment at the moment, waxing strong at a time when many of his peers are struggling.
Babeko is an advertising/ branding/ marketing guru who has also delved into audio-visual production and record label, with clear-cut plans to diversify into other countries.
Fewer than seven years after starting, he has set up offices in Accra, Johannesburg and Lusaka, among others, winning a couple of pan-African awards.
“I am really excited because we are the only local agency in the country today operating at that regional level. We are like trailblazers, if you like. We are sort of experimenting and paving the way for other agencies on the continent to be able to go this route,” he told Start-Up Digest recently.
Furthermore, Oluwatoyin Onigbanjo is another entrepreneur that is looking outwardly. She is the founder and head cook of AugustSecrets, which produces babyfoods such as Veggie Beans, Nutty Meal, Fish Powder and Crayfish Powder. She is a child nutrition educator and recipe developer.
Toyin is a journalist, but her achievement shows that men (no ‘woman’ in journalism) of the pen profession can do well in other areas of endeavour.
Toyin exports packaged baby foods to Ghana; New York and Atlanta in the United States, and other countries, making her money in hard currency
Toyin started this business officially in July 2016. This has been a rewarding experience. The first raw materials she bought cost her N20, 000. She then spent between N200, 000 and N500, 000 on purchasing the next set of raw materials and setting up the factory.
“We are selling in about 24 Nigerian cities and states of the country now. We sell in Ghana; we sell in Atlanta, and we sell in New York. We sell outside Nigeria. It is amazing that we now take our foods to places where we bring our foods from,” she told Start-Up Digest last year.
Jason Njoku established iROKO TV six years ago. Before 2011, no Nigerian firm had ever thought of providing films on-demand that could be paid for. Jason found out that it was a huge opportunity to blend Nollywood with technology and bring quality films closer to Nigerians.
He started as a mainstream online movie and, within the first year, provided instant access to over 5,000 Nollywood film titles not only to Nigerians but also people across the globe willing to pay $5.
As of 2014, iROKO was the largest distributor of African content globally on YouTube with 950 million video views across its managed channels. He has crossed well over a billion viewers.
In January 2016, Jason announced multiple deals of $19 million from French media giant CANAL+ and an existing investor Kinnevik AB.
ODINAKA ANUDU
