As Nigeria seeks to position its private sector for the fiscal year, experts like Olusanya serve as a critical reminder that in the digital age, the most valuable currency is not the Naira or the Dollar, but clarity.
It is no news that Nigerian corporations struggle to navigate the volatile economic landscape of late 2022, with a silent crisis eroding the “Communication Deficit.” While inflation and foreign exchange scarcity dominate the headlines, human capital experts point to a fundamental breakdown in how business objectives are communicated and executed within organisations.
A business communication strategist and academic argues that Nigeria’s corporate sector is suffering from a “linguistic illusion”, the mistaken belief that speaking English equates to effective business communication. “We have a workforce that is technically competent but strategically inarticulate,” Olusanya Bolarinwa told BusinessDay.
“A software engineer who cannot articulate the business value of his code to a non-technical stakeholder represents a stranded asset. In my analysis, Nigerian businesses are losing measurable value due to a breakdown in the transmission of ideas.”
Recent industry reports corroborate Olusanya’s assessment.
A 2022 report on Nigeria’s critical thinking gap found that although 78% of professionals are motivated, more than 71% lack the necessary training to solve complex problems effectively. Furthermore, employers consistently report that, although graduates possess technical knowledge, they lack communication skills that limit their workplace performance.
“The Nigerian education system emphasizes the acquisition of vocabulary, but the business world demands the acquisition of clarity,” Olusanya Bolarinwa noted. “When I consult for SMEs, I see excellent products failing because the entrepreneurs cannot craft a coherent value proposition. They are speaking to their customers, not to them.”
“Teaching English at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic taught me the mechanics of language syntax, grammar, and semantics,” he reflected. “But my transition to Business Communication in the United Kingdom revealed the missing link. In the lecture hall, we taught students how to write correct sentences. In the global boardroom, we teach leaders how to use language to drive change management and stakeholder alignment.”
Moving beyond the employability crisis, Olusanya Bolarinwa advocates for the adoption of strategic corporate communication as a management tool. Citing recent research that indicates that strategic communication significantly improves organisational effectiveness by aligning employee performance with corporate goals, he proposes a shift in how Nigerian companies view the “Comms” function. “In many Nigerian firms, ‘communication’ is relegated to PR or crisis management, something you do when there is a fire,” he explained.
“But true business communication is operational. It is about the flow of intelligence. If your middle management cannot translate the CEO’s vision into actionable tasks for the frontline staff due to semantic noise, your strategy has failed before execution begins.”
He highlights that poor communication contributes to employee dissatisfaction and reputational damage, citing studies that link ineffective internal communication to business failures in the Nigerian context. Experts warn that ‘Certificate Mentality’ is fueling corporate inefficiency and proposes ‘Strategic Communication Audit’ for SMEs and multinationals. To address these challenges, Olusanya is calling for Nigerian multinationals and SMEs to institute “communication audits,” a diagnostic process similar to a financial audit but focused on information flow.
He recommends de-emphasising “Big Grammar” by shifting cultural norms away from the Nigerian penchant for grandiloquent language in business, which often obscures meaning, toward “Plain Language” protocols used in global markets.
He urges companies to invest in cross-cultural intelligence training so staff can navigate the AfCFTA era and negotiate effectively with Francophone and Lusophone counterparts; as he warns, language barriers pose significant challenges to trade relations, and shared official languages tend to drive higher trade volumes.
Finally, he calls for institutionalising feedback loops by moving from top-down directives to dialogue-based leadership, which in turn enhances employee engagement and retention.
(This report draws on data from the 2022 Critical Thinking Gap Report and recent studies on Corporate Communication Effectiveness.)
