Welcome to 2015. It’s the start of what I’ll like to call a year of small things. Maybe not in the sense you might want to agree with, but in the facts that our National Income for the year may have been halved as a result of the country’s dwindling oil revenue. A second sense would be that we are six weeks shy of national elections and the likely permutations could translate to further dents to the country’s thinning dollar accounts.
‘So what in the world would this mean to me?’ You might ask.
Very much, I say.
It could mean further devaluation, higher interest rates or worse still, the collapse of the economic system. God forbid.
If we (I mean you and me) do not start producing things to substitute the comforts we have become so accustomed to, we may not have enough money to import anything after a while.
The year brings us a rude awakening to our perennial ill of importing nearly everything we consume from toothpicks to corned beef to apple and rice; things that could easily be substituted locally in order to save some foreign exchange.
The good news though, is that the ‘easy’ oil money we used to earn that could afford us such behaviour will no longer be coming in. Dollars will somehow stop being as available as they used to be and we will make certain adjustments.
‘So where do I come in as an entrepreneur?’ You might ask again if you don’t already know.
The answer is Import Substitution.
You must quickly consider a niche to fill, acquire the technology to fill it and begin to produce locally.
The German
Mittelstand provide a perfect example of the kind of enterprise I am referring to; small and medium sized businesses, mostly family-owned that mass produce and export simple things. For example, more than a fifth of the world’s pencils are produced by such a company in Nuremburg, Germany.
Some of you may consider filling the niche for pencils. More than fourteen billion pencils are produced worldwide annually. And there’s no telling the size of the market if you do the research for the maybe the West African market.
Look for the technology, maybe in South Africa. And by the way, South Africa is a cool destination for sourcing technology. Find out how you can raise a loan from the Bank of Industry and start something.
Some may see difficulty as the year kicks in but choose to see possibilities. Pick a niche and fill it with your products. That’s how China became China!
Have a blessed year!
About the Writer: Nehi Igbinijesu is a Nigerian-trained economist. He has worked at several banks in several positions. In addition to banking, Nehi has been a contributor to Connect Nigeria, anchoring the Discover Nigeria Series, a history project to depict positive elements about being Nigerian. He recently authored a soon-to-be-published book for mothers titled, The Code: A Story About Raising Great Women. He lives with his family in Lagos, Nigeria. You can follow him on Twitter at; @PNOigbinijesu
