The Nigerian Entrepreneurial Spirit
The typical Nigerian is a hustler. A person who sees challenges as nothing and once decides to face it, would move with a single purpose of surmounting it. The life we face is that of struggle from our very first cry to our last breath. The average Nigerian is faced with odds that would make people from other countries give up. But struggle we must provide the basic necessities to keep us alive and to generate the necessary incomes to provide for the comforts of life. This struggle has sharpened the average Nigerian's ability to sniff out business opportunities and be aggressive in pursuing their objectives.
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The tenacity is a good thing, but with the push and modern tools to maximize effort and creativity, many entrepreneurial pursuits die at infancy. There are two issues facing our farmers/Agric Entrepreneurs:
(i)Several times we have seen a lot of efforts going into things like farming, but without the modern tools to multiply the little effort of these farmers physical labour cannot compete with the large scale industrialization happening in other parts of the world and imported in huge volumes with the benefit of economies of scale. In terms of output, we all know what the small tractor can do to a farmer. We all know what the small dryer can do to a small scale garri seller or fish processor. Likewise, we all know what a small water pump can do to dry season farmers output.
(ii) After the scale of output is improved, there is the need to market their output. This is one of the most important aspects of the Agricultural value chain which is unwittingly ignored. The marketing world out there is unforgiving. There is no one product that can successfully and perpetually sell itself... even food! If there aren't competitions (from imported varieties), there are alternatives; Yam can substitute sweet potato, fufu for gari and so on. Already there is talk of artificial meat, as if our troubles aren't enough.
The Need For A Platform for Outputs
To showcase the entrepreneurs or farmers skills, there needs to be a platform to help showcase what they do. This platform should connect buyers with sellers at a price that should cut off middlemen and benefit entrepreneurs and farmers directly. So far, there are few platforms available that are doing just that sort of like a farmers market. In those days there were Agricultural fairs and the like, Today, everything has gone digital. And there are platforms like Baban Gona. And I have seen one that was set up for entrepreneurial students on campus -www.campusadverts.com . We need more of these.
We must have a syndicated platform where the entrepreneurial skills of our farmers are on show for the world to see and latch on to the opportunities. This, however, must not be a government effort. It is best a private sector-led initiative, but we all must key in to encourage our local farmers in buying their products and by patronizing their services.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we cannot compete with what we have - outputs. Without the necessary tools to amplify the output we have and crucially without the platforms to showcase their services, our entrepreneurs and farmers are facing a losing battle. It is therefore clear that output without outlets equals zero.
This article first appeared in www.9jacampus.com
