Nigerian micro, small and medium enterprises must meet international standards and quality to compete beyond borders.
Speaking on the theme, ‘Beyond Borders, Transforming MSMEs for Global Competitiveness,’ Oluwasegun Ogunsanya, chairman of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, said global competitiveness is not about size but the ability to deliver the same quality every time.
‘It means that your production processes, the quality of your product or service, and the experience you give customers are of international standard. And importantly, they are predictable,’ he said.
Using a bottle of Coca-Cola as an example, he noted that it tastes the same in Kano, Lagos, London or Atlanta by deliberate system, not accident. Global businesses, he said, put quality and customer trust first.
Ogunsanya said Nigerian businesses are already facing global competition at home, from Chinese e-commerce platforms shipping directly to customers to Indian pharmaceuticals and Turkish processed foods.
‘The question is no longer whether we become globally competitive. The question is, how quickly can we become globally competitive?’ he asked.
He pointed to two near-term opportunities: the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which gives duty-free access to the U.S. market for thousands of products and was extended in July 2026, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), under which close to 10,000 certificates of origin have been issued.
The 1.4 billion-person African market, plus export of services, offers scale without containers, he said, citing Nigeria’s 80 percent 4G coverage, English-speaking workforce and time-zone proximity to Europe.
Ogunsanya listed 10 requirements for going global: a big vision backed by execution; a first-class team; a product that solves a real market problem; consistency before scale; non-negotiable standards; audited financial records; scale through aggregation; depth before breadth; brand as a promise; and deliberate use of technology.
‘Keep your books as if someone is going to buy your business tomorrow. One day, somebody might,’ he said, adding that cash discipline is critical.
‘Businesses don’t pay salaries with accounting profits. They pay salaries with cash.’