Wole Ogundare speaks on navigating the hurdle for businesses in Nigeria

Successful business management requires more than obtaining finance. In this interview with Legit.ng, Wole Ogundare, Managing Partner and CEO of Carthena Advisory, discusses essential things to consider as business owners or prospective business owners.

Every organisation hopes to make sustainable margins in the long run, but beyond this, Carthena Advisory, a financial and management firm based in Lagos and the UK, wants its clients and their businesses to achieve and exceed their growth potential.

Wole Ojo, CEO of Carthena Advisory, speaks on running businesses in Nigeria. Photo Credit: Delmaine Donson
Source: Getty Images

The financial services company, which operates at a process and people level, offers services such as strategy implementation, forensic audit, financial planning, and transaction advisory, which include business plans and feasibility studies. In addition, it commits to helping the public sector work better by improving proper governance.

Wole Ogundare told Legit.ng

“When it comes to simple administrative stand, data availability, maintaining standards, our public sector is still behind. One of the things we do is to strengthen that institution administratively, from a strategic perspective, using inherent resources.”

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Adopting John Mullin's seven-domain model, the advisory firm imbibes the macro and micro market approach as well as the macro and macro industry approach in developing a concrete business plan for clients.

He added,

"Other factors are wrapped around people doing the business; how well connected you are as a person running a business, who are those you are doing business with, and your propensity for risk."

Operating in the Nigerian landscape

Ogundare described the ease of doing business in Nigeria as tough, citing instances of companies that have had to exit the country because they can no longer cope.

According to the financial expert, the operating environment is challenging primarily because of Nigeria's poor infrastructure ratio to GDP.

He added that energy is a significant problem that primarily affects everyone. He also listed factors like social infrastructure, policies and other macro issues like inflation that affect everybody.

In his view, raising the CBN interest rate is not the solution to lowering the inflation rate because it is driven by the demand for food.

“The cost of goods is too high, and that is what is moving our inflation upward. What we need to do is to start investing in infrastructure. Our infrastructure has been ignored over the last 45 to 50 years.”

Japa wave

Weighing on the issue of the massive migration happening in the country, Ogundare said that the ‘Japa syndrome’ is good and bad for the economy.

According to him, it is terrible because Nigeria is exporting its best grades, not necessarily in terms of numbers, but relative to the Nigerian 200 million population.

He said that while the number of people leaving the country may seem small, they constitute a very large portion of our best breeds.

On the positive side, he said that remittances from abroad could be used to develop infrastructure here.

He added,

"Let me give you an example. Many Rwandans who live offshore send a portion of their checks back to Rwanda every single month. Nobody is forcing them; it is because they believe in what the country wants to do and want to support it."

FG Approves N110 Billion Youth Startups

Legit.ng reported that the Minister of Youth Development, Jamila Bio-Ibrahim, has disclosed that the Nigerian government has approved allocating N110 billion in capital startups and early growth stage businesses targeted at the youth demographic.

The minister said the approved funds would be channelled via the revamped Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF).

She stated that the partnership effort between her ministry and the Bank of Industry (BoI) will create a specialised NextGen Bank dedicated to growing youth entrepreneurs by providing access to loans and business support services.

Source: Legit.ng