Ten years ago, Nigeria was lagging behind in the emergence of businesses. The tide seems to be changing with the explosion of startups and small businesses across the country, DANIEL ESSIET reports.
In three years, a considerable leap seemed to have been made in the nation’s startup ecosystem with the emergence of small businesses led largely by young entrepreneurs.
Analysts said the country has witnessed a steady rise in the emergence of small businesses, across the segments of logistics, agriculture, grocery delivery, business to business (B2B) and mobility. If this development is sustained, it means well for the startup ecosystem, experts say.
The prospect, industry observers said, is bright on the cusp of a digital makeover and offers a plethora of opportunities for investors across segments. As the startup and innovation culture deepens, the explosion of startups and small businesses across Nigeria has shown no signs of slowing down.
One of the startups making waves is Aspire Power Solutions. It is deploying hybrid solar systems in Lagos.
The startup is taking advantage of a crippling power situation, with households and businesses relying on loud, polluting diesel generators for electricity.
Aspire, uses solar energy, battery storage and smart inverters to monitor solutions and deliver clean energy solutions to customers.
Its co-founder Tomiwa Igun, said Nigerians consume billions of liters of diesel yearly at almost five pounds of Carbon dioxide (Co2) released in every litre. According to him, Nigeria is the largest diesel generator market in the world. This has contributed to the economy being one of the greatest sources of global Co2 emissions and centre of diesel based air pollution.
To this end, Aspire is developing a Distributed Energy Utility that integrates clean energy solutions such as Solar with intermittent but affordable grid electricity to form Nanogrids and Microgrids that provide Africans starting in Nigeria, cleaner, more affordable and healthier on demand power.
He said the company is working to eliminate the barriers to the accelerated adoption of clean, affordable, renewable power.
The company’s target is operate 1250 Solar Hybrid Systems that make consumers more energy efficient by enabling homes, offices, and communities to become connected, controllable, intelligent entities that learn how to be more energy efficient.
The startup is determined to provide affordable and sustainable energy that reaches off-grid communities helping them come out of poverty.
To accomplish this, the startup is supplying households with customised solar Home Systems (SHS).
The system provides a continuous power supply for businesses. Some of their customers are small or medium businessmen and cannot afford even a day’s loss in business. The customers were initially a little apprehensive about using a new technology.
To address this, the company arranges sensitisation meetings for users. This helps them to clear any doubts and gives a sense of reassurance about the product. Experts said Nigeria is home to several innovations and successful examples of providing energy access.
Read Also: ‘Nigeria will grow if small businesses are encouraged’
However, the challenge is to ensure that access to modern energy is rapidly scaled up, even while ensuring that access is environmentally, institutionally and financially sustainable.
Another entrepreneur to watch is the President/founder BeatDrone, Confidence Odionye. He is regarded as an enthusiastic young entrepreneur. He is popular for his innovations.
Today, he is driving a multi-sector drone service business.
Odionye first started with BeatTraffik, a Lagos-focused traffic information platform. BeatTraffik, launched in 2014, sourced its traffic information using drones to monitor high traffic areas across Lagos and then distributed that information originally through social media before securing partnerships to syndicate on TV and radio.
Unfortunately, finding a business model was hard with a challenge coming from big players, such as Google Maps with sophisticated technologies.
In Nigeria, big companies were beginning to see Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones as a trending technology bringing changes in various industries including retail, agriculture, energy and utilities.
Big organisations were hiring foreign companies to use drones to provide aerial data collection and processing services in industrial inspections, mining, agriculture and surveying. He saw a massive opportunity for drone startups. He wanted to be a pioneer leading the surge of technological advancements in the field of unmanned systems.
After going back to the drawing board, he and his team came up with Beat Drone in January 2017.
Today, the business is very successful as he offers drone services across the agriculture, oil and gas and infrastructure sectors. He has achieved so much and attracted investors.
This follows a substantial demand for drones in photography, oil and gas, agriculture and other applications.
He provides drones to assist both large and small farming operations with water and disease management services. The drones assist with better planting and crop rotation, while offering a higher degree of all-around knowledge of how crops are progressing. He assists farmers with drones to carry out crop supervision, mapping of farmlands and herbicide spraying.
Drones and their various applications have continued to be popular as entrepreneurs find more and more uses for them. To assist new entrants, Odionye runs the Beat Drone Academy, which offers six-week courses on drone operations.
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