Many people have asked if I enjoyed life in Lagos. I certainly did, even though life is not easy there. Urban transport is one of the daily struggles. But I had it easy – my host Lagos Business School covered my needs. Afolabi, Henry, or another driver picked me up every day, took me to […]
Transport Infrastructure Boosts Business
Whenever I’m in Nigeria and visit a company in Lagos, I anticipate traffic jams and leave ahead of time. Once I had to travel from Lagos Business School in Lekki to the UBA (United Bank for Africa) head office on Lagos Island – 30 km or about 18 miles. Someone recommended that I leave two […]
Trading Times Across East African Borders
My young friend Giovanni came back from a visit to East Africa last week. As part of the trip, he traveled by car from Uganda to Kenya. This involves crossing the Malaba border where trucks can wait anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks. But the driver was an expert at crossing this border, so they only […]
Locating a business in Africa: how much of a hassle?
Different countries offer different travel and living conditions. This has an effect – identified as the “hassle factor” by professors Andreas Schotter and Paul Beamish from the Ivey Business School in Canada – on companies’ decisions to locate their operations in a particular country. Not all countries are the same in Africa, and the hassle […]
Doing business in Africa: some practical advice
Last week I heard a talk by a consultant from Roland Berger who specialized in Sub-Saharan and Southern Africa. He offered some practical advice for doing business in Africa. This is what he said, and some of my experiences of how it holds true: 1. Take market intelligence and customer understanding seriously: product-oriented companies won’t make […]
