As I was about writing this piece, I listened to a speech by the erudite Professor Charles Soludo at the 1st of October 2019 ‘The Platform Nigeria’ organised by the Covenant Christian Centre, an event designed to facilitate growth in the areas of personal capacity, productivity and national development within Nigeria. His thoughts capture what I was about writing.
He said “When I hear about the 77 FBI list, I remember that Nigerians constituted the most educated and highest earning immigrant community in the US. When I heard about the drug barons, I remember that Alaba market has the largest incubator in the world. When the news about kidnappers, bandits and terrorists adorn the headlines, I remember the over 200 million hard working and law abiding citizens. When I hear about the ‘Afrophobia’ and the stereotyping of Nigerians in South Africa, I recall that the richest black man and woman in Africa, Dangote and Mrs Alakija are Nigerians. Or that Tony Elumelu foundation is empowering thousands of young African entrepreneurs, or Allen Onyeama recently took over the job of a government by transporting hundreds of Nigerians from South Africa, free of charge”.
He went further “that the Glo communication network is owned by our own Mike Adenuga, or that the former common wealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaokwu is a Nigerian. And yes, that Nigerian banks, Zenith, GTB, UBA, Access Bank, FBN, Union, Fidelity, have since the banking consolidation become Multinational Corporation all over Africa. And that Nigerian investment banker, Adebayo Ogunlesi bought over the Gatwick Airport and some other airports in the UK….”
Every country of the world has their fair share of problems, Nigeria inclusive. However, every one of them identifies some of their positive attributes and values and creating conversations around them, thereby enhancing perception. This has become necessary because every nation trade in the same market, with the same “commodity “and their means of exchange is their reputation or brand. This resonates with the thought in the mind of both foreigners and even nationals alike.
This nation’s brand or reputation is what determines investment capital, tourism, attraction of talents and creative work force. It enhances their cultural and political influence across the world. Quite frankly this goes a long way in determining the level of acceptance or treatment its citizens get across international borders as I mentioned previously. This is the essence of the #IAMBRANDNIGERIA. The value or perception of the Nigeria brand DIRECTLY affects all of us as individuals and the premium we can attract to our businesses. This is why even nations with mass shooting, rape epidemic, record violent crimes, etc would still invite you to come and ‘Make’ things in their country and experience how hospitable they are as a people.
So, the work of enhancing the perception of the brand Nigeria lies to a large extent on the 200 million critical stakeholders (citizens). We have spent most of our past on the negatives, it’s time we start highlighting the positives as the respected Prof highlighted above. This has nothing to do with which political party is in power, but the need to enhance our personal value as individuals and collectively as a nation. We need to start using every available opportunity to promote, protect and if need be; defend the brand, the way we lined up behind the Super Eagles during Nigeria vs Brazil matches.
Does that made little or eliminate our problems? No. It just shows that we have more goods in us than the negatives that make headlines around the world.
Nobody will do this for us, we have to do it ourselves. While the role of the government, who is the policy maker and driver in all these cannot be overstated, you and I have a bigger role to play in using our platforms and circles of influence to talk more about our positives. This doesn’t just add value to us, it also encourages the minority negative elements to know that they too can do the right things. This is the essence of #IAMBRANDNIGERIA.
So, in this edition of the Brand Nigeria publication, we present to you the 2019 TOP 50 BRANDS NIGERIA® annual league table with their profiles. We also have the 10 brands to watch and the process.
We have insightful contributions from respectable industrial leaders- Our regular, Dr. Priya, our Brand Advisor who has been contributing since inception. Sincere appreciation to Mrs. Bunmi Oke, and Mr. Raheem Akingbola of Thisday newspaper for finding the time to make their contributions.
It might interest you to know that this publication is also online and as at November, 2017, we have had audience from over 100 countries of the world. Amazing!
#IAMBRANDNIGERIA and proud of it.
