Leslie: The CEO of GT Bank, Segun Agbaje, was a forceful presence
from the moment he entered the meeting room.
Talking enthusiastically about how he expected to build the bank by
expanding into East Africa, building the retail bank’s business among richer
Nigerians, and taking on new sectors of the economy with commercial banking
services, he seemed undaunted by the potential challenges of competition from
other banks and new financial services providers like Pagatech.
His aggressive, optimistic attitude was echoed by leaders at
MTN Nigeria, the leading telecom provider, who told stories about overcoming an
overwhelmed power infrastructure and naysayers who doubted the ability of
Nigerians to pay for telecom services (naysayers were wrong; the hidden,
unmeasured “black market” economy is so large that spending power can be 4x
what is reported) to create a vast market with home-generated power.
Having heard from two leaders who seemed to find the
government more obstacle than help, it was interesting to hear the other side
of that story. In a meeting with a representative from the Lagos State
government, we learned that the state is at least aware of all of the
challenges facing it: he talked about projects in infrastructure, education and
power, and about the goal of making Lagos the
industrial leader of Africa. Although he
couldn’t directly address the power challenges (that’s a matter for national government),
the Lagos State Governor did suggest that tackling corruption should wait, in
his view, until infrastructure is in place to allow the economy to grow.
It’s worth noting that during all of these visits (from
African Capital Alliance onward – the Ibese cement plant excluded), the meeting
entourages were an almost even mix of men and women. It was exciting to see
that women may not be starting from an uneven footing among the businesspeople
of West Africa. I haven’t seen such balance in
American boardrooms.
The highlight of the day for me was our visit to Pagatech.
Tying together our visit to a telecom company and a bank was a visit to a
company that worked with both to create something new and better – lower-priced
money transfers for people not reached by the big banks. Mr. Oviosu’s army of
agents allow people to conduct transfers and conduct outreach to new customers,
bringing features phones and smartphones alike into mobile money transfer. The
next step is taking on traditional banking more directly, with savings,
checking, and credit accounts. GMIX, anyone?
Dinner at Bogobiri included Michael drinking a “Climax,” a
capella performances by Merp, Onu, and Leslie, and a little souvenir shopping.
At the club, we enjoyed “Wild Sex,” American music, stripper poles, and the
company of some interesting new Nigerian friends ;).
Andrew: Perhaps Leslie is being modest, but to me the
highlight of the evening was the singing at Bogobiri. After the live band finished its (in my
opinion, annoyingly) loud performance, we took entertainment into our own hands. Specifically, Erin
came up to the mic and announced that Merp would be singing a song. Merp sang Adele, Onu sang Boyz to Men, and
Leslie sang The Little Mermaid’s “Part of your world” (which incidentally Peter
knew all the lyrics for).
Big thanks to Michael for organizing the “Nigeria after
dark” trip. I think we also can’t forget
Professor Berk joining us at the club. The
next day, I heard Danny questioning him “Professor Berk, I heard you got down. The question is – was the hat on or off?”
