Lagos, Nigeria

This was an interesting one. This past autumn I filled in for a colleague and made a short presentation to members of the Nigerian SEC at Deutsche Bank's HQ here. From that discussion I got to know the guy who coordinated the meeting (Alex) - and who is responsible for growing Deutsche's presence and developing the Nigerian (and eventually sub saharan) market for international investment.

He goes between London and Lagos every 3 weeks or so - and suggested that I go with him to introduce one of Thomson's services - which we were finally able to schedule at the beginning of April.

We took an overnight flight down - just over 6 hours and pretty much straight south... and not much sleep for me in the back of the bus while Alex was up in his nice 'lie flat' seat.

Upon our arrival it took a bit to get through the passport control area, but not too bad, which is then just a few steps down to the baggage area - where I thought we were outside or that the doors /windows were open due to the temperature and humidity. I realised just how wrong I was when we actually went out after getting our bags and got the full humidity blast.... 35C and full humidity... and I sweated the entire week.

Because it was so early in the morning our driver Aziz was optimistic that we'd beat the traffic across the causeway that heads to Lagos (which we kind of did - but there was enough to get a good idea of what we'd face later in the week with people all over the side of the highway, and sometimes in the highway, trying to hail either motorbikes, taxis, official or unofficial buses, or to just jump in the back of a truck with dozens of others.

Our hotel was in Ikoyi - a smaller island just next to the larger Victoria Island - and half of it has just been redone and is really quite nice -- the rooms were large and well decorated in a way that you would want an African hotel to be done, bed was very comfortable, shower was nice with good water pressure, etc. -- seeing what a 'high standard' it was made me laugh a bit at the guy in the place where I got my shots (yellow fever, tetanus, hepatitis, etc.) and malaria pills who was also suggesting that I buy a mosquito net for sleeping at night.... absolutely unnecessary and in fact I only saw three mosquitoes the whole time I was there - two of which were in the car after dinner one night which Alex and I went after with a good degree of urgency (I've never focused so much on killing a mosquito in my life on the first go - it was pretty funny once we were 'in the clear').

view from my hotel room

We showered, grabbed breakfast (which was also very good - a ton of fresh fruit, some good egg dishes, french toast - and good coffee) - and then headed out for a day packed with meetings, which was the routine each day - we managed 6 to 7 meetings a day - and is why I do not have too many photos.

The predominant feature of getting around is the traffic... the country definitely has wealth (oil, banking, insurance & telecom) - and now I have a much better understanding of what an emerging market is (some that we met preferred to call it at 'frontier market') - however its growth has outpaced its infrastructure. The non major roads are either in disrepair or being re-built, and for an area that has 9-14 million people, there is not a single functioning traffic light... Car and motorbike horns are constantly in use and create a constant background noise as people attempt to navigate the local streets - traffic flow is mostly based on critical mass that builds up until one car noses out far enough - and then traffic from that area floods in, and then this is repeated from all directions that funnel in to a street. At a few major intersections there are police who attempt to control things:but the main effect is this - and it could & did get worse:
There is a ton of street commerce, from regular groups of permanent stalls along the road to impromptu shops, to the dozens of people selling the expected food, drinks, phone cards, car accessories, to the unexpected oil paintings, books, and small appliances from car to car in traffic... and it appeared that much is moved about by foot, either in a cart, or balanced:
We were so busy that a bottle of orange Fanta and Chipsys (spicy plantain chips sold on the street that are pretty tasty and cleverly have a napkin built in to the packaging) was my lunch for two of the days:
One of the great experiences was a dinner that we were invited to at the local Deutsche Bank office, which was also a private residence / compound. There is a German native who has lived in Nigeria since the early 80's and runs DB's local presence for letters of credit, etc. - there are four other day time DB employees (the office is half of the top floor), as well as some full time house staff. It was, for me, an interesting glimpse of a more 'colonial time' - where we were greeted as we went in past the walls and massive solid steel gate/door by two guards. There was a short crushed stone driveway and the grounds were very well manicured - and were also home to 4-5 peacocks on the lawn. Inside we were served drinks as part of a quick reception, and then sat for a four course dinner, with french service by two of the staff in full white uniforms, sometimes bending to near 90 degrees at the waist to offer an item.

We met with almost all of the major corporations there - probably 18 of the top 20 by market cap and then some smaller banks, as well as a couple of companies looking to have either a local or international (or both concurrently) IPO this year.

view from one of the banks we met with

guard at the car entrance to another bank

other observations:
I liked the appearance of overemployment in the companies we visited - plenty of people in the main reception area desks to help tell you where to go and make you sign in to the visitors logs, then a second reception with additional guards on each floor, and someone sitting on a stool in every elevator whose job it was to push the buttons as people call out floor numbers.

In buildings they pre-empt the 'you're welcome' before you can say thank you...but I found that it is more of a statement that is being made of 'you are welcome here in our bank, or here in our hotel, restaurant, etc. instead of a response - but it took some getting used to because the sequence seemed off.

It also appeared that the greater your status was within the company the better your air conditioning worked - we were in some offices that were absolutely frigid, and then had other meetings where I was really unhappy in my suit...

Overall I learned quite a bit - and think that it was a worthwhile trip and it will be interesting to see if there is an opportunity to do more in this market.