Africa For A Weekend 10: Nigeria🇳🇬

This woman went from a poor girl selling her art on the streets of Nigeria🇳🇬 in the 1960s, to now running Nigerian's most successful art gallery at 73 with many international customers flying in to buy from her.

The story of Nike Davies-Okundaye is incredible. And I got to meet her at the Nike Art Gallery in Lagos, over the weekend.

After losing her mother, she was sent to live with her great-grandmother. Where she was introduced to Nigeria's traditional Yoruba arts and crafts.

Despite her lacking formal education and financial struggles, Nike's passion for art and preserving her culture kept her determined.

She started by selling her handmade crafts locally in Nigeria, eventually began teaching her craft through workhops, and now she runs workshops all over the world.

Passionate about empowering women, she opened up the Nike Centre for Art and Culture, providing free training to over 3,000 young Nigerians, particularly girls, in traditional arts.

Today, Nike is the founder of the Nike Art Gallery in Lagos, the largest art gallery in West Africa, attracting many high-profile visitors and customers worldwide.

This gallery is where I met her. I thought I was just going to an ordinary art gallery. Instead, I got a whole experience. I ended up getting dressed up in various Nigerian attire and even bought my own Agbada (Nigerian garment pictured above) to take home!

Meeting Nike, and learning about her story was easily the highlight of my trip to Nigeria.

Africa For A Weekend Episode 10 in Nigeria🇳🇬 was great, and so much more happened. Let me share all my insights from my time in Nigeria:

China are Mega-Bullish on Africa:

When I arrived at the Visa On Arrival section at the airport in Lagos, the whole area was packed with Chinese passport holders; I was the only British passport holder at the time. The Nigerian visa is quite expensive, costing $300-$600 a pop depending on your preferred visa processing speed, so I'm sure that these Chinese visitors weren't coming just to go sightseeing; it was clear they were in Nigeria for business. Looking around the wider Lagos, you can see many investments that China is involved in, such as Eko Atlantic City, Lekki Deep Sea Port, Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lekki Toll Gate and Road Construction, and more. This shows that while most others are running away from Africa, China is running straight in with arms (and wallet) wide open. China has always focused on the long term, so what this tells me is that China believes the long-term outlook of Africa is bullish, regardless of whatever the short-term outlook is.

The Hustle is Intense:

Before arriving in Nigeria, people advised me to have someone I knew at the airport to pick me up and guide me through. Initially, I didn't understand, but now I do. As soon as I got through Nigerian immigration and officially stepped on Nigerian soil, I was swarmed by people trying to sell me services like SIM cards, taxis, and currency exchange. And if they didn’t sell services, they’d act as middlemen, promising to connect me with someone who provides those services. They never mentioned any matchmaking fees or what’s in it for them upfront—until the very end, when they inevitably hit me with the famous "anything for me?" Personally, I support hustle, but some of these people seemed borderline forceful. But that's probably more to do with the Nigerian hustle energy, so I'm not even mad.

Nigeria is a Relationship-Based Economy:

To get anything done, you need to know someone. For example, when applying for a visa in Ghana, I used the official process, and it took four business days. To get my Nigerian visa, I leveraged a contact who was able to get me a legitimate visa in just two business hours—yes, hours, not days. This concept also applies to business in Lagos. Whenever I asked someone for a service, if they didn’t provide it, they always had a contact who did. The challenge with this relationship-based economy is that it is heavily trust-based. You never know if someone is referring you to someone legitimate or not. One opportunity I see here is to build on this relationship-based economy by introducing some level of trust ratings for each service provider, like a TripAdvisor for services. This way, someone can refer you to a contact, but you can also review that contact’s past services to see how legitimate they are. If they have none, you know to tread carefully.

Cash, Money, and Payments Are Painful:

At the airport, when I wanted to withdraw 100,000 Naira ($63), the ATM said the maximum I could withdraw at a time was 20,000 Naira ($13). I asked the staff why, and he explained that Nigeria's government is promoting a cashless policy. ATM withdrawal limits are part of this policy, with the aim being that people will start doing transactions digitally. Personally, I think this is a really good thing, as it helps create a trace on money flow, later opening opportunities for people to build credit and get loans.

The challenge I see is with taxes, because a lot of people don't pay taxes as they don’t believe the government spends the tax money fairly. I'd argue that if the government were willing to be transparent with citizens about how their tax money is spent, more Nigerians might be willing to be transparent with the government about their income.

As for me, I was willing to do digital payments, but I wasn't able to set up a mobile money account because I didn't have a Nigerian ID. Thus, I was stuck using cash or card. But the problem doesn't end there. Since I had an international card (from Monzo Bank in the UK), most places didn't accept it. So, without cash and without an accepted card, I was rendered financially stranded.

Fortunately, I was able to use a remittance app, TapTap Send, to send money from my UK bank account to any Nigerian I needed to transact with. But this process was long and tedious, especially as a tourist who wants things to be quick and snappy. New fintech opportunity here?

Nigeria Has Unfairly Bad External PR:

When going around Lagos, I’d often explain that I was just visiting Nigeria to see what it’s like, and how I almost didn’t visit due to the horror stories and warnings people gave me against coming here—citing kidnapping, scams, robberies, and more. Whenever I mentioned this, people would get annoyed at those who had painted such a negative picture of Nigeria.

One trader in Yaba Market was particularly passionate. He told me he believes Nigeria is the best place to be in Africa, especially West Africa. He also expressed frustration with the way Nigeria is often branded negatively because of a few bad actors. He pointed out that there are bad people everywhere, including in Australia, the UK, and the USA—not just in Nigeria. We shouldn’t let a few bad people taint an entire country’s image, which can ultimately affect the country’s citizens.

This sentiment was shared by many others, including fellow tourists, who said Nigeria is not that bad, especially Lagos, which is actually quite safe. I agree. Just like my time in South Africa 🇿🇦, the vast majority of people I met in Nigeria were good, and I felt that they genuinely wanted the best for me. I also felt that Lagos was very safe, with a noticeable police presence on the streets at night, especially on Victoria Island, almost similar to Accra.

Nigerians Are Really Caring, Generous, and Friendly:

I’ll admit, this one surprised me, but maybe that's because of the negative PR suggesting that Nigerians are aggressive and just want to hustle. However, Nigerians are genuinely nice people. It was common for random people to make eye contact with me and quickly say hello as they walked past. This happened countless times.

Nigerians are also very generous. For example, two guys I met at CcHub in Yaba were generous with their time, telling me all about Nigeria and its tech scene. They even drove me around the area in their car and took me to a few other tech hubs to show me what they’re like—all for free. Another group welcomed me into their friend group on a night out, ensuring I had a great experience of Lagos' nightlife during my first night out in Nigeria, again without asking for a penny.

At Elegushi Beach, I asked a group of people eating jollof rice which restaurant I could buy some from—they happened to have a whole container full of it and offered me some of theirs for free and even asked if I’d like to take multiple plates! Another example is from my last night out in Lagos. I went out alone, wanting to experience the luxury of Lagos, so I visited an upscale bar in Victoria Island. While enjoying cocktails and the show, a Nigerian man who was there with his girlfriend struck up a conversation with me. We got along well, and he decided to pay my entire tab. We all ended up going somewhere else later, and he insisted on paying for everything, including transport with his personal driver, bottles during table service, and drinks—very generous.

Jollof Rice Winner:

Ghanaian vs. Nigerian jollof rice—who's the winner? I’m going to choose to be politically correct here and say neither wins. Ultimately, after my research, I've concluded that we all have our own taste buds and preferences. Some people prefer apples, others oranges, so there can’t be a definitive winner here.

However, I can share my personal preference: Nigerian jollof rice, hands down. I felt like I could taste the difference, and the spice of the Nigerian jollof resonated with my taste buds much better. But everyone’s different, so don’t let this sway your own preference!

Conclusion:

A lot more interesting things happened, like a taxi driver saving me from getting extorted by police; another taxi driver sharing with me how big of an opportunity real estate is in Nigeria, which caught my attention because I was looking into real estate into Ghana too, which is also promising there; I also observed that everything feels a lot cheaper in Nigeria than in Ghana; and lastly, when leaving the airport I found it amusing that the staff would openly ask me to give them some "weekend money" (or tips), I had some extra Naira on me, so I happily gave them some cash, but I thought the straightforwardness was pretty funny. Overall Lagos exceeded my expectations, it's safer than I expected, people are very kind and caring, it's fun, and has a lot of opportunity from a business standpoint, from real estate, to fintech, and beyond.

Ultimately, to my surprise, I wish I stayed in Nigeria longer, and I'd definitely like to come back!