Nigerian companies should begin to view the country not merely as their operating environment but as a launchpad for products, services and brands capable of competing across Africa and beyond, Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Digital Engagement and New Media and President of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), O’tega Ogra, has said.
Ogra made the submission while delivering the keynote address at The Industry Newspaper’s Top 50 Nigerian Companies of Impact 2026 Awards, held at Lagos Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island.
The event was organised around the theme, “Building Resilience, Driving Growth: Nigerian Companies Shaping the Next Decade.”
He said the ability of Nigerian businesses to solve complex problems under difficult local conditions could give them an important advantage when seeking opportunities in other African markets.
Ogra pointed to Bergmans Security Consultant and Supplies Limited as an example, noting that the company has become a significant participant in the $3.1 billion AfCFTA customs modernisation project after demonstrating its capabilities within Nigeria.
He explained that Bergmans, operating through its subsidiaries AfriTrade CMP Limited and Trade Modernisation Project Limited, was able to secure the continental opportunity after establishing its competence through work carried out at Nigerian ports.
“A few days ago, Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of AfCFTA, arrived at Nigeria Customs and saw B’Odogwu, our Unified Customs Management System, already running,” Ogra said.
“The Secretariat had options. Companies from outside Africa wanted the work too. It chose an African company. A Nigerian company.”
According to Ogra, the development illustrates how the difficulties businesses encounter in Nigeria can serve as a practical environment for developing solutions that eventually have wider application.
“The Nigerian market became its proving ground. The expertise developed here is now being taken to the continent,” he said. “Companies that learn to build functioning systems in difficult conditions acquire experience that travels.”
He nevertheless cautioned against defining business resilience solely in terms of an organisation’s ability to withstand economic pressure. Rather, he said, the public and private sectors should work towards an environment in which businesses can devote more capital and human resources to innovation, expansion and productivity.
“There is ingenuity in a manufacturer generating his own electricity. There is ingenuity in an SME rebuilding its model every time costs change. But there is also a lot of productive energy being consumed by those problems,” he said.
The ADVAN president identified the banking, fintech, entertainment and music sectors as areas where Nigerian businesses have successfully converted domestic challenges and opportunities into strengths with international appeal.
“Nigeria gives our companies something many businesses elsewhere would envy: a huge domestic market in which to learn. The question is what we do with it,” he said.
Ogra also called on Nigerian brands to take greater advantage of the country’s cultural reach, arguing that the international popularity of Nigerian culture should be matched by stronger global expansion from Nigerian businesses.
“Our culture already travels extraordinarily well. Our businesses should travel with them,” he said, urging companies to build brands for which “Lagos is the beginning of the story, not the limit of the market.”
Looking ahead, Ogra identified trust, technology and productivity as central to the ability of Nigerian companies to remain competitive during the next decade.
He particularly encouraged businesses to approach artificial intelligence as an immediately useful business tool rather than a distant technological development. In his view, companies that deploy emerging technologies to address everyday operational challenges could achieve significant gains in efficiency.
“The useful question is what happens when a task that took three days can be done in an afternoon,” he said, stressing the importance of moving quickly from technological possibilities to practical applications.
Ogra said the relevance of the Top 50 Nigerian Companies of Impact recognition should ultimately be judged by the economic and social opportunities created by the businesses being honoured.
He said this should include employment generation, the development of local supply chains, improved productivity and the creation of solutions that can be adopted beyond Nigeria.
While congratulating the 2026 honourees, he urged them to regard the recognition as more than an acknowledgment of past performance, describing it as an incentive to pursue larger ambitions and greater impact.
“Ten years from now, I hope people routinely come here to study Nigerian companies, Nigerian technology, Nigerian manufacturing and Nigerian brands because something built here has become the reference point elsewhere,” he said.
The annual Top 50 Nigerian Companies of Impact Awards celebrates businesses making contributions to national development through areas including employment creation, innovation, corporate governance and demonstrable social impact.
