Abuja diaries: Wake up and hustle
Mbongeni Mguni | Wednesday July 23, 2025 15:43
Many times when journalists travel to cities bigger than they are used to, they reflexively use words such as “buzzing” to describe the energy of wherever they are.
Indeed, there’s a palpable “buzz’ about Abuja, but what’s more noticeable is a slow and steady hum – the hum of Small to Medium (SME) enterprises chugging along and pulling along the Nigerian capital’s economy.
It’s unmistakeable. From before dawn and until late in the night, everywhere in the city, small scale commerce is taking place. From roadside vendors selling all forms of wares throughout the day and night, to teeming markets buzzing with buyers and sellers, to the heavy presence on social media of Abuja “hustlers” trading all forms of goods and services under the ever-trending hashtag #AbujaCommunity.
The city of about four million residents is populated mainly by remarkably single-minded people, waking up early and pushing their commerce.
The streets of Abuja are dominated by small to medium privately-owned malls, business centres and office complexes, with an uncountable number of SMEs operating there offering an equally uncountable amount of goods and services.
As the capital city, Abuja is naturally home to the major global corporates, from banks to tech titans, but it is the hum of the SMEs and entrepreneurs that captures the eye, the sheer relentlessness of their ambition and determination.
The average Abuja resident walks around with pockets of business cards and an armful of portfolios and proposals, hunting down opportunities, making connections, sealing deals, getting leads. There’s very little small talk that takes place, without it leading towards how to make money, how to grow one’s business, where the opportunities are.
The average Abuja resident isn’t sitting down with you to tell you about the trendy spots, the major DJs coming to town or where to have fun. They want to know who you are, where you’re from and what business you’re in. From there, how can we do business together!
In the lobby of Abuja Continental, while waiting for the shuttle to our conference, a middle-aged woman strikes up conversation with me. In any other country, our short chat should be about the weather (it’s very humid in Abuja) or the conference I’m attending (more than 3,000 delegates).
Instead, she introduces herself and when she hears “Botswana,” exclaims that she once visited Gaborone and found it very pleasant. Next, she whips out a business card and the pitch kicks off.
“I’m into trade and logistics. Everything you can ever need from Nigeria or West Africa, we can get it through that side to you. “We have contacts from Lagos to Durban and Cape Town as well as ships travelling all the time. “Just get on our website and whatever you need in bulk, just call me and we’ll get you the best rate.”
The entrepreneurial spirit in Abuja knows no bounds. The capital city is strategically located in the country’s centre and unlike Lagos, has no access to the ocean. But the lady in Abuja Continental’s lobby is not about to let those geographical realities limit her ambition. She’s determined to make leads wherever they may be.
High Commissioner Philda Kereng, who has been in Abuja for just over a year, has insights on the genesis of the entrepreneurial drive in Nigeria’s capital city.
“Let me tell you something that’s a contrast to what we have as Botswana. “In Botswana when someone wants to do a business, they often look at government and government has been doing a lot in terms of injections of money into businesses. “To a large extent we have seen money given to people that have not brought out the value in terms of profits for that investments. “The youth get money, Young Farmers Fund, YDF, and some don’t do business because the character of business, the acumen of business, the behaviour of business has not been instilled in Motswana. “That’s why you see a youth taking money and wasting it and say the business failed. “Do you know why? They will still live comfortably with their parents or go to Ipelegeng, or if things get very bad, they will find another social safety net.”
I’m having a chat with Kereng on the sidelines of the conference I have travelled to Nigeria for. As a former Cabinet minister, Kereng has wide-ranging experience in policy formulation and the challenges facing Botswana.
She’s acutely aware that in making the comparisons around the entrepreneurial drive, she’s stepping into sensitive territory amongst many Batswana, particularly the youth who are most affected by unemployment and lack of opportunities in the country.
Still the High Commissioner presses ahead with her views of what she’s witnessed since her arrival in Nigeria.
“The government in this country has not spoilt anybody. “What these people are saying is that ‘government make it easy for us and we will not bother you’. “The incentives that can spoil you are not there. We get free education hoping that we will get a job, but for them, education is to make sure their child can work in America, the UK, the EU and that’s why they are all heavily employed in all these regional, sub-regional and international organisations. ‘They aim because government is not going to guarantee you anything.
Kereng continues: “When someone is not reliant on their government, they work for themselves. “Also, when you work with your little inputs, having been helped by your family, they say I’m starting a business with 10,000 naira and I will drive until it’s one billion and I export out. “They have that drive and they set goals and support themselves as entrepreneurs. “They have very little support if at all from government. “That’s what makes us different from them; there’s no safety nets and even if they are there, the population is high and there are issues where maybe people may not access them.”
According to the High Commissioner, the attitude in Abuja is that ‘with this little capital I must improve myself and my family’.
“I must help my child and my child will take this business and move it higher, without government. “For us as Batswana, we have to adopt that business mindset to say if you have a business, you must drive to get it higher.”
The High Commissioner says a lot of work is being done to help Batswana unlock the potential of Africa’s most populous nation. Botswana has had an Embassy in Nigeria since 2007, but it has mostly deal with visa facilitation.
Kereng says she wants the relationship taken to a higher level, to involve Batswana, particularly the youth, finding opportunities in Nigeria in various sectors, making connections, using the platforms available and making sales.
While making a list of the factors that inhibit local entrepreneurship could take a full day, one major leaf to be borrowed from Nigeria, that could facilitate local SMEs, is fintech. The entrepreneurial spirit in Abuja coasts on the ease of payments and settlements, an element that is still in its early days here.
According to Kereng, street vendors, those in the market and in fact every entrepreneur, has access to safe, encrypted payment systems at the touch of a phone, making transactions simple and oiling the wheels of commerce.
“Nigerians trade worldwide because the fintech allows for seamless transactions and also for packaging and dispatch, the consignment, the cargo, the ease. “Fintech, ease of transactions, these pockets, these wallets, they have been developed out of the main banking system. “You know I go to a supermarket and if I have forgotten my ATM card, I’m going to transact on my phone and they swipe it and it pays and the receipt comes out. “These things are tried, they are tested. When you open your bank account, they make sure your data is protected and you are given what they call bank verification number for all your banking requirements. “I think Botswana is working on that, but I hope we get it right.”
Outside the SME sector, Kereng says more higher level economic engagements are being made.
Just this week, the High Commission launched Botswana Meat Commission canned products in Abuja, at an event attended by high profile delegates including the Niger State Commissioner for Trade, Investment & Private Sector Development.
“In terms of agriculture, we have only focused on livestock development because last year, the government of Nigeria established a new ministry called the Ministry of Livestock Development, taking it out of Agriculture to focus it,” explains Kereng. “Now here is what they want to solve. Their cattle are not the best quality and we thought as we spoke to them, we said even if we export cattle to you, it would not be enough and they already have a lot of cattle. “We are looking at improve the breeds with the semen that we have been collecting and are for sale to improve the quality of our breeds. “We also have Botswana Vaccine Institute for vaccines and disease control and they are interested in that.”
Other efforts are being made to attract affluent Nigerians for tourism and in positioning Botswana as an investment and event destination. To this end, advisory services have been engaged to reach out to the high end clientele available for Botswana’s tourism and investment sector.
“There are super wealthy Nigerians who do their holidays in the UAE, in America, in the US. “When they say there’s a party, they get up and go to the UAE and those based in the US, Australia all go there in their private jets. “We decided that, strategically, we will target these affluent travellers to go to our Delta, Chobe and visit there. “But I also want to interest them on community-based tourism. You don't go there and just be there. You also want to be able to see what communities are doing in tourism. We have agro-tourism establishments where they can go into the farms and see these things. “They could go to Khawa and other similar events, while others are interested in golf and others in runners clubs so they want the Kazungula Marathon and so forth. “These are affluent travellers and when they come to Botswana, they can organize themselves to travel in their jets and go there. “The interest is very, very high.”
For Kereng, while the Embassy may initiate various efforts to tap into the Nigerian potential, the starting point is an attitude shift on how Batswana view West Africa.
Batswana, she says, need to look beyond South Africa as a traditional trading partner and expand their horizons. The fear or suspicion that Nigerians are all scammers or out to defraud them, is not only baseless, but the High Commission is available to provide due diligence on any business deals and potential business partners.
Some Batswana such as Mpho Laing, have been running businesses in Nigeria for years, successfully. Laing, a media publisher and interior design professional, has been nominated for the prestigious 100 Africa Women Changemakers Award, with the event set to take place in Abuja on July 31.
“Batswana should not be afraid to explore and they must have confidence that the High Commission is here to help. “Once they open up that mind, they will find that those who have come here before, have come back to start businesses. “One wants to buy textiles and sell, another wants to bring natural skin products like Morula and these are needed here. “Those who say all Nigerians are all bad, for some of us we have not even seen them and we don’t even meet with such characters. “Business is running seriously here and there are checks and balances that we can do and help. “Maybe they can start by coming for some events, and then they will start to be comfortable, but I don't want them to think that Nigeria is all bad.”
Seeking out and signing up for events that will expose oneself to West Africa and Nigeria, is a useful way to gauge the market and gather business intelligence, without making a full commitment. Kereng believes there are plenty of opportunities for small traders or small scale traders in the textile industry and in high fashion. The first step, however, is overcoming one’s perceptions, an experience that she has also had at personal level.
“Do you know that when I was deployed to come here, people cried on my behalf? “They cried saying ‘what have we done that she could be sent there?’ “But you know what, I was already tuned into a positive mindset. “If you really are interested and you are zealous about expanding into the continent, Nigeria is the place. “You have to be able to get enough correct information and we are available for that. “There are bad people and there are good people everywhere. Unfortunately some of the Nigerians that we have seen in Botswana have shaped people’s experience over the years, but even now, I don’t know where they are found here. “I want to tell Motswana to key onto the positive mindset.”
As I check out of the Abuja Continental, one of the staff intercepts me. He wants me to give the hotel a Google Review and say where improvements can be made, what impressed me etc.
The drive for business is always moving in Abuja.