Mobilizing Science-Based Enterprises for Energy, Water, and Medicines in Nigeria (2007) / Chapter Skim
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This report examines how Nigeria can mobilize private companies to provide some basic services that might be sustainable and cost-effective for government, company, and consumer. In Nigeria, about two-thirds of the population lacks safe water and access to the electricity grid.
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Elements of these business models include the following: • a focus on the price performance of products and markets • incorporation of innovative hybrid solutions that use advanced technologies blended with the existing culture and with products designed to work in hostile environments characterized by, among other things, an irregular power supply, contaminated water, low skill levels, and unreliable infrastructure • an emphasis on reducing, conserving, and recycling resources, especially packaging • adoption of innovative processes for local manufacture • application of innovative methods of financing, distribution, and marketing Microcredit, service contracts, and franchising opportunities also are important elements of the business models. As limiting as the conditions in developing countries seem to be, the great advantage is the huge number of potential clients.
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. The workshops were designed to exploit the interactions among international experts and entrepreneurs who had successfully created enterprises based on each technology in similar countries and local scientists and business experts who understood the economic and social environment of Nigeria.
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and officers of Nigerian pharmaceutical companies producing malaria medicines participated in the workshop. RECOMMENDATIONS Incentives for Private Companies to Provide Public goods and Services Nearly two-thirds of the Nigerian population does not have home lighting, safe drinking water, or effective malaria therapy.
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Recommendation: The Nigerian government should develop a sys tem of incentives to encourage private companies to sell and ser vice solar electric systems for the home to rural residents who are not connected to the national grid. The Nigerian government also should develop a system of incentives to encourage private compa nies to sell and service water purification systems to communities that are not served by municipal or national water supplies, or to produce household filtering systems for safe drinking water.
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Recommendations: The Nigerian government should support private sector partici pation in the global ACTs market. It should do this by tracking international developments related to the economic and technical requirements of all aspects of ACTs production and establishing formal and informal links to academic, public, and for-profit enti ties that could play a role in that production.
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Recommendation: The high mortality rates in Nigeria from diarrheal disease and malaria argue that the Nigerian government should offer health education and training in the schools that would address the importance of safe drinking water, how to maintain a sanitary water supply, and how to choose effective medicines. Other relevant top ics might include nutrition, hygiene, safe sex, and the prevention and treatment of common diseases such as respiratory infections, diarrhea, and HIV/AIDS.
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For donor agencies, this path is a more difficult one, because the creation of successful enterprises is less well understood in the philanthropic community than grant giving, and a natural failure rate characterizes even the most fertile investment plans. The effort must be spread among many enterprises to improve the probability of success; it will resemble a balanced investment portfolio more than a philanthropic grant program.
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Especially useful participants would be representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, the International Center for business Research, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, and the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises. Importantly, such a workshop could urge the government both to clarify the law on the right to provide potable water to households and to mount a campaign in favor of filtered purified water to com bat diarrheal disease.
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