Franchise Business Development Services (FBDS) has made case for the creation of access to single digit franchise funding to enable the development and expansion of the critical sub-sector of the economy.

This was a crucial takeaway from the recent Franchise Matchmaking Investment forum held in Lagos at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island in Lagos on 29^th March 2018.

The event, the second hosting, by FBDS –the pioneer franchise consulting company in Nigeria, Member of International Franchise Association (IFA) and promoter of entry of foreign franchise brands to Nigeria, highlighted the nitty-gritty of franchise investment procedures, pointing to the fact, if properly harnessed, that franchise businesses have the potentials to create over 500,000 new jobs in the next four years in Nigeria.

The event featured sessions by experts from the industry who discussed exhaustively on how to manage a franchise and drive profit in a very competitive business economy.

Prospective corporate and individual investors were taken through the curriculum by both the organizers and the franchisors pitching for prospective investors, on how they can own their franchised businesses at virtually no business failure risks, while gaining sufficient education through the sessions, on losses rather associated with venturing into new business. They pointed to such facts as that franchises have only 5% failure rate in South Africa, while start-up businesses record 80% failure rate within few years in Nigeria.

It also created a platform for participating investors to meet and interact with CEOs of successful franchise brands, with the CEOs and Executive representatives of over 40 local and foreign franchise brands in attendance.

In line with the views of supporting organizations, such as Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Enterprise Development Center of The Pan African University (EDC) and Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF); The Convener, Mr. Chiagozie Nwizu, said that the Forum was part of FBDS’ measure, to facilitate risk free venturing, business sustainability, growth of the enterprise sector and attraction of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to the economy, through the franchise business model.

He said, “Franchise Matchmaking Forum is a quarterly franchise investor’s forum creating opportunities where the franchisor finds qualified potential franchisees who meet his brand’s criteria, and the potential franchisee meets the franchisor with a suitable proposition for his investment interest”.

The highpoint of the event was the exhibition session following the pitches from the franchise owners, where the investors had the opportunity to interact with the various brands, making investment decisions having used the knowledge they gained, to assess suitable franchises to buy.

Some of the participating brands included: Meadow Foods, Chicken Republic, Rockin Jump, Bakaria, Avis, Studio24, Sweet Factory, Coffeeshop Company Tantalizers PLC; House Of Tara; Five Senses Schools, Best Choice, Tolaram Group, The Toy Store, Yogurt Frenzy and Innova Pharmacies to mention a few. While some of the supporting organizations included Lagos State Employment Trust Fund; Ciuci Consulting, Enterprise Development Center; Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission and Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce.

The 2^nd Franchise Matchmaking Forum was one of the programmes in the calendar of the Nigeria 2018 Franchise Agenda. The Agenda was developed following a stakeholders roundtable convened by FBDS Nigeria in November 2017, themed: “Building New Roads to Enterprise, Social and Economic Development through Franchising”.

The pitching sessions: CEOs and executive representatives of various brands pitching to prospective franchise buyers

The Coffee Session: Franchise opportunities and support solutions in Nigeria

Some of the Franchisors and Speakers

Sections of the exhibitions

[DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]

The Nigeria 2018 Franchise Agenda, 30th November 2017

Franchise Business Development Services Nigeria (FBDS), an associate of International Franchise Association and representative of World Franchise Associates in Nigeria on Thursday 30th November 2017 organized a roundtable discussion on the strategic direction of “Nigeria 2018 Franchise Agenda”.

The roundtable was organized in collaboration with key industry stakeholders dedicated to the development of franchising in Nigeria and supported by World Franchise Associates as well as SA Franchise Warehouse, South Africa.

The roundtable updated the stakeholders on the progress of the growing Nigeria franchise industry, introduced the potentials of the micro-franchising concept in Nigeria and presented global case studies of success and impact of micro-franchising on the enterprise, social and economic development spheres that can be benchmarked, to the various stakeholders. In line with the theme of the event (“Building New Roads to Enterprise, Social and Economic Development through Franchising”), the discussants opined in unison that the potentials of franchising in Nigeria can be triggered via “micro-franchising”.

Accordingly, the convener of the roundtable Mr. Chiagozie Nwizu, Founder/Managing Consultant at FBDS noted that the industry has progressed in tandem with the vision of FBDS to make franchising development a front-burner agenda through its services, advocacies and interventions. The foregoing, can explain the DFID sponsored research conducted by FBDS titled: “The Potentials of Franchising in Nigeria”. Accordingly, this study has become a key reference point on franchising in Nigeria; a compilation of findings, opportunities, challenges and solutions to franchising in Nigeria. The study also featured the learning points from the historic growth of franchising in South Africa, India, UAE and USA, which formed the benchmarks for its recommendations of growth path for Nigeria franchise industry.

The South African community economic development expert and micro-franchising consultant Jayshree Padayatchey, whose organization is partnering with FBDS on implementation of the franchise agenda in her presentation, highlighted the importance of micro-franchising in sweating untapped potentials in a youthful vibrant emerging market like Nigeria as has been proven in other emerging and developed economies. She stressed that everyday people can be retooled and kitted to understand the importance of contracts, business growth, skill transfer and corporate governance through micro-franchising. He noted that micro-franchising will reduce the gap between formal and informal business sector in Nigeria.

The Keynote Speaker, The Hon. Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment represented by the Executive Director of Lagos International Trade-fair Management Board in her keynote Speech, commended the efforts of DFID and FBDS Nigeria for the franchise study which was presented to her office. She also applauded the efforts of FBDS while reiterating that convener’s agenda are consistent with the goals of the Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment to diversifying the economy through non-oil sector growth, harnessing the export potentials of Nigeria while attracting FDIs into the country.

The diversification of the economy is the guiding principle behind DFID goal to “Impact the missing middle” that is highly dominated by the informal sector. Mr. Richard Sandall, DFID Nigeria’s Senior Private Sector Development Adviser viewed that “micro-franchising can be useful in scaling access to finance to help micro and small enterprises to build standards, among other needs in Nigeria.

Mr. Anayo Agu, the Special Adviser to the Governor of Enugu State on SMEs in his comments collaborated earlier shared views on micro-franchising. He however added that Enugu state government is looking forward to adopting the micro-franchise agenda in order to attract both local and international franchise brands to Enugu state. He noted that there are huge opportunities for successful big businesses in the State to franchise out segments of their businesses, creating opportunities for potential investors to venture and own businesses through franchising.

The Nigerian 2018, Franchise Agenda was proudly supported by reputable local and international organizations, and was attended by key stakeholders from the Private Sector, International Development Agencies and the Nigerian government. Some of the stakeholder institutions in attendance were NIPC, SMEDAN, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, Enugu State Government/SME Center, SA Franchise Warehouse South Africa, FATE Foundation, MTN Nigeria, UKAid, The US Trade Mission to Nigeria, among others

Having accomplished this phase, The Franchise Agenda for 2018; a compilation of franchise leveraged projects and initiatives have been developed and will be implemented by a collaboration of these stakeholders from January 2018. It is projected that the implementation of the agenda could help deliver over 100% growth across key economic growth indices in Nigeria by 2019.

FBDS Managing Consultant, Mr. Chiagozie Nwizu speaks on franchising at the BusinessInnovationX Talkshow

Thanks to Union Bank and Chukwuka Monye for featuring our Managing Consultant on the BusinessInnovationX Talkshow. Look out to the discussion which would be airing on about 40 radio channels across the country, to learn more about the concept and opportunities of franchising.

In line with the Nigeria Franchise Study conducted by FBDS Nigeria for a DFID Programme, franchising promises enormous potentials for Nigeria. We can scale up businesses with proven and successful models, so that potential entrepreneurs and start-ups who lack capacity to build successful businesses can leverage such proven models to venture and own successful businesses with minimal chance of failure.

Hope is here, for thousands of Nigerian successful brands that stand the chance to expand without borrowing. There is huge opportunity for our economy to #BuyNaijaToGrowTheNaira, create more jobs & reduce poverty through franchising.

At the show, we promised pro bono services to support Nigerian Brands that want to expand across the country and internationally through franchising. Interested? Offer is open till December 31st 2017. Contact: info@fbdsnigeria.com.
#ThinkFranchise! #IfUCantBuildItBuyIt

[mk_table]

[/mk_table]

GOODWILL MESSAGES

According to the Honorable Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment: The Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment is keen to create an enabling environment for MSMEs to thrive, so as to play their rightful role in wealth and job creation, poverty reduction and stimulation of growth of the domestic economy. FMITI is currently leading a campaign promoting the patronage and expansion of Nigeria Brands. I am optimistic that franchising would be a useful tool in delivering these goals.

International Franchise Association’s President & CEO, Robert Cresanti, CFE has this to say about the event: Franchising transfers business best practices to new economies and creates owners, helping to build and sustain a middle class.  Franchising also produces large indirect benefits for developing countries, such as establishing supply chains.  Used effectively, the franchise model can make powerful contributions to Nigeria’s growth in the decades to come

Kobus Oosthuizen, CEO of SA Franchise Warehouse shared the following thoughts about the potential of the event: The reward for creating small enterprises may be high in terms of job creation and developing a second economy, but it poses immense risk as the result of failure is not only limited to financial loss for many parties involved, but the resilience of a business owner may be tested beyond its ability and he or she may never return to being a business owner.  Jewels are hidden even at the bottom of the pyramid, but with a structured small business re-engineering approach, these jewels can excel through replication and effective application of franchise principles

According to Mr. Brent Omdahl, the Commercial Counselor to the U.S. Mission to Nigeria on potentials of franchising in Nigeria: Americans may not have invented franchising, but the business model has created significant and equitable wealth in the U.S.  You might say franchising has played a key role in democratizing the American economy. That same exponential growth can take place in Nigeria.  To succeed at franchising does not require a pedigree.  It requires finding the right system, discipline, integrity and hard work.  Those are the values of the American Dream.  They are also the values of many many Nigerians.

LOCATION DETAILS

Date: Thursday 30th November 2017

Time: 10am

Venue: Fate Foundation, 1st Floor, Lagos Water House, Ijora, Lagos.

Or send a mail to nig2018franchiseagenda@fbdsnigeria.com to reserve your seat

The buzz all over the media wasn’t for nothing, something great was scheduled to happen in Lagos, Nigeria. Franchising was set to take a new turn with the Franchise Matchmaking Forum event set up by Franchise Business Development Services (FBDS). This event had CEOs of top local and international franchise companies (Franchisors) present their franchise opportunities to an audience of prospective franchise investors, (Potential Franchisees) who desire to have their own franchise business outlets under the represented brands. It was held at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos.

With various speakers representing brands like House of Tara International, Best Choice; Curves International amongst a host of other speakers, the event was set to be an insightful one. Excitement filled the air mixed with a true quest for knowledge, as the program kicked off. For an event of this magnitude, there was an exhibition stand which showcased the various companies products and information, with representatives available to answer questions of the potential franchisees.

The national anthem was sung with smiles on the participant’s faces, signifying their strong faith and belief in Nigeria. Everyone was welcomed by Zubaru Kadiri (Brand Strategist, FBDS) as he was the anchor for the event. He enlightened the audience on Franchising being the next big thing and how it could grow the Nigerian economy.

The Technical Advisor to the Vice-President on MSMEs; Tola Johnson was also present at the event to give words of support, encouragement, and endorsement of Franchising in Nigeria, having seen how much SMEs have failed grossly in times past.

“I wish we thought of Franchising as far back as 10 years ago. The government is interested in playing their part in Franchising, once we play our roles, things will get better” he said. 

Managing Consultant of FBDS, Chiagozie Nwizu pointed out how important it is to have an alternative source of income outside of the normal 8 am to 5 pm job. He added that “Buying a franchise is buying a system; it is building on the company’s loyalty and their experience in the market from day one to make progress”. He also showed trends of franchising in other countries and their successes.

CEO of Idashnaira, Hilary Nwaukor took time out to encourage people to step out of their realms of fear to accomplish something commendable through franchising. He said “We all have the spirit of entrepreneurship in Nigeria. We are hustlers in this nation. It’s time to step out! We need to look at the opportunities for increasing our businesses. We should think more towards Franchising and embrace it too”

Emma Esinnah (Country Director, Curves Fitness), gave insights into the Curves Fitness Franchise and how important fitness is to the world at large. “Over 300 million people worldwide are said to be obese. Nearly $100 billion yearly is spent on treating obesity. Curves Fitness is something every woman around the world will be interested in as it is fitness targeted at only women”

General Manager, Best Choice (Tolaram Group); Kunal Malhotra revealed that “Best Choice goal is become your neighborhoods favorite store as it currently has 127 stores and is projecting 500 stores by 2022”. Best Choice is an affordable grocery store targeted at neighborhoods with various household products. A current franchisee of the company was around to share how her experience has been seamless with Best Choice.

Wrapping up the event was House of Tara’s Tundun Aderibigbe; representing Tara Durotoye the MD, who gave an interesting statistic on the success of the brand and how it has evolved to franchising over the years. This she did as she presented the Franchise Prospectus to the listening potential franchise buyers. Some unique selling points of the company are the Fees structure, Retail support, Franchise Objectives amongst others.

The event concluded with the exhibition segment where interested franchise buyers had the chance to visit various stands of franchises that interested them to get more details and information.

Indeed it is the dawning of a new day for Franchising in Nigeria with companies like FBDS Nigeria championing the cause.

Now is the time to Think Franchise!

Cross section of participants paying rapt attention to speakers at the Franchise Matchmaking Form

Stella Eze, a director and franchisee of Curves Fitness giving information about the brand to an exhibition stand visitor.

Chief Operating Officer of House of Tara Int’l, Tundun Aderibigbe, representing Tara Durotoye the MD, gave amazing statistics on the success of the brand and how it has evolved to franchising over the years, as she presented the Franchise Prospectus to the listening potential franchise buyers.

Potential franchise buyers at Curves Fitness stand, making enquiries on how Curves Fitness operates its franchise

More participants listening to the speakers representing various brands at the event.

A franchisee of Best Choice Franchise; Tosin Adebayo (middle) with the Best Choice team after the event

Mr. Zuberu Kadiri, an Advisory Board member of FBDS Nigeria engaging the prospective franchise buyers at the event

Chiagozie Nwizu (Managing Consultant, FBDS Nigeria), speaking on the huge potentials of Franchising in Nigeria and the industry’s gradual growth in recent times.

Chiagozie Nwizu and Hilary Nwaukor all smiles after the successful event

Participant networking and making enquiries at the exhibition

Country Director, Curves Nigeria: Mr. Emma Esinnah presenting the Curves Fitness Franchise to the attendants of the event.

A potential franchise buyer engaging a Best Choice Franchise representative with keen interest.

Hilary Nwaukor, Chukwuka Monye, Tudun Aderibigbe, Chiagozie Nwizu, Kunal Malhotra, Emma Esinnah and Zuberu Kadiri taking pictures after the event

More participants looking for franchising opportunities at the event.