What must global businesses do to succeed in Africa’s largest economy? GE Nigeria’s CEO talks to Business Insider in this exclusive interview

“If you’re not in Nigeria, your Africa strategy is flawed,” Lazarus Angbazo, General Electric Nigeria’s CEO says
He says your business strategy has to be based on a strong understanding of the fundamentals of the Nigerian market
Once you have figured out your strategy, then you must localise your capabilities

Today, Nigeria’s rail system contributes less than 1% of freight movement across the country. In contrast to this, at its peak in the ‘80s, the rail system was a major form of transportation for traders, workers, and students. “There was a bustling rail network that was critical to economic vitality,” Lazarus Angbazo, General Electric Nigeria’s CEO tells me.

“By many estimates, the loss of that vital rail network has a dampening effect on the GDP by almost 3%,” he added.

The rail transport sector was a core part of the conversation when I first met Lazarus in Lagos back in September, weeks before the news broke that General Electric was pulling out of the rail concession with the Nigerian federal government and handing over to Transnet SOC Ltd.

While GE exits the transportation business, its hand is firmly at work in many other sectors of the economy including power, oil and gas, aviation, and medicine. The industrial giant has been in Nigeria for more than 40 years, supporting both the government and private sector with vital infrastructure and services. It currently employs over 700 people, 98% being Nigerians.

Lazarus himself has had an impressive career, starting out as an academic teaching corporate finance in one of America’s top universities. After 6 years, he moved to JPMorgan Chase where he worked for 7 years before joining GE where he has been for 14 years. First, he headed the company’s East, West, and Central African operations. Now, he leads the company’s biggest African market – Nigeria.

What it takes to succeed as a global business in Nigeria

“If you’re not in Nigeria,” he says of global businesses, “your Africa strategy is flawed.” And for anyone who wants to do business in Nigeria and succeed, Lazarus believes they must pay attention to factors such as their business strategy and their capabilities.

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He says your business strategy has to be based on a strong understanding of the fundamentals of the Nigerian market. That understanding will lead you to a mindset that investing in Nigeria is not about the short-term and quick results, but it is about a sustainable plan over the long term.

“Anchor your strategy around the key fundamentals of the market,” he says. “A country like this has inescapably impressive fundamentals, in terms of the size of the market -- there’s no other market in Africa that gives you scale as Nigeria does. The consumer base is strong. You look at the infrastructure base, the need is strong. If you are a player in any one of these industries globally and you’re not in Nigeria, you’re missing a significant piece of your playbook.”

Once you have figured out your strategy, then you must localise your capabilities. “You have to localise your workforce, Nigeria offers you the best value for money in terms of talent than I’ve seen in any other country on the continent,” he says. “You also have to localise your supply chain. Who are your Nigerian partners? There’s a number of entrepreneurs and great companies to work with here.

“Then you also have to localise your technical capabilities and capacity. It is so much easier to be able to service a turbine in Nigeria than to take 9 months to ship it out, fix it, and bring it back in.”

The qualities of successful people

“I’ve been fortunate to have worked under some of the most brilliant, most visionary leaders that I know of and there are so many qualities that I admire and have impressed me deeply,” Lazarus says when I ask him what the most common qualities he has seen in successful people are.

First is vision. “Vision is critical for pointing the direction in which people will go. Vision is not dreaming alone, it starts with dreaming, but it is backing that dream with a credible, implementable plan,” he says.

Another quality is the ability to build a team or at least inspire people to work with you. He says, “If you don’t have a team, it doesn’t matter how brilliant or hardworking you are, you won’t get anything done. The biggest point of derailment for anyone is the team with which they work.”

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The third quality is a huge appetite for learning. In his words, “We live in a much more connected, smaller, faster world, and severely more fiercely competitive. Anyone who is not at the cutting edge of what is going on will quickly fall to the back of the pack. So, that huge appetite for learning is one of the things I’ve seen to be a differentiator for successful people.”

Our conversation drifts further towards leadership qualities in successful people. For Lazarus, character and integrity stand out. “Those are two qualities that will protect anyone,” he says. “Character is really about candour because it builds trust and it builds followership. Part of character is also humility because that's where the learning begins. If you don’t have humility, the willingness and capacity to learn will not be there.”

Lastly, he adds, “the ability to get things done and get results is the empirical evidence of successful people. What’s your output? What have you done?”

"Success is made up of a continuum of attributes, there’s no one that is more important than the other. All are critical, but some stand out -- vision, character, teamwork, an appetite for learning, and a relentless pursuit of excellence."