Ok, but will it work in (Enter Location)?

Hi readers,

Over the past 2 years, my company NeuBite has been ideating and building an autonomous retail solution similar to that of Amazon Go. Recently my development team has finished our mvp which I named R.A.S short for Retail Automated System. Essentially R.A.S allows users the ability to purchase items by simply using their smartphone to gain access to the machine and its contents. Upon selecting the item they want, the user closes the fridge door and all items removed are charged to the user’s account. A quite simple idea on the front end yet the technological back-end is very sophisticated. I use sophisticated here loosely.

Having never received formal training in programming I self-studied to gain more knowledge about the specifics and relative nuances involved in software development. Now after almost 2 years of “building” our product is now finished!

While building R.A.S people would ask me what I’m doing here in Nigeria. This question comes quickly after hearing my accent and the puzzled look arrives on the face of he/she who is asking the question. It would seem that anyone with my accent shouldn’t necessarily be here. I often used to wonder why, but staying here for so long I now understand. Nigeria is rich in its human population and resources but lacks the stability needed to see a nation thrive. While some people are vying to leave Nigeria and never come back, I’ve returned in search of my ancestral roots and my piece of the economic pie.

Type in any google search about the “rise of Africa” and articles listing Nigeria as Africa’s great economic power will spring up in search results. Living in Lagos, Nigeria for the past 5 years I’ve privy to be part of the economic boom. Startups have flooded the market with technology similar if not directly replicating that which is seen in Western more developed countries. It’s almost every day I browse Techpoint Africa or Pulse Business Insider and see the news of a young start-up receiving funding for their business idea. So the opportunity to thrive is apparent, so it seems.

“Ok, but will it work in Nigeria?”

Quite commonly when I explain the concept of R.A.S to people their response 9/10 is “Ok, but will it work in Nigeria?” I never quite understood the ideology behind this question. Power in Nigeria is a scarce resource, traffic in Lagos is unbearable almost every day, floods are rampant during the rainy season and the threat of insecurity rises daily. Nothing really works in Nigeria. Yet businesses still flourish and grow exponentially in the market, so long as they have good management. I’m not quite sure if the question stems from the lack of trust and insecurity present in the country, but it keeps coming up.

My response is always the same, yes it will work! The machines will be placed inside secure locations and the technology is easy to use so the learning curve will below. While I do expect issues to arise, I believe strong management and creative thinking can navigate around them as they pop up.

As of writing this blog, I’ve been reaching out to seed investors and potential locations for the machines in Lagos. The speed of responses leads me to think they must be asking themselves the “will it work in Nigeria” question. While they are asking themselves the question NeuBite is pushing forward and realizing our technology can be used all around the world! While we would love a Lagos-based company, our goal is to not remain stagnant. Innovation in one part of the world should be shared amongst all the world’s citizens. From autonomous vehicles to advances in medicine all nations of the world should have a chance to participate in the wonders of science. It’s important moving forward that we stop asking:

“Will it work” and begin affirming “This concept will thrive.” Growth is inevitable so let us look forward to a brighter day.