EXPLORING BUSINESS DIVERSITY IN NIGERIA: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Nigeria is home to multi-cultural people with diverse backgrounds, customs, agendas, etc. With so many differences among the people, businesses must find a way to harness these differences to their advantage.

This is what business diversity entails. It attempts to promote a platform for bringing in these differences and using them for the growth of businesses.

This article will provide insights into the importance, opportunities, and challenges of diversity in business. It'll also cover examples of core Nigerian businesses that have capitalized on the opportunities.

What is business diversity?

Business diversity refers to the different kinds of people that work together in a workplace. They could be different in age, race, gender, belief, ethnic background, and more. As a result of these differences, they all have their own quota that they can contribute to seeing their company succeed.

Each member that makes up the diverse community within the workplace can share their knowledge and experiences with others, which will lead to the accomplishment of the company's goals.

Business diversity offers a lot more insights for innovation, creativity, and growth to businesses that choose to explore its opportunities.

Importance of Diversity in the Business landscape

The concept of business diversity within the business world is really important, and here are some reasons why:

1. Ease of innovation and creativity

Innovations and creativities that are birthed in businesses and organizations are the results of people's "brainchildren," ideas, and insights. The greater the difference in how they think and what inspires their ideas, the more innovations will be made.

So, having different individuals with their diverse backgrounds together in a workplace, there will be multiple perspectives that will inform the extent of creativity that happens in the course of that business.

2. Broad customer understanding

It's often said that your first set of customers in your business are your employees.

It was Sybil F. Stershic, a renowned author, who said, "The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don't feel valued, neither will your customers."

With an array of employees with diverse cultural backgrounds and perspectives in different age ranges all working in your business, it will be easy to know how they feel about your business.

This will provide you with the insights that you need to understand your broad customer base and how best to model your products or services to meet their needs.

3. Attraction and retention of talents

Another importance of business diversity to the business landscape is that it can lead to the attraction and retention of talented individuals to your business or organization.

When a new talent sees that your business promotes inclusion, diverse cultural backgrounds, and employee growth, they'll want to join the business and help it grow.

When they realize that working in your business has a positive impact on their lives, they'll pledge their loyalty to you and ensure that your company grows.

As a business owner, if you want to see new talents approach your business, then you must embrace business diversity.

4. Global competitiveness

One reason why business diversity is important to a business owner is that it gives you the platform to grow your business on a global scale and also compete successfully with other companies at that level.

The goal of businesses as well as yours is to be able to offer value to customers globally. This can happen when your business encourages diversity.

With the diverse minds of your employees, every innovation and creativity that could give your business global competitiveness will come from them.

It will help you understand how best to penetrate diverse cultures and policies to meet your broad customer base with your products.

Opportunities for Business Diversity in Nigeria

As a Nigerian business owner, exploring the opportunities that embracing business diversity brings is really important. This section will dwell on four such opportunities:

1. Cultural understanding

A country like Nigeria is rich in diverse cultural backgrounds. With over 250 cultures, Nigeria offers business owners a wealth of opportunities that they can harness.

By paying close attention to these different cultures, you'll know how best to bring your products that appeal to them across the different local markets. With business diversity, companies are able to connect with their customers across different cultures through their local retailers.

2. Market adaptation

Remember that with a diverse team of employees, you are in a better position to understand the various markets with different consumer needs that Nigeria has.

Your diverse team of employees will provide insights into these market and consumer variations, thereby helping you make the necessary adaptations to meet the different needs across different regions or demographics within the country.

3. Innovation for local challenges

Nigeria is a country that faces different unique challenges that they can solve through innovative solutions. These creative solutions will come from a team of diverse employees with different perspectives and insights.

As a result, they'll come up with new innovative solutions that can address the local challenges that businesses face across sectors like health, infrastructure, etc.

4. Brand loyalty and reputation

Companies that embrace business diversity receive commendations from their customers. This is because customers appreciate a business that doesn't discriminate in any way.

This confidence of consumers in Nigerian businesses would lead to positive relationships among them, which would enhance the reputation of businesses.

The better the reputation a business has, the more customers will be loyal to them. So, by embracing diversity, businesses can build their reputation and the loyalty of customers to their brand.

Challenges of Business Diversity in Nigeria

While diversity in business has presented a lot of opportunities, there are still challenges that it faces. Let's take a look at three notable ones:

1. Differences in culture

Inasmuch as differences in culture should be an opportunity to be harnessed, especially in Nigeria, different cultures have their own tenets that may be limitations for individuals from them.

For example, a difference in language could be a barrier to communicating with others; their work practices and cultural norms could lead to misunderstandings or conflicts when not properly managed.

2. Educational differences

Business diversity attempts to promote opportunity for all without discrimination or sentiment. But what happens when education becomes the separation factor?

This happens in Nigeria, and because of the diverse cultures, some regions may not be very interested in attaining heights of education, and this may affect the inclusion of all cultures within the workplace because, in terms of educational qualifications, they may not all meet the standards that afford diversity in business to thrive.

3. Religious diversity

Religion shouldn't be a challenge in the workplace, right? Not necessarily. In a country like Nigeria, religion and religious beliefs could pose a challenge in a workplace that promotes diversity.

Although, when there's a clear line and respect for the religions of different employees within an organization, there can be an understanding that will help them manage this difference well.

Examples of Nigerian Businesses that capitalize on Diversity

Here are two examples of companies in Nigeria that have embraced business diversity and are capitalizing on the opportunities it brings. They include:

Dangote Group

The Dangote group of companies is one example of a Nigerian company that has capitalized on business diversity.

As a company that Aliko Dangote leads, its goal is to give opportunity to all and sundry within and outside Nigeria. The company's workforce includes different kinds of people from across the country.

Embracing diversity in business has led him to utilize the opportunities that it brings while tackling the challenges as well, to offer the best his company can to Nigerians and Africa at large.

Nigerian Breweries Plc

This is Nigeria's own bottling company, which was incorporated in 1946. Over the years since its incorporation, it has witnessed significant growth, even now. It boasts of diverse individuals from all parts of the nation that makes up the workforce.

By harnessing this diversity, the company has been able to understand its broad customer base, thereby offering products that suit their needs.

Conclusion

Nigeria is a unique country with people of diverse cultural backgrounds, perspectives, etc. Harnessing the differences in people and applying them within the workplace poses many opportunities for businesses as well as some challenges.

By exploring these opportunities, businesses can gain insight into how best to meet the needs of their customers.