Company Restructuring in Nigeria: The Process of Successfully Reorganizing a Company

Nigeria is a massive country with a rapidly growing economy. It’s also home to over 160 million people, making it one of Africa’s most populous countries. This means that there are plenty of opportunities for businesses looking to get a foothold in the lucrative Nigerian market. However, it also makes it very difficult to do so. In this article, we’ll provide you with a brief overview of the Nigerian business landscape and the challenges that most companies face when trying to establish a presence in the country. We’ll also discuss the process that we used to successfully re-organize our company in Nigeria and expand our operations there.

What is a business restructuring?

A business restructuring is the process of reorganizing a company’s assets and operations in order to enhance its financial and strategic position. The reasons for undertaking a business restructuring can vary. Perhaps your business is experiencing financial difficulties and you need to restructure in order to survive. Perhaps you’re experiencing rapid growth and you need to find new assets to support that growth. There are many potential reasons why a business might need to restructure.

The Nigerian business landscape

Nigeria is an extremely diverse country. While the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern regions, the northern part of the country is home to over 350 indigenous ethnic groups. These diverse cultural groups have each contributed to the country’s rich cultural heritage, creating a plethora of beautiful, unique and interesting traditions.

Despite its diversity, Nigeria is also a very young country. It was first colonized in the early 19th century, but became an independent nation only in 1960. As a result, most companies operating in Nigeria today were not even born in the country. In fact, according to statistics, only 29% of businesses in Nigeria are considered mature – meaning that they have been operating for at least five years. This young business population coupled with an increasingly wealthy and demanding customer base has created a very challenging business environment in Nigeria.

How to successfully restructure your business in Nigeria

It is critical that businesses operating in Nigeria have a clear strategy for restructuring and a plan to execute on that strategy. Business leaders must be willing to examine every aspect of their organization and make changes where necessary in order to be successful in Nigeria. A failure to do so can lead to a very rapid decline in the company’s fortunes.

For our company, we knew that we needed to do more than just survive in order to grow and thrive in Nigeria. We also knew that we needed to find a way to become more efficient and focused. Fortunately, we had undertaken a restructuring process a few years earlier and had gained a good understanding of the challenges that businesses face when trying to establish a foothold in a new country.

The process of restructuring our company

The process of restructuring our company in Nigeria entailed four distinct but interconnected stages: strategic planning, organizational design, operational restructuring and financial restructuring.

Stage 1: Strategic Planning

The first stage of our restructuring process was strategic planning. During this stage, we examined our key business objectives and identified the activities and resources that we needed to achieve them. We also identified which activities and resources we did not need to be successful.

We then mapped these objectives and business requirements onto the company’s organizational structure. This helps strategic planners understand which parts of the organization must change in order for the business to be more successful in Nigeria.

Stage 2: Organizational Design

Organizational design is the process of determining how the components of an organization will be structured and managed. This includes determining the roles and responsibilities of each organizational unit, as well as the lines of authority that exist between them.

Organizational design is often driven by strategic planning. However, it should not be seen as a linear process. Rather, it is an iterative process that happens as you conduct business in a new country.

As you begin operating in Nigeria, you will quickly discover that the cultural and managerial realities of the country are very different from what you’re used to. As a result, your organizational design may need to change in order to accommodate those differences.

Stage 3: Operational Restructuring

Operational restructuring is the process of determining how the components of an organization will function together in order to create value for customers. This may include identifying and altering processes and procedures that are no longer relevant in a modern, technological society.

As with organizational design, operational restructuring is an iterative process. It happens as a result of the decisions that you make based on the results of your operational analysis.

Stage 4: Financial Restructuring

Finally, financial restructuring involves determining how all of the components of an organization will be financed. This may include examining every aspect of a company’s operations from procurement to taxes in order to identify areas of cost savings that can be leveraged to support future growth.

Business restructuring is a process, not an event. It’s a journey that companies travel through slowly and carefully. There is no “right” time to restructure a company. Rather, there are many factors that will determine when and how a restructuring process should occur.