Know what entering Nigeria actually costs — before you commit the capital.
Market entry work that ends in a written report: the regulatory path, the real timeline, the counterparties worth meeting, and the risks we would want to know about if the money were ours.
Most entry failures are not strategy failures. They are verification failures.
A market can be right, the sector can be growing, and the entry can still destroy capital — because the partner's accounts were never opened, the licence took four times as long as promised, or the facility in the photographs belonged to somebody else.
Market entry assessment
Sector structure, who actually controls distribution, what margins look like in practice rather than in projections, and where the regulatory and FX friction sits. Written for someone deciding whether to proceed at all.
Counterparty verification
A named company or individual checked: CAC filings and beneficial ownership, tax and regulatory standing, litigation exposure where discoverable, physical site visit, and reference calls with people who have actually traded with them.
Establishment and licensing
Company incorporation, sector licensing, expatriate quota, and the permit sequence for your specific activity — with realistic timelines and the cost of each step set out before you start.
A document you can put in front of an investment committee.
- Findings
- What we verified, how we verified it, and the date and place each check was made. Sources named where naming them is safe.
- Gaps
- What we could not verify and why. This section is not padding — the things that cannot be confirmed in Nigeria are usually the things that matter most.
- Field record
- Photographs and notes from site visits, with dates and locations. Evidence rather than assurance.
- Cost and timeline
- The regulatory path priced step by step, with the delays we would actually expect rather than the statutory ones.
- Recommendation
- What we would do in your position, stated plainly. Including, when it applies, that we would not proceed.
Fixed fee. Written scope. No interest in the outcome.
We are paid for the work, not for the deal. Nothing in our fee structure improves if you proceed, which is what makes an adverse finding worth something.
Calibration call
Thirty minutes to understand what you are deciding and by when. If the work is outside what we can do well, we say so on the call.
Scope and fee
A written brief: what will be checked, by whom, in which city, by when, and for what fee. You approve it before any work starts.
Field work
Our people go to the addresses, pull the filings, and make the calls. You get interim notes as findings emerge rather than silence until delivery.
Report and debrief
The written report, followed by a call to walk your team through it and answer what the document cannot.
Have a specific counterparty you need checked?
Send the briefTell us what you need verified.
Send the brief below and it opens a message to our Istanbul desk on WhatsApp with your details attached. We reply within one business day.
Thank you — it has reached our desk.
We reply within one business day, usually sooner. If it is urgent, write to hello@arewaworld.com directly.