Moving a business to Nigeria. Political and Legal, Demographics, Essay

Moving a business to Nigeria. Political and Legal, Demographics, Culture And Human Development Index - Essay Example The following paper discusses the many challenges of shifting business to Nigeria and recommends solutions to the soaring labor costs and increasing competition. Information regarding Nigeria’s demographic, economic, cultural, political and developmental situation has been analyzed leading to the decision that the company should continue to produce and sell in the US and not do any kind of business in Nigeria. Demographics of Nigeria Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. In July 2012, Nigeria was estimated to record a population of 170,123,740 people (Akinpelu 7). This translates to a population density of 184. 52 compared to 33. 114 people per square kilometer in USA (Hamilton and Webster 51). This indicates that Nigeria's resources, especially land, are quite strained. Such a high population density indicates poor planning and possibility of a nation not being able to sustain itself. Although the high population may indicate availability of cheap labor, lack of suf ficient funds from the government towards education leads to lack of quality human resource. This is not good for business and thus, it would not be advisable to move a business from New York to Nigeria on the basis of high population densities. In fact, USA has a population higher than that of Nigeria making it a larger market amidst growing competition in the business of manufacturing motorized scooters. There are 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria divided almost equally between Christianity and Islam. Religious differences have seen a history of intense religious clashes between Muslims and Christians causing poor business environments. On 20th June 2012, Red Cross estimated that 80 had been killed in Kaduna due to a Muslim-Christian conflict. To curb language barriers, English is used as the official language. The literacy level in Nigeria is estimated to be 78% compared to 99% for USA (Hamilton and Webster 73). This gives USA an upper hand while using these figures to compare quality of workforce between the two countries. Culture Being an African country, Nigeria has deep roots in its culture. With over 50 languages being spoken by the 250 ethnic groups, Nigeria’s culture is quite diversified and thus complex to generalize. This may not be good for business since it is complex to familiarize a business with the many cultures in Nigeria. Nigeria’s is however rapidly changing into a modernized country as a result of the rise of its movie industry known as Nollywood in the global market (Akinpelu 24). This shows that Nigerians are hardworking and creative relative to many countries in Africa but certainly not the USA which has the biggest and most developed movie industry in the world. USA’s culture is modernized and more uniform compared to that of Nigeria (Hamilton and Webster 93). USA’s culture is more liberal as compared to Nigeria hence making it easier to accommodate change as a strategy in business. Culture is an important facto r while considering modes of marketing in order to reach and convince a larger audience. Human Development Index Human development index is important in determining how developed a country is. This index captures information about life expectancy, education, literacy, quality of life and standards of living. With the inclusion of all the above determinants of human development index, we can comfortably classify countries as underdeveloped, developing or developed. Nigeria’s HDI was estimated to be 0.459 and thus classified as having low human development. USA’s HDI is classified as very high ranking 3rd globally with a figure of 0.910 (Hamilton and Webster 49). This makes US a better region to nature one’s business compared to Nige