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What is the local business culture like?

Personal relationships are as essential part of business here and all important business is conducted face-to-face. No worthwhile transactions can be completed quickly or impersonally, and usually follow-up visits rather than emails are required. When meeting people, greetings and handshakes should not be rushed and it is considered polite and normal to enquire after the well-being of your opposite number, and their family where you have met. In some cases telephone contact may be more effective than emails. Business appointments preferably are made through personal calls, or hand-delivered messages.

In general, landlines are not used in Nigeria and you will need the mobile phone number of the person you are meeting, or his/her assistant. It is common for Nigerian and expatriate business people here to have 2 or 3 mobile phones, each on different networks. Most Nigerians use a personal email address, such as Yahoo or Gmail. This practice can sometimes make it difficult to assess business proposals.

Business visitors should be appropriately dressed at meetings. Casual dress may convey a casual attitude and is not appreciated. Status is valued. The honorific titles of traditional leaders, professions and religious pilgrims (for instance Engineer, Dr., Chairman, Professor Alhaji) should be used.

Company representatives should be flexible in business dealings and able to make decisions on contractual matters without lengthy referral to home offices. You should prepare for lengthy processes on the Nigerian side before the deal is officially concluded. At each business meeting, a lot of progress can be made, but without personal interaction, the process can stand still. You will have to be pro-active in your business dealings and follow up on deadlines. It is always useful to follow-up a meeting with a simple phone-call.

Given traffic, etc. it is not unusual for meetings to start later than scheduled. It is always best to confirm and reconfirm a meeting and place a call with an assistant when you are en-route to the meeting. As Nigerian business people travel frequently both inside and outside the country, as there are frequently delays with domestic flights and as the traffic in Lagos is extremely heavy, business appointments are sometimes cancelled or postponed at very short notice. This is normal, but again it can be minimised by actively following-up on the meeting. Ensuring that you have a confirmed itinerary and an agreed agenda for meetings before travelling to Nigeria, should ensure your time here is effectively managed.

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