The last entrepreneur on this episode, Mohamed Umar, the proprietor of Cute Suites in Zamfara state made one of the most exciting presentations in the den. He was asking for N50 million and was ready to part with 33.3% equity in order to bring to fruition his idea of creating a chain of small hotels with a ‘good taste’ in his home state Zamfara. His pitch was picturesque, thought provoking, and promising. “I must commend you for such a cute name you’d found for your hotel” Femi Tejuoso complimented. The entrepreneur continued, saying that he hadn’t approached any banks yet for a loan, but was optimistic that his business would fare better with the collaboration of intelligent business men and women (like the dragons). He boasted of his hotel having a near-monopoly in the hotel business in his operational region, since other popular hoteliers had closed shop. This revelation elicited some trepidation amongst the dragons who wondered why experienced hoteliers would abandon a ‘fertile’ business terrain if not for the obvious reason of low or no viable patronage. “How many planes fly to Zamfara?” Ibukun Awosika asked, and Mohamed Umar responded, “None- we don’t have an air strip”, and Ibukun Awosika, uncomfortable, probed deeper, “so where is our traffic coming from?” and Mohamed answered, “from the contractors who live in Zamfara” – Femi Tejuoso cut in, “so if our target customers currently live in Zamfara, then they don’t need to live in a hotel”. A lot of factors bore to militate against Mohamed Umar’s business idea: there was no clear plan for revenue generation, no accessible patrons for the hotel; the plan was too government dependent in the sense that Umar relied on the income of the local government contractors to keep his hotel afloat. Despite the fact that all the dragons opted out, Mohamed Umar still presented them each with a fez cap and T-shirt branded with the Cute Suits insignia. But he didn’t leave the den until he got the dragons to introduce themselves; after which he reinforced his belief that one day his hotel will play host to one, if not all of the dragons.

“Your T-shirts and hats are nice…the name Cute Suites is nice…but the next thing you need now, which is the most important thing is the actual hotel…”

And like Nwaji Jibunoh put it, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained…”

What’s your opinion?

The sixth entrepreneur, Modupe was a classic case of what an entrepreneur should never do in front of investors. She walked into the den, fidgeting with a piece of paper in her hands. She read her name and business details out of the paper, and stuttered through her description of the services her company, “Whispers of Love” rendered. Femi Tejuoso was the first dragon to state his dissatisfaction with her lack of poise and composure warning her that she could never inspire the confidence of the dragons in her business if she had to read everything out of a piece of paper. After her quaky presentation, we discovered that she intended to set up a business that aimed at empowering women through paid seminars. She was asking for N5 million and offered 15% equity to the dragons. Alex was almost speechless; he wondered how Modupe expected to raise N5 million with such an unconvincing attitude. Ibukun Awosika pointed out that the service she wanted to charge people for were already available for free in most of the churches in Lagos; therefore she had no commercially viable business. Femi Tejuoso was still appalled by her presentation that he couldn’t resist humorously opining that Modupe should in fact pay the show for the free air time she had received for her business. Modupe lost all the dragons.

Maybe her business name “Whispers of Love” compelled her to whisper her pitch throughout her presentation. What’s your take?

The fifth entrepreneur, “Mr. New House” had hopes of expanding his auto-refurbishing and auto-refinishing business with N10 million. He boasted of a turnover of N5 million for the past 3 years, with a profit of N2 million each year, to which John Momoh asked, “why do you think you’ve been making N5 million for the past 3 years- no growth?”, on a further probe by Ibukun Awosika, the entrepreneur confessed to having embarked on a few projects (with his capital?)- And when Ibukun Awosika asked what the nature of the projects were, the entrepreneur proudly announced that he had built himself a house. “If I give you this money, you might just decide to build a second house, or even marry a second wife- a good business man never touches his capital, for this reason I’m out” Ibukun Awosika had declared. The other dragons opted out too, and this entrepreneur went back to his newly built house with no investment.

Honesty…Honesty…Honesty! Is the den a confessional? I still can’t understand why Mr. New House confessed to astute business men and women that he had built a new house with his capital? What you think?

The fourth entrepreneur, David Okafor wanted 25.5 million naira and was ready to give up 20% equity for his mobile enquiry service business. He talked about designing a mobile directory which would offer a bouquet of services from corporate organizations, and making it available to the public through dedicated short SMS codes. His idea sounded bankable at first glance, but when John Momoh inquired into what the 25.5 million naira was to be used for, and David began to talk about hardware and software and other technological stuff, the dragons referred him to the mobile-technology guru Alex Amosu, who soon invested some money (10 million naira) on this idea. Alex Amosu’s investment attracted Ibukun Awosika’s curiosity as she inquired from the entrepreneur if he had any exclusive deal (rights of exclusivity) with the manufacturer of the technology needed to power this product - the entrepreneur’s response was not satisfactory at all; and that revelation forced Alex Amosu to withdraw his initial investment of ten million naira, as he opted out. It was also revealed that the entrepreneur had not even bothered to register a company for this business. The commercial viability of what initially seemed to have been a good idea was unconvincing to the dragons who advised David to go do more work on the idea. They all opted out.

Obv: Whe he was asked: “have you registered a company for this business?” he answered “I’m still working on it”

He was very close to getting an investment, but somehow I got the feeling that he was in a hurry to appear in the den, and forgot to secure the necessary document required to make his pitch fool-proof.

What do you think?

The third entrepreneur had this bogus and misconceived notion of the media industry. He faced the dragons with an idea to set up a one-stop entertainment and media training facility where he would train applicants to become actors, producers, and directors in one week through seminars. His ill-informed idea infuriated the dragons, and Chris Parkes told him immediately that he would never hire someone with only five days training to work for him, informing him that no one would really acquire production and directing skills in five days, but the entrepreneur was ready to argue his point until the media veteran John Momoh interjected, “I consider it an insult that you think that’s how the film industry works – you don’t train someone for five days and expect the person to become a director, producer, etc…that is arrant nonsense”. Coupled with the fact that this entrepreneur had no persuasive skills, nor compelling business plan, he lost all the dragons in just a few minutes.

What’s your opinion of this entrepreneur’s plan?

The second entrepreneur came into the den wearing a very nice business suit, wielding two coconuts and a bottle…his introductory speech was very memorable, “this is coconut, this is coconut” he said brandishing each of the coconuts, “but this is coconut oil” he concluded raising the bottle proudly in the den. He asked for N35 million, but had no visible business plan on how he intended to use the money. Alex then asked him, “Put yourself in my shoes, just imagine I was wearing a nice suit like you’re wearing, with two coconuts and a bottle, and no business plan, asking you to give me 35 million naira- will you give it to me?” and the entrepreneur said he wouldn’t give such a person the money. That sealed his fate and all the dragons opted out immediately.

Did you see the show? What’s your opinion of what happened to “Mr. Coconut”?

The first entrepreneur Akaku Ugochukwu waltzed into the den asking for N10, 000, 000 (ten million naira) to expand his food processing business in exchange of 22.5% equity in his company. His idea was to process locally sourced food ingredients into highly nutritive easy-to-cook food concentrates. Though Femi Tejuoso objected to being offered only 22.2% equity in a company that the entrepreneur expected the dragons to fully fund, he seemed interested in the business, especially when Ugochukwu mentioned that the equity was negotiable. But on closer scrutiny, Alex Amosu discovered that Ugochukwu’s clientele consisted of about 20 local caterers who baked Akara and Moi Moi, which prompted the dragons to ask for his ‘income statement’. After toying with a few unimpressive figures, Ugochukwu finally professed to having made eight hundred thousand naira in the past one year, of which he later posited his profit was six hundred thousand; his figures were hard to believe, and as Ibukun Awosika put it, “with such a profit margin, your business is a cash-cow, you don’t need us, all you need to do is just plough back your profit into the business”. But Chris Parkes wanted to know how Ugochukwu intended to market this product, to which this entrepreneur had no ready answer. His business proposal soon began to crumble under heavy intellectual fire. Alex opted out on the basis that he was not sure if he could recoup his investment from this business. Ibukun Awosika sensing the inconsistency in the entrepreneur’s figures opted out on the basis that food business was not her forte. Femi Tejuoso opted out, advising the entrepreneur to go back to the drawing board. John Momoh was simply unimpressed, he just opted out.

Why do you think Ugochukwu went home without an investment?

The premiere episode of Dragons’ Den Nigeria commenced on a very promising premise. The den had come alive as a Mecca where good business ideas meet great opportunities. The presenter, Nwaji Jibunoh captured the feeling that would permeate this episode in his introduction, “when the entrepreneurs come into the den, they can ask for as much money as they like but in order to convince the dragons to part with their hard-earned cash, they must be willing to answer some tough questions (and defend their business proposals)…also, the pitchers must get the exact amount they are asking for or they leave the den with nothing…”

We saw seven entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to the dragons, but somehow they weren’t strong enough to slay the dragons. We’ll analyze the pitches one by one. Stay tuned!

Following in the footsteps of the famous BBC Economics Editor and Dragons’ Den UK presenter Evan Davies; Nwaji Jibunoh represents the epitome of the synergy between a powerful African business persona and an ensemble of internationally-acquired education and career experience.

Nwaji Jibunoh majored in Business Administration in Howard University, Washington D.C, U.S.A where he was actively involved in student activism. His amiable personality and his involvement in debate tournaments, speech therapies, and poetry ciphers developed and exposed his speaking abilities and presentation skills within the upper echelon of the academic society, which in turn earned him the coveted crowns of “Mr. School of Business” and “Mr. Howard University”.  

Nwaji Jibunoh delved into Corporate America as a Business Development Analyst, where he was responsible for matching venture capitalists with budding entrepreneurs. He was also a very crucial success element at Small Business Adminstration of America (SBA) where he worked on a programme ACE-NET where he was responsible for teaching start-up companies how to become savvy in the presentation and pitching of their business ideas. He returned to his Alma Mater, Howard University years later where he became the assistant to the vice-president, Student Affairs; after which he returned to Nigeria to work with the Educational Advising Center of the Public Affairs Section of the United States Consulate as an Educational Advisor for the period of 1 year.

Nwaji Jibunoh currently works in Learning and Organizational Development Practice of Phillips Consulting where his role is that of a Business Development Specialist designing and executing training programs on soft skill development areas in the professional environment.

Nwaji Jibunoh is propelled by a burning passion to effectively aid the equipping of all sorts of people with the relevant skills needed to improve themselves professionally and personally.

“when we come into this business, I hope you understand it’s no longer going to be a family business…” - Femi Tejuosho advising an entrepreneur

“What confidence do I have that you can focus 100% of your time and energy into this business…” - Chris Parkes responding to an entrepreneur with a resume clustered with several other active business obligations.

“Because of the obvious divided loyalty that is so visible, I’m not comfortable investing in your business…” John Momoh stating his apphrehensions over investing in an entrepreneur who has his hands in a lot of businesses at the same time

“Please next time you come into the den, or go to an investor to ask for N2million (two million naira), don’t wear slippers - dress appropriately because your presentation matters; you need to inspire confidence in the investor that you can effectively manage two million naira…” Femi Tejuosho & Ibukun Awosika advising an inappropriately dressed entrepreneur.

“We have this mentality that N50million (fifty million naira) is too much money - I’m here to challenge the Nigerian youth - see yourself as a millionaire and you will become a millionaire because money follows ideas…” an entrepreneur justifying his demand for N50million naira with no visible business plan.

“Just imagine I’m in your position, with a nice suit like you’re wearing, with two coconuts and a bottle, with no business plan -and I come to you for N35 million (thrity five million naira), will you give it to me?” - Alex Amosu quering a nicely-dressed entrepreneur who had no functional business plan for his proposed business.

-The Den Sweeper