What are some products and services in the US that are not in Nigeria?

I‘m not sure if building a Nigerian solution for an American problem is really the way to go.

If I were you I would try to think of a Nigerian problem that can only be solved by a Nigerian solution.

You should try to solve local problems first. A popular solution in foreign countries may not have good crossover appeal in Nigeria.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Nigeria has several problems looking for solutions. Examples include helping people travel around more securely, finding affordable healthcare, enabling MSMEs to find more customers.

Walmart. Retail chains are still limited to upper class. Unlimited sms doesn't exist. Credit cards doesn't exist for obvious reasons. Paypal is spend only. Can't receive. Trains IMO don't exist. Coffee shops, shaved ice, radio shark, lego, unlimited internet, fiber to home, bicycle delivery, yellow pages (but there's a craiglist equivalent). Most homes still cook. A national Health insurance basically doesn't exist but Ghana has. Regular medical check up isn't a thing. Self medication is widely practiced. Tax filing is still requires going to the tax office. Most markets are still messy, dirty, haggling based. Jobs are monthly paid except for labourers who are paid daily. No ikea.

Electronic repairs are done by random technicians rather than by the manufacturers or their certified partners.

Arguably clothes are mainly used clothes. Weed is still illegal - no medical weed. Airbnb has negligible foothold. Renting of properties is mostly a frustrating offline experience.

Try to travel to the US or another developed country. Observe what's popular that you don't have, and then figure out how to bring it back.

Network. Then network some more.

Talk to people, find out what their problems are, what their opportunities are and what they need to follow those opportunities.

The upside of this is you will quickly validate an idea AND when you go to market, you will have a large network of potential partners and customers.

Asking people associated with Silicon Valley about Nigerian problems is probably about as effective as asking automotive racers about daily bike commuter problems.

My suggestion would be to talk to some Nigerians. Understand the people and the culture first.

Stable electricity & infrastructure!

No, I would explore agriculture if you can. I had a roommate from Benue State while my ag cousin stayed with us once. They had a fascinating discussion that I didn’t understand in the least, but I did take away the impression that most farming was done there by households, and almost totally “virgin soil” for lots of modern agricultural techniques ($$$).

Huge decentralized prosumer market, could be fun?

Also, ag people in the us love nothing more than talking about ag. Cold call anyone and you’re in.

I remember reading about some guys whose business model was copying US startups (or at least their business model/product) in other countries:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/inside-the-clone-factory

(paywalled) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-02-29/how-three...

Photo gear rental stores with insurance baked in.

Money transfer and check deposits.

I always get some mail from Nigeria asking for help with that.

In US this is solved and you can even deposit at the groceries shop.

I recommend volunteering at a local organization. An NGO, a food bank, a fire brigade, a police auxiliary reserve, etc.

Trying to fix the problems of people you don't know with technological solutions rarely works. Innovation doesn't come from brainstorming for ideas. It comes from spending hours being frustrated with some problem that affects your daily life and wondering how you could make that problem easier.

In addition to looking at US, I'll suggest looking at other countries which have the same economic/labor dynamics as Nigeria.

In other words, labor in US is very expensive but many good are relatively cheap, so its economy acts in a certain way. For example, many times replacing an appliance is a better option that repairing an appliance. However, in countries where labor is cheap but goods are expensive it is definitely much better to repair things than replace them. That is just one example.

So, I'll suggest that look at developing countries with larger population and then find what services exist there that are not yet there in Nigeria. I have a feeling that you will have a much better success.

Having said that, there may be value in looking at US by creating products/services that target the rich in Nigeria, if that is your intent.

The problem space in Africa is quite interesting. For more US/EU style products maybe countries like South Africa are a better bet since they have good infrastructure down there.

Nigeria's infrastructure is not that bad but bad with respect to eurocentric standards. Part of the issue is a lot of capital is spent keeping old infra together. If you have ideas in big, economically innovative infra projects - that's the place to go.

Another bit is Africa keeps skipping stages of development - kinda like products and services don't always come from within, driven by pressing needs, rather just sort of fall from the sky or an American landing in the airport. So while a 22 year old Nigerian kid can say he's never seen a bank cheque because he banks digitally, he may also have no proper sewage and barely any electricity. The juxtaposition may not compute to a silicon valley would-be guru.

So while transplanting tech from industrial nations may work sometimes, it's really the nuanced ideas that solve a real problem that get a lot off support and those are not always super technical projects. For instance, the problem of data costs cuts off a lot of would-be products so you will find tech companies here always have those limitations top of mind when building consumer facing stuff. Mapping just dies in most areas so there goes the geolocation services. Addressing and city planning for route optimization? Good luck.

Just a side note, there are startups in a lot of these problem spaces already - it's just that private funding and venture capital are for practical purposes very tiny to non-existent for consumer facing startups...for very very very obvious reasons. I don't think it's an entirely bad thing but just an FYI.

I don’t know specifically about Nigeria… so I’m going to talk about Ghana. We’re next door, and may have the same issues.

In Ghana, there is no large scale distribution system for… anything.

All the supermarkets source their own products directly, and handle warehousing and transportation on their own. This basically has lead to South African firms owning the entire market because they have preexisting supply chains.

Nigeria may have this same issue but it’s naturally paved over by the country being about 20x richer, thus more merchants can simply go it on their own.

I am based in Lagos and would love to share a few ideas I have with you.