I have been and returned from my first trip to Nigeria on behalf of our new project to start in the country. I departed September 16th, 2012 and while my plans had me coming back on the 22nd I quickly found that was not to happen. While in the country I quickly discovered that I would not get all that i needed completed within my original time frames. I therefore extended my stay four more days in order to get various items buttoned up before my departure.
While working in Nigeria I learned quickly to the difficulty of just moving around the City of Lagos. This by far is the most challenging of all issues as the roads are congested and the fact the primary bridge to Victoria Island is closed only exasperated the traffic problems already in place. With that in mind Daniel our local employee on the ground spent his time navigating the congested streets of Lagos in order for us to perform our duties establishing the relationships that will be needed as we bring equipment and resources into the country through the port of Tin Can Island to help with the overall mission of the operation. I was pleased with my overall experience dealing with various business entities. Lagos is a rich city in both money and history this is the nerve center for West Africa and it shows it. There is difficulty as things tend to move slower than the pace of what we are use to here in the States and there is an underlying sense of distrust dealing with money if you are Nigerian or not. I assume the level of corruption over the years has most on edge and everybody wants to to protect there respective interest.
I found the people of Nigeria for the most part very welcoming and receptive and I enjoyed my time with them over the week and half in the country. I am excited by our project as well as the many future relations I am certain I will build over the future years to come.
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