In the southwest, Ekiti State is one of the best places for buying and selling and other distribution businesses like “provisions” phone accessories, clothing (already-made and cut and sew) among others.
While you may be wondering about other business opportunities in Ekiti State, let’s take a quick peep into a state nicknamed “Land of honour and integrity” formerly known as “fountain of knowledge”.
Ekiti is among the six states created by the military regime of Sani Abacha (late) on October 1, 1996, to mark the independence anniversary of Nigeria. Ado-Ekiti is the state capital.
It was carved out of Ondo State. Ekiti state is notable for the cultivation of yam, cocoa, and cashew among others. It is also blessed with some natural resources. One of its most popular tourist attraction centres is Ikogosi warm spring waterfall.
There are lots of business ideas one can implement in Ekiti State and for an investor, there are several existing resources that can be fully explored to make money in Ekiti and be an employer of labour.
Money-Making Opportunities in Ekiti
Below is a list of business opportunities you can tap into to create another stream of income even as a civil servant or as a foreigner.
Warehousing Facility
One of the lucrative businesses in Ado-Ekiti and other major towns is a distribution business as we earlier pointed out. A lot of suppliers and wholesalers travel to Ibadan and Lagos to buy goods at a cheaper rate and sell to retailers in Ado-Ekiti and its environs.
At the time of this publication, the warehouse in Ado-Ekiti (which is the hub of commerce in the state) is insufficient.
If you want to make money from this venture, get a good location, build a modern-day warehouse facility and let it to major suppliers of goods in the state. Basiri-Fajuyi area of Ado would be a good location if you want to get enough piece of land for the warehouse facility.
Provision Distribution
Goods like milk, bournvita, milo, biscuits, cornflakes are imported from Lagos and Ibadan into the state. The few suppliers in the Ado are usually overwhelmed by hundreds of buyers every week. And they are expensive before getting to the final consumers.
The fact that the available sellers sell at higher prices creates another business opportunity for those who are ready to supply the same goods at a cheaper yet profitable rate.
If your goods are NGN10 cheaper than your competitors’, you’ll be amazed by the level of repeated patronage you will be getting from buyers.
Mechanized Farming
Apart from being a civil servant state, Ekiti State is home to thousands of farmers who use traditional farm implements. If you have millions of naira to invest in agriculture, Ekiti should be your next bus stop because the state is essentially an agrarian society blessed with soil properties conducive for growing a wide variety of crops.
To get value from this investment, it’s imperative to first carry out a market survey, identify areas where farmers have the financial capacity to bear the cost of renting farm machinery.
You can also undertake large-scale farming and on the side lease the machinery to other farmers who are interested in migrating from subsistence farming to mechanised farming (which is highly productive and could generate high revenue for farmers).
Event Centre
Building a modern event centre is capital intensive but the investment is worth it because Ado, Ikere, and other towns in the state bubble over weekends and during festive periods. But if your focus is a long-term investment in Ekiti, an event centre is one of the investment opportunities you should consider.
To get real value from your investment, carefully choose your location. The event centre should be easily accessible, it should be sited in a location that it will advertise itself. And provide good security.
Plantain Plantation
If you want to fully explore the agriculture potential of the villages in Ekiti, you might want to go into a large-scale plantain farming business because the soil properties is great and return high yield.
To get ensure ROI, be a supplier to plantain flour factory, through this, you wouldn’t need to scout for buyers during the harvesting period.
Sales of Mobile Phones Accessories
Another business opportunity in Ekiti State is to be a major supplier of phone and computer accessories to phone and computer engineers (repairers) in the state.
Instead of depending largely on the distribution of such items from Ibadan and Lagos, you can bring shopping closer to the people.
Car Importation Business
Do you know that a lot of Ekiti residents travel to Akure and Osogbo to purchase new cars? Although there are car dealers in Ado-Ekiti, a lot of people complain that things are more expensive in the state capital than in other places.
One of the ways you can quickly make headway in the car importation business in Ekiti is to make your price competitive. The beauty of the car importation business is that once you’re able to gain the unquenchable trust of your customer, they are most likely to pay 50 percent of the cost of a car in advance
Renewable Energy Investment
Power supply is generally horrible in Ekiti State compared to its neighbouring states despite its abundant blessing in solar and wind on some of its rocky locations.
Even government apartments are powered by generator due to the epileptic power supply in Ado-Ekiti, this is a huge problem not just for the government but for business owners whose business activities depend largely on electricity.
As an investor, you can jump on renewable energy investment in Ekiti. You won’t be solving people’s electricity challenges in the state, you’ll also generate millions of naira in revenue.
The take-off cost of renewable energy is capital intensive, but it’s cheaper than generators in the long run. Renewable energy is from the source, it doesn’t need fuel, it doesn’t require a huge running cost of maintaining a power generating set.
Tourism and Hospitality
If you can provide top-notch services in your hotel to people, a lot of rich people and fun-lovers who love a hidden place can choose your hotel as their second home. This is a long-term investment and it’s capital intensive.
Travel Guide Business
Erinta waterfalls, Egbe dam, Ero water dam, Olosunta hill, Ikogosi warm water spring, and Orole Hills in Ikere are some of the tourist locations in Ekiti.
If you don’t have the capital to build an exotic hotel, a travel guide is another service you can provide to prospective tourists to the state. You can setup Google My Business profile and get a free website for your travel guide business on the GMB page to offer guides and security tips for people who are willing to visit the state.
Home Decoration Business
Home deco is one of the cost-effective businesses you can start and generate impressive income. The most important aspect of the business is how to generate leads
Event Planning And Implementation
If you know how to plan carefully, manage stress, and deliver to the specifications, event planning might be good for you and Ekiti state, most especially Ado, the state capital is the best place to start this business.
Mining
For individuals and firms that want to invest in the mining of natural resources in Nigeria, Ekiti is home to resources like granite, tatium, kaolin, syenite, and feldspar. These natural resources are for industrial use. For instance, syenite is used for glass making and other industrial use.
Because of the rocky nature of Ekiti, granite which is used as paving stone, floor tiles, is abundant in Ekiti
Security Services
In recent times, the main road that links Akure, Ondo State, to Ekiti has turned into a kidnap zone, while this is an indication of failure of the security apparatus and the government.
Ekiti isn’t alone in security challenges, but as an expert in security, you set up a security guard company in Ekiti and equip your company and your officials with the modern technology gadgets that government only provide for a few select political heavyweights. Be reminded that you must get a permit to start a security guard company in Nigeria
Business Support Services
There are several ways to provide business support services one of them is by facilitating the free flow of trade between the manufacturer and the consumers; provision of business solutions to SMEs and startups among others.
Of all these business ideas, the next question will be:
Is Ekiti State good for business?
After identifying investment opportunities in a state, it’s important to find out if the state is conducive for business or not.
In terms of ease of doing business, Ekiti was ranked 18 by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC)using key indicators such as infrastructure and security, transparency and access to information, regulatory environment, and skills workforce readiness.
To prospective investors, towns and villages that share boundary with Kogi state are riskier than other parts of the state as kidnap take place in the places more. Also, Akure to Ado route is risky to travel on at anything from 6PM.
Recap:
In case you are considering investing in Ekiti State, some of the business opportunities you can explore in the state are:
- Mining
- Event Centre
- Security Services
- Plantain Plantation
- Mechanized Farming
- Warehousing Facility
- Provision Distribution
- Travel Guide Business
- Tourism and Hospitality
- Car Importation Business
- Business Support Services
- Home Decoration Business
- Renewable Energy Investment
- Sales of Mobile Phones Accessories
- Event Planning And Implementation