With a population of over 200 million and servicing as a hub for the distribution of goods and services to another 200 million people in West and Central Africa, Nigeria has an enviable market which contesting brands will do well in marketing through meetings, incentives, and conferences, exhibitions. But then, Nigeria seems to be on the lower end of the statistics of countries which attracts mice. what then are the challenges and what are the opportunities?

1. Nigeria as a MICE source
market
Prof. Adesoji Adesugba
Vice President
Abuja Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, Nigeria

2. “MICE”: What is it?
● “At first I was made popular by the plague, then someone
thought I should be used as a computer device, and just
when I was about to rest, I am an acronym for events and
conferences”
● Is it Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events or
Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Events?
● Is it a type of tourism? (Since it involves the advanced
planning of bringing together large groups of people to a
place for a particular purpose, usually through an act of
bidding and location marketing).

3. MICE challenges in Nigeria
Challenges for MICE in Nigeria - Perception is Reality
● International Security warnings (Don’t go there)
● Inadequate hotel rooms (How many hotel rooms?)
● Inadequate Conference Infrastructure (Not many
Convention Centers)
● Inadequate Transport Infrastructure (Which
Airports?)
● Low level of publicity and marketing. (Who, Where,
What?)
● Lack of MICE companies and MICE (Is this an
opportunity for me?)

4. MICE key drivers in Nigeria: large scale economy
● Largest economy in Africa: GDP was $405
billion in 2016 (World Bank)
● Amongst top 10 most populated countries
in the world: 198 million inhabitants in early
2018
● Wide range of industries represented in the
country; this translates into:
○ a huge number of meetings and events taking
place for all these sectors
○ Growing travel hospitality industry
Top GDP performers, Africa 2015
Nigeria 481
Egypt 333
South Africa 318
Source: World Bank

5. MICE key drivers in Nigeria: large scale economy
Source: Nigeria Enabling Business Environment Secretariat

6. MICE key drivers in Nigeria: large scale economy
Source: Nigeria Enabling Business Environment Secretariat

7. MICE key drivers in Nigeria: large scale economy
Source: Nigeria Enabling Business Environment Secretariat

8. MICE key drivers in Nigeria: large scale economy
Source: Nigeria Enabling Business Environment Secretariat

9. MICE key drivers in Nigeria: new segments
● Events around traditional industries usually
associated with Nigeria such as petroleum
and other natural resources but new
segments emerge and/or become better
structured, impacting positively on MICE
○ Entertainment (cinema, broadcasting, music)
○ Advertising
○ Fashion
○ Sports
● Nigeria is an African microcosm attracting
investors from all around the globe who can
afford to sustain the MICE sector

10. MICE key drivers in Nigeria: new segments
According to Fortune magazine:
● In 2009, Nollywood had surpassed
Hollywood as the world’s second
largest movie industry by volume,
right behind India’s Bollywood…
● In 2014, the Nigerian government
released data for the first time
showing Nollywood is a $3.3 billion
sector, with 1844 movies produced
in 2013 alone.

11. MICE key drivers in Nigeria: booming ICT market
● Connectivity and broadband access are key
to the hospitality and the MICE
● The Nigerian broadband market is
booming and broadband connections are
essentially via mobile networks (3G, 4G)
● The ICT segment is not only an enabler of MICE activities but also a source
of MICE as there are a large number of ICT events in Nigeria.
● The ICT related MICE activities grow at the same pace as the market and
also as a result of segmentation within the ICT market. We moved from
talking about basic phone calls to broadband connectivity, cloud, IoT

12. Abuja Chamber of Commerce and MICE
● Founded in 1986, the Abuja Chamber of commerce has formed alliances
with business leaders, trade associations, sister chambers, government
agencies, & foreign embassies to accomplish its goals of enhancing the
sustainable growth and development of businesses in the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT) of Abuja
● The strategic location of Abuja as well as on-going large-scale
development activities makes it a fertile ground for investment.
● The development of Abuja constitutes an economic resource, demand
for services and infrastructural facilities

13. Abuja Chamber of Commerce and MICE
BEST Centre
Secretariat
ADR Centre
Abuja Trade &
Convention Centre
Policy advocacy
centre

14. Abuja Chamber of Commerce and MICE
Business Entrepreneurship, Skills, and Technology (BEST)
Centre
● The ACCI BEST was founded for capacity development of
the business community through various activities.
● These will help businesses and proprietors improve on
the operation of their businesses.
● In line with this, the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (ACCI) established the Business
Entrepreneurship, Skills, and Technology (BEST) Centre
to run training programs and activities for capacity
development.

15. Abuja Chamber of Commerce and MICE
● BEST Centre organises meetings, conferences, events and trainings
● Partnership with 3rd parties

16. Abuja Chamber of Commerce and MICE
Abuja Trade and Convention
● Centre to run training programs and activities for capacity development.

17. Significance of South African involvement
● South African stakeholders have over the past
10-15 years been key investors in Nigeria
● A win-win situation where South Africans get
access to volumes and Nigerians to expertise.
● According to the South African High Commission
to Nigeria, the volume of trade between Nigeria
and South Africa rose to NGN1.3 trillion (ZAR62
billion) in 2015.
● All these companies are directly or indirectly
fuelling MICE activities through organising or
sponsoring them

18. Significance of South African involvement
Success stories: ICT
● MTN dominates the nigerian ICT market, generating ZAR52 billion and
ZAR32 billion in revenues and EBITDA respectively.

19. Significance of South African involvement
Success stories: Retail
● Shoprite
Source: Shoprite investors relations, 26 weeks to December 2017

20. Significance of South African involvement
Success stories: broadcast
● Multichoice has a strong market share in the pay-TV segment on the back
of premium content such as the English Premier league

21. Significance of South African involvement
Success stories: broadcast
● Multichoice sister company M-Net gambled
on local content and records large
audience on its “Africa Magic” branded
channels. Key content includes Big Brother
Naija, which attracted over 170 million SMS
votes estimated at NGN5.1 billion (ZAR185
million)
● M-Net and Mulltichoice are also involved in
MICE through the Africa Magic Viewers
Choice Awards

22. Thank you
a.adesugba@accinigeria.com