Read the original text in Danish – click here
Translation from Danish chronicle:
While we are still waiting for the government’s Africa plan, I must greet you from Africa and say that Americans and Chinese people have seen the business opportunities in Nigeria, while the majority of Danish companies are conspicuous by their absence. At the end of the last millennium, I was employed as CEO of KK Wind Solutions, which was in the process of integrationalization. After a thorough analysis, it was clear to me that the arrow pointed towards the northwest Poland – specifically Szczecin. KK Wind Solutions became the first Danish industrial establishment in Szczecin and has since grown from a turnover of less than 100 million DKK to over 5 billion DKK. Today, Szczecin has become a natural choice for industrial companies all over the world , and after Vestas’ large investments in two major factories, set to be a future hub for Offshore wind industry and global green transition.
Danish industrial companies dominate the region with over 10,000 jobs, which greatly contributed to King Frederik X choosing to visit Szczecin on his first official trip to abroad.
Together with my partner, we founded Eryk Group in 2004, and we have been here ever since.
There is a clear analogy between the development Poland has gone through in the last 25 years and the development Nigeria is facing. For the past 10 years, my partner and I looked beyond Europe’s borders to find the right bridgehead for our further development. It has been a long process, and we have scrapped many plans, once we got the facts about the intended location. In 2017, we began to look at Africa as our future continent. We looked at North Africa and Sub-Sabaran Africa in the east and west. In 2018, we made our first overall feasibility study together with two Danish Embassy Offices in West Africa. In 2019, we started employing West Africans in our organization and now we have over 50 West Africans Colleagues. In 2023, together with the University of Southern Danmark, we made a feasibility study regarding establishment in Nigeria, where the majority of our employees come from. In fact, more than half comes from one Nigerian city – namely Lagos, where we have established our own limited company in the beginning of 2024.
It is difficult both to find and retain young european Engenieers and technicians. Whenever we are looking for new european technicians, we often get only a single application. And in 2023, we had a dropout of over 25 percent within the first year. Not because the young people are dissatisfied – they just find out that they want something else.
On the other hand, we employ an average one non – Nigerian technical employee per week, and through our collaboration with universities and technical schools in Nigeria, we receive over 100 competent applications every month. In 2023, the dropout rate of young Nigerian employees was 0. Nigerians score significantly higher on technical competence tests than their European colleagues. Our group language is English – Nigerians have english as their mother tongue. The young Europeans we employ do not have the same level of english at all. In general, I find our Nigerian employees to be well educated, ambitious and loyal. They adapt easily to our Danish company culture. In many respects, they are far easier to much onboard than Europeeans – They are simply far more ready to move forward than the rest of us.
It has been a long and expensive journey for the Eryk Group. We have ended up in a lot of dead ends because we knew very little when we started. But as a family-owned business, we have held firm and have made money all the time while ”developing Africa.” We have acquired some unigue African competences,which we now see as a strength for future sustainable growth. 25 years ago, Poland needed Danish frontrunner Companies that were ready to put something on the line – in the expectation that in the long run they could earn the money back home and gain competitive advantages. Now the time has come for Nigeria. At Eryk, we are happy to invite you in and share our knowledge. Join us on an exciting journey – the train is running now – hop on! For me, Lagos has become much closer. I will devote the next 20 years of my working life to ”my African dream”. It is great to be self-financed entrepreneur with the opportunity to go on another ”business trip” . I enjoy being with my young African team. The goal is for us to grow from 50 African employees we have now, to over 1000, and for us to be the first mover again, as we were 25 years ago in Szczecin. Maybe in 20 years I can enjoy my retirement in a rocking chair in Lagos, where I can sit in the sun and look out over the Atlantic Ocean. Even grown men are allowed to dream.
There is a clear analogy between the development Poland has gone through in the last 25 years and the development Nigeria is facing. For the past 10 years, my partner and I looked beyond Europe’s boarders to find the right bridge for our further develovement.
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