The Promise and The Reality
What does it really take to set up operations across African borders? For SMEs, the answer often lies not in strategy decks, but in the day-to-day realities of registration forms, customs clearances, and staffing decisions. Admin and Operations may not sound glamorous, but they are the foundations that determine whether cross-border expansion succeeds or stalls.
This was the focus of our conversation with Tonye Irims, Managing Director of WiSolar, a solar energy provider active in both South Africa and Nigeria. His experience highlights the practical operational hurdles that SMEs must overcome, navigating customs bureaucracy, securing trusted local partners, aligning with regulatory authorities, and protecting intellectual property in fast-moving markets. The lessons from his journey serve as a grounded guide for business owners looking to expand across the continent: success comes not from replication, but from careful localisation and operational resilience.
Licensing and Legal Setup: Each Market is a Blank Slate
When WiSolar expanded into Nigeria, the team quickly learned that compliance cannot be copy-pasted across markets. South Africa offers relatively centralised systems; Nigeria presents overlapping jurisdictions at both state and federal levels.
“We had to navigate different licensing requirements across federal and state levels, and it took months just to figure out who we even needed approvals from.”
Lessons for SMEs:
- Treat every new market as a legal blank slate.
- Invest early in local legal counsel to navigate paperwork and tax codes.
- Budget for time and flexibility, what looks straightforward in South Africa may take months elsewhere.
Customs and Import Challenges: Logistics as a Hidden Landmine
For hardware businesses such as WiSolar, customs clearance was among the most frustrating hurdles. Delays, tariffs, and “informal expectations” meant unplanned costs that threatened profitability.
“Customs in Nigeria became one of our biggest headaches. Even with the right documentation, you’re at the mercy of inefficiencies and high tariffs.”
Lessons for SMEs:
- Build cost and time buffers into logistics planning.
- Work with trusted local clearing agents.
- Explore alternatives like local assembly: importing components avoids high tariffs on fully built units and creates local employment.
Hiring and Staffing: Local Talent is a Competitive Advantage
South Africa faces an engineering skills shortage, while Nigeria offers a broader technical talent pool but with different hiring norms. Traditional recruitment channels often fall short, making local networks and referrals critical.
“You can’t just post a job online and expect quality applications. You need to lean into local partnerships and referrals.”
Lessons for SMEs:
- Don’t assume a copy-paste HR model will work across borders.
- Understand local compensation norms and employment laws.
- Consider hybrid teams (outsourced + in-house) during early expansion.
Compliance and Governance: Prepare for Conflicting Oversight
Nigeria’s fragmented regulatory ecosystem often meant that compliance with one agency conflicted with another.
“At one point we were compliant with one authority, but flagged by another for not having a completely different registration.”
Lessons for SMEs:
- View compliance as an ongoing process, not a once-off.
- Stay updated on shifting regulations, especially in high-growth sectors like energy and fintech.
- Build strong government liaison and legal partnerships to manage overlaps.
Intellectual Property: Innovation Over Paper Protection
Copycats are inevitable in fast-growth markets. WiSolar faced imitation risks but relied less on legal claims and more on embedding IP protection into its ecosystem.
“Unless your product isn’t successful, copycats will come. The key is making your ecosystem, like apps and verification systems, impossible to replicate.”
Lessons for SMEs:
- Register IP locally, but also use digital verification tools (e.g., app-linked serial numbers).
- Accept imitation as a market reality, and outpace it with innovation.
- Integrate IP defence into customer-facing systems, not just legal filings.
Adaptability Over Uniformity: Localisation as Operating Principle
Perhaps the biggest lesson: adaptation beats replication. From HR processes to customer engagement, South Africa’s playbook was only a starting point.
“We had to adapt nearly everything - our onboarding process, our contracting language, even our staff training. What worked in Johannesburg didn’t always land in Lagos.”
Lessons for SMEs:
- Treat localisation as a core operating system, not a side strategy.
- Build flexible systems (HR, finance, CRM) that can adjust by geography.
- Empower in-market teams to shape operational adaptations.
Looking Ahead: Trends Reshaping African Operations
Several emerging trends will intensify the need for operational agility:
- Digitalisation: Nigeria leads in digitising registration and compliance, outpacing South Africa in some areas.
- ESG and Funding: Development funders increasingly require environmental and social impact reporting as conditions for capital.
- Intra-African Trade & Mobility: Visa restrictions and poor transport links remain barriers. Regional blocs like ECOWAS and SADC provide some relief, but harmonisation is still uneven.
Risk, Resilience, and Reward
Tonye Irims’s message is clear: expanding into Africa is not smooth sailing, but for those willing to endure setbacks and adapt, the rewards are significant.
Key takeaways for SMEs:
- Prepare for losses; build funding buffers.
- Invest in local partnerships; both legal and operational.
- Adapt relentlessly; localisation is the key to resilience.
As African economies evolve, success will belong to businesses that combine foresight with flexibility. For SimplyBiz members, the challenge is also the opportunity: Africa doesn’t reward the fastest movers, it rewards the most adaptable operators.
This SimplyBiz article was developed in collaboration with our research partner,
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