Sometime in February, I was in a tightly packed shop in the middle of  Onitsha Market, ignored by a business owner as I tried to learn about her business and the market. Under any other condition, I might’ve felt slighted, but not here. All around me, a swarm of people were trying to get her attention - her customers, employees, and other business people. My team and I were just one more group who wanted something from her, and the account manager who introduced us was the only reason we got her attention at all. Here, in West Africa’s largest market at Anambra State, Nigeria, I was out of place.

She finally turned her attention back to me, a signal that we could continue our conversation, and I asked, “So, when was the first time you came to the market?”. She squinted as she thought about it momentarily, slightly amused as she pored through her memories. “2002”, she says. I had just finished learning to talk in 2002. Many businesses we speak to in the market have a similar deep history. Mostly not old enough to be part of the first settlers in this rebuilt version of the market, but old enough to remember what it was like, or have heard about it from their parents.

When we entered the market, we were curious about quite a few things, but we were also sure there was a lot we didn’t know. What did we know? Many businesses in the market have adopted digital payments in recent times—Moniepoint processes $2 million daily for them. But how did it work before this, and how did that change?

For as long as anyone can remember, the market has been abuzz with people from across West Africa, engaged in all kinds of trade. Chukwuka, another business owner we spoke to, who now runs his late father’s business, recalls how much his father would stack up in cash he had earned early in the day - up to ₦10 million before noon. My ears perk up when I hear this. That’s a lot of money, and even then, a lot of cash. But something else he says is even more interesting - he used to travel with up to ₦2 million in cash strapped around his waist for fear of being robbed as he travelled to purchase goods. This was not an isolated experience. It was the norm.

In our other interviews, we began to pull on this thread. When people say cash is king, especially when referring to emerging markets, they recognise its crucial role in driving trade and business. What they probably don’t imagine is wads of cash being strapped around waists for road trips, or snuck around the market in boxes. But this is precisely what we learn about the market. For years, cash ruled, and its reign put businesses and their owners at risk. This is why digital payments are crucial in markets like this, and we’re excited about what we get to do at Moniepoint. 

But that’s just half of the story. Also present in this market is an apprenticeship system that’s been referred to as the “world’s largest business incubator”. Many of the business owners we spoke to first arrived at the market with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a dream. They were taken up by family members or other successful businessmen who housed and trained them for years, and then settled them with money to start their own business.

Some of them, like the chairman of the market traders’ union (OMMATU), have trained and settled around 15 young men, who have done the same for others. This system has kept the market going for generations, churning out incredibly successful businesses of varying scale, so much so that this market accounts for a significant portion of cargo berthing in Nigeria through the Lagos ports. 

But this is only the surface.

We distilled everything we learnt about the apprenticeship system and how payments work in one of Africa’s most significant markets into a case study we’ve made available for you. So grab your glasses and a jotter, and visit casestudies.moniepoint.com to check it out.