There is no Business Analyst in Nigeria By Awe Oludayo, PMP, CBAP Prologue I almost choked on my food, I looked at Him in disbelieve. The shock was not as a result of what he said, but for the fact that the statement came from a “business analyst”. Instantly I knew we were parting ways, the collaboration is not going to happen; so I decided to choose my response carefully. Background It all started as an email from the head office of International Institute of Business Analysis, IIBA, in Canada. I was asked to meet with someone in Nigeria who had shown strong interest in setting up IIBA Lagos Chapter (let us call him Mr. Lag), his email address and phone number were sent to me. The purpose of the meeting was to work out an arrangement for IIBA Nigeria chapter, prior to that I had been working on setting up an Abuja Chapter of IIBA. It seemed that someone at IIBA’s head office believed that a country chapter (the model adopted earlier by the South Africa IIBA chapter) is better compared to the state/city chapter model prominent in the U.S. and Canada (which was what the model I was previously working on). I was very excited after reading the e-mail; I promptly called Mr. Lag to arrange a meeting. He was very receptive on phone and I could hardly believe my ears when he told me we could meet the following day (I thought it will take a while to arrange a meeting but Mr. Lag was visiting Abuja when I called). We decided to meet at a restaurant, 4pm the following day. The Meeting I took time to prepare for the meeting; I did some background check on Mr. Lag, researched IIBA chapter models, prepared an action plan document and set out for the meeting venue (after placing a call to confirm that the meeting will go ahead as planned) an hour before the agreed time. Mr. Lag did not show up until 5.30pm (90 minutes after the appointment), he looked more like an entertainment guru than a business analyst. He was on baggy pants, Timberland boots, a big silver chain hung down his neck with a dark goggle to match. Despite his choice of clothing, I decided not to thin-slice him (to arrive at a conclusion within the first 2 minutes of meeting someone based on their appearance and carriage). After the normal introduction and nicety, I asked Mr. Lag to tell me His Vision for IIBA in Nigeria. He cleared his throat, and leaned a bit towards me. Let me use his exact words, “Dayo we can make IIBA an outstanding institution in Nigeria. We just need to get our bearings right, for example if we get the right kind of people into the board it will make a lot of difference. If we can get the Senators and well connected government officials into the board of directors, within a year we will achieve our aims and objectives”. Well, there is nothing wrong with the strategy per say, but I told him we also need to reach out to other professionals especially business analysts in the country. I wasn’t prepared for his next statement, “Dayo there is no business analyst in Nigeria”. After pausing a while (between 30-60 seconds), I told him there is no need for our meeting if we don’t have business analysts in Nigeria. The meeting ended within 5 minutes and I felt like I had wasted almost the whole day on nothing. Epilogue Looking back now (it happened almost 4 years ago), I couldn’t but smile anytime I remember that encounter. Yet I realized that Mr. Lag could be right in a sense. I believe the best advertisement for business analysis in our country is not in the number of people with the job title “business analyst” but rather in the value we are adding to our organizations, society and our nation at large. Are there business analysts in Nigeria? Dayo is the President of IIBA Nigeria Chapter and also sits on the IIBA Europe, Middle East and Africa, EMEA, Regional Board.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 11:31:24 +0000
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