By Yinka Kolawole

The Chief Executive Officer and founder of X3M Ideas, Steve Babaeko, has stated that running a successful business in Nigeria comes with many challenges.

Babaeko stated this in an interview with Vanguard in celebration of the firm’s 10th year anniversary coming up in August this year.

X3M Ideas is a pan-African creative advertising agency that has been at the forefront of developing the creative industry in Nigeria, with operations in cities across Africa.

His words: “It is a range of emotions. I am stunned, joyous and proud of how far the business has come. Running a successful business in Nigeria is not an easy feat so it is a great achievement that we are celebrating 10 years of amazing work.

“Many companies do not make it past five years in Nigeria because of the infrastructural and socio-economic challenges that cripple their growth but we have managed to surpass that. Overall, we are thankful for our clients and our team.”

Babaeko identified inadequate infrastructure and high rate of brain drain as major challenges in running a business in the country.

“It is common knowledge that running a business in Nigeria is very challenging due to factors like inadequate infrastructure. If X3M was set up in a country like Poland, for instance, there would be no desperation to invest in power supply alternatives like generators. Down here, we rely heavily on generators to carry out our day-to-day business operations. These are resources that could have been channeled into growing and expanding the business.

“Another challenge we encounter is talent retention. This is an offshoot of the infrastructure challenge. Our employees are young and vibrant, and they need an environment that works. Nigeria is not providing all the resources they need to operate at full capacity and this causes a mass exodus to developed nations that let them explore their talents and creativity without hindrances,” he stated.

On what inspired him to start the company 10 years ago and his vision, Babaeko stated: “By the time I turned 40, the idea of the kind of legacy I wanted to leave behind started occupying my thoughts and as I approached 41, I knew it was time to put all my fresh ideas into practice. That was why we set up X3M Ideas at the time.”