Kemi Adeosun
Iyunade Grace
Former Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun says failure isn’t just common in business — it’s necessary. Speaking at the 2026 edition of _The Platform Nigeria_ in Lagos to mark Workers’ Day, she urged aspiring entrepreneurs to reframe setbacks as a learning process that builds resilience and sharpens future success.
Adeosun shared her own record to drive the point home: she has run nine businesses in her career, and six of them failed. Those failures, she explained, forced her to confront the realities of entrepreneurship that theory and optimism alone can’t teach. “Failure is an inevitable part of entrepreneurship,” she told the audience.
She also pushed back on the idea that starting a business is the only route to success. Calling that thinking “risky and misleading,” Adeosun warned young Nigerians not to romanticize entrepreneurship without understanding the odds. In Nigeria, up to 95% of startups do not survive beyond five years, yet SMEs account for about 85% of all employment. The human cost of failure, she said, is felt in every community.
To help founders navigate those odds, Adeosun outlined “four key laws” that govern whether a business idea is viable: the market, the numbers, the timing, and the team. Entrepreneurs must validate real demand by knowing exactly who will pay and why. They must understand revenue, costs, and profit margins — “some things are not what they seem; that is why knowing your numbers will help you”. Timing determines if a business leads or follows, and no founder succeeds alone: “Moses needed Aaron. Every founder needs a team”.
Execution and research matter as much as the idea itself. Adeosun stressed thorough research, financial awareness, and diligence. She encouraged preparation combined with prayer, noting that both play a role in building a successful entrepreneurial journey.
Beyond the talk, Adeosun is acting on the problem. She recently launched _Nidacity_, a private sector educational media platform that went live in March 2026 at http://www.nidacity.com. The platform targets young and female founders with practical education, mentorship, and business intelligence to tackle Nigeria’s 95% startup failure rate. “Nidacity is not a charity — it is an investment in the people who are already building this economy,” she said.
Adeosun’s broader argument is cultural. Nigeria has the world’s highest entrepreneurship rate, but failure is stigmatized rather than studied. She believes normalizing failure as data, not defeat, is how founders get better. If more businesses survive and grow, she said, “the employment gains for Nigeria will be enormous”. In her view, the path to a stronger SME sector runs directly through lessons learned from the six ventures that didn’t make it.
