In the race for development, many states and nations chase infrastructure first, hoping that airports, seaports, and highways will magically create prosperity. The logic seems sound: build it and they will come. But economics does not obey concrete. Prosperity obeys production.
We must flip the script: *Entrepreneurship must come before the cargo airport.*
A cargo airport is not the engine of growth — it is the amplifier. If you build a world-class cargo terminal in a desert of enterprise, you will only export emptiness and import debt. The concrete will shine, the control tower will gleam, the ribbon-cutting photos will trend, but the economy will stay silent. Planes will land empty and take off empty. And the people, whom the project was meant to serve, will still be unemployed.
This is not theory. It is the hard lesson of dozens of “airports of hope” scattered across Africa and the developing world. Runways without revenue. Terminals without trade. Debt without dividends.
The cargo airport question forces us to confront a deeper question: What exactly are we building infrastructure for?
*1. Entrepreneurs Create Cargo, Not the Other Way Round*
Cargo airports do not create products. People do. Farmers, manufacturers, tech innovators, fashion designers, agro-processors, welders, coders, food scientists — these are the ones who produce what needs to be flown out. Without a thriving base of MSMEs and large-scale producers, a cargo airport becomes a white elephant with scheduled flights to nowhere.
Think of it this way: An airport is a pipe. A very wide, very expensive pipe. But a pipe is useless without water. Entrepreneurs are the water. They are the ones who generate the flow. You can build the biggest pipe in the world, but if there is no water source, you have only dug a hole and lined it with concrete.
Before we pour billions into tarmac, let us pour millions into training, funding, and de-risking entrepreneurs. Teach a man to produce, and he will find a way to ship. He will use the road, the rail, the sea, and yes, eventually the air. But build him an airport before he has a product, and you’ve only built him a monument to missed priorities.
The entrepreneur is the one who looks at a heap of cassava and sees flour, starch, and ethanol. He looks at shea nuts and sees cosmetics for Paris. He looks at waste and sees biogas. He looks at youth and sees coders, not criminals. When you have 10,000 of such minds in a state, you have a cargo problem — the good kind. Then the airport is not a gamble; it is a response.
*2. The Ecosystem Must Precede the Infrastructure*
“Ecosystem” has become a buzzword. But in this context, it is literal. You cannot grow oranges in a desert and then complain that the juice factory has no supply. You build the orchard first.
Massive entrepreneurship development means we first build the ecosystem:
– *Production clusters* – Agro-processing zones where 50 small mills share power, water, and testing labs. Industrial hubs where leather workers, garment makers, and furniture designers co-locate. Creative districts where filmmakers, animators, and music producers can access studios. Clusters reduce cost, increase quality, and create volume. A single farmer cannot fill a plane. Five hundred farmers in a cluster can.
– *Access to finance* – Not just loans, but the _right_ loans. Single-digit interest. Equipment leasing so a young welder doesn’t need N5m to buy a machine. Patient capital that understands agriculture has seasons and manufacturing has lead times. Invoice discounting so an exporter doesn’t collapse waiting 90 days for payment. Without finance, enterprise is just enthusiasm.
– *Market linkages* – This is where most entrepreneurs die. They can produce, but they cannot sell. We need standards and certifications: NAFDAC, SON, HACCP, GlobalG.A.P., ISO. We need export desks in every state that walk a producer from “idea” to “container.” We need e-commerce onboarding so a woman in a village can sell shea butter on Amazon. A product that cannot leave the local government has no business with a cargo airport.
– *Logistics basics* – Before you fly it, you must move it. Good roads from farm to cluster. Cold rooms so tomatoes don’t rot before they get to the airport. Packaging plants that meet international specs — because the world does not buy “good product, bad pack.” Warehouses that can aggregate and consolidate. If it takes 3 days to move goods 100km by road, no airline can save you.
When these four pillars are in place, cargo demand naturally emerges. You will start hearing complaints: “Our goods are stuck, we need more flights.” That is the sound of readiness. Then the airport becomes inevitable, bankable, and sustainable. Government won’t need to subsidize flights — entrepreneurs will fill them. Banks will fund the airport because the cash flow is visible. Airlines will compete for slots because the cargo manifests are real.
*3. The Cost of Getting It Backwards*
Let us count the cost of building the airport first:
– *Fiscal cost*: A mid-size cargo airport is $300m–$800m. Borrowed, usually. Interest accrues from day one. If there’s no cargo, the state pays the debt from IGR or FAAC. Schools and hospitals wait.
– *Opportunity cost*: That same $500m could train 50,000 entrepreneurs, equip 1,000 clusters, and capitalize a state MSME bank. The ROI on enterprise is 3x–10x in 5 years. The ROI on an empty airport is negative.
– *Political cost*: Every year the airport sits underused, it becomes a symbol of waste. Citizens lose faith. The next government inherits a liability, not an asset. “Why did they build this?” becomes the question at every town hall.
– *Psychological cost*: Entrepreneurs get the message: “Government cares about buildings, not builders.” The best minds migrate to Lagos or abroad, where the ecosystem already exists.
*4. Lessons From Around Us*
Ethiopia’s Bole Airport in Addis Ababa did not start as a cargo dream. It thrives today because Ethiopian Airlines Cargo feeds on coffee, flowers, leather, and textiles produced by thousands of enterprises. The government spent 30 years building enterprise zones, training farmers in export standards, and giving leather factories tax holidays. The cargo flights came to chase the cargo, not to create it.
Dubai is another case. Jebel Ali and Dubai International Airport are legends of logistics. But they became logistics hubs only after Dubai became a trading hub. Traders from India, Africa, and Europe were already re-exporting through Dubai’s ports in the 1980s. The runways followed the revenue. Enterprise first; infrastructure second.
Even in Nigeria, look at the Lagos model. Murtala Muhammed Airport is busy not because it was built, but because Lagos has Alaba, Computer Village, Ladipo, Yaba tech, and Apapa industrial zone. Millions of enterprises create the demand. The airport struggles to keep up.
The cautionary tale is also here at home. We have state airports commissioned with fanfare that now see 2 flights a week. The reason is simple: there was no audit of “export-ready tons per month” before construction. We measured land size, not enterprise size.
In Nigeria, we must not repeat the mistake of building “airports of hope” in states without active export pipelines. Let Nigeria first become a production powerhouse of yam flour, cocoa, textiles, shea butter, leather, sesame, ginger, cashew, and digital services. When we produce 500,000 tons of export-grade goods monthly, cargo planes will chase us, not the other way round.
*5. What ‘Massive Entrepreneurship Development’ Actually Looks Like*
It is not seminars and photo ops. It is measurable, deliberate, and unglamorous work:
1. *Map and Tag Enterprises*: Every state should have a live database. How many cassava processors? What capacity? Who is NAFDAC-certified? Who can do 20 tons/month? You cannot plan cargo if you don’t know your producers.
2. *One-Product-One-LGA*: Let each local government specialize and scale one export product. One LGA becomes the shea butter capital. Another, the dried hibiscus capital. This creates volume and brand. Scattered production cannot fill a plane.
3. *Export Incubators*: Physical centers where a fashion designer can walk in with samples and walk out 90 days later with UKCA marking, barcode, export license, and a buyer in London. No entrepreneur should spend 2 years figuring out paperwork.
4. *State Offtake Guarantee*: State governments can be the first buyer. Commit to buy 30% of output from registered clusters for schools, hospitals, and state projects. This de-risks production and gives banks confidence to lend.
5. *Skills-to-Enterprise Pipeline*: Our polytechnics and technical colleges must stop producing job seekers. Every graduate should defend a product, not a project. A welding graduate should leave with a registered business, a business plan, and a micro-grant to buy tools.
*6. The Call to Action*
To governors, policymakers, and development partners:
1. *Fund entrepreneurs before terminals.* For every N1 billion proposed for airport construction, put N700 million into enterprise development first. Build the cargo before the port.
2. *Measure cargo potential, not just land size.* The feasibility study for any cargo airport must start with this question: “How many tons of export-ready goods do we have monthly, and what is the 5-year projection based on _current_ enterprise growth programs?” If the answer is <5,000 tons/month, don’t build yet. Build entrepreneurs.
3. *Create ‘Pre-Cargo’ Programs* – Train and certify 10,000 export-ready MSMEs per state before laying the foundation for the airport. Make it law: no tarmac until 10,000 MSMEs hit export standards. This creates public accountability.
4. *Fix the roads to the farms before the runway to the sky.* A farmer who loses 40% of produce to bad roads will have nothing for the airport.
To entrepreneurs: Start now. Don’t wait for the airport. The world is not waiting for your state to build a runway; it is waiting for your product. Package that garri in moisture-proof bags with nutritional info. Brand that adire with a story and a QR code. Process that cassava to food-grade starch. Register that product with NAFDAC and CAC. Learn INCOTERMS. Get on Alibaba. The world buys value, not wishes. When your goods are ready, the planes will come — or we will have the cash flow and the voice to build the airport together.
*7. Financing the Enterprise-First Model*
Where will the money come from if not loans for airports? Reallocate and innovate:
– *Diaspora Cargo Bonds*: Nigerians abroad remit $20B yearly. A “Production Bond” that funds clusters with 7% returns, secured by offtake agreements, will be oversubscribed.
– *State Green Funds*: Convert 20% of ecological funds to “Enterprise Climate Funds” — because agro-processing and solar-powered cold rooms _are_ climate action.
– *Pension Fund Carve-Out*: PenCom can allow 5% of pension assets into SME-backed securities once clusters are derisked by state guarantees.
– *Convert FAAC to FAC*: Federal Allocation for Accountable Commerce. Tie 10% of FAAC to states’ year-on-year growth in registered export-ready MSMEs.
The point is, money is not the constraint. Sequencing is.
Conclusion
A cargo airport without entrepreneurs is a body without blood. It may look impressive on a postcard, but it cannot move. It cannot live. It cannot lift a state out of poverty.
Let us develop massive entrepreneurship first, and the cargo airport will become a celebration, not a gamble. It will be inaugurated with the problem of “too much cargo,” not the embarrassment of “too little.”
The tarmac is important. But the entrepreneur is indispensable.
Build the business. The tarmac will follow.
About the Author
Olubunmi Oluwadare is a renowned expert in entrepreneurship development, a National Business Development Service Provider (NBDSP), and business growth strategies. As the founder of www.uni-preneur.com and www.getajob.ng, he has empowered thousands of entrepreneurs and job seekers across Nigeria and Africa. As Chairman of BEEXO GROUP www.beexogroup.com, he continues to drive business growth and innovation in the region. His book, “I SEE MONEY IN AFRICA”, highlights the vast opportunities for entrepreneurs in Africa.
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