The Executive Director and Co-founder of Colton Group, Dr Balogun Collins, has said that African businesses are being held back not by a shortage of capital but by a deficit of disciplined leadership.
Collins said this in an interview with The PUNCH, where he highlighted the ways that leadership can strengthen businesses.
A 2022 report titled Nigeria MSME Report indicated that 80 per cent of businesses under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Africa fail within the first five years of their existence. This is despite the continent having one of the highest entrepreneurship rates in the world.
Speaking in the interview, Collins said, “Our continent is rich in potential – human, natural, and intellectual. Contrary to popular belief, capital is not our biggest challenge. In fact, Africa is attracting more venture capital, private equity, and development funding than ever before.
What we lack is disciplined leadership capable of converting opportunity into sustainable outcomes.
“Over the years, I’ve observed businesses that had ample capital, access to markets, and good products collapse simply because leadership lost focus. When vision becomes blurry, execution becomes scattered. When decisions are driven by ego instead of purpose, even the best plans unravel. Strong leadership creates clarity, mobilises talent, attracts investment, and builds trust. Weak leadership repels all of these. Leadership determines pace, culture, direction, and resilience. If the head is steady, the body stabilises. If the head is confused, the entire organisation wobbles. Ultimately, in Africa’s complex, high-pressure environment, leadership is not just a factor; it is the foundation upon which everything else stands.”
On the prevalent leadership gaps in African businesses, the expert said, “One of the most prevalent gaps is the overdependence on founders. Many African businesses operate like personal kingdoms rather than institutions. Founders hold critical information close, make all the key decisions, and rarely empower people to lead. This creates bottlenecks that slow down innovation and weaken scalability. Another gap is emotional decision-making. Instead of relying on data, processes, and long-term strategy, many leaders react impulsively to daily pressures. This results in inconsistent policies, confused employees, and missed opportunities.
“A third gap is the absence of robust accountability systems. Without strong governance, businesses begin to run on personal relationships rather than principles. This erodes trust and impedes growth. Finally, succession planning is often neglected. Leaders underestimate how fragile their organisations become when knowledge, authority, and strategy reside in one person. These gaps collectively create businesses that grow rapidly but crumble just as quickly.”
To build long-lasting companies, Collins highlighted three lessons from globally enduring institutions: “First, institutionalise governance. Companies like GE, Procter & Gamble, and Toyota made governance a non-negotiable ingredient of sustainability. They built boards that had real authority, created systems that were transparent, and documented every critical decision.
“Second, culture must shape behaviour consistently. Culture is not a set of motivational posters. It is a behavioural code that guides how people treat clients, manage conflict, build products, resolve issues, and respond to crises. Global companies survive disruptions because their culture anchors them.
“Third, succession must be intentional. Generational companies train leaders long before they need them. They see leadership not as a person but as a pipeline. In Africa, we can learn a lot from this. Businesses that last beyond founders embrace the idea that leadership should be renewable.”
He encourages founders to take early and deliberate action: start by building structure early, build people intentionally, train them, trust them, and empower them, and build governance without sentiment.
Ultimately, he said, leaders must shift their mindset. “The goal is not to build a monument to yourself but an institution that serves others long after your time,” he said.
The expert concluded that success is never accidental: “Businesses that endure are not accidental; they are engineered with clarity, discipline, and purpose.”
