The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Digital Engagement and New Media and President of Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), Mr. O’tega Ogra, has challenged Nigerian businesses to build brands and solutions that go beyond Lagos and compete across Africa and the world.

Ogra stated this while delivering the keynote address at The Industry Newspaper’s Top 50 Nigerian Companies of Impact 2026 Awards in Lagos, themed “Building Resilience, Driving Growth: Nigerian Companies Shaping the Next Decade.”

He opened with the example of Bergmans Security Consultant and Supplies Limited, a Nigerian firm now leading the $3.1 billion AfCFTA customs modernisation project. “A few days ago, Wamkele Mene, Secretary-General of AfCFTA, arrived at Nigeria Customs and saw B’Odogwu, our Unified Customs Management System, already running,” Ogra said.

“The Secretariat had options. Companies from outside Africa wanted the work too. It chose an African company.”

A Nigerian company, through its subsidiaries, AfriTrade CMP Limited and Trade Modernisation Project Limited, Bergmans will implement the continental project after proving the model in Nigerian ports.

“The Nigerian market became its proving ground. The expertise developed here is now being taken to the continent,” Ogra stated.

He further said the kind of resilience Nigeria needs now is not just about survival. “There is ingenuity in a manufacturer generating his own electricity. There is ingenuity in an SME rebuilding its model every time costs change. But there is also a lot of productive energy being consumed by those problems,” he noted.

He cited banks, fintech, Nollywood, and Nigerian music as sectors that turned local challenges into global advantages. “Nigeria gives our companies something many businesses elsewhere would envy: a huge domestic market in which to learn. The question is what we do with it.”

As ADVAN President, Ogra said Nigerian brands must travel with Nigerian culture.

He stressed that trust, not just attention, will define the next decade. “In advertising, attention can be bought. Trust cannot. The consumer eventually decides what the brand means.”

On technology, Ogra said AI is no longer a future event. “The useful question is what happens when a task that took three days can be done in an afternoon. What happens when a manufacturer can anticipate machine failure? That is where AI becomes useful to me: when it becomes productivity.”

The annual list recognises Nigerian companies driving national development through job creation, innovation, governance, and measurable social impact.