Street MBA: I am earning it in farm, not a fancy lecture hall

By Daniel Igbinosun

Look, I have never set foot in Harvard Business School. Unless you count that time I Googled “Ivy League tuition fees” and nearly fainted into my keyboard. But Benue street MBA on the farm? Oh, I have logged serious hours there.

Picture this: my team and I sweat all day harvesting peppers. Heroic, right? Come nightfall… other heroes emerged. Turns out, while we napped, thieves treated our farm like an all-you-can-steal buffet. My precious peppers became community property.

Lesson #1: Farming is not just about seeds and soil. It’s 50% agriculture, 50% “Agbero Security Services.”

Textbooks suggest “optimizing supply chains.” I hired vigilantes. Not exactly in the syllabus, but when life gives you pepper thieves… you give them a reason to run. That is how I earned my first Street MBA badge.

(Translation: “MBA” here means:

• Manage Before Anybody Appears
• Mistakes Bring Adjustments… and mild panic.)

Then came Planting Season: The Sequel. Hired new guys to plant soya beans. Payment? Per line planted. Simple! Right. No.

I popped over to another farm. By evening, they swaggered to my house: “Boss! We planted 120 lines! Pay us like kings!”

Cue record scratch.

My seasoned crew just the day before only managed 55 lines. 120? Did they grow rocket-powered hoes? The math wasn’t just not mathing… it was doing interpretive dance.

I sent my farm manager to investigate. The verdict?

Lines planted: 48. This is actually a generous count. Very generous. The quality of work was average at best. Maybe a D7. Seeds tossed like confetti. Some barely covered. Others probably in the next local government.

If I had paid them, I would have funded a masterclass in How To Scam Your Boss 101. Did I lose money? Sure. I also lost trust and time. That’s agribusiness heartbreak we have to experience every now and then

But Benue does not just break You… It builds legends

Tired of waiting for expensive tractor parts, some young wizards started building their own from scrap metal and sheer audacity. Now they rent these Franken-tractors to small farmers. They did not just fix engines; they fixed the whole farming game.

I have heard of a squad of grandmothers that when cassava prices crashed. They said no wahala! They started processing, packaging (in snazzy transparent nylon!), and selling direct to schools. While others cried, these aunties counted profits in wrappers so bright, they doubled as solar panels.

My Street MBA Curriculum (So Far):

• Hope is not a strategy. Suspicion is. (Supervise or be surprised!)
• Not everyone on your payroll is on your team. Some are just… auditing the class.
• Security isn’t an “extra.” It’s budget line #1. Right after “vengeance snacks.”
• Never reward noise.Reward proof. (Or at least seeds that are actually in the ground.)
• True entrepreneurs are often just rocking rubber slippers

Nigeria is not just a market; it is a live-action business simulator on Expert Mode.

Surviving here? You’re not just tough. You are Benue-certified.

Over to you: What is the most expensive lesson YOU have learned? Tag that warrior who earned their MBA dodging potholes & power cuts!

Stayed tuned for next week column

Daniel Igbinosun writes from Canada

\#StreetMBA \#BenueBusinessAcademy \#FarmingIsntForTheFaintHearted \#NigerianHustle