In Nigeria, a Russian medical entrepreneur implements a novel approach to starting a business; gets loads of useful attention
by Dr. Piyush Mathur
Slava Sazhin (Слава Сажин), left, talking to Aminu Adamu Mustapha during his video call with Nigeria’s business community
Slava Sazhin (Слава Сажин), co-founder of Doktor Narabote (Doctor at Work)—a Russian company whose website dates it to 2009—arrived in Lagos, Nigeria on March 4, 2024 to explore business opportunities in the medical sector. Preceding that arrival, though, he had begun to make posts on his LinkedIn profile reporting every single significant development toward his preparations for the trip. (For the uninitiated, LinkedIn is a social media platform that connects people qua professionals.) Sazhin had gone so far as to make a comment on his profile on how challenging it had been for him to secure Nigeria’s business visa—-whose photograph was part of the post!
Sharing a photograph of one's visa in a public forum may not be advisable from a security standpoint, even if precautions like blotting out one's passport number are taken—as Sazhin did. However, such an act likely bolstered his credibility regarding his trip in the eyes of strangers on LinkedIn who happened upon the photograph. In today's world of virtual interactions, distinguishing between a legitimate entrepreneur and a potential scammer, especially one from abroad who has yet to reach his/her destination, can be a task. Although Sazhin hadn't anticipated it at the time of his post, the fear of online deep-fake scams greeted him upon his arrival in Nigeria.
As he would mention later on to Nigeria’s business community in a Zoom meeting 6 days after his arrival, Nigeria was the only country where whenever he had tried to contact somebody electronically he had had ‘to prove’ that he was ‘a real person’—in that people would intentionally place video calls to him to verify his identity; he also stressed that deep-faking is ‘very very complicated and expensive IT’ (implying that it is too rare, and thus should not be easily suspected). However, if he had taken a step back he would have realized that there would have been little to indicate to strangers in a foreign land (with high levels of corruption, scams, and a colonially inherited foreign craze) that they were not being contacted by a rare deep-faker intending to cheat them; moreover, deep-faking, even Generative Artificial Intelligence, is so new that since its emergence he is unlikely to have visited other countries, with a culture so remote from his own, with a venture in mind.
A trendsetting business pitch? It sure could turn out to be one!
The point is, there is a raw process (involving hidden factors, venture, and learning) that is on display here, and it comes uniquely packaged in Sazhin’s unfolding endeavour—of which his business-to-be in Nigeria would be an outcome. It is as if Sazhin organically put together an innovative mode of pitching a start-up to a foreign country—a mode that, with caveats, could be used as a case study down the line. In this start-up pitch, as the rest of the details from his Zoom meeting show, it is not a requirement to hire a public-relations firm—but necessary to use Social Media (and do so cannily); it is not a requirement to have a clear plan ahead of one’s arrival into one’s targeted country—but a requirement to have studied the country well and to know one’s business; it can be a sign of strength to admit one’s striking limitations—but especially if one can demonstrate one’s determination to learn all the rest; and, above all, it is mandatory to discourage false hopes.
A bit more mundanely, Sazhin’s Zoom meeting took forward certain traits of his personality—such as transparency and courage—that were revealed in his act of posting his visa’s photo on LinkedIn and are also valued within business circles. The meeting details themselves tell us more about the man himself, his venture-to-be, and Nigeria’s medical business community and landscape.
Ahead of this meeting, he had posted its link on his LinkedIn profile (along with his invitation to it); thanks to the LinkedIn algorithm, his post had been shown to a lot of people (even outside his list of contacts and followers) who would have been interested in any aspect of it. The meeting would eventually be attended by around 45 people—but Sazhin had held it on record—whose unedited video he uploaded almost immediately to his YouTube account as a private link (meaning: one could see it on YouTube only if one had come to it via the Zoom link that he had posted on his LinkedIn account).
A Zoom introduction to a new country’s professional class—but, for that matter, to the world itself!
Early on in the meeting, Sazhin gives out the most basic information about himself—telling the audience that he is 40, with a background in Information Technology (IT) and healthcare; that he has had only one successful business so far—which he cofounded with others in his motherland, Russia. While praising Nigerians as talented and inspiring, he also points out that it was not being easy for him to get money into Nigeria for personal expenses via wire transfers, and that the limit on bringing in personal cash was only USD 10 thousand; moreover, as a foreigner, he had not yet succeeded in opening a bank account in Nigeria.
So, without any ostentatious formalities, Sazhin reveals himself to the virtual assembly as an affable individual—albeit (as we shall see) with a well-delineated area of commercial interest. Throughout the meeting, he also stuck as close as possible to facts and reality—always underlining the uncertainty and limitations of his very nascent step; he also spent quite a bit of his energy on dispelling—or precluding—any overly optimistic or broad expectations of him from the audience regarding his prior professional accomplishments, skills set, and personal riches. ‘I have significant experience only in healthcare and pharmaceuticals’, he stressed at one point.
Neither an investor nor a donor—but an entrepreneur with little experience in Africa
Most of Sazhin’s statements in the meeting came out as responses to the questions raised by participants located in Nigeria (if not always physically, then mentally); as such, several of these questions provide the international audience glimpses into the conventional domestic framework of operations and expectations of foreign economic interveners into Nigeria. For instance, in response to some queries, Sazhin had to clarify that he was neither an investor nor a donor—but resolutely a hands-on, for-profit entrepreneur aiming to create a business of value inside Nigeria.
‘I'm not a donor; so this is not a charity, absolutely,’ he says about his would-be enterprise in Nigeria—stressing the fact that while his company in Russia does generate an income for him, he is not rich in comparison with other medical entrepreneurs there.
Sazhin defines his riches, instead, in terms of the trust that his Russian ‘friends’ (read investors) repose in him as a promising entrepreneur—notwithstanding his past failures in being profitable outside Russia. Noting that all three of his health-sector startups in the United States had failed, he still believes that he 'can do something abroad'—and of all the places, Nigeria; but he also mentions that he has had very little experience in Africa—having lived only in South Africa for ‘four months’ before arriving in Nigeria a mere 6 days before this meeting.
People ‘know that I may fail but I never cheat them; I never tell lies…[T]hat is not a guarantee that I will succeed but for sure I will do all my best to multiply the investments that they give me’, he declares.
Why Nigeria?
Sazhin chose Nigeria to start a medical business owing to its English proficiency, large population, substantial Gross Domestic Product, and promising future. A specific factor that favoured Nigeria for him was its low domestic competition in medical entrepreneurship (unlike in South Africa). He had to rule out all other countries that he also initially considered owing to their economic-cum-political instability, lack of local capital/purchasing power, high business cost, and/or language issues (Indonesia, for instance).
‘I'm not a poet: I looked at the numbers and understood that Nigeria is the best starting point.’ — Slava Sazhin
But in Nigeria’s 'low consumer power' and low wages, he sees an opportunity for profitable start-ups quite generally—stressing that a firm is likelier to grow with the Nigerian market (especially if it focuses on producing something that could also be exported). Calling Nigeria ‘the future tiger of world economy’, Sazhin surmises that its salaries may double through the next 10-20 years likely because of improvement in governance and rise in oil prices; thus, a new enterprise (kind of like what he hopes to establish) would grow with the economy.
All in all, in Nigeria’s current—nascent—medical-market situation, Sazhin locates an opportunity—inasmuch as an ‘unorganized market is … where the money is!’
Sazhin’s plan for Nigeria will be articulated in Nigeria—-within the next 6 months and how!
That having been said, Sazhin is not aiming to extend into Nigeria his existing Russian firm—Doktor Narabote—which he characterizes (somewhat imprecisely) as a ‘Facebook for doctors.’ Having co-founded it with two other people in 2009, Sazhin claims to employ around 100 people in Moscow for that firm. In subsequent statements that give his Zoom audience clearer glimpses into that firm’s scope, he points out that it is a virtual platform (which includes a mobile application) that brings together Russian ‘doctors and pharmacists’ online who ‘discuss clinical cases’ and other medical issues. This firm generates income via medical advertisers—and Sazhin claims that it made a profit of USD 4 million in 2023.
In response to different queries, Sazhin tells his audience severally that he has no prior plan or business proposal; all he knows at the moment is that he is going to create a profitable medical business in Nigeria catering to its domestic market while also aspiring to export its produce across Africa (and perhaps beyond). While he did a lot of background research before arriving in Nigeria, his core methodology is to engage with as many relevant people in the country as possible, take notes, and put together a proposal—and/or accept, modify suitable offers of contributions or collaboration with him—within 6 months (say, around August 2024). Once his proposal is ready, Sazhin would take it back to Russia and persuade his ‘rich friends’ there to invest in it.
When asked about his ‘vision statement’ for his ‘business plan’, Sazhin refused to be philosophical at all, saying plainly (even if attractively, from a business point of view) that his
vision statement is to bring money to Nigeria and to …multiply this money for investors and to use this money to make healthcare in Nigeria much, much better—and to…bring more money to Nigeria using that investment, and to make healthcare and life for usual people better.
Ironically, he suggests that the foregoing (materialistic) goal might be ‘too idealistic’, insisting nevertheless that ‘that step by step…we can do great things’.
Although a plan is not ready yet, there is plenty of graffiti on the wall!
In response to other follow-up queries, Sazhin indicates his relative keenness to produce drugs in Nigeria while also remaining open to establishing clinics and/or a telemedicine platform suitable for simple/cheap phones (via Short Message Service). He cites the need for investments ranging anywhere between tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, noting that his outstanding objective is ‘to influence the health care in Nigeria.’
The meeting also tips us off to Sajhin’s desire to cater to the medical needs of people ‘older than 50’, given his research-based opinion that this segment of Nigeria’s residents has received less attention within that country’s health-care sector than other segments. Notably, he divulges his foregoing priority in response to a question whether his firm might seek to address the needs of menopausal women. This is a subtle clue to Sazhin’s business/intellectual savvy: He seems like a past master at steering clear of potential ideological minefields (gender polarization) by placing himself in short order at a higher level of abstraction (gender-indifferent age bracket) that would leave those minefields diffused already in ways that can only be considered wisely inclusive.
Another instance of the foregoing trait of Sazhin’s mindset is when he shows his openness to venturing out into the veterinary medicine sector despite lacking experience in it: He even invited the person who wondered about this sector in the meeting to contact him privately to discuss the prospects.
Sazhin’s other statements indicate that he does not rule out partnerships, collaborations, and even acquisitions inside Nigeria. As to prospective acquisitions, he mentions that the quality of the team behind the local firm would be its main qualifying criterion for him (presumably in part because he would not want to fire a firm’s employees after he might have acquired it). Inasmuch as some sort of a telemedicine component would very likely be included in Sazhin’s business in Nigeria, he also seems to favour working with ‘a remote staff’.
The meeting also saw questions about how Sazhin might handle the regulations, compliance, and ‘political power play’ of Nigeria’s hitherto import-oriented medical system. Sensing the unsaid, he reassured the audience that he has handled similar levels of corruption in Russia—and yet been able to build ‘transparent business’ there. Stressing the importance of hiring people who know what he does not—and who can do what he cannot—Sazhin adds that, aside from continuing to meet government officials himself, he would hire people ‘who will work with the government’.
‘I know that it will be hard’ to manage all these operations, he bluntly admits, but notes that he believes in Nigeria and himself—reiterating that Nigeria’s big population, low salary levels, and talent pool altogether prime it as both a domestic producer and exporter of medical commodities.
Sharing his impressions of how hunting for funds actually works out, Sajhin also tells the audience that investors tend to ask, first and foremost, about the entrepreneur’s financial model for the business for which he or she would have been seeking investments—and about the strength and dependability of the team expected to run it. In this regard, he continues, investors attempt to ensure that the entrepreneur’s team has what it takes to ‘fight for the business’.
‘I'm not an in investor but I'm a guy who knows how to find money and I know that many people in Russia believe personally in me and they will give me funds if I find some great idea here in Nigeria.'
— Slava Sazhin
While the above statements indicate to the audience that Sazhin has entrepreneurial and fundraising experience, they are also valuable for those interested in learning about the contemporary culture of venture capitalism.
A natural teacher
There is a very realistic, and yet pedagogical and inspiring, transparency to Sazhin’s self-presentation here—and it is reinforced in all sorts of ways in how he has handled this meeting and how he has been handling other affairs related to this brewing enterprise via his LinkedIn account.
For example, trying to get a grip on how exclusive Sazhin’s operational mindset might be, a questioner asked Sazhin what sorts of people he might consider hiring for his firm—whether he might be a stickler for highly educated, highly skilled people. Responding to that, Sazhin claimed that his firm would prioritize the qualities of being trustworthy, dependable, and sincere in a potential employee or collaborator—followed by the level of his or her professional skills. Given what he claims to have learnt from his Russian gurus, Sazhin argues that ‘we can teach a good person to be a good professional’ but not the other way round.
Sazhin himself is a natural teacher—but you won’t know it straight away because he imparts his lessons by refusing to mystify, exaggerate, or be ponderous. In fact, he sticks to practical, unassuming realities of running a business as much as daily life; for instance, stressing that he likes to ‘pay people for their work’, he rules out enlisting any ‘volunteers’ for his business.
A resounding backer of Universal Health Care
When asked how he hopes to make his medical business profitable in Nigeria where medical insurance is mostly absent, Sazhin declared plainly that Universal Health Care (UHC) is ‘the model that works everywhere’—and that it must be rolled out in Nigeria, too. Upon being informed by the same questioner that the National Health Insurance Authority of Nigeria was the only government body authorized to deal with medical insurance in Nigeria, he asks him to help him get in touch with the people there!
Sazhin also advises the Nigerians to take legal action or lobby for appropriate legislation toward UHC, telling them that in 2017 he had successfully led an advocacy group in Russia to convince the Duma to legalize telemedicine. Here, inasmuch as he slips, in a couple of instances, into using the collective pronoun we (‘we can go to Parliament and ask them to pass laws’), he subconsciously sends out a subliminal message to the Nigerians that he is not only one with them already but is also willing to take chances with them toward systemic reform in Nigeria’s health sector. Somewhat wickedly, he also reassures the Nigerians that their country can certainly afford UHC: ‘Nigeria is a very rich country. You have money for Universal Health Care, believe me!’
But Sazhin also plays with the idea of selecting a suitable national insurance plan for Nigeria from those already available globally and/or creating an insurance company in Nigeria’s smallest state and pilot-testing coverage for ‘six diseases for $2 a month.’
In expressing his zeal for on-the-ground learning, Sazhin radiates dependability & trust!
Given that Sazhin’s Zoom interaction—call it an avant-garde press conference—by default doubles up as a pitch to Nigeria’s business community, it can be noted that even a slight variation in it or the pitcher would have scared away a lot of people. Would you trust a newbie with practically no experience in Africa and without a plan? Yes, you would—if that newbie proactively admitted the current state of affairs, had just enough success behind him, and put forward an enormous amount of engaging commitment to learning on the ground before making any big claims. And, yes, that does describe Sazhin—partly reflected in statements like these:
I have to understand what really happens in Nigeria right now in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. I have already met with, like, 20-30 people who work in health, who work in Pharma market. I have a lot of meetings planned ahead… I want to … see every detail, you know, to understand … what do people do when they are sick, how do people buy drugs [sic]. Are these drugs fake or real? Who produces these drugs? How…many producers of drugs are there in Nigeria? How many hospitals? Who runs those hospitals? How [do] doctors work in those hospitals? How [do] nurses work in those hospitals? How [does the] insurance system work? Why [does a] low percentage of people in …Nigeria have medical insurance? … I … don't have answers for all of these questions, but I am planning to meet people and to understand every…detail; and after I understand these details, I'm planning to create something here … [The audio is edited here at places for punctuation, grammar, verbal pauses.]
I want to know numbers, names about Nigeria by heart; then I would be able to be effective as a healthcare entrepreneur here. …I don't believe…in some… text reports, articles. I believe in talking to people. So, for example, yesterday I met with a guy who worked for Health Plus—[a] big pharmacy chain in Nigeria; he told me all…about Health Plus. Now I know how Health Plus is run. I met with a guy who who works in a big hospital [in] Lagos; he told me everything about that… I make notes in my phone. … I know that I can't believe …public information …I have to talk to talk to insiders, and …I have to be in that place. So, I have to go to [the] hospitals myself—maybe as a patient. That's one of my plans…to see how it works inside, here in Lagos. I have already been [to] tens of… I [go] to [a] pharmacy and I ask about drugs, about prices and I see how it really works on the ground. So I don't believe press releases; I believe what I see or hear…
Ergo, a meeting participant claiming to be a certified pharmacist in Ghana as well as the US (and with some failed startups of his own) compliments Sazhin by telling him that ‘a lot of people will sit in the US [or] Europe and try to carve a strategy for Africa or try to think about what they can do, but I think you've taken the right step trying to be on the ground, trying to understand the ecosystem.’
Concluding remarks
Subsequent LinkedIn posts by Sazhin make it very clear that he has got the attention of the right people—and many, many more—in Nigeria within a very short period of time. But there is also another, perhaps a bit cynical, dimension to estimating the success of Sazhin’s entry into Nigeria. We have to keep in mind that Sazhin is a White male foreigner—and by default or by design, or a mix of the two, he has adopted exactly the approach that suits him in regard to Nigeria (say, in our times of fast Internet). In general, Nigerians tend to be very sociable and open to economic opportunities; at the same time, their country (like many others) has plenty of corruption and a boss-centred occupational environment—in which foreigners from certain persuasions are trusted more economically than fellow natives lacking an esteemed background.
Under these circumstances, Sazhin’s approach exhibiting overwhelming transparency, access, and straight talk was predisposed to attract the right attention from the right Nigerian quarters and beyond. Contrariwise, Nigerian business leaders and wannabe entrepreneurs might also choose to look at his approach as an alternative framework for effective business communication domestically, for networking generally, and for non-hierarchical organizing.
And yet, one can’t help but wonder whether a White Russian woman—possessing all the other traits of Sazhin—would have been quite as successful in introducing herself to Nigeria as an entrepreneur as he has been by implementing the same approach. And how about a non-White woman from other parts of the world? How about a non-White, non-Nigerian African female entrepreneur? How about a new (Black) Nigerian female entrepreneur? There are no clear answers, of course, to these speculative curiosities—but they put Sazhin’s remarkable entrepreneurial entry into Nigeria into a perspective; contrariwise, they attest to the uniqueness of his personal brand, just the same.
Toward the end of the Zoom call (which lasted one hour twenty-eight minutes and six seconds) Sazhin turns diplomatic responding to a question about whether he ‘would engage consultants’; he says, ‘All of you guys are my consultants!’ However, in a previous statement just seconds ago, he had also left the door open for people to contact him personally if they had ‘something useful to share’ (presumably also as wannabe consultants for his business-to-be). Ergo, the woman who had raised that question—claiming to be a medical doctor with experience in policy and strategy within the context of Nigerian government—checked out of her interaction (with Sazhin) saying that he had ‘kind of’ addressed her query—and that she would ‘catch up later’ with him.
Given Sazhin’s youthful optimism and openness, there is a high chance that a lot of people would want to ‘catch up later’ with him!
Piyush Mathur, Ph. D., is the author of the book Technological Forms and Ecological Communication: A Theoretical Heuristic (Lexington Books, 2017); he taught Communication at the American University of Nigeria for two years. If you have any comments on this piece, you may post them in the comments section below. If you need to contact Dr. Mathur regarding this piece or for any other reason, send us a message using this form and the message would be forwarded to him.
Sazhin’s Zoom call exists on this YouTube address—but you would have to get the link to it from his LinkedIn account to access it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUD0FrsQguk