May 16, 2026
Muyiwa Adetiba
There are many endearing aspects of the Igbo business culture. But few, in my opinion, are more endearing than the apprenticeship system. It is a system that teaches and then empowers. The two most important requisites in successful entrepreneurship are knowledge and finance. The Igbo apprenticeship system provides both. This system, which has become a case study in many business schools the world over, has made billionaires out of enterprising young men and women who might otherwise have amounted to very little in life.
It has also led to the dominance of its graduates in certain key areas of the economy. It is a system that is self-serving, yet selfless: a symbiotic relationship that works best when both the ‘Oga’ and the apprentice keep their eyes on a bigger picture. For the success of the system lies in an apprentice understanding the temperaments or idiosyncrasies of the boss while the boss learns to work with the precociousness or sometimes waywardness of the apprentice. It is in threading the fine balance of knowing when to hold on and when to let go. When the release is done at the right time, a confident and competent young entrepreneur emerges to take on the world. At the wrong time, a frustrated and destructive force surfaces.
