Chiagozie Nwizu is the Managing Director of Franchise Business Development Services (FBDS); a pioneer franchise development company in Nigeria which is a member of International Franchise Association, and Nigeria representative of World Franchise Associates. He is the Executive Director of Africa Franchise Institute and the pioneer President of Nigeria Franchise Association NAFBM.
Chiagozie is an International Franchise Development Consultant who has contributed in key capacity in the development of franchising in Nigeria. He sees franchising as a tool for building new roads to social, enterprise and economic development in Nigeria. He is a widely sought after consultant on social and economic impact development programmes and has both consulted for or worked with both foreign and government development agencies such as DFID; USAID; GIZ; Bank of Industry; NEPC; NIPC; Office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria – on Economic development; Federal Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment; US Commercial Services; UK Department of Trade; Spanish Embassy and a whole lot of other organizations across sectors of the SME ecosystem.
Under his years as a pioneer franchise consultant, he achieved the following, to mention a few: Bringing together thousands of stakeholders from across all segments of the MSME ecosystem, to participate in, or support franchise development in Nigeria; Convening the 2018 & 2019 Franchise Agenda which brought key industry stakeholders together to structure franchise growth and opportunities for the year; Facilitating creation of single digit funds for start-ups (new franchises). Chiagozie has led and worked with a team of local and foreign experts that conducted a number of franchise consultancy services within Nigeria and abroad. Some of these services include: Tackling Access to Finance – The Potential of Franchising in Nigeria) –a DFID sponsored Nigeria Franchise Study; Development of Franchise Finance Proposition for Diamond Bank PLC – a DFID GEMS4 scheme; Micro-Franchising Support For the Edo State Investment Portfolio (ESIP) – A project to scale franchise eligible enterprises in Edo State, scaling job and investment opportunities; Production of annual and other periodic Nigeria Franchise Industry Reports; Consulting for Ministry of Industry Trade and Investment and a host of other organizations to impact SMEs through franchising.
His goal is to reduce 80% MSME failure in Nigeria, and help people who cannot build businesses to buy one from successful and proven brands, at same time helping such successful brands to expand beyond borders through franchising. He is on a mission to making franchising the preferred business venture model in Nigeria as a strategic means of building sustainable businesses that operate best practices. Through his services and promotion of franchising, new jobs and other economic opportunities have been created in Nigeria.