Blog
What the directory shows.
We hold 259,317 Nigerian business listings across 185 cities. Some of what that data says is uncomfortable, most of it is useful, and almost none of it gets published anywhere. This is where we publish it, next to the practical guides that come out of it.
MethodLatest
How AI search finds Nigerian businesses
An assistant asked for a plumber in Lagos needs a page it can fetch and facts it can defend. Most listings fail before quality is ever considered.
~6 minute read
Buying guide
How to complain and actually get a result
Shouting at staff who cannot authorise a refund achieves nothing. A dated written complaint with a specific demand, escalated in order, achieves a surprising amount.
~7 min
Buying guide
How to negotiate a Lagos hotel rate
The rack rate is only a starting position. Call the hotel directly, ask the right question, and expect to pay less than the booking site quoted.
~6 min
Buying guide
Bolt, Uber or inDrive: how to choose per trip
They are not three versions of the same thing. They price differently, cancel differently and behave differently at 11pm. Pick by trip, not by loyalty.
~6 min
Buying guide
How to vet a fertility clinic in Nigeria
One question separates clinics that publish honest results from clinics that publish flattering ones: how do you define your success rate? Ask it first.
~9 min
Buying guide
How to choose a POS agent you can find again
The debit went through and the cash did not come out. What actually happened, what the agent owes you, and how to pick one where it happens less.
~6 min
Buying guide
How to avoid a Lagos rent scam
Almost every rent loss in Lagos follows the same shape: money moved before ownership was established. Establish ownership first and most of the risk disappears.
~8 min
Buying guide
How to choose a private school in Nigeria
We list 6,739 private schools. The brochure will not separate them. Four questions will, and the last one is about teachers leaving.
~8 min
Buying guide
Pick your hospital before the emergency
Hospital is the largest business category in our directory: 11,694 of them. The worst time to choose between them is at 2am with someone bleeding in the back seat.
~8 min
Method
The limits of our own data
We publish numbers about 259,317 Nigerian businesses. Here is where those numbers are weakest, written down in advance so you can discount them properly.
~6 min
Data study
Nigeria buys from China. Two states clear it.
Almost every article about the import boom stops at the water's edge. We looked at the 3,223 Nigerian businesses that handle what happens after the container lands — and found that 58% of the country's freight forwarders sit in Lagos and the FCT.
~6 min
Product
Put any two Nigerian businesses side by side
Ranked now gives every two businesses in the same category and city their own head-to-head page: the same six scored dimensions, the same facts, the same rule for reviews, and a straight answer when they are about even.
~5 min
Data study
What most Nigerian business listings are missing
Three in ten have no phone number. A third have no opening hours. If you own one of these, the fix takes an afternoon and nobody else can do it for you.
~6 min
Data study
Where Nigeria actually does business
Lagos is eight per cent of our directory, not eighty. Hospitals are the largest business category in the country, ahead of restaurants and shops.
~7 min
Data study
Only one in five Nigerian businesses has a website
Seven in ten have a phone number. Barely two in ten have a web address. In Jos it is closer to one in eight. The phone is the Nigerian business website, and that has consequences.
~7 min
Data study
Nigeria's five-star problem
We looked at the star rating on every rated business in our directory. 61,481 of them carry a 5.0. Three quarters earned it from three reviews or fewer.
~8 min
Buying guide
How to read Nigerian online reviews
The average is the least useful number on the page. Here is the order to read a review section in, and the four tells that separate a real one from a bought one.
~7 min
Buying guide
How to check a Nigerian business is real before you pay
Six checks, about fifteen minutes, mostly free. Do them in this order, because the cheapest ones eliminate the most.
~8 min