Experts urge businesses to build resilient supply chains amid rising disruptions

Experts have urged Nigerian and African businesses to build resilient supply chains amid rising global and local uncertainties that continue to threaten operations, increase costs, and expose industries to vulnerabilities.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Multimix Academy War Room Executive Strategy BootCamp, Obiora Madu, founder/CEO, Multimix Academy, said disruption has become a permanent feature of supply chains, citing insecurity, poor transport infrastructure, healthcare challenges, and global crises such as disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal.

Madu stressed that supply chain resilience goes beyond logistics and requires both hard infrastructure, such as roads and rail systems, and soft infrastructure, such as skilled professionals.

He expressed disappointment in Nigeria’s weak logistics performance ranking, arguing that professionalism and proper placement of experts in key logistics positions are essential to improving the country’s economy and reducing inefficiencies.

Read also: What Nigeria must do to fix its supply chain

“Any country that does not pay attention to logistics is furthering the impoverisation of its citizens,” Madu said.

The War Room Bootcamp introduced a framework known as RAPID, designed and developed as a practical response to the growing complexities and disruptions shaping modern supply chains across Africa and beyond.

“Years of disruptions ranging from insecurity and infrastructure failures to global trade shocks exposed the limitations of existing frameworks in addressing African operational realities,” he said.

The framework focusing on five pillars, including resilience architecture, agile response protocols, performance intelligence, integration command, and dynamic continuity, is aimed at helping organisations build stronger and more adaptive supply chains.

Participants at the bootcamp tackled simulated national supply chain collapse scenarios in real time, forcing organisations to think proactively and prepare for disruptions before they occur.

Madu added that the bootcamp attracted participants from manufacturing companies, academia, healthcare institutions, and the public sector, demonstrating that the framework can be adapted across industries.

Read also: Why Africa’s supply chains are broken – Mbanefo

Mfon Ekong Usoro, member of Multimix Academy advisory board, described the bootcamp as an intervention in the logistics and supply chain sector, noting that the programme moved beyond theory by using live simulations and real-time case studies that enabled participants to collaboratively develop practical solutions to complex disruptions.

Usoro emphasised that supply chain management is critical to every organisation and should not be treated as an isolated procurement function.

She noted that disruptions often worsen because departments operate in silos, delaying urgent decision-making and approvals during crises.

“Sometimes when there are disruptions, they have to separately go to the finance department to brief them. Meanwhile, time is going. The risk is expanding. The loss is becoming enormous,” Usoro said.

According to her, the war room model brings together all critical stakeholders, including finance, risk management, procurement, and executive leadership, to coordinate rapid responses and reduce losses during disruptions.

She further called on the Nigerian government to institutionalise supply chain and procurement expertise across ministries, departments, and agencies by creating dedicated professional cadres staffed with trained specialists capable of handling crises effectively.

Usoro said the programme, developed by Multimix Academy in collaboration with a Malaysian university, has now been validated and is ready for wider adoption by both public- and private-sector organisations.