Are you thinking about starting a Borehole drilling business in Nigeria? We have some information you may need to digest before you start! The Borehole drilling business in Nigeria has become an essential aspect of modern Nigerian society, and it is a profitable venture. Given the geography of Nigeria, the water availability challenge is endemic in several Nigerian communities; apart from the challenges of desertification in the North, several other Nigerian communities, even those of the south, constantly face water availability challenges.
Generally, access to safe water remains a tough challenge to several Nigerian households; as such, the borehole drilling business in Nigeria has become a very lucrative venture. Earlier, people relied on rainwater, streams, rivers, lakes and other natural forms of water bodies; however, times are changing, and with population growth and climate change, some of these natural surface waters are drying up; as such, borehole drilling has become a viable option towards water access for home use and industry.
Water access has become more challenging, and borehole has become a crucial option, thereby creating a thriving borehole drilling business in Nigeria. With this thriving business sector comes the need for effective information. Niger Investor today presents this guide to needing individuals or firms who wish to get into the borehole drilling business in Nigeria through a simplified step-by-step procedure.
Steps in Starting a Borehole Drilling Business in Nigeria.
Step 1: Make an Informed Business Assessment of Your Target Area
A market survey is crucial in any business venture; regarding the borehole drilling business in Nigeria, the market survey is where you analyze your target locality to understand whether the market for borehole drilling is there. While there is certainly a huge market for borehole drilling business in Nigeria, the demand is not the same in all localities. Areas with or close to large surface water bodies like lakes, rivers, islands, seas and rivers are less likely to demand borehole drilling than those with less surface water; also, areas with less surface water and more underground water are more likely to demand borehole drilling.
This first phase would focus on the question of demand; the demand for boreholes could have several impacting factors, such as surface water availability or lack of it, underground water availability or lack of it and the income distribution of the target vicinity. Government interest could also be a deciding factor, especially in rural areas. Once this market assessment is done and potential demand is positive, the next step would be to answer the technical questions.
Step 2: Technical Assessment
Establishing a Borehole drilling business in Nigeria, just like every other enterprise, requires understanding the location where you intend to set up your business. Nigeria’s investment requirement for borehole drilling varies from location to location. This is given geographical differences, industrial differences and water depth. Understanding the features of your target business area would be crucial to the success of your borehole drilling business.
Geographical assessment: The first thing to do when thinking about starting a borehole drilling business in Nigeria is to assess the geography of your target area. In this aspect, you can determine how close underground water is to the surface. This would go a long way. In some Nigerian areas, underground water is very close to the surface, while others are far deeper or have limited underground water. Areas close to other large water bodies like seas, rivers, lakes etc., could have more underground water. To determine whether the area where you wish to establish your borehole drilling business has suitable underground water at a reasonable depth, an expert survey of the area may be needed; these experts could be hydrologists or other related fields.
The importance of assessing the water depth is very significant as it would go as far as deciding your capital and whether the investment is worth it. Very deep underground water depth in areas of low-income earners could mean less patronage unless one expects patronage from the government. States and local governments are some of the biggest patronizers of the borehole project in Nigeria; as such, deciding the target criteria of customers is important.
Understanding the geography is crucial as deep underground water in poor neighborhoods is unlikely to be a patronizing market for borehole drilling business in Nigeria unless, however, government, charity, or other organizations patronage. In several areas in Nigeria, selling water from boreholes is also a big business; even in poorer neighborhoods, chances are that small to medium-scale enterprises may still patronize, thereby expanding the scope of borehole drilling business in Nigeria.
Water depth and geography are very important in borehole drilling because they will determine the technical requirements; also, when water is close to the surface, there would be fewer resource requirements, both in machines and Human Resources; this would also impact fuel and other vital aspects of the long term business. This stage of the analysis would give a glimpse into the long-term viability of the business.
Step 3: Making Inquiries and Getting the Required Approval and Licensing
Any individual or firm intending to enter Nigeria’s borehole drilling business should seek approval from relevant authorities before embarking on the venture. This is because of the sensitive nature of any form of drilling. Nigeria is rich in solid minerals, fossil fuels and hydrocarbons. On several occasions, especially in Enugu State, Water drilling had sparked fire when drilling caused natural gas exposure. The fire resulting from the incident would take days to put off, not minding the dangers such a situation usually presents. To prevent accidents like this from happening, it becomes important to get approval from relevant mining authorities in the target states where you wish to set up your borehole drilling business in Nigeria.
Apart from this instantly dangerous scenario, there are other long-term situations of drilling into other slow-acting but dangerous substances like lead and coal. Even in the face of these dangers, there are several other reasons to first seek approval and get the required license to drill a borehole; for this reason, we recommend due consultation with appropriate government bodies, especially those of state and local governments in Nigeria.
Step 4: Work Out Your Budget
Although the borehole drilling business in Nigeria is lucrative, it is also capital-intensive. Working out a budget is the next step when geography and approval have been sorted; there is no clear-cut budget; a lot depends on what you are aiming for and how big you want to start. Do you want to work at more than one site at a go? Have you successfully resolved prior steps, where you have ascertained underground water depth and the rest because all these would factor in on the kind of equipment you may need and their numbers?
Answering some of these crucial questions would help you to tailor the budget. Perhaps for the sake of this article, we would assume that we are looking at working at just one site at a go, then we could arrive at a budget this way: One Standard truck-mounted borehole drilling rig at a price ranging from 50 million to 350 million nairas; NOTE that before you decide to go for the cheaper or more costly machines and equipment, please do ensure that you have satisfied step 1 of this article as the geography and water depth would go a long way in deciding the capacity of the borehole drilling rig you would need in your target area. After securing the rig, you would also need a parking space for your truck-mounted borehole drilling rig; in this case, you will build a shelter with security in place.
After crossing this stage, the next thing on the budget is getting the workforce; this would require drilling experts and their accompanying workforce support. This phase would also be decided by several factors depending on the size of your establishment and how many sites you intend to work at simultaneously.
Disclaimer: If you don’t have sufficient experience or knowledge of the borehole drilling business in Nigeria, note that you may need to consult experts or other people who have set up or worked in borehole drilling projects in nearly all the stages of your borehole drilling business plan and execution. This article is only an essential guide hinting at critical suggestions. Please do understand that borehole drilling is a physical and real-time activity; as such, this article would not be sufficient to cover all the details, especially if you have no prior experience in borehole drilling and other related fields; we recommend that at all stages of your borehole drilling venture, you need to consult with real-time experts to avoid making costly mistakes.
You may also contact Niger Investor if You may have further questions, would like us to recommend experts or suggest a reliable place to buy your borehole drilling machines and pieces of equipment.
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