Build a Business Model for a Community-Owned Road Maintenance Service in Rural Oyo State

Nigeria has roughly 200,000 kilometres of rural roads, and the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency estimates that more than 60% are in poor or failed condition. In Oyo State, farming communities in areas like Saki West, Atisbo, and Iseyin lose significant income because produce cannot reach markets before it spoils, or because truck drivers charge premiums to travel damaged roads. State and local government budgets for road maintenance are chronically underfunded and inconsistently released. Waiting for government to fix these roads has not worked. What has worked, in isolated cases in Nigeria and across East Africa, is community-led maintenance crews funded through a combination of user levies, local government transfers, and contributions from market associations and agribusiness buyers. You will design a business model for a community road maintenance organisation serving a cluster of three to five villages in rural Oyo. Your submission should include: a one-page business model canvas, a simple financial model showing projected income and costs over three years, a stakeholder map identifying who pays, who benefits, and who governs the entity, and a one-page pitch document aimed at a local government chairman. You can anchor your model to a real geographic cluster or create a representative composite. The best submissions will be grounded in what is financially realistic for rural communities with low cash income, and will show clear thinking about governance: who collects money, who decides how it is spent, and what stops the organisation from being captured by a local strongman or going dormant after the first dry season. Generic business plan templates will not score well. Original thinking about incentive structures will.