Bright future for the growth of online businesses in Nigeria

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Conversion Report

Written by Oluwaseun Pelemo

Wednesday, 03 September 2008 13:06

Nigeria is fast incorporating the internet applications that transformed businesses in developing and developed countries around the world. With the advent of mobile banking, online card processing and internet payment solutions, Nigerian businesses are well positioned to tap into the vast possibilities available through the internet for cost effective business growth. In developed countries, the availability of the internet and related applications heralded the emergence of businesses with infinite possibilities. The internet gave businesses the ability to sell and market their goods and services to people in almost any part of the world. It also gave rise to a new genre of businesses that ran on the internet full time and had all their processes fully automated with little or no need for a large office or ton of employees thereby cutting costs and increasing profits. Even brick and mortar businesses had to take advantage of this trend in order to remain competitive in the minds of their consumers. Companies such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City in the United States of America and the others had to create an internet storefront with even cheaper prices and incentives than their physical locations because of the amount of costs they could save as a result of running their businesses on the internet.

The argument against businesses exploring the possibilities of the internet in Nigeria has always been the rate of fraud and corruption and most importantly, the availability of fast and affordable internet connections. The issue of corruption in Nigeria is an important issue that needs to be considered before threading the internet waters but the incidence of corruption should not be a barrier for the even larger population of people who can honestly afford these services and are willing to pay and make use of them. I strongly believe that set of people that are willing and able to make use of the internet to service and get serviced are enough to capitalize the internet as an important channel of running business. In terms of the availability of internet connections, we all know the internet is becoming widely available everyday and being used more and more in various institutions. Several schools and private universities in Nigeria already offer free internet service for their students to use. Also, a lot of establishments in Nigeria now have internet for their employees in order to break the divide between them and the rest of the world. A more concrete evidence that the internet connection problem is not going to last any longer is the almost completed Glo-1 submarine cable that will connect Nigeria directly to the United Kingdom for broadband internet connections. Many other projects (Click Here for more information) are also under construction and the prediction is that Nigeria will be able to compete with the rest of the world in terms of internet speed. The availability of many private firms competing to offer internet service to the populace may drive down the prices with time on. At this time, business establishments should be looking towards possible applications of their business models to the internet. Invariably, this will increase the need for web developers and information systems experts in Nigeria.

The major application of the internet in Nigeria has been to communicate. Any internet user is either sending e-mail, checking e-mail, researching for information, using social networking websites or getting entertained. The use of the internet for commerce has not really been explored within Nigeria. In other developing countries such as ours, the internet is being actively used for business and other value added activities such as online stock trading. The author is of the opinion that Nigeria has not been properly and optimally represented on the internet. With the obvious development and the approaching internet revolution in Nigeria, businesses should be more confident to launch out on the internet. After knowing the audience, the only challenge faced by businesses will be figuring out the genuine customers from the fraudulent ones. Depending on the nature of business, every business should be able to develop a fool proof method of knowing who is genuine and who is not. In terms of online payment systems, various systems such as Interswitch, eTranzact, Mastercard, Visa and VTN have already started services in Nigeria. To that effect, receiving online payments will not be too much of an issue for any business. There is also a subtle rumor that the world's famous Paypal is exploring possibilities of connecting Nigeria to the world in terms of online payment processing. It seems all the pieces are falling in order, for us to see our first set of internet startups in Nigeria. Lets watch and see.

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