Nigeria: Online businesses fueling economy
The Managing Director of online hotel booking platform Jovago, Marek Zmyslowski, at the ongoing 3rd EU-Nigeria Business Forum has stated that online businesses have contributed to the growth of the Nigerian economy.
In a statement made on a panel discussing private sector contribution to Nigeria’s growth at the EU – Nigeria Business Forum held yesterday, Marek Zmyslowski stated that with the influx of online businesses in Nigeria, the economy has seen a significant boom. Zmyslowski was on the panel with the Deputy Minister of Economy, Poland, Andrzej Dycha; UK Trade Envoy to Nigeria, David Heath MP; Head of EU Delegation to Nigeria, Ambassador Michael Arrion; Regional Director, Peugeot Nigeria, Eric Maydieu; CEO, National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN), Chika Mordi; World Bank Lead Economist, John Litwack; Director, Orleans Invest, Simone Volpi and a representative of the Hon. Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga all of whom held varying opinions on the position of the Nigerian economy and what it stands to gain from executing the proposed free trade agreement.
As Zmyslowski noted, “Agriculture and Oil used to be the leading sources of the Nigerian economy, but with the rebased GDP it was shown that these two industries together only account for 37.9% of the Nigerian economy. A bigger percentage of 51% was allocated to services of which online businesses like Jovago.com play a big part of.” He went on to say that “the rebasing of the GDP merely reinforced the fact that Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa, a fact which has been long evident from Nigeria’s booming economy”
This EU-Nigeria Business Forum, which is the 3rd one that has been in held in Nigeria so far, is set to showcase European trade in Nigeria and discuss possible business growth for Nigeria. The EU-Nigeria Business Forum is being organised by the EU delegation to Nigeria, a number of EU Member States and the Nigerian government. The forum is expected to bring together, policy makers and business representatives with the aim to boost trade relations between Europe and Nigeria.
‘Nigeria’s Mark Zuckerberg’ puts tech into higher learning
In late 2012, Nigerian Gossy Ukanwoke launched Beni American University, the West African country’s first private online university.Every week, African Start-Up follows entrepreneurs in various countries across the continent to see how they are working to make their business dreams become reality.
(CNN) — At 23, many people around the world are still at university — at that age, Gossy Ukanwoke had already started one.
The young entrepreneur is the founder of Beni American University(BAU), Nigeria’s first private online university. Launched in late 2012, the school allows students to access their classes at any time of the day with any internet-enabled device.
“We are providing executive programs for graduates who are looking for employment and want to build up their resumes, or managers who want to climb up the hierarchy of their companies,” says Ukanwoke, now 25.
‘Nigeria’s Mark Zuckerburg’ builds own school
‘African iTunes’ targets mobile users“We also have courses targeted at people who want to start their own business.”
‘Nigeria’s Mark Zuckerberg’
Ukanwoke’s idea to start BAU came from his previous online venture called Students Circle, an educational social networking site he’d launched while in university that allows learners to interact and access free resources from leading schools.
“When I created Students Circle in 2010,” explains Ukanwoke, “I found out that … many were looking for certificates, hoping that they could get something they could use to maybe find employment or get a promotion in the workplace.
“There was a need for a new institution to be created in Nigeria,” adds Ukanwoke, who was once described by Forbes as “Nigeria’s Mark Zuckerberg.”
Now, some 18 months into his new business endeavor, Ukanwoke has hired 10 instructors and has about 200 students, with an average age of 26.
But the startup’s journey so far has not been without challenges — Nigerian laws require universities to have a physical campus so last year Ukanwoke went and bought land in the country’s Benue State with the goal to build a private campus that could accommodate some 10,000 students.
Gossy Ukanwoke, Beni American University
The project is expected to launch next year, but in the meantime the web courses are up and running — a 12 week online program can cost between $100 and $300. Among the courses offered are corporate diplomacy, global marketing, leadership and management, digital journalism, project management and entrepreneurship and innovation, which is the university’s most popular class.
“It’s good because I have four kids,” says Chinenye Madukwe, one of BAU’s students. “I have opportunity to work at the same time, because I have a small interior design outfit.”
Oo Nwoye, another BAU student, says he enrolled “for the knowledge.”
“It is just helpful for my business and that is the most important thing to me,” he explains.
Education is key
A son of two teachers, Ukanwoke says he is driven by his passion to use technology to solve social problems.
“I grew up within the framework where education was put at a very high level of importance, and entrepreneurship is something that I always wanted to do,” he says.
“Without education I don’t think we can do any progress,” he adds. “It’s not just about getting a certificate — education is about teaching people how to make a living and teaching people how to live; how to interact with others, how to lead their lives and make something out of themselves,” continues Ukanwoke.
“With education comes discipline and we need a lot of discipline in Nigeria as well, so education is really important.”
Ukanwoke relies mainly on social media to advertize but says that it’s student referrals that are increasing BAU’s enrollment.
“We still have a long way to go, we have a lot of work to do, a lot of policy wrangling too,” he admits. “But it’s a work in progress and we are quite happy with where we are.”
NIGERIAN FAST FOOD HITS CYBERSPACE
NIGERIAN FAST FOOD HITS CYBERSPACE
Nigeria’s online business space continues to expand with more savvy investors taking advantage of the country’s growing middle class.
In September 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the Presidential Committee for a national broadband strategy and roadmap as it has been empirically proven that every 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration in developing countries results in a proportionate increase of 1.3 per cent in GDP.
“Currently, we are in ten markets in Africa, Nigeria was our first market, and it’s our number one market at the moment,” James Gibson, Managing Director HelloFood told CNBC Africa.
The broadband penetration plan is for the period 2013 to 2018 and aims to increase broadband penetration by five times by the end of 2017. With the launch of HelloFood, a subsidiary of Foodpanda, in Nigeria two years ago the country’s online space was once again stretched further.
“We started off in Lagos and it remains our key base. We then expanded to Abuja and just two weeks ago, we launched in Port Harcourt,” he added.
Lagos is currently the most populous city in Nigeria and is the second fastest growing city on the African continent. This, coupled with the continuous increase in the country’s middle class, makes it the ideal place for the e-commerce businesses to thrive.
“Restaurants had been doing deliveries in the past but previous methods would have been to call up a restaurant. However, one of the challenges of doing that especially here in Nigeria, is the networks aren’t always that reliable,” he explained.
According to statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission, in 2013 a total of 48.3 million Nigerian telephone subscribers actively browsed the internet on their mobile phones.
“What we have come into the market to do, is to make it so much more convenient to place an order. You no longer have to call up a restaurant, all you need to do is, get onto your app on your phone, a few taps and then you’ve placed your order,” he said.
Gibson believes that, although the space is globally quite competitive, there are mainly three players in Africa and HelloFood is currently the number one with plans to expand into another five countries on the continent.
“The space is huge, there is so much potential. Of course with a product like food, people need food every day, actually, they need it three times a day,” he added.
Open For Business: Africa's Largest Market 
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