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HOW MOBILE INTERNET IS TRANSFORMING NIGERIA’S BUSINESS LANDSCAPE

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 With sub-US$50 smartphones on the way, rapid improvements to telecom
infrastructure, and the availability of affordable cloud applications, the
mobile Internet is rapidly transforming the way that Nigeria does business.
It is empowering enterprises to be more flexible, responsive and efficient
than ever before. That’s according to Magnus Nmonwu , Regional Director for
Sage West Africa, who says that Nigeria is adopting the mobile Internet as
quickly and enthusiastically as it did mobile voice services some years ago.
“Mobility is the growth engine of the Nigerian economy,” he adds. “It is
helping people to enhance their lives and to improve their standard of living,
while enabling enterprises to transform how they operate.”

According to statistics from the Ericsson Mobility Report, total mobile
subscription penetration in Sub-Saharan Africa is about 80% but will grow to
100% and 1 billion mobile subscriptions by 2021. Nigeria, as one of the largest
mobile markets in Africa, is leading the trend based on these results. As one
example of mobile’s impact on Nigeria’s economy, consider the fact that the
Ministry of Science and Technology forecasts that the mobile market will be
worth US$166 billion dollars in 2020 and directly employ about 2.7 million
people.
NEW MOBILE BEHAVIOURS
“Many of our customers and employees today walk around with smart devices
that give them access to apps and information wherever they are,” says Nmonwu.
“For example, Facebook’s statistics show that 7.1 million Nigerians access its
platform every day. And 100% of its monthly users access Facebook on a mobile
smart phone.”
Tapping into this behavior gives organizations new ways to interact with
employees, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders, he adds. This ranges
from mobile marketing, advertising and e-commerce for consumers to mobilizing
business applications such as the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Employees and managers are increasingly able to access information on the
road to serve customers, speed up decision-making, and save time. A salesperson
can now easily check from a tablet or smartphone whether a product is in stock
while on-site with a customer, and place the order without going to the office.
And managers can now use their time between meetings and at airports more
productively.
Mobile technology is also helping HR departments to become more efficient
and to build better relationships with employees. For example, companies can
offer employee self-service (ESS) across mobile devices to streamline HR
processes and engage with employees more effectively.
With mobile ESS, companies can enable employees to file leave applications,
submit  doctor’s notes when they’re ill,
and make expense claims – all from their mobile devices. They can look up their
pay slips, change their personal details, and more, all without needing to do
paperwork, visit or call the HR department.
The future is mobile and we are giving our customers the power to control
their businesses from the palm of their hand,” says Nmonwu. “We connect our
customers to accountants and partners with real time and intuitive information
about their business.”
PRODUCTIVITY BOOM
Says Nmonwu: “In addition to the productivity boom, organizations need to
adopt mobile business processes and apps to meet the expectations of employees
and customers. Today’s consumer and employee want to interact with companies
using accessible, easy to use mobile services and apps.
“Enterprises thus need to start mobile security and device management, so
that they can support mobile employees. Today’s consumer wants service on
demand from a handset and today’s employee wants to be productive wherever he
or she is, at anytime or in any location. With this, we expect to see a great
deal of investment into mobile technology in West Africa over the next year or
two.”
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