Technology is the practical application of proven scientific knowledge to create solutions, improved approaches/methods to improve expected outcomes, increase efficiency, accelerate or accelerate processes to improve human well-being and industrial outcomes.
Nigeria, with an estimated population of over 200 million people, parades some of the best innovative minds, industry champions and technology leaders. In 2020, Nigeria had 99.05 million internet users. This number is expected to grow to 131.7 million internet users in 2023. Internet penetration was 46.6 percent of the population in 2020 and is expected to reach 65.2 percent in 2025. In the most recently measured period, there were nearly 85 million mobile internet users. users in Nigeria, and Internet use via mobile phones is particularly popular. Nigeria is considered a “mobile-first” market, where the development of infrastructure and online use has skipped the large-scale adoption of desktop PCs and instead moved directly to mobile internet use via low-cost smartphones. With nearly three-quarters of Nigeria’s web traffic coming from smartphones, Nigeria tops the list of African countries based on mobile traffic share. Other African markets with a similar share of mobile online traffic are Sudan and Ghana
According to the 2019 Freedom House Index, Nigeria was ranked fourth in sub-Saharan Africa and 22nd out of 65 global markets measured for internet freedom in 2019. Nigeria has very strict dragon laws and therefore Nigerian internet users often do not feel free to express themselves fully out online (Source Statista.com).
The result of this technology-driven commitment on the part of policymakers has helped the nation leapfrog, reshape and domesticate the institutional framework, enabling it to redesign its SME architecture of the country’s business ecosystem, leading to the emergence of indigenous startups like eg. Flutterwave, Paystack, Paga, SecureID, Kuda, Pass, Interswitch, Verve, YouVerify). This technological solution not only alleviated the earlier challenges faced by the government, public authorities and startups in terms of payment and other digital complexities, but also brought competitive and comparative solutions that are astonishing till date. The benefits of these technologies made it easier to do business, prioritized value addition and improved supply chains and operations; and also spread the effect to stimulate thinking about more data-driven technology solutions, which in turn enables the emergence of startups that deliver advanced solutions to developers and consumers.
Eg. before 2000, business registrations, public fees and excise payments were made manually in public offices and agencies responsible for their collection, with little accountability, while today they follow the progress of FinTech and the development of online payment gateways such as Flutterwave , Paystack , Remita etc. The story is different when it comes to taxes: VAT, personal income tax such as Pay as You Earn-PAYE, tax payments such as customs and excise duties etc. are paid online and collected electronically directly from relevant government accounts. This has reduced leakages and increased the verifiable amounts that the government collects from taxes and duties in the system. The results can be seen in the total collections from year to year notified by public authorities. For example, the FG generates NGN424.71 billion in VAT in Q3 2020, while NGN275.12 billion was generated in Q3 2019; An increase of 29.80 percent quarter-on-quarter and an increase of 54.37 percent year-on-year (source Nigeria Bureau of Statistics) Other agencies such as the Nigeria Customs Service-NC have also recorded meaningful figures (1.20 trillion generated in 2018, 1.341 trillion in 2019 above the target of 404 billion set), Federal Inland Revenue Service-FIRS (5.3 trillion in 2018 – highest before then, 5.26 trillion in 2019), Corporate Affairs Commission-CAC (85,635 new units registered in 2018, 89,917 new units 2019).
These technological improvements have helped Nigeria realize the need for harmonized comprehensive data from its citizens/population to accurately determine the calculation and permutation of its infrastructure deficit. This followed the Federal Government of Nigeria-FGN directive for all citizens to obtain a National Identity Number-NIN as well as bank account holders to compulsorily register and obtain a Bank Verification Number-BVN linking all account holders accounts across all banks where they are. operating accounts on a single BVN number in February 2003 and February 2014 respectively. This technology-enabled exercise has undoubtedly drastically exposed the fraud in the Nigerian system as the number of traceable cases has increased by over 30 percent, with a large number of arrests being made by the Nigeria Anti-Graft Agency – Economic and Financial Crimes Commission-EFCC which has given 312 convictions. in 2018, 406 in 2019 and a total of 1,900 convictions between 2015 and 2019, plus more than NGN 794 billion in looted funds recovered from top government officials, security chiefs, civil servants, former governors, oil subsidy traders and dozens of big wigs in the private sector.
FGN has taken further steps to include National Identity Number-NIN and Bank Verification Number-BVN as mandatory requirements for opening bank accounts, business registration, issuing tax certificates, registering vehicles and other licenses, electronic tax/fee payments, etc. multiple identities to beat the system, which was possible from the beginning, but extremely difficult with the end-to-end adoption of technology within the government process architecture. Recently, on August 1, 2020, the Central Bank of Nigeria-CBN issued a Global Standing Instruction-GSI directive that allows Bank B to debit its customer’s account with Bank A to offset non-performing loans owed by the same customer with the Bank B, when a default/bad loan has been registered. The CBN’s objective is to provide more SME growth support funds or loans while remaining focused on reducing the number of defaulted or bad loans and the number of defaulters who successfully obtain CBN SME support loans. The aim is to create a healthy repayment culture within the SME space in Nigeria. Once again, these were made possible thanks to BVN and NIN, technology-enabled initiatives.
HOW THE BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM WILL HAPPEN
With online transactions in Nigeria reaching $116 billion in the third quarter of 2020 (https://techpoint.africa/2020/11/05/instant-payment-nigeria-q3-2020/) from around 2020. $13 billion in the third quarter of 2019, which clearly shows a deeper penetration into the structure and an overall look at the extent to which technology can activate companies and strengthen society.
First, there will be forced ADOPTION by key decision makers in government-Federal Executive Council-FEC, parliamentarians, representatives of the assembly, heads of government and government agencies, leaders of micro, small and medium enterprises-MSMEs, the organized private sector and all critical stakeholders within the economy will have no choice but to adopt technology to increase process efficiency due to the undeniably disruptive prospects that will follow e.g. in 2023; given the sequential speed at which the human mind thinks and applies technology to create leading-edge solutions that improve business and social well-being.
The next step will be the INDEPENDENT INTEGRATION of technology to incorporate innovation to create more acceptable ways of doing things by these key economic actors – politicians, government agencies, micro, small and medium enterprises – MSMEs, the organized private sector that are decision makers and influencers. The valid measurable evidence in results that are recognizable and too visible to miss. Of course, assuming the unmatched efficiency in processes, methods, systems and results that will be very evident in the results and prospects of early adopters of technology that will show indisputable evidence and act as eye openers to the obvious truth to be innovative to stay or risk Extinction. Rapid scaling of Early Adapters in technology, trends and its supporting systems will be the order of the day, which in turn will create a new order that will result from measurable distributed impact – a core technological characteristic/characteristic that all technologically advanced societies such as Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, UK, USA etc.
With the above, SYSTEM AND PROCESS INNOVATION will be the case within all systems and central public authorities. This will render archaic traditional business systems, methods and practices obsolete (e.g. maintaining physical records instead of cloud-based documents, the informal business sector struggling to formalize their businesses and the trend of online onboarding of their business presence) and informal business systems will become obsolete. to adapt to the new order/ways driven by technology; known and seen as fast, hassle-free and more efficient. The results will be too obvious to be overlooked or undermined by influential or powerful people in the administration and key decision makers in government circles.
These changes will deepen the conversations within the Nigerian business space for a more technology-driven business ecosystem of key players in the industry: the organized private sector, business sector leaders, MSME clusters, etc., based on the shift in narrative and outcomes that will be driving. reflected in the process outcomes for users of these new technological tools, software and innovations to support their business processes. Successive obsolescence of methods with these new technological solutions that will emerge from continuous research, creative thinking, calculated RISK taking and bold steps taken by founders within the Nigerian business environment.
The above will lead to the most interesting phase: CHANGE IN THE POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR BUSINESSES AND SMEs by the government and all relevant public authorities where policies are formulated and implemented. The essence will be to tame and sustain the results we are witnessing by capturing them as policy statements and documents that can be used as national development templates that can be replicated or duplicated by successive government administrations for trackable progress. The impact of leading technology-driven business solutions and startups will naturally lead to an adoption model in the government quarters. By then, the business ecosystem would have become more mature and developed, having witnessed inevitable trajectory shifts, change curves and improvement milestones; that the government of Nigeria has no choice but to participate in formulating and implementing supportive policies to maintain the new Status Quo and encourage ease of doing business as both the government and its political agencies: Central Bank of Nigeria-CBN , Small and the Medium Enterprise Development Agency-SMEDAN can no longer be superficial in its implementation.
The World Bank (WB) recently released its EASE OF DOING BUSINESS 2020 report. Nigeria’s ranking rose from 146 to 131; representing the second highest annual gain of 11.45% in a decade. The annual report looked at ten (10) parameters. Building permit handling (14.6%) and border trade (6.1%) saw the best growth. Nigeria improved its position in five parameters while moving closer to global best practice in two parameters. The WB also recognized Nigeria as one of the ten most improved economies, thanks to six separate reforms by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), which showed a significant distance to the frontier (DFT) score in business regulations, enabling 2018 to be marked as a year of a new cycle of better economies. policy for companies as the DTF score increased from 52.33 to 56.9 in 2020. The introduction of technology has certainly contributed significantly to this.
Major government revenue generating agencies such as Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) ) The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) etc. cannot deny the impact of technology as an enabler of business activities and operations as each of these agencies have witnessed first-hand transformations in their processes and year-on-year – year’s results/objectives that are relatively things traditional versus using technology. A good example is FIRS Tax Statistics/Reports – ANNUAL OVERVIEW OF COLLECTIONS from the years 2000 – 2020, which shows that the annual increase in collections of 25-45% is consistent with significant improvements over the previous year.
Technology is the practical application of proven scientific knowledge to create solutions, improved approaches/methods to improve expected outcomes, increase efficiency, accelerate or accelerate processes to improve human well-being and industrial outcomes.
Nigeria, with an estimated population of over 200 million people, parades some of the best innovative minds, industry champions and technology leaders. In 2020, Nigeria had 99.05 million internet users. This number is expected to grow to 131.7 million internet users in 2023. Internet penetration was 46.6 percent of the population in 2020 and is expected to reach 65.2 percent in 2025. In the most recently measured period, there were nearly 85 million mobile internet users. users in Nigeria, and Internet use via mobile phones is particularly popular. Nigeria is considered a “mobile-first” market, where the development of infrastructure and online use has skipped the large-scale adoption of desktop PCs and instead moved directly to mobile internet use via low-cost smartphones. With nearly three-quarters of Nigeria’s web traffic coming from smartphones, Nigeria tops the list of African countries based on mobile traffic share. Other African markets with a similar share of mobile online traffic are Sudan and Ghana
According to the 2019 Freedom House Index, Nigeria ranked fourth in sub-Saharan Africa and 22nd out of 65 global markets measured for internet freedom in 2019. Nigeria has very strict defamation laws and as a result, Nigerian internet users often do not feel free to to express themselves fully online (Source Statista.com).
The result of this technology-driven commitment on the part of policymakers has helped the nation leapfrog, reshape and domesticate the institutional framework, enabling it to redesign its SME architecture of the country’s business ecosystem, leading to the emergence of indigenous startups like eg. Flutterwave, Paystack, Paga, SecureID, Kuda, Pass, Interswitch, Verve, YouVerify). This technological solution not only alleviated the earlier challenges faced by the government, public authorities and startups in terms of payment and other digital complexities, but also brought competitive and comparative solutions that are astonishing till date. The benefits of these technologies made it easier to do business, prioritized value addition and improved supply chains and operations; and also spread the effect to stimulate thinking about more data-driven technology solutions, which in turn enables the emergence of startups that deliver advanced solutions to developers and consumers.
Eg. before 2000, business registrations, public fees and excise payments were made manually in public offices and agencies responsible for their collection, with little accountability, while today they follow the progress of FinTech and the development of online payment gateways such as Flutterwave , Paystack , Remita etc. The story is different when it comes to taxes: VAT, personal income tax such as Pay as You Earn-PAYE, tax payments such as customs and excise duties etc. are paid online and collected electronically directly from relevant government accounts. This has reduced leakages and increased the verifiable amounts that the government collects from taxes and duties in the system. The results can be seen in the total collections from year to year notified by public authorities. For example, the FG generates NGN424.71 billion in VAT in Q3 2020, while NGN275.12 billion was generated in Q3 2019; An increase of 29.80 percent quarter-on-quarter and an increase of 54.37 percent year-on-year (source Nigeria Bureau of Statistics) Other agencies such as the Nigeria Customs Service-NC have also recorded meaningful figures (1.20 trillion generated in 2018, 1.341 trillion in 2019 above the target of 404 billion set), Federal Inland Revenue Service-FIRS (5.3 trillion in 2018 – highest before then, 5.26 trillion in 2019), Corporate Affairs Commission-CAC (85,635 new units registered in 2018, 89,917 new units 2019).
– Tony O. Elumelu, Economist, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist
“Whether you’re a farmer, a builder or an engineer, the possibilities are the same: just add a little innovation.”
“The opportunities lie in the problem. As soon as I see a problem, I immediately start thinking about the opportunities that can be created by solving it.”
– Strive Masiyiwa, Zimbabwean billionaire, businessman and philanthropist
Victor Uche Obioma is the Vice Chairman of VICFAUS INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS LIMITED (Division of VIEWS GROUP Co.), he is an international partner for Nigeria; World Business Angels Investment Forum-WBAF and member; Global Startup Committee
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