The Nation Newspaper

Category: Small Business and Entreprenuership

  • Govt urged to promote tax incentives for SMEs

    The Federal Government has been urged to promote tax incentives for small investors seeking to  explore  business  opportunities.

    Addressing the ‘National  Small  Business Week’ organised by the Association of Small Business  Owners of Nigeria (ASBON) in Sango Ota, Ogun State, the  Chairman, Accers Accounting Education and Research Services, Mrs Morenike Babington-Ashaye, said small  businesses are the backbone of growth and employment and so needs  government’s continued support to grow.

    Mrs Babington-Ashaye, a former Chairman, Ogun State Internal Revenue Services, noted  that  the  entrepreneurs need access to affordable capital and policies that do not hurt their ability to grow and create jobs.

    According to her, small businesses face a lot of challenges that weigh on them more heavily than their big counterparts. She said small business owners, who are already putting in long hours to keep their businesses afloat, find themselves with the additional burden of ensuring that their businesses are compliant with various taxes  and  regulations.

    To this end, she urged the government  to  review  taxes  and  regulations  to analyse the impact of regulations on small businesses, adding that if small businesses are less burdened by government rules and taxes, they will be in a better position to grow the local economies and create jobs.

    While access to capital and tax relief remains important, Mrs Ashaye called for support resources to help them to weather tough times.

    A former commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Ogun State, Chief Jide Ojuko, called  for  support  for  youths  to  get  involved  in small businesses and  entrepreneurship – all of which will help create jobs.

    He said small businesses as the engine of job creation and that youths need help to access capital, resources and opportunities to grow and create jobs.

    The  President of ASBON, Dr  Femi Egbesola,  said  the  association  proclaimed the  Small Business Week to  recognise  the role  of  small businesses,  which  employ  a lot  of Nigerians, produce  a substantial  portion  of the  yearly economic output, and contribute to the stability and vibrancy of countless communities.

  • ‘Entrepreneurship is cure for unemployment’

    What is the best way to tackle youth unemployment and close the growing income gap? Two United  Kingdom-based mentors say it is by establishing start-up hubs. They have packaged an innovative scheme to offer fresh graduates and students support to start their own businesses, Daniel Essiet reports.

    Founder, Meridian Entrepreneurs Society, Mariam Tijani; Committee Member, Mrs Kafayat Ajuwon, and two young mentors, know that  a lot  of  young entrepreneurs have ideas but don’t  have  the capital  to  execute  their dreams.

    Notwithstanding, they are ready  to inspire  a new generation of Nigerians. The  society, according  to Mrs Tijani, is  working on a  project  to assist  fresh graduates and students to get their own businesses off the ground.

    She said the  society would provide an attractive package of intensive business start-up support for students and graduates launching their own businesses.

    The programme will provide new businesses with dedicated incubator space where budding entrepreneurs could benefit from help and advice from the project team, socialise and share ideas with other new start-ups.

    Participants, she said,  would also benefit from workshops which would equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in their businesses and would also give them the opportunity to meet entrepreneurs. Grant funding is also available, alongside further training, mentoring from industry experts and career guidance.

    According  to her, an  innovation incubator, which  will be  launched  soon will  provide   a complete support environment to stimulate and foster innovative entrepreneurial projects in the nation’s youth.

    She  said the hub  is a critical step to promoting creativity and entrepreneurship stressing the role of young Nigerians  in overall economic activity. She is optimistic that the  project  would make a huge impact and stimulate a new movement towards sustainable growth and economic development.

    She reiterated  the  commitment of the society to building a diverse partnership network with businesses, universities, technology companies and various institutions in order to identify, encourage and support business initiatives at the early stages development of start-ups.

    Committee member, Mrs  Ajuwon  said  the  hub will  mark  a  great beginning in youth development and innovation.

    According  to her,  the  hub  will  provide an effective vehicle in channelling youth creativity and building an entrepreneurial talent capital in Lagos.

    The  hub  will specifically look at helping the youth and start-up firms navigate the challenge of early stage development with a suite of services that help identify and remove bottlenecks and allow future entrepreneurs maintain their focus and move forward.

    She  said funding is vital to the development of small enterprises, adding that  supporting graduates to develop and start small businesses which in turn will create jobs are ways of addressing rising youth unemployment in the country.

    According to her, to solve the problem, the have devised an  online  portal  that  would serve  as a   digital platform  for  young  Nigerians  to upload  their    ideas and meet prospective  funders.

    She  said  the  platform  will   give entrepreneurs more access to capital, adding  that money paired with mentorship could turn ideas into flourishing businesses.

    Mrs Ajuwon said there is a real appetite for starting a business among young people and as  such, they need an environment  that  highlights self-employment and new venture creation as a career option.

    She said there is a shortage of good, practical advice aimed at young entrepreneurs who consider starting a business as a career path.

    Mrs Ajuwon   said the society will  organise regular networking events, enabling entrepreneurs to meet potential investors and advisors.

    She  said  the  hub  will   provide room for promising entrepreneurs to nurture their ideas on premise. The facility focuses on pushing young businesses forward and offers operational support and guidance, where required.

    With high rate of  unemployment, she  said universities should be  acting as business incubators and going the extra mile to set up enabling ecosystems for entrepreneurship to thrive in.

    To promote this, she said the   society  is  launching  a nationwide    tour of universities to drive entrepreneurial initiative for on-campus, incubation, adding that  enterprise-creation needs to be nurtured and given the right opportunities on the campuses.

    She  said the  society’s chapters will be created on campuses and  members helped to study and work in an entrepreneurial atmosphere, where they seek guidance and learn from one another.

  • The booming Tokunbo cars trade

    The booming Tokunbo cars trade

    Many entrepreneurs are veering into the used cars business. Though it is import-dependent, the venture is  paying well despite the government’s decision to increase duty on used cars, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    The used-car market is enjoying a relatively good run.

    Buyers are opting for less-expensive used vehicles because of the present economic reality. Though the government says the economy is doing well, with consistent growth in the gross domestic product (GDP), analysts say this has not translated to good life for the citizenry.

    With this situation,  not many can afford new cars because of the high costs, making the business used car to flourish.

    Many entrepreneurs are profiting from it. One  of  them is the Chief Executive, Livier Global Concept Nigeria Limited, Mr Oliver Adokwu. He has over a decade experience in the car industry. After an apprenticeship  under his  uncle, he started with two cars.

    Today, he runs a thriving firm in Lagos, selling used cars. As people’s salaries have gone up and the standard of living has increased, Adokwu said Nigerians were  ready  to  go hungry to buy cars. He sees opportunities in used cars following high prices and increased demand for luxury cars caused in part by high tariffs on imported new vehicles.

    According to him, the second-hand car business thrives due to increasing incomes and people’s aspiration to keep up with the Joneses.

    Also, consumers are searching out deals and are still shying away from high-pricesd vehicles in a weaker economy.

    As a result, dealership in used-car operations are seeing higher profits, stronger prices and more returns on investment.

    It has been an exciting experience selling some of the world’s leading auto brands. He buys used cars from Benin Republic and the firm’s target market is middle class customers.

    He  tried  to  sell  cheap  cars, the average selling price is in the region of N700,000 and above.

    Despite the growing popularity of online platforms on which people can sell and buy cars, Adokwu believes his business is  not under threat. This  is  because  his clients  want  to see what  they  buy before  paying  and  they  have come  to see him  as  highly  dependable.

    To meet demands, Adokwu’s strategy is grabbing low-milleage vehicles, noting that they command the highest prices on the used-car market.

    Playing well in the used-car arena, Adokwu sells entry-level small and midsize cars which fall into the  affordable price levels for more conservative-conscious consumers.

    Generally, the lingering economic woes make for a tough automotive market, used or new. At the moment,  the local  auto market has not picked up,  helping  people sucha as  Adokwu  to make brisk business.

    He remains optimistic though significant challenges are still out there.

    One of the challenges  is  that   80 per cent  of used cars are not what people  expect. Another is corruption at the ports.

    Adokwu  said a lot of  them sell vehicles  from  Benin Republic  because there  are  a lot of thefts in the ports and  customers  want  cars  that  have  most  of the  key components  intact. Aside from that,  increasing  number  of  Nigerians don’t  want to use  public transport which is chaotic and highly unoraganised. This is  encouraging more dealers to go  into  used  cars  business. His  strategy  is selling   near-new  clean cars of between three and four years old.

    The most important lesson he has learnt in the car business is to treat customers with respect.

    He advised entrepreneurs to have good relationships with consumers and that entrepreneurs should exercise caution and be honest in their dealings.

    He   said  unstable  government  policies on cars create an atmosphere of uncertainty that is not positive, and a level of frustration.

    The industry does not have a comprehensive and systematic used car evaluation system. At the moment, used cars are priced according to each dealer’s evaluation, without applying any objective process or standard.

    The lack of a used car after-sales service system is also having an influence on consumer confidence within the used-car marketplace, causing a delay in proper development.

    But Adokwu has had to make changes to provide customers with reassurance after purchasing used cars.

  • The rise of digital entrepreneurs

    The rise of digital entrepreneurs

    The growth of technology has enabled the rise of entrepreneurship. The last five years have seen a rise in the number of young entrepreneurs. Technology hubs, business incubation centres have sprouted in the city and have become a habitat for many young entrepreneurs,  DANIEL ESSIET reports.

    The parade of new technologies and scientific breakthroughs is unfolding on many fronts. One of the areas benefitting from this trend is mobile technology, which influence is stimulating the creation and growth of the digital economy. The emergence of digital system is helping so many entrepreneurs to develop mobile enabled services that are transforming lives, communities and institutions.

    Adebola Adeola, co founder, Topup Genie, a Lagos-based online airtime retail outlet, is one of those that has keyed into this technology regime. Adeola is capitalising  on high penetration of mobile phones to  launch mobile airtime business  to meet the airtime requirement of phone  users.

    For this 2003 graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Surrey, United Kingdom, his inability to secure work permit in the UK after his education, forced him back to his home country. He got back  and participated in the  National Youth Service  Corps (NYSC) camp in Iseyin, Oyo State, in February 2009. There, Debola met his  partner, Lanre Oyedotun.

    After a few months, they began to draw plans that eventually led them to starting  a venture.

    Debola served at a company called CA Consultants. He was with the firm during the service year which ended in February 2010.

    After  the youth service, he  started working on building an e-bay clone with Oyedotun.

    This  drove Oyedotun to quit his job seeing potential  in the  startup.

    Some time into the venture, they realised they needed an online payment processor – a relatively unknown system  in the country as at 2009. They tried partnering with a technology company and made significant progress with ‘U-Paid’. The idea was that the company would provide the payment technology, while  they would handle the business development.

    Eventually, they met with MTN and GTBank and were gathering some momentum. It turned out the solution they were trying to assemble was a form of mobile payment solution.

    In line, the Central Bank of  Nigeria(CBN) had a framework  for it but  it required them  to have N500 million to do  it in Nigeria. It was an herculean task raising  that  kind of money.

    Nobody would give two unproven graduates that amount of money to experiment with, so thwey wentback to the drawing board.

    While working on the payment solution, they had obtained Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) licence and decided they would do what they  call an MVP (minimum viable product). They decided to build an airtime-vending platform for mobile phones.The MVP was ready  around January/February 2011. It took about 18 months to connect to the mobile networks, so they manually scratched a lot of recharge cards during that time. They have a company that sells airtime to mobile phone customers. They incorporated the business under the name iThena Logic Ltd, and the  service was hosted at: www.topupgenie.com. They initially bought and scratched thousands of recharge cards which they uploaded manually unto their MVP to prove the concept and later raised funds to build a more robust platform.

    They launched the second version in July 2012 and grew revenue at an impressive rate of about 23 per cent   monthly, mainly through word of mouth. They were really excited but it was shortlived because in November, last year, GTBank introduced the One Time Password (OTP) to improve security. However, the initial implementation was poor and caused  sales to dip by 90 per cent  in one day. Then, there  was the issue of fraud. The  financial industry had to confront cases of  fraudsters using stolen banks’ Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card details to purchase airtime. The  cases were rising rapidly so they implemented customer verification checks. This was effective but it had a negative impact on their businesses due to the ‘stress’ involved with verification checks.  The other   challenge was the absence of a robust  payment infrastructure. Sometimes, operators experienced   incomplete transactions and errors across all channels. These were too frequent and affected faith in e-commerce generally. These channels include POS, ATMs, online payments, etc.

    While more people  are  getting  online now  and there is  improved payment infrastructure, Adeola’s   concern  is that  major  telecoms  service  providers  are  now  involved in air time credit  lending  for  individual subscribers.

    Rather  than  wait  to  see more of their market share taken, he told The Nation, the company is focusing on organisations because the market for individuals is well catered for. The approach is to help companies manage the distribution of airtime to their staff to which there are numerous benefits.

  • Eco-entrepreneurship takes the centre stage

    Environmental entrepreneurship is thriving across Nigeria. Eco-entrepreneurs are promoting local solutions to various environmental issues, ranging from desertification to deforestation and drought, saving communities and creating jobs, Daniel Essiet reports.

    Innovative social and environmental start-up enterprises are springing  up  all over  the  country  to tackle key  development challenges at community level. From  making products out of recycled plastic and organic waste materials, to a women’s farming cooperative that improves food security. A lot of  social entrepreneurs are  working   towards building flourishing communities in which eco-entrepreneurship drives sustainable development.

    One of them is Kelechi Okezie, Chief Executive, Neighbourhood Environmental Watch (NEW).

    The environmental entrepreneur is working to transform  forests into a source of income for rural residents. What informed  his  venturing  into  social  entrepreneurship   was  the  growing   rate  of  deforestation  in  the  Niger Delta region  and  most  part of  the North. Though the  impact  of deforestation was  immense, he  chose  not to approach  with  high  technology  products. Instead, he sought to address it through agric business strategy.

    He was  convinced  farming with good seeds combined with the power of small business, can help stop it. Subsequently, he  began  a  search for high-quality seeds  of  high rewarding  crops  which he  gives and recommends to farms. As a strategy, he  sources seeds that can create both environmental benefits and solid profits for  farmers.

    Once, he has found them, he partners with women in communities  to establish a small nursery where seedlings are tested for climate and cultural relevance.The women help to select species and these are chosen to ensure crop diversity, maximal returns and nutritional value.

    Once the seedlings have been chosen, they are transferred to the communal and household lands for growth. Communities are educated on types of soil-enrichment plants and how trees can act as a natural soil rejuvenator. The crop yields from the communal land are directed towards community needs and projects. The economic returns from improved yields act as a strong incentive for the community to protect their land and forests.

    With increasing patronage, Okezie he is transforming the rural forests into a source of income for rural residents. For him, what  the  farmers have  got  in  terms  of  good  seeds  discourage them  from destroying  the  forests.  He believes if the forest does not provide money for the people, it will be impossible to save it. With that  the  farmers  can  earn  some  money  and thus making  the  forest more valuable than lumber exploitation or land clearing.

    The economic value provided by the seeds also protects the surrounding trees. The seeds are produced at their highest levels when they live in healthy, primary forests.Therefore, farmers are incentivised to protect entire forests in order to access the largest, best-quality crops.

    His success so far has led his organisation, Neighborhood Environmental Watch (NEW) to explore relationships with new communities and consider expanding its operations to other areas.  Currently, his organisation cannot fulfill all of the requests it receives, meaning expansion at some level is necessary.

     

     

  • UK group moulds youths into entreprenuers

    These are not the best of times for graduates, especially with the economy mired in recession and youth unemployment on a record high.

    For  this, there is   national  campaign spearhead  by  United  Kingdom-based  Proten UK Limited  to highlight opportunities for businesses and encourage jobless  youths to start and build a business.

    For its Chief Executive,Opy  Onas, the downturn  should  not  be seen as a bad omen; rather it  should  push many  youths  to  set up their own businesses and become part of a generation of young entrepreneurs.

    Addressing  a  one  day  seminar on “passion to  profession  boot camp”  in Lagos, Onas said with  the unemployment crisis, youths  have no options but to take their future into their own hands and be in control of  their  destinies.

    Against the backdrop of rising youth unemployment, he  challenged young people to think creatively and invent new products or services that address every-day market opportunities.

    As an entrepreneur, he  urged youths to be steadfast in their quest for entreprenuerial success because he had experienced huge barriers himself in the topsy-turvy terrain of business. Throughout his professional experience, he has found that the most important aid for startup is networking .

    Onas, an entreprenuerial motivator, said his experience in the UK has led him to conclude that there is an opportunity for those who want to engage in the emerging and thriving business  areas.    He said his organisation is helping young people with practical support around careers, interview techniques, employability skills and CV workshops, adding  that  participating entrepreneurs would  be offered real-life inspiration about the possibilities of setting up their own businesses by sharing their own entrepreneurial backgrounds and stories.

    The vision of his organisation, he  noted, is better living for all by championing entrepreneurship and encouraging youths to engage in value-adding operations.

    Country Representative, Merdian Entrepreneurs Society, UK, Mrs Kafayat  Ajuwon,  said the organisation provides start up loans.

    She said her organisation has  created  an online platform where  intending entrepreneurs can upload  their  ideas and  find  investors  to fund  their  businesses.

    The online platform,according  to her, helps to  pitch entrepreneurs  to venture-capital investors.

    She said described  the online portal as a matchmaking site, where people can list their needs, interact with potential mentors.

    Basically, she said meridian entrepreneurs creates an avenue for networking, growing a business and starting a new business through offering various seminars such as business idea development, social media marketing,  business planning, branding, mentoring and all other business needs among like-minded people.

    Youth Analyst, Etisalat Nigeria, Mr Mike Nwoseh said his organisation had been very innovative in its  approach to building entrepreneurship capacities among  youths.

  • A portal for jobs

    Many people searching for jobs find it hard to get one. This has led Temitayo to establish   jobsinNigeria to provide legitimate work opportunities. Daniel Essiet reports.

    A young  Lagos-based   entrepreneur,Temitayo Olufuwa, has established  Jobs In Nigeria to help tackle the nation’s astronomical youth unemployment rate. Co-founder of  Jin Innovations Ltd, Olufuwa said the   jobs portal is designed   for those with varying  levels  of  education, skills, experience, and backgrounds looking  for  employment opportunities.

    Olufuwa said he started the potal  to assist Nigerians looking for legitimate jobs.  The decision  was  borne out of a frustrating experience of knowing that there  are  job opportunities.

    The  other  reason  was  the  difficulties  people face in finding  job leads online–where legitimate jobs are  buried under scams, ads, and sketchy business opportunities. To tackle this, he established the site bringing  all job postings on various job sites on a  mobile optimised platform.

    Instead of people visiting sites that are not mobile enabled, his organisation get all the jobs on its  platform so people  can apply directly.

    To ensure  the  authenticity of job postings, the  company   look at trusted job blogs, talk to them and crawl their job postings. According to him, the web portal has grown very quickly and was an amazing learning experience. But he started  with N15,000.Today,the  business is worth N5million.

    When they launched it on June 1, 2012, they were funding the  business from their little  salaries. Initially, when  the business, started,he  and his partner,Dele Bakare operated from their homes, meeting  once a week  to  sort  out  issues. At the moment, he is operating from a rented  place.

    The venture  has   finally paid off.  Some   15,000 users   signed up on the platform in just two months. That number has since exploded to 200,000 thanks to support from The Tony Elumelu Foundation and African Leadership Academy.

    Jobs inNigeria,according  to him,   gives job-seekers a way to find jobs quickly, easily. The success  has  given  him  a love for entrepreneurship, growing a business, helping people find jobs, and following his passions. Besides this, Olufuwa is a story  of a  youth who rose   from grass to  grace, considering his own troubling upbringing. His father left his mother and three siblings at  six, leaving them in one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods of Mushin, Lagos.

    He  grew up witnessing gruesome mob lynching, gang fights and ethnic clashes.

    For Olufuwa, his childhood made him stronger. Circumstances that would make many western children and families crumble brought out the best in Olufuwa.

    Thriving off of his obstacles, Olufuwa managed to gain a place at the Igbobi College Yaba. This eventually led to his studying software engineering at N.I.I.T. where he met his  partner, Dele Bakare.

    He has been able to network  with  other entrepreneurs, building the confidence to share his  challenges and hear about theirs.

    The site prides itself as being able to provide the opportunities relevant for individuals at the low-level income group. It provides a platform for people  to receive guidance and make employers aware of the availability of skilled Nigerians.

    The major challenge is that of finding the available job opportunities which their users can benefit from.  To this end, the  company  is  ready to meet the emerging and growing needs of  companies, supporting local businesses in overcoming their skills gaps. This aligns with the plan to improve   the site  for economic prosperity.

  • Embracing the future to lead the present

    Embracing the future to lead the present

    Innovation, entrepreneurship and digital revolution will  help Nigeria move forward. There has created a new generation  of young  entrepreneurs  with the mission to develop products of the future. They are adventurers who create  solutions to daily problems most don’t even see. Daniel Essiet reports. 

    He is among  emerging digital entrepreneurs.  He  dreams of  building  high-growth company with  an array of aggressively growing businesses in Nigeria  and beyond.

    He is  Silas Okwoche,cofounder, Ideacentric Global Systems Limited. He  is a  serial entrepreneur to watch.  Okwoche  is a young  tech entrepreneur taking  the  nation  by storm. He  is passionate about disruptive technologies. His  contemporaries see him as  one  of the future hope of the  nation having  established  himself  a leader in the business intelligence space. He read Chemical Engineering  from  Ahmadu Bello University,Zaria. A serial entrepreneur,he  loves self-  employment and shown  even while he was  in  school.

    While in university, somewhere between attending lectures,he  was   re-selling wrist watches,doing   freelance website designing and selling  peanut snack products.

    He  just  knew then  that  serial social entrepreneurship and problem solving  were  his  true passions. After graduating with a degree in  Chemical Engineering in 2005, he worked for a year with SOI consulting and YWAP international as lead web developer and head of business development ,before founding Ideacentric in 2007. But  Okwoche  and his  partner,Dimeji  started Ideacentric as a web design firm in Kaduna. Then, they did web- designs for scores of small and medium scale organisations. Soon their   skill-set increased and because of oral eferrals.

    They started handling  brand design and IT-projects for SME’s and some large organisations. In 2010, they   moved to Abuja and consolidated their service offering under strategy, media and information technology. They  provide services, such as online research and proposal writing, brand marketing, material design and productions, as well as web and mobile application design and development.    One of his ideas is to make school curriculum available on mobile devices.. The company is  set  to   manufacture  its line of mobile internet tablets, called SPAKC,which  will  run on the Google Android.

    Okwoche  and his  partner are building apps, in partnership with educators and publishers that provide intuitive user-interfaces to access high quality school curriculum content. The   content will  be  stored in the tablet’s internal memory or in their  e-library.”He is   optimistic the government, along with international development organisations, will be able to pay for the less-than US$100 tablet. This price is inclusive the e-education content. This will enable every secondary school student to have a tablet for free. They have got some positive feedback from the  government. Furthermore, they   believe the internet ready tablets and apps will fly in the open market even without the government buy-in.He   created a mock-up and tested the idea with potential customers – and the feedback he  got is good.

    He  has  been a big fan of visionaries. For him, great ideas represent  the starting point.  His   inspiration comes from those who have the ability to convert those ideas into a value proposition that society simply cannot dismiss.  For  him, ,starting  a tech  company  is   more than starting a firm  or building the next best must-have device; but  is  predicated upon a vision that inspires.

    At the moment,  his  organisation  is   looking for an underserved market to exploit or bringing one more “disruptive” technology to the masses.

    His co partner, Oladimeji Obimakinde, said  the journey so far had been quite humbling. His  words:” Knowing that God is setting me/us to be trailblazers to many young and old Nigerians and the world has been an amazing experience and knowing that we are actually been positioned for relevance in the IT sphere for me builds fulfillment in me and a drive to “do more”.

  • Why women entrepreneurs need mentors

    No fewer than 30 women at the weekend held a mentoring walk in Gbagada, Lagos.

    Organised by Ideas Builders Initiative, the event is held on November 16 yearly worldwide as a platform for women who are established in their careers and young women who are aspiring to make it.  During the walk, the women talked on issues of empowerment and their problems. They also discussed the importance of women’s leadership, and the impact of women leaders through mentoring.

    According to the group’s Executive Director, Lucy Kanu, mentoring is critical to women empowerment to enable them build their potential and succeed. She said those mentored were likely to succeed compared to those who were not.

    She said: “Mentoring corresponds with strengths that are often associated with women; building personal relationships, caring and nurturing of others. It is an effective support system for meeting challenges that women face in common or that affect women in particular. For instance, the glass ceiling or the obstacles to career growth that women commonly face in corporate and professional environments.’’

    She said mentoring helps to draw the potential from women, noting that successful women could share their experiences with their younger ones and guide them into success, adding that such guidance helped to overcome any obstacle on their ways.

    On the merits of mentoring, she said they include helping the mentees to reach their goals in life. “These same mentees often become mentors, paying it forward by empowering even more women to be successful leaders,” she said.

    She described mentoring as flexible, adding that it is different from coaching and professional development programmes,”which often take place only in a professional setting and have a set schedule with a beginning and end; a mentoring relationship is more organic – growing and changing as a relationship progresses’’.

    A guest speaker and Health Consultant to Nestle Nigeria PLC, Dr. Eno Attah, said one’s altitude determines his attitude, urging women to always aim high. She also urged women to stay fine despite the stress they face.  She listed good food, healthy living, and regular exercises, among others as panacea for good living.

  • How handheld devices boost online market

    Nigeria’s leading online marketplace Kaymu has revealed that online sales growth is influenced by hand held devices.

    A few years ago, desktops accounted for the majority of online activities but that is changing rapidly. According to MD of Kaymu, Evangeline Wiles, “Nigeria’s mobile audience is growing exponentially​with more and more​Nigerians owning smartphones and tablets. The mobile phone has become ubiquitous in Nigeria.​”

    A Business Day report recently stated that mobile has rapidly risen to become the primary digital platform, with the total activity on smartphones and tablets accounting for an astounding 60 percent of digital media time spent in the U.S.

    Wiles further stated that mobile consumption is fuelled largely through app usage. “Since the launch of Kaymu’s mobile app in September, our ​ sales figures increased significantly with most of the growth coming from the mobile platform.  Consumers are now able to shop on their mobile devices at any time and in any location.  You can even shop while you are stuck in traffic,”she said.

    M-commerce is revolutionising the buying and selling process.

    ​While mobile allows consumers to shop from anywhere, it also has a major impact on sellers.  Merchants on Kaymu are able to manage their online shops from any location, they are no longer tethered to a desktop.  Mobile enables anyone, from students with busy schedules to experienced professionals, to easily manage an online store on Kaymu. ​

    With more than 120 million mobile subscribers, Nigeria is the largest mobile market in Africa and the tenth largest in the world. Nigeria has one of the highest internet penetrations in Africa via mobile and handheld devices. In 2013, over 10 million smart devices worth $1 billion (N167 billion) were sold in Nigeria according to reports; a large part of this attributed to affordable access to data on mobile devices.

    “M-commerce saves buyers the stress of visiting brick and mortar stores. ​And it expands the universe of people who can sell online, with just a mobile phone and a few products, anyone can become a retail entrepreneur​,”Wiles added.