A HUNGER TO CONQUER – The ICT Leverage - By Matthew Ujah-Peter

Micro, Small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) are everywhere and on the rise in spite of the hard-biting and  unforgiving business environment we find ourselves in as a people. This is an indication that we are not just hard working people but resilient and die-hard in our quest for survival and success and a sure sign that Nigeria is set to take on the world by the time the right things begin to fall into places.

 Foreigners who visit Nigeria are often surprised to see so many opportunities to which Nigerians themselves are “blind” or appear to take for granted. Developing countries like Nigeria have so many issues that may be seen as problems but which in reality, are business opportunities. The unsolved economic problems in Nigeria are opportunities.  More Nigerians, however, are now becoming aware of and serious about this simple fact. Rather than complaining, many are now contemplating on and seeing private challenges and public frustrations as opportunities and consequently rolling up their sleeves and going to work tuning them into businesses. Hence there are so many micro, small and medium scale enterprises around the country. And more are coming. These MSMEs or cottage industries will help mop up unemployment and underemployment from the labour market when the needed atmosphere and incentives are provided eventually by listening and caring governments.

The ICT Leverage

According to the Bank of Industry (BOI) a micro scale enterprise is one with ten employees or less and whose total asset equals or is less than 5million naira. A small scale enterprise on the other hand is one with total employees of 11 – 50 people and with asset worth 5million naira to 100million naira. A medium scale business, however, is one with a total number of 51 – 200 employees and asset of 100 – 500m naira. However, there is yet no universally agreed definition due to differences across countries. But experts mostly use the numbers of employees to determine which enterprise is micro, small or medium.

One of the major reasons why the criteria above may fall short of adequately or accurately defining MSMEs in today’s world is the emergence of information and communications technologies - the Internet and the new media such as corporate websites and more particularly, the social media such as Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube channels etc. Today, the internet is handling the jobs that human employees would have been hired to do, more especially with the emergence of software robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

With just a few staffs a micro or small enterprise can achieve the results of an established firm. Corporate endeavours such as marketing, customer care, sales, public relations, advertising, leads generation, accounting and book keeping etc., can now be achieved with ease via the use of ICT automated systems. Many entrepreneurs with less than ten employees are taking on responsibilities and raking in far more than a micro scale enterprise is termed to be or tipped to be able to achieve by the BOI criteria. Thanks to the ICT revolutions. Operating with just two or three employees, many online or internet-based enterprises are leveraging the internet and information and communications technologies to excel beyond expectations.

Who would have thought 25 years ago that such an idea as Facebook would make its owner one of the world’s richest?! Facebook was only almost a playful idea but now it is beyond that!  Similar results are been replicated at home and abroad via technology and internet based start-ups that are riding the ICT tide raking in millions. Thus technology (specifically ICT) has now provided the leverage for hobbyists, freelancers, professionals, micro businesses and small businesses to leapfrog into global businesses with mind boggling net worths within a very short time with just a small start-up asset base.

And the land is still green for us in Nigeria! "If you can think it, you can Inc it." If you can imagine it, you can emerge with it. The field of software engineering is full of opportunities. Artificial Intelligence and robotics are other areas waiting for the right thinkers who will ask the right questions that would provide them with the billion-Dollar answers.

Again, cyber security, which is said to have millions of job vacancies worldwide, is a very, very important job and business opportunity that anyone who is willing can explore. Talk less of e-commerce opportunities in all their types, shapes and sizes! All it takes is a hunger to excel – a hunger to conquer!