A business expert has stated the high cost of technology is no longer an issue limiting small businesses from expanding, as several business tools are becoming cheaper.
Peter Bankole, from Lagos Business School, was speaking at the Lagos to Global: Digitizing Your Business Across Borders conference today when he said: “The cost of broadband has crashed by 80 per cent, smartphones are very affordable.”
He noted that Nokia has launched a very affordable high-tech device that only costs US$200 and some BlackBerry devices cost less than NGN15,000 (US$94).
In addition, he said technology is revolutionising other sectors including education.
Concerning business, he said a new challenge of going global has been posed to serious business owners.
“Going global is essential for businesses,” he said. This does not necessarily mean being everywhere but using e-channels.
“Whatever you are doing, do it in the physical and e-channels. This is how you can reach anybody and everybody,” Bankole said.
To go global, he encouraged business owners to maximize cloud services and e-channels.
“If you are not on the cloud or e-channels, you are just deceiving yourself,” he said.
Another issue he stressed is to understand the standards in all the markets business owners are getting into.
He noted that credibility is an issue that business owners in Nigeria with global intentions are battling with.
This he said is as a result of inactivity of credible business owners, leaving the web space to those perpetrating fraudulent businesses.
“More good people are needed online because bad people are more active. For one bad person online, we need more than 10 credible business owners online,” he said.
