‘How online stores can contribute to Nigeria’s GDP’

Do you think online retail business can thrive in Nigeria?We have seen that Nigeria is a big market of over 170 million people, yet there is low penetration of Information Technology (IT) in terms of online retail stores.  And therefore we came out with the concept of PhoneKings.com.ng and we believe it’s one big innovation […]

Do you think online retail business can thrive in Nigeria?
We have seen that Nigeria is a big market of over 170 million people, yet there is low penetration of Information Technology (IT) in terms of online retail stores.  And therefore we came out with the concept of PhoneKings.com.ng and we believe it’s one big innovation of getting people to buy at the best and cheapest price ever without stepping outside their living room.
In terms of policy, how will you evaluate the regulatory environment and how does it affect online businesses?
At the moment, there is no clear defined policy, we hope that the government and government institutions who are in charge of this particularly, the Ministry of Communication Technology, Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA) and several others even the telecoms associations will be able to sit down and draft a policy for online businesses, because as it is, it is un-documented and un-regulated. We hope as time goes on government will come with the clear cut policy regulating the IT and online business in Nigeria.
What do you think is the future of e-Commerce in Nigeria?
It’s quite big, if only government can draft a policy that will support the industry and if the financial institutions are also committed to invest into real time online commerce platform. I think the market is huge and I see the time is here where people will not need to drive from their homes to shopping places where all you need to do is to click your phone. It happens all over in the world, it happens in China and Asia and I believe that can also be replicated in Nigeria, we have the market, human capital resources and  the environment so all we need to do is the government putting in place some structures and the financial institution will follow suit.
Can you explain what you mean by financial institutions investing in online businesses?
I mean in terms of committing resources, in terms of investing, for instance outside the shores of Nigeria is where we have the terms angel investors. You see a young striving business and you invest or buy it over, in Nigeria it is still a big challenge, there are some dominant e-commerce platform in Nigeria but we encourage that this is a new time whereby the country itself needs to maximize the power of the internet to achieve endless results in trade and commerce.
What specific issues will you suggest for government in drafting the blue print?
Security is very important, finance and regulator; they should also look at the telecommunication stakeholders as they also have an input into this by not for instance increasing internet penetration to the rural areas. There is so much restriction in the rural areas.  Once the blue print is well articulated like I said and the Broadband Policy is executed not just on the papers but in reality then the online platforms in Nigeria will thrive. Another thing is the Internet service providers; there should be massive investment in infrastructure because most time there is down time, whereby people are unable to log in or access internet services.
How do you intend to win public confidence into the brand considering the issue of cyber security?
We understand that the security situation in the country is a boisterous challenge and nobody is disputing as we are aware of that. But what we have tried as much as possible to address that even for our delivery guys number one; they have their means of identification, and always in their uniform, our cars are customized with the emblem of phonekings.com.ng on them, so it gives you the comfort that the guys are from this company when it comes to challenges of security and delivery of goods. If you are talking about the online security now, in terms of people using their Mastercard, Visa, Interswitch and Verve cards online, our platform is very interactive, scalable, robots and security is 100%.  Because the back ends of phonekings.com.ng is handled by major players in the industry.
To guarantee safety of your back-ends and website, what measures have you put in place against hacking?
Our back-ends is not just handled by phonekings.com.ng. Our back-ends is domicile with the various banks and financial institutions so, the only challenge is if the hackers are able to get through to the back-ends through the financial institutions but from our ends there certainly no problem. We are 100% safe.
In the next few years where do see Phoneking.com.ng like how many jobs can you provide in the country?
In the next few years; we are anticipating exponential growth, we hope to open to more in more African countries, such as south Africa Ghana, Kenya Namibia, Boswana, we have looked at the Southern African Development Communities (SADC) regions and then come down West Africa and then East Africa. Africa is blessed, it’s a continent that worth investing in.