• Thursday, October 31, 2024
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Nigeria’s cloud market worths N20bn annually amid broadband constraints

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Nigeria’s cloud computing market is estimated to worth about $100 million (N20bn) annually, despite the dearth of broadband infrastructure required to make such innovative service pervassive.

Tunde Tani-Fafunwa, managing director of Kitskoo Cloud Services Limited, made this known at an Information Technology workshop organised by the firm in Lagos, weekend. Cloud computing, often referred to as simply ‘the cloud,’ is the delivery of on-demand computing resources – everything from applications to data centres – over the internet on a pay-for-use basis. The workshop with the theme: ‘Love IT or Leave IT,’ was organised to sensitise business community on how innovations in technology are shaping the way businesses relate and should relate with their customers and other key partners. The forum was designed to show in clear terms how businesses could increase their return on investments (RoI) by using cloud-based services.

Tani-Fafunwa, said: “Cloud technology is the way to go for businesses these days, rather than spend money on deploying their own infrastructures; businesses can actually outsource their IT aspect to a third party; business need to embrace pay-as-you-use IT services to drive their businesses.”

He said though the adoption of cloud computing in Nigeria cannot be said to have grown significantly, “the market potential for cloud computing in Nigeria is well over $100 million per year.”

According to him, though the cost of transiting into the cloud is expensive, its adoption has greater impact on the growth of the company’s returns. “So, Nigeria has about 17 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) currently and how many of them have adopted cloud technology.

“This category of businesses does not have the needed financial requirement to purchase their own IT infrastructure and even if they have the financial standing, as SME, it is advisable to go by way of cloud computing,” he said, saying that in today’s business world, “it is either you love technology and embrace the innovations that come with it as they come to boost your business or reject IT and remains at the background in terms of competition.”

With the increasing number of telephone users in the country and the large number of people, who constitute the bulk of customers for most businesses who use various social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and so on, businesses must devise means of connecting with these customers by leveraging tailored-made cloud solutions that help them achieve the objective, he said.

Speaking in the same vein, Monu Ogbe, executive director, Kitskoo, stressed the need for businesses to leverage ‘third platform,’ which, he said, signified latest technological platform, and urged businesses to employ cloud computing which “is more effective and efficient in addressing their IT needs.”

“Why own infrastructure when you can subscriber? It is not about the technology; it is all about business and your customer because the business is not about the technology deployed but how the technology is able to meet and surpass your customers’ expectations,” he said.

Though new technological adoption comes with challenges and opportunities, “we must, therefore, focus on opportunities to grow and give your customer the best because customer only care about choice, pace, cost and not about technology,” he said.

Technology should be deployed by businesses in a way to deliver relevance to the business, Ogbe said.

Ben Uzor

Nigeria's leading finance and market intelligence news report. Also home to expert opinion and commentary on politics, sports, lifestyle, and more

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