In spite of all the difficulties being faced with in the economy of Nigeria, local expansion are being planned by businesses. This was included in the Equinox 2022 Global Tech Trends Survey, where many business leaders in Nigeria were interviewed on the progress and shortcomings their businesses are going through including their goals for the times ahead.
THE EXPANSION AND ITS CHALLENGES
There are massive opportunities for Nigeria’s businesses to effectively expand into new markets and get new patrons just as the Equinix survey data emphasises.
54 per cent of respondents intend on expanding in an existing country in the next 12 months, 34 per cent into a new region and 33 per cent into a new country according to the data disclosed through the survey in Nigeria. It also identified that of all the IT leaders in Nigeria, 93 per cent of them said that customer enhancement experience is of utmost importance.
Nevertheless, some restricting factors were pointed out by businesses when it comes to global improvement not excluding some concerns in supply chain, recruitment of staff and retention, cyber security.
The established concerns include: business growth tools, cyber security, retention of staff, supply chain gaps and many others. On the issue of staff retention, Equinix, having acquired earlier in the year, observed that in spite of the number of youngest population and man power in the world, 58 per cent of of IT final sayers in Nigeria observe a decline in workers with IT skills which is one of the main concerns of their businesses.
Going forward, Equinix stated that most sort after tech employees in Nigeria are those with Ai or machine learning skills, data analysis skills, cloud computing,data protection, IT technicians, security analysis and security software development.
On the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, Equinix noted that the novel pandemic has a great effect on businesses’ digital strategies. As a result of the pandemic, 64 per cent of IT business owners in Nigeria are progressing at a fast speed, their company’s digital evolution.
In confirmation, 64 per cent confirmed an increase in their IT budgets.
Funke Opeke, the Managing Director for MainOne of Equinix Company commented on the accelerative digital transformation in Nigeria saying, “The acceleration in digital transformation in Nigeria reinforces the need for businesses to have access to single points to interconnect locally.”
