- Title: NIGERIA: Google to get thousands of businesses online for free
- Date: 5th October 2011
- Summary: VARIOUS OF INTERIOR DESIGNS BY NORA ON A CATALOGUE NORA AZUBUIKE IN HER OFFICE
- Embargoed: 20th October 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Nigeria, Nigeria
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: Business,Communications,Industry
- Reuters ID: LVADWR10DFMAGU7LFDIYPW7MF1HH
- Story Text: Giant search engine Google recently launched an initiative aimed at enabling thousands of businesses in Nigeria get online to enhance their visibility in the market.
Google's Getting Nigeria Businesses Online (GNBO) initiative hopes to bring at least 40,000 small to medium scale enterprises (SME) online over the next year.
The initiative will allow businesses to create their own website and develop an online presence all free of charge.
Juliet Ehimuan, Google Nigeria country manager said the initiative will help transform the Nigerian SME landscape and contribute immensely to the country's economic growth and also create much needed jobs.
"Our strategy in Nigeria right now is really working around with stage holders to build an online ecosystem, we are focused on three areas, the first is access and what we are really looking for is how do we more Nigerians online, how do we remove the barriers to internet access, and so we are in conversations with service providers with regulators, with government agencies to how how we can get more users on line," said Ehimuan.
Nigeria has over 43 million internet users and having a website automatically means customers will be able to locate local businesses and local information easily and quickly, she added.
Several entrepreneurs who took up the Google initiative in its earlier stages said they were already reaping the benefits.
Ufuoma Koloko, a London educated Business Administration Manager, is general manager of Zenith Water Margin Chinese Restaurant in Lagos.
Koloko said she took over the run down Chinese restaurant in February this year and invested over 300,000 US dollars on renovations. Today, the business makes over 7000 US dollars a week.
"Once your business has a presence there anybody can find out about you at any point, so what it has done for me its given me the hope that is going happen so we will be able to drive people to the website, that will drive them to them business itself, but it has also kind of awakened my appetite for kind of getting more visibility on the internet," she said.
Koloko employs a dozen workers, including Chinese expert chefs and plans to expand the business to other cities in Nigeria.
Other beneficiaries of the initiative include Dora Azubuike, an interior designer also based in Lagos.
She said after an initial investment of over 10,000 US dollars her business had grown by 30 percent in just six months after getting it online.
Azubuike said her business initially struggled because she could not afford a large showroom to exhibit her work but today the internet has given her unlimited space to do so.
"We presently don't have a showroom, so we have had the challenge of showing clients our previous jobs, even though we have them on the catalogue but we couldn't be everywhere, so the importance of having a showroom was really important because now people can just stay in their homes or offices and just click and see what services and products we are offering and see our works and know they are really about us," she said.
The Google initiative offers a free professional website for desking and mobile, free sub-domain name, free hosting for the life of the website, 10 free e-mail accounts and free tools and support services.
However, critics of Google have accused it of trying to dominate the internet business in Nigeria by taking away business from local companies.
Local website developers charge as much as 500 US dollars for their services and an additional sum for maintenance. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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