Shortly after the Lagos launch of the Get Nigerian Businesses Online (GNBO) initiative, which is being sponsored by Google in partnership with MTN Nigeria and Ecobank, Google's Country Manager, Nigeria,Ms. Juliet Ehimuan, spoke withMARCEL MBAMALU on how the initiative would, among many other benefits, transform the Nigerian SME landscape and fast-track economic growth.What future for Nigerian businesses online'When I look at the Nigeria landscape, I see two things: I see a challenge and I see an opportunity. The opportunity is the fact that, if you look at the statistics from 2000 to now, we have had a tremendous increase in the number of SMBs that are getting online. More Nigerians are getting online and doing more things online: there is blogging; there is user-generated content, social networking and so on. So, we have more Nigerians getting online.According to the ITU, we currently have about 43 million Nigerians online, which represent about 28 per cent. So, that is the kind of opportunity that is in the phenomenal growth we have seen in the last decade.The challenge is the fact that the access is still 28 per cent of the population; Internet access is not yet pervasive across the entire country; so, we still have issues around broadband.This is something that we are committed to exploring with stakeholders and government to see how we can remove the barriers to Internet access so that more people can come online. And I know there are various stakeholders that are looking at this at the moment.What, in your opinion, is the significance of the GNBO initiative to the Nigerian economy'I think it is very significant. We did some research with some Small and Medium-scale Businesses (SMBs) to really understand their perception of getting online and they told us that they didn't know what the benefit would be to them. So, there was a lack of awareness.They have the perception that it is very expensive and very difficult to get online, they think it is intimidating and so on. Those were the kind of comments we were getting. So, it is very significant because we know there are a number of SMBs that want to get online but don't even think about it because they find it so daunting and they think it is expensive.We put together a set of tools that will make it easy and interesting for SMBs, to get online and create their professional websites for free and be able to grow their businesses online. And this is very important because in today's digital world, having an online presence is very important in enabling you reach a wider customer base.We have some success stories: We did a pilot with 200 businesses at the end of 2010 and we have some amazing success stories some of which were shared today. We had Mrs. Branson, who runs a haulage business. He has gone from one truck to eight. In fact, he just corrected me, saying that he has done more than that since he put his business online. These are the kinds of results that are possible for SMBs; and that's why we think this has the potential to transform the SME landscape because now more and more SMBs can embrace online. And when they do, we hear more success stories from businesses that have successfully grown their businesses online; that will fuel even more activity, so we can have more players active in the industry and a win-win situation for everyone.What is the strategy to get more businesses (apart from those participating today) buy into this initiative'Absolutely, there will be some awareness based on this event and we are also looking at communicating more massively to SMBs.We've got our partners ' Ecobank and MTN ' and we will be leveraging their channels as well to put the word out and reach out to SMBs. We are also leveraging the media ' offline and online. We have an online forum where SMBs can go and share their stories or ask questions, share problems and support one another because that is, something we've discovered the SMBs embrace a lot ' which is the opportunity to share their experience with others. There is also a live chat support, which the SMBs can take advantage of. We will be making more announcements in the coming weeks about different ways we will be reaching the SMBs, throughout this campaign.What would be the strategic roles of your partners ' MTN and Ecobank ' in all these'Google believes very strongly in partnership because we want to build the ecosystem; so, our invitation to partners is to look at how they can essentially expand their offerings to SMBs and expand the campaign.In summary, I would say that they already have an existing base of SMBs as their customers. So, they will be able to reach out to these groups essentially and use their channels to spread the word.They are also supporting some of the web clinics that we are going to be doing, which you will be hearing more about. So, they are providing some support to help SMBs actually take advantage of the tools to get online. And we are constantly exploring how we can expand the campaign.Were local stakeholders like web designers and domain registrars carried along in the GNBO initiative'The content is really coming from the SMBS. So, they generate their content. The more businesses get online, the more local content is created. We are looking at getting tens of thousands of SMBs online. These business will be getting the. com.ng domain names and that is business for the domain registrars. Some of these SMBs will require support, that is business for local web developers and IT companies.So, what we are just doing is catalysing growth. If we have more SMBs online, that will fill the ecosystem, create more jobs because they will need support.Business growth means more opportunities that will, at the end of the day, create a win-win situation for everyone.Is Google really looking to harness its potentials in Nigeria'Our strategy in Nigeria in focused on three areas. The first is access, which is looking at how to get more people online. The second is relevance, which is once they get online, how do we ensure that the Internet is relevant to their every-day life'So, we are deploying tools and initiative like the GNBO that can help facilitate creation of local content.The third is sustainability, which is really about capacity development. So, we are providing the necessary awareness, training and ensuring that we have a sustainable pool of people that can fill the ecosystem. We run a competition on which basis we recently concluded the Android App Challenge across Africa.I'm pleased to say that one of the winners is a Nigerian, who created a software called AfriNolly, which is a software that makes it possible for you to view the Nollywood movies on your mobile phone.Through our sustainability initiative, we are constantly providing training and awareness as we carry people along.Is the Nigerian strategy different from those of other African countries'We look at localizing. Our strategy is very similar across the sub-saharan Africa, but the implementation of that strategy obviously is unique from one country to the other, because it really depends on the reality within each country and the status quo.HostingWe are hosting on google network. We are encouraging local content and for that reason we are encouraging people to use the. com.ng domain. At the same time, people are free to choose whatever domain they want for their website. Whether they want to purchase the domain name or any other is their choice.Of course, through our awareness creation, we try to promote the .com.ng domain and for some SMBs, we are providing free domains.One of our partners today mentioned that it would be funding 80 domain names, which is the .com.ng domain. We are not in the domain name business. So, there is no income for us there.Of course, we are trying to promote the .com.ng domain but since the business are paying for the domain, they have the freedom to choose.Going forwardFrom here, any business interested in creating a website can go to www.gnbo.com.ng. If they get to that website, there is a step-by-step guide that can take them (in a few quick and easy step) through a process that will help them build their websites.We also have a user guide on the website, which they can download. There are videos that they can play to tell them about the process. They can view the success stories. So, there is a list of information available on the website.They can also see how they can get support because, we are providing an online forum and a support platform where SMBs can put questions and get answers. We are providing phone support, live chat as well as e-mail support. These are available at the website free of charge.
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