The promotion and development of a structured and efficient micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector in Nigeria has been considered a key focus by the government in recent years, in the hopes that this will further enhance sustainable economic development in the country. One of the key protagonists for the resuscitation and growth of such MSMEs is the Computer Warehouse Group (CWG).
The firm provides ‘software-as-a-service’ to customers through cloud computing, which is becoming increasingly important as a facilitator for growth. The initiative was specifically designed to empower MSMEs to take advantage of technology to grow their businesses and is tagged CWG2.0. Nigeria is one of the fastest growing economies in the continent and has a sizeable, yet largely unemployed, population. The idea of CWG2.0 is to enable each of the 17.7 million MSMEs in Nigeria to build sufficient capacity to add at least one more employee. By doing so, the firm is helping to foster inclusive growth by creating an additional 17 million jobs.
Strong growth
Smaller enterprises are globally acknowledged as the oil required to lubricate the engine of socio-economic transformation of any nation. The MSME sector is strategically positioned to absorb up to 80 percent of jobs, improve per capita income, increase value addition to raw materials supply, improve export earnings and step up capacity utilisation in key industries. Such enterprises are also important in other key sectors, including agriculture, mining and quarrying, building and construction and manufacturing, and therefore have strong linkages with the entire range of economic activities in a country such as Nigeria.
“The uptake of our premier cloud product for microfinance banks in Ghana, after a successful launch in Nigeria with MTN, proves that our emerging business model of providing cloud services on a subscription basis for SMEs tagged CWG 2.0 is scalable, repeatable and transferable, as it is relatively more sustainable and profitable,” says Founder and CEO of the Computer Warehouse Group, Austin Okere.
“We could inadvertently create 17.7 million additional jobs, enough to absorb all the 16 million unemployed youths with a generous surplus to spare. While this may seem like a dream where reality is far-fetched, it is precisely what CWG2.0 is all about; the freedom to dream and the passion to execute. CWG2.0 defines the future direction of our company. It is a social impact investment initiative directed towards empowering the African Entrepreneur,” says Okere.
Largest economy
Last year marked a significant milestone for CWG as the firm listed its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, lifting the exchange by about NGN14bn ($85.3bn), and becoming the largest ICT security on the NSE. The success of the firm was largely consolidated by launching two additional, high-profile cloud products: SMERP, an enterprise resource planning application for SME’s on a subscription basis, and the ‘Diamond Yello Account’, in conjunction with MTN and Ericsson, that allows the 57 million MTN subscribers to be mobile money enabled.
Smaller enterprises are globally acknowledged as the oil required to lubricate the engine of socio-economic transformation
Such growth is expected to continue now that Nigeria is considered the largest economy in Africa, with a GDP of $510bn. In particular, the services sector is the most significant contributor, with about 53 percent of GDP and ICT telecoms accounting for eight percent, and targeted to grow to $50bn by 2015.
This is largely driven by the development of an undersea fibre optic network; favourable demographics; a booming telecom industry; inclusive growth pushing SMEs and large corporations efficiency demands; privatisation of the Nigerian power industry and cashless initiatives. These drivers will create opportunities in business process outsourcing, cloud computing, IT services, and enterprise communication and resource systems.
“The major trend in driving cost effectiveness is for industries to stick to their core knitting and outsource their non-core functions, especially IT. We see a significant shift to cloud computing on a subscription model. This is why we took the decision to take our company to the cloud as far back as 2010. We have since honed our craft and are set to become the leading cloud company in Africa by 2015. We believe that the biggest growth shall come from Sub-Saharan Africa, fuelled by the higher returns on investment, and the significant commitment of resources by governments to upgrade infrastructure,” says Okere, looking ahead.
In this respect, the development of strong MSMEs in Africa is allowing for companies like CWG to take advantage of growing technology demands and create value for customers, as well as generate additional sustainable revenue streams.
