Connect with us

E-Business

5 Things You Need To Know About Scaling A Business In Nigeria

Published

on

Kindly share this post

According to a PWC report, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) account for 84% of total employment in Nigeria. This is no mean feat! Nigeria has arguably the largest startup ecosystem in Africa, yet, 80% of small businesses fail within the first 3 years of operation. From subpar products and services to poor cash flow maintenance, there are many reasons businesses are unable to withstand many of Nigeria’s wahala. In other words, to be a boss no be beans o! To help businesses beat these odds in a digital-driven world, ICT giant, MTN Nigeria supported the first edition of Techpoint Africa’s SME Clinic held at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos. Experts across various sectors showed participants the intricacies of running successful businesses in Nigeria.

Here are five business tips that have been proven to improve business processes

Know Your Market: Learn how your audience operate and find out what they love. Do not force what you think is right down your target’s neck. According to Peter ‘PeteSocial’ Nwabuoku, Head of Business Development & Digital at Luzo DN & Media Ltd, it is important to establish communication channels with your audience and social media is the marketplace that many entrepreneurs do not realize they need.

Let Your Customers Feel Appreciated: A happy and satisfied customer is more likely to return than an indifferent customer. Collect your customers’ details, contact, and other information. Send emails thanking them for patronage, send updates on products that they have shown interest.

Debbie Akwara, Founder/Principal Customer Experience Consultant, Niche X, one of the speakers, shared guidelines on communicating with clients via social media, highlighting deleting negative comments as a major blunder. In her words, “don’t delete a ‘bad’ comment by a client on your site, instead, address it swiftly, because God help you if someone gets a screenshot and uses it against you later.”

Don’t Compromise on Quality: “Do not be selfish with quality when it comes to your customers and your service,” said Damilola Runsewe, Senior Manager, SME Management, Enterprise Business Unit, MTN Nigeria. He shared various MTN products that were tailor-made for Nigerian businesses such as Call Assist, a solution that gives business owners the freedom to manage incoming calls. It provides automated call handling solutions enabling entrepreneurs to improve productivity.

Participants got to hear about Hynetflex, a broadband internet solution that offers customers unmatched browsing and download speeds accessible via a high-speed internet router compatible with both 3G and 4G LTE networks.

Marketing And Advertising Speak Volumes: Digital media platforms have made it possible for entrepreneurs to target and find millions of potential customers from the comfort of their location. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have proven to be the most popular platforms for businesses to reach millions of people with most of them offering specialized services to help entrepreneurs promote their business.

Document Everything: Entrepreneurs can save a lot of money by simply storing all business documents digitally. Cloud storage services allow for this to happen, eliminating the cost of premium file cabinets and paper storage. One can access the documents from any location in the world reducing the need for personnel to scan and send such documents when required.

Do you have more tips for entrepreneurs that can transform their business and save it from becoming another statistic in the database of failed startups? Please share…


Kindly share this post

Ugo Onwuaso is an ICT enthusiast. He believes technology should be used for general good. He holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the Lagos state University. Dear Reader, Your support matters. But we believe that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. That is why, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and finance and how they affect lives. Our incisive and analytical view of how technology news affects the daily life help individuals and organizations make up their minds. Quality journalism costs money. Today, we're asking that you support us to do more. Kindly support our effort to deliver technology and finance journalism to everyone in the world. Donate as little as N1,000. Bank transfers can be made to: UBA Plc 1017156876 Communication Week Media Ltd

E-Business

Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

Published

on

Kindly share this post

China’s Huawei Technologies unveiled an AI computing system on Saturday that an industry expert said rivals Nvidia’s most advanced product, as the company aims to expand its footprint in the country’s booming AI sector.

Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

The CloudMatrix 384 system made its public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai, attracting a large crowd to Huawei’s booth with its showcase of cutting-edge AI innovations.

The system has attracted significant interest from the global AI community since Huawei (HWT.UL) first introduced it in April. Industry analysts see it as a direct challenger to Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, the most advanced system-level offering currently available from the U.S. chipmaker.

In an April article, Dylan Patel, founder of semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, stated that Huawei now possesses AI system capabilities that could surpass those of Nvidia.

Huawei staff at its WAIC booth declined to comment when asked to introduce the CloudMatrix 384 system.

A spokesperson for Huawei did not respond to questions.

Huawei has become widely regarded as China’s most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces U.S. export restrictions.

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang told Bloomberg in May that Huawei had been “moving quite fast” and named the CloudMatrix as an example.

The CloudMatrix 384 system features 384 of Huawei’s latest 910C chips and, according to SemiAnalysis, surpasses Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 in certain performance metrics, despite the latter using 72 B200 chips.

SemiAnalysis attributes this performance advantage to Huawei’s strong system design, which offsets the lower power of individual chips by leveraging a greater number of them and incorporating system-level innovations.

Huawei describes the system as utilizing a “supernode” architecture that enables ultra-high-speed interconnectivity between chips.

In June, Zhang Pingan, CEO, Huawei Cloud confirmed that the CloudMatrix 384 was already operational on Huawei’s cloud platform.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

E-Business

Transcorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.

The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.

In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.

Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

E-Business

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

 

China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.

The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.

“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.

It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.

Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.

Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.

Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.

A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.

“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.

Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.

Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.

It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.

Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.

 

 

 


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

Trending