General News
The Hidden Costs of IT Support
Opinion by Brent Flint
The price on the bottom line of your ICT maintenance contract is often not what you actually pay for support.
This is not because your service provider is billing inaccurately; in fact, it has more to do with costs incurred by your own organisation’s internal teams and structures.
Brent Flint, Middle East and Africa Services Executive at Dimension Data, points out that the bulk of support-related expenses fall outside the scope of traditional support offerings.
The goal should therefore be to reduce total cost of support by recognising and eliminating ‘hidden’ expenses, and not to cut down on externally provided services that you might later regret discontinuing.
Many vendors, many processes
One example of a hidden cost, says Flint, is the expense incurred in managing the support processes of different vendors.
“These processes are never the same for every service provider. So the more vendors you have, the more intricate your support environment is to manage. And the more complicated this management is, the more mistakes are made and the more downtime occurs which, in turn, drives up your operational costs. At the same time, your organisation would require more service vendor management, which means more work for your procurement department, more effort to keep up with vendor research, and more contract management and renewal complications – all of which add to your total cost of support.” By reducing the number of vendors in your environment, you can lower your total cost of support.
Which level of service?
“Some of these hidden costs are inversely related to the type of service contract you have in place,” adds Flint. “The simpler and cheaper the contract, the more costs are carried internally. For example, should an organisation decide not to buy a premium level of service but opt for a simple ‘break-fix’ service instead, a large degree of management is required on the business’ side to initiate and ensure the proper delivery of the service.
The internal support team would, firstly, need to be aware that a piece of equipment has malfunctioned, which implies the need for some form of monitoring as well as an internal help desk. The internal team would then have to determine if the equipment is under contract and, if so, with which service provider.
Again, this takes time and effort, and the more out-of-date or incomplete the organisation’s asset register is, the longer and more involved this tracking process becomes. “When the call to the break-fix service provider is then finally made and the new equipment is installed, the business still has to ensure that the equipment’s service to the organisation is restored and runs as smoothly as before.
The result of this is that businesses spend far more on ‘cheaper’ break-fix services than they realise. Using a service provider to restore equipment as opposed to delivering a simple ‘break-fix’ service might seem like it costs more, but the organisation would need far fewer in-house administration and engineering resources to ensure maximum business continuity.” Freeing up your internal support team by relying more on a service provider’s capabilities can lower your total cost of support.
On foreign shores
Another cost that’s often overlooked by international organisations is foreign service tax liabilities. Flint explains: “If a chosen service provider isn’t large enough to have billing entities in all the countries in which an organisation has a presence, it incurs a foreign tax liability for procuring services in those geographies. That’s a factor that many businesses forget.
Choosing a service provider with coverage in the countries in which you operate can lower your total cost of support. On the other hand, an area in which businesses tend to under-spend is in service entitlements. Best practice in determining which service levels you need is to categorise your locations by availability requirements.
The highest service level requirement might be for your data centres, which would need a 7x24x4 entitlement to ensure maximum uptime for business-critical systems and processes, whereas a satellite location might need only an 8x5xnext business day entitlement owing to the location’s lower importance to the overall business. When we do the location versus- support analysis with some of our clients, we often find that their service level coverage is not the right fit in many locations. In a few cases, the service level may be set too high but, more often than not, organisations have opted for cheaper options with less support than they really need.” Right-sizing the service level to the requirements of the location can lower your total cost of support.
Short on skills
One of the most important reasons why organisations need external support services is because they lack the required in-house technical skills.
Exacerbating this problem is the general shortage of technical skills worldwide, as well as the more pronounced lack in developing geographies into which international organizations might want to expand.
Flint believes, however, that the most impactful factor contributing to skills shortage is the pace of technological change. Given the day-to-day pressures of in-house IT support teams in ensuring maximum business continuity, not much time or budget is left to channel into up skilling employees on the latest advances.
“For example, when IP telephony first emerged, there was a distinct lack of expertise and knowledge in this particular area,” says Flint.
“The same would probably be the case as the market moves towards adopting the new software-defined network approach. Knowledge and expertise can only be gained over time and, therefore, always lag behind the introduction of new technologies. The problem is also that the variety of different technologies involved in organisations’ estates is so wide that they simply can’t afford to skill up each time there’s a change or new development in the market.” Using shared, skilled resources of a service provider can lower the total cost of support.
Global scale
While certain smaller, often localised, service providers may be able to offer some of these proactive components, Flint believes large, multinational organizations would do better to consider partnering with a global support provider that can offer several such elements in combination and at scale, which would save costs.
“Most importantly, the service provider should be able to deliver these services consistently and reliably around the globe.” If you’re a large, multinational organisation, leveraging a global service provider’s scale can lower your total cost of support.
Whichever of these steps you choose to lower your total cost of support, these choices will deliver a simpler, more consolidated and more proactive overall support environment, with fewer hidden costs to think about.
Dr Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, accountant-general of the federation, has warned that the federal government may reject loan facilities from the World Bank if delays in approval and disbursement persist, saying prolonged timelines could undermine the country’s willingness to proceed with such arrangements.
The warning was contained in a press statement issued on Friday by Bawa Mokwa, director of press and public relations at the office of the accountant-general of the federation.
Ogunjimi, who spoke in Abuja during a courtesy visit by a World Bank delegation led by Mrs Treed Lane, stressed that Nigeria expects timely processing of funding requests, given that the facilities are loans and not grants.
He said, “If approvals take more than six months, the Nigerian Government may no longer honour such arrangements,” highlighting concerns over bureaucratic delays in accessing development financing.
The AGF noted that as a responsible borrower, Nigeria should not be subjected to prolonged approval processes that could affect project execution timelines and broader development objectives.
He therefore urged the World Bank to “expedite the approval and disbursement of project funds to Nigeria” to support the country’s priorities.
Ogunjimi emphasised that the loans carry repayment obligations, making it imperative that disbursement processes align with project schedules and fiscal planning frameworks.
He further disclosed that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation had begun addressing key issues raised earlier by the World Bank, particularly in public financial management and audit reporting.
According to him, the 2023 Audit Report would be submitted to the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation within two weeks, while work on the 2024 and 2025 audit reports was already underway.
The AGF also assured the delegation that steps were being taken to resolve concerns around the digitalisation of the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, noting that obsolete infrastructure was being replaced with modern technology to improve efficiency and service delivery.
He said the reforms were part of broader efforts to strengthen transparency, accountability, and the overall public financial management system in Nigeria.
Earlier in her remarks, the World Bank delegation leader, congratulated Ogunjimi on his recent appointment as African chairman of the Association of Accountants-General.
Lane also urged the Office of the Accountant-General to sustain its digitalisation drive and ensure the timely presentation of financial statements to the Auditor-General, noting that such measures were critical to achieving seamless public financial management processes.
The World Bank earlier explained why about six loans worth $2bn, signed for Nigeria in 2024, are yet to be disbursed nearly a year after the bank’s approval.
This came amid recent reports that the World Bank approved a total of $8.40bn (N12.89tn) in fresh loans to the country over the past two years, based on data from the bank’s official website.
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) approved a $61 million financing package for the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) to expand access to affordable credit for women-owned and women-led businesses across Nigeria, particularly in the agricultural sector.
The financing comprises three instruments: a $50 million gender-focused line of credit; an $8 million concessional facility under the Agri-Food SME Catalytic Financing Mechanism (ACFM); and a $3 million grant under the Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, funded by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).
This package demonstrates the Bank’s commitment to private sector-led growth by combining long-term financing, concessional resources, partial credit guarantees, and capacity-building support. It will be chanelled through DBN’s network of participating financial institutions to strengthen MSME lending and advance Nigeria’s inclusive economic transformation, particularly through women entrepreneurship and agricultural development.
A defining feature of this operation is its strong gender focus, with more than 95 percent of the total financing earmarked for WSMEs. This targeted approach aligns with the objectives of AFAWA and ACFM and the Bank’s broader commitment to narrowing the gender financing gap in Africa. The performance-based incentives under the AFAWA programme are expected to expand the number of eligible women-owned enterprises while increasing the share of women-focused lending within DBN’s MSME portfolio.
Commenting on the approval, Dr Abdul Kamara, Director General of the African Development Bank Group Nigeria Country Office, said: “Women entrepreneurs are one of Nigeria’s greatest economic assets and one of its most underleveraged. This operation reflects the African Development Bank’s commitment to unlocking economic opportunities for women.
“By working through DBN to reach women-owned businesses in agriculture, clean energy, healthcare, and beyond, we are not just expanding access to credit; the Bank is investing in the engine of Nigeria’s inclusive economic transformation.”
The approval further deepens a longstanding partnership between the African Development Bank and the Development Bank of Nigeria, dating back to the AfDB’s role in DBN’s establishment through start-up equity, long-term financing, and governance support, alongside the Federal Government of Nigeria and other development partners.
The operation aligns with the African Development Bank’s Four Cardinal Points framework, particularly the pillar on harnessing demographic transformation for economic development, as well as the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy (2024-2033), which prioritises inclusive growth, private sector development, and gender equality.
It also supports Nigeria’s Country Strategy Paper (2025–2030), which emphasizes gender- and youth-inclusive green growth, and complements national priorities on entrepreneurship, inclusive development, and women’s economic empowerment.
The Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) has announced the extension of weekend tax office operations across the country as part of preparations for the rollout of the Rev360 Phase I Tax Administration System.
In a public notice issued in Abuja on May 7, the Service stated that all Emerging, Medium, Large, and Government Business Offices nationwide will now open on Saturdays from May 8 to June 27, 2026.
According to the notice, the offices will operate between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
The NRS explained that the initiative is aimed at providing additional taxpayer support and improving service delivery during the implementation of the new tax administration platform for Medium and Emerging Taxpayer segments.
The Service noted that the extended Saturday operations are designed to assist taxpayers requiring guidance with the new system, facilitate seamless compliance during the June peak Companies Income Tax filing period, and improve access to tax services outside regular weekday hours.
It encouraged taxpayers to take advantage of the initiative to resolve tax-related matters, seek necessary guidance, and ensure timely compliance with their tax obligations.
“The NRS remains dedicated to delivering efficient, transparent, and taxpayer-focused services,” the statement read.
The notice was signed by Zacch Adedeji, PhD, Executive Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service. “You say Transformation, We say Rev360.”
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