Telecom
Why Zoho CRM is an Essential Tool For Businesses Aiming for Success- Ogundare
Zoho, a software company, providing solutions for various segments of products clients, has said that its flagship product, the Zoho CRM, is an essential product for businesses that are desirous of recording huge sales, scaling, and optimizing their business processes.
Kehinde Ogundare, Country Manager, Zoho Technologies Ltd with Africa Digital Enabler Award presented to Zoho at AfriTECH Awards 2022.
Mr. Kehinde Ogundare, Country Manager, Zoho Technologies Limited disclosed this last Wednesday while making a presentation at the Africa Tech Alliance Forum (AfriTECH 2.0) held at Oriental Hotel, Lagos.
CRM (Customer relationship management) is a technology application for managing all of a business organisation’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers.
Ogundare said that the Zoho CRM can be used in different ways, including using it as a customer relationship management tool that businesses can use to communicate, send email, receive email, do automation and all other things.
According to Ogundare, “You can also use a CRM as a data-based and repository hub if you activate it. A lot of businesses use one or two applications if you want to do your marketing, you want to do finance and all that.
“Our CRM will allow you to connect all these applications together and you Can also integrate with third party applications .”
He stated that Zoho CRM can also be used as a sales management pipeline, noting that salespeople are very key to any organisation as they are the backbone of any company, adding that for them to work well, you need somebody to tell you what you are doing, track your tractions, how many people you are engaging, activities he said Zoho CRM will allow you do.
“On our unified platform, which is Zoho One, it brings together all these applications for you to run your business.
“As of today, you don’t have to pay for them separately; you can just buy Zoho One, which will give you all the tools you need to run your entire organization with one subscription.
Zoho One is a bundle that gives you access to about 40+ products which come with Enterprise features.
These include; Sales, Marketing, Finance, Support and Human Resources management tools; most of these applications are synced together to ease your business processes.
“You want to connect your sales department, your online marketing platform like Facebook, Instagram; you will be able to connect that with your Sales department, then your finance team that will invoice the customer. What we are doing is that we are providing you the software that will bring everything together for you on the same platform,” Ogundare further explained.
The Zoho Country Manager further disclosed that for the marketing department of businesses, Zoho has a series of applications like the Zoho Campaign for email marketing or newsletter in addition to the Zoho SalesIQ for live chat application, Zoho Social for social media marketing.
In his words, “Sales IQ would give you the opportunity to actually engage your customers to be able to know where they are chatting from, the kind of OS they are using, their geo location. And these are data that are very essential and crucial for your business. It will allow you to make informed decisions.
“Take for instance, you are doing a lot of marketing activities in Lagos and you are not getting the traction in Lagos, however, in some other states where you don’t have marketing activities going on, the platform can provide you information that there are opportunities there you can go and explore.”
Ogundare said that Zoho has sets of collaborative applications that were built and developed for ease of business and specifically mentioned the Zoho Mail, which he described as one of Zoho’s best-selling products in Nigeria.
“Zoho Mail is a beautiful email for any organisation to have. I personally recommend it for organisations running any size of business. I encourage customers to sign up for Zoho Mail because it gives you some level of credibility.
“One good thing about Zoho Mail is that if you are an SME with less than 5 members in your team, you will get to use this product for free for life. The moment you scale up to 6, 7, 100, 1000 and above, that’s when we start billing you to pay. And you can get the Zoho Mail domain name easily from anywhere in the world.
“You can also use our invoicing application for free and get quality and brilliant service for the invoicing software. Zoho Invoice is an online invoicing software that helps you craft professional invoices, send payment reminders, keep track of expenses, log your work hours, and get paid faster. All these are for free,” Ogundare stated.
Zoho has more than 12,000 customers in Nigeria that are running their operations on Zoho applications, with over 500,000 customers using its products globally, on a daily basis.
The London Internet Exchange (LINX) announced today that it will extend its partnership with Digital Realty to West Africa, welcoming the data centre provider to its new interconnection fabric, LINX Accra.
Digital Realty is nearing completion of its new facility in Accra, ACR2. A modern data centre strategically positioned near multiple submarine landing cable stations in Accra’s downtown area.
Ghana is one of Africa’s most internationally connected countries, thanks to the presence of these six undersea cable systems. As a result, the country’s digital landscape has grown dramatically in recent years.
LINX Accra was announced in late 2024 and is anticipated to launch in the coming weeks.
LINX stated that a new internet exchange point (IXP) for Ghana will provide future-proof and scalable solutions to propel the digital ecosystem forward.
The new IXP will be LINX’s third facility in Africa since the opening of LINX Nairobi in 2023, marking an important milestone in the company’s overall strategy in Africa.
Nurani Nimpuno, head of global engagement for LINX commented: “We are excited to be embarking on this new journey with Digital Realty in Ghana. We have strong relations with our partners across our LINX hubs in the UK, US and Kenya so I’m confident this extension of the relationship will be a success.”
Digital Realty has been a key access point for LINX’s interconnection solutions in London and also in North Virginia, US for several years.
More recently, LINX launched their first steps into Africa with LINX Nairobi in November 2023 and LINX Mombasa in February of this year, both working closely with iColo: A Digital Realty Company.
Joseph Koranteng, managing director of Digital Realty in Ghana, commented: “We’re pleased to be welcoming LINX to our new data centre in Ghana, a key milestone as we continue to strengthen interconnection across Africa.
“As demand for low-latency connectivity grows, this collaboration will play a critical role in helping to shape the region’s digital future by enabling greater access, resilience, and integration with the global internet fabric.”
Telecom
Moniepoint Clinches Two IBSi Awards for Leadership in Corporate Banking and Digital Wallet Services
Moniepoint Inc, Africa’s leading fintech platform, has been named a Category Winner in two prestigious categories — Corporate Banking and Digital Wallets — at the IBS Intelligence (IBSi) Digital Banking Awards 2025.
The accolades recognize Moniepoint’s significant impact in advancing financial inclusion and operational efficiency through its innovative digital banking initiatives across the continent.
Moniepoint earned dual recognition with the Corporate Banking award for its end-to-end digital platform empowering SMEs across emerging markets through simplified working capital access and streamlined payment processes, while also being honored in the Digital Wallets category for its scalable wallet infrastructure that enables millions to seamlessly transact, save, and manage finances—both innovations supporting broader financial inclusion and economic empowerment goals.
The IBSi Awards jury highlighted Moniepoint’s achievement in delivering measurable business impact, its ability to scale efficiently, and its pioneering approach to integrating local market needs with cutting-edge financial technology.
The IBSi Digital Banking Awards recognize technology implementations and innovation across digital banking units worldwide. This year, more than 110 submissions from over 30 countries were evaluated.
The IBSi Digital Banking Awards celebrate the most innovative and impactful technology implementation projects in the global banking sector.
This year’s competition recognised outstanding achievements among digital-only banks, neo-challenger banks, and the technology partners driving digital transformation worldwide.
“We are thrilled to be recognised in two highly competitive categories,” said Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO of Moniepoint. “These awards validate our mission to power the dreams of African businesses and individuals by building technology that works for everyday realities.
“Whether it’s helping SMEs grow or enabling simple, fast, and secure transactions for millions, we remain committed to delivering impactful solutions.”
“These recognitions from IBS Intelligence reflect the hard work of our teams and partners, and the deep trust our users place in Moniepoint,” Eniolorunda added.
“We look forward to continuing to innovate and scale inclusive digital financial services that shape the future of banking across Africa.”
Nikhil Gokhale, Director of Research and Digital Properties at IBS intelligence, said, “Over the years, we’ve witnessed a remarkable transformation in the digital banking space — from the rise of nimble neobanks to the digital reinvention of traditional institutions.
“The IBSi Digital Banking Awards honour this evolution by recognising technology-led excellence across the global banking landscape.
“Now in its fifth edition, the awards continue to recognise banks that are redefining the digital banking landscape through bold strategy, customer-centric thinking, driving innovation, inclusion and meaningful impact.”
This award complements and validates Moniepoint market leadership having been listed for three years in a row in the CB Insights annual Fintech 100, a list of the 100 most promising private fintech companies in the world and described as high-momentum companies shaping the future of financial services as well as being ranked by the Financial Times as one of Africa’s fastest-growing companies for two consecutive years.
Moniepoint Inc. powers over 10 million businesses and individuals with access to seamless payments, banking, credit, and business management tools since 2019. As Nigeria’s largest merchant acquirer, it powers most of the country’s Point of Sale (POS) transactions while operating profitably.
Processing over 1 billion transactions monthly, with total payments volume exceeding $22 billion, Moniepoint enables businesses to digitize their operations and thrive in Africa’s rapidly evolving economy.
UK-headquartered IBS Intelligence (IBSi) is the world’s only pure-play Financial Technology (traditional and new-age) research, advisory, and media firm, with a global coverage, and a 360° portfolio of intelligence offerings.
For over 30 years, IBSi’s expert teams have delivered independent, in-depth, actionable insights, with a laser focus on everything Financial Technology, to the global banking, consulting, technology, and institutional investor world.
Dr. Aminu Maida, executive vice chairman and chief executive officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has declared the presentation of the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) Report on eight key subsidiary legislations a turning point in the Commission’s regulatory framework.
Speaking at a high-level Stakeholder Engagement Forum in Abuja, Dr. Maida noted that the comprehensive RIA, conducted in 2024, embodies the NCC’s renewed commitment to transparent, participatory, and consumer-focused rulemaking.
“This innovation in our legislative process not only enhances accountability but also recalibrates our focus areas—consumers, licensees, and government policy alignment,” Dr. Maida stated.
The NCC boss emphasized that the RIA’s three-pronged focus aimed to assess regulatory performance across:
* Consumer impact, especially with regard to quality of experience (QoE)
* Market adaptability, with respect to competition, resource utilization, and market entry
* Policy alignment, ensuring legislations support overarching governmental objectives
He urged stakeholders to rigorously engage with the RIA findings to enhance regulatory outcomes and ensure market sustainability.
In her opening remarks, Head of Legal & Regulatory Services at the NCC, Mrs. Chizua Whyte, described the RIA as “an evolutionary step in our rulemaking journey,” adding that the extensive stakeholder contributions had strengthened the report’s validity.
“With emerging technologies and policy priorities, we needed to reassess our legal instruments. This RIA was both introspective and outward-looking,” Mrs. Whyte said.
Key areas assessed include licensing, SIM registration, subscriber management, enforcement procedures, spectrum trading, and infrastructure sharing.
Mrs. Whyte revealed that feedback from industry players was instrumental in identifying regulatory redundancies, clarifying legal obligations, and shaping future reforms.
The Legal Department, she noted, is already aligning next-phase reforms with the RIA’s recommendations to strengthen investor confidence and foster innovation across Nigeria’s telecom landscape.
The forum concluded with a call for continued stakeholder participation in shaping the Commission’s evolving legislative environment.
For the NCC, the RIA initiative signals a new era of smarter regulation—balancing flexibility, compliance, and consumer trust.
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