The role of web technology in Nigerian business development

Nigeria, a country situated on the Gulf of Guinea with an estimate population of an upward of 190.9 million citizens as at 2017 making Nigeria the largest black country in the world, the country is vast with natural reserves with includes also a high number of mineral resources. The social life in Nigeria is as always very cordial and receptive to foreigners and neighbour alike.

The Nigerian business environment on the other hand is more of a quiver of untapped business advantages riddled in a series of infrastructural mismanagement, the infrastructural disadvantage in Nigeria creates a massive loop in Nigerian business growth statistics. Transportation in Nigeria is hectic for commuters, car owners and businesses alike.

The challenges faced by Nigerian during major festive seasons in Nigeria is becoming an ever growing put-off for most potential spenders because the time spent in getting to a desired market remains ever increasing , the issue of mobility faced by millions of Nigerians on a daily basis is not just based on the travel time but also the ever fluctuating cost of mobility thus for some people shopping is fast becoming an expensive luxury.

There is also the issue of a paralytic electrical supply with effect that cuts across the whole Nigerian business geosphere with businesses and even private individuals spending millions of dollars in alternate sources of electrical power generation, the most affected business area are businesses with perishable goods because they need electricity to preserve their goods.

One sector of business that has grown formidable in Nigeria is the mobile telecommunication industry, with a market platform of over 100 million users with each user having an average of two mobile device per user. One would normally expect that this would be a welcomed advantage to businesses but unfortunately that so far have not been the case in Nigeria till date.

The increasing usage of mobile networks by Nigerians of every age and demographic can be very instrumental in the alleviation of infractions resulting from the depreciation of the current infrastructure. Some businesses have started utilizing the benefit of this new found technological advantage, however, the utilization of the pros of these aspects of the Nigerian economy is somewhat restricted to buying and selling, in other words ecommerce businesses.

The ecommerce business sector in Nigeria though thriving is still faced with the limitations of business area coverage as there still exist the mindset that web businesses deal on just a specific product type, range and location. There are some with the opinion that some business sectors are not able to harness due partly to the lower educational requirements in such businesses or a meagre business net-worth, people with these opinions are not entirely wrong but however, there still exist a second school of thought with a considerable support.

Although the usage of mobile technologies over the past ten years have been in the increase, unfortunately, the positive beneficial aspect of web services (Pros) is still relatively known or even explored. For example, if a farmer plans to implement some web services for his/ her farm then the farmer´s main target audience becomes the international market, mainly due to the comfort of a more organized international marketplace.

The lack of interest on the part of Nigerian businesses with web presence to invest in the improvement of   supply and demand chain infrastructure, this unwillingness only goes to further exacerbate current issues faced by ecommerce web-based businesses in Nigeria. The current trends in Nigeria shows a 10% reduction in the number of self-employed individuals as of 2017 from the levels in 1991 according to index mundi.

The proper usage of web technologies in Nigeria would see the current downwards spiral of trust in self-employment in Nigeria, some may argue that it is the cost of procurement of these services that is a deterrent from use. 2019 is proven to be a good year for both small businesses and large alike with more companies now offering affordable web service. In  Nigeria virtually any and all web service can be gotten online, even business owners who are not vast in any web service can also procure web management services online which would greatly enhance their business outreach.

Introducing Intigradhost web service provider

When choosing to own a website for business, personal or even blog the task can be some times overwhelming and even in some cases rather complicated, in that case most businesses and even private individuals resort to website attention on the price being offered by various website companies or freelancers. On initial assessment the focus on price as a means of choosing the ideal website that meets your needs seems to be like a smart workaround to the choice of understanding if a particular website design or structure fits with the intended needs of the individual or organization.

There is the old school of thought that if you pay more for your website that means that the business or individual receives a high-quality website but actually if you have been made to believe such mindset then know this that it is further than the truth. A good quality website is one where the bridge of functional/ design understanding between the business or private website owner and the development team is cut to the narrowest possible distance, the narrative of high cost equals higher quality is being propagated by most website development companies to ensure more for less.

That sentiment is not shared by Intigradhost or any of its team members as service is put before profit and customer satisfaction is the  at www.intigradhost.com  , we do acknowledge the facts that most IT website development companies have the issues of over-staffing and a slow flow of project thus prompting the need to charge more for development of a single website but however, Intigradhost does not see the over charging of businesses or private individuals as the solution for such levels of extortion.

Point to consider when planning a website for your business or private purpose

Some people usually consider things like how known is the web development company or how many years of experience has the website developer, some people consider how known if the actual development company or developer within their circle of friends or associates, even some consider the previous work done by the development company or developer, even as stated above some businesses or private individuals consider the price that is being charges, for example if someone was to approach a well-known branded company for website development then $100 000 is justifiable for a five page website. In these cases, the company or private individual ends up paying for the name of the development company, well this means that quality really has nothing to do with it, rather if a business or private individual wants a website developed then it is wise to ask yourself things like:

1)      What do I need the website for on the short and long run?

Lets say your business has already an established clients base and you need the website just to show your products to prospective clients then even a  five to ten page responsive website will definitely suffice depending on the amount of information that is relevant the key is relating the information that needs to be set out into the world wide web. On the other hand, if a business or individual intends to sell physical or virtual goods online then certain other factors are to be put into consideration like users’ access, secure checkouts, payment gateways and trusted security certificates.  It is  worth to Considering also that  the potential traffic flow of your intended website before deciding on the technology to be used in your website development. Most website developers are quick to offer the so called puzzle website codes like WordPress, joomla or cake PHP as per their own convenience but not actually yours.

2)      How many milestones do I need from my website development company or developer?
If your website is one with no CMS control in it then you can request a milestone for every page, the reason is that website developers are rather sometimes lazy individuals who lack or are lacking the needed project management discipline because they want to rush it all towards the end delivery date thereby leading to several small but significant errors or misfunctions, bear in mind that most website development companies might try to reduce the request for full milestones as they also cant control the activities of their programmers or are afraid of loosing them by imposing strict discipline on their programmers.

3)      Do you see the possibility of your website content changing on regular basis?
If a business or private individual wants a website to display constantly evolving products then it will be wise to consider a partial text base CMS that is if your products price always remains constant but if your products prices, brands and models are in a constantly changing then perhaps you might want to consider aa full CMS controlled website.

Owning a website in Nigeria

Browsing the internet with specific search on owning a website In Nigeria  one is overwhelmed with results showing the cost of owning or building a website in Nigeria, there are lots of cost analysis blogs but none of the blogs  pay attention to the facts that over 95% of Nigerian businesses and individuals  are not conversant with the full pro of owning a website , things like how owing a website can greatly improve the revenue of businesses and even private individuals. Millions of Nigerians still believe that being in social media and marketing there is enough.

Social media marketing is good  and can be at times profitable but the facts still stands that having only a social media presence  is in web-sense like a street hawking and does not ensure or show brand authenticity  and having a website gives your follower or clients a home just as the name implies “home page “: With little knowledge on how to implement website for an enhanced profitability  it is no wonder the cost of owning a website becomes an issue of great thinking by businesses and private individuals alike.

Another factor is that Nigeria like the UK and USA has a high number of self-employed people but in the case of Nigeria the greater  percentage of the self-employed individuals are a little less enlightened, the lack of enlightenment amongst the self-employed have given rise to a common mindset that only really big companies can and should own website and not small businesses like grocery stores, mechanical or vulcanizing workshops, it is however, sad to say that due to these mindset many of the small business in Nigeria have  remained stagnant in growth and most even face extinction.

Own your business or personal website to show the world your philosophy, register your business brand in the World Wide Web to show the world your authenticity, stand out, stand tall, and control your market flow. With the high cost of website development out there and the bad quality website designs riddled with template/theme with no real working function it is no wonder why small businesses would still remain sceptical about owning a website.

Well it would seem that I have great news for owners and prospective owners of websites, a new company just started hitting the Nigerian WWW space that offers absolute free website hosting, the offer users the chance to fully specify the looks and feel of their wish website and deliver the end product after one month of user submitting the specification, the website is https://www.9jawebhouse.com , 9jawebhouse is a place for both website professionals and novice alike. The website management service provided by 9jawebhouse helps clients to optimize income flow from their websites.

https://www.9jawebhouse.com also offers a 100% refund on un-approved delays while on client’s website project, that is done via its payment resolution service. With the daily hustle in big cities in Nigeria small businesses like grocery sellers, bakeries and even food vendors miss out on the chance to receive order from  customers who´s jobs/ businesses do not allow them to get their required groceries on time , therefore the possibility of having a nearby grocery store where he can order/ reserve his or her required  groceries would be beneficial to both the customer and the owner of the business .

The use of websites by small and large businesses alike would go a long way to reduce the load of stress caused by the current infrastructure damages as customers would be able to place and cancel orders in real time, unlocking of geolocational barriers is the only way businesses in these modern days can meet up, considering the distance people move it would only make sense for businesses to make similar stretch in outreach and service outreach areas.

As a disclaimer, I only mentioned https://www.9jawebhouse.com because I based my search on Nigerian free web hosting service, so I do not work or neither am I in any way associated with anyone that works there. That being said I would also like to point out that this blog barely scratches the surface of the pros of owning your website.

Website development

Many years back I decided to own a website and so I started searching for website developer/s which was somewhat of an issue because as soon as I had the plan then I discovered that I was going to have some major challenges. The range of challenges I had included things like the high price of website development posed by various website development companies, the time frame for website development a most of the website development companies claimed to be too busy so I could not get my website developed as per my proposed timeline, but even then the most difficult issue was that my vision of how my website should look and the functions that I wanted in my website was somewhat over-shadowed by the various sample websites that were presented to me to pick out a design from the list.

As a novice to the working of websites I had no real way of expressing my desire and the various website development companies kept asking me (a novice) to give them a written specification of my website without even the thought of the facts that I knew absolutely nothing about website design or specifications. I finally found a website designer who did not bother me with specifications but rather the website developer claimed that he understood what I wanted.

Obviously as a novice to website development or even ownership the prospect of having(finding) a programmer who could just get all my ideas from my head was very welcomed and appreciated so without a second thought I awarded the website developer the job of building my very first website for me. Looking very much forward to my website, I started announcing to all of my business partners about the up-coming website and how it would revolutionize our business outreach. I was not wrong in my assertion but however, where I was dead wrong was thinking that the design of my website and the functions can be transmitted vocally to the website developer which never happened, what I got as the end product was a adobe  website with almost opposite in design and functions than I thought.

The thing is that I am not assigning any blames on the website developer because he agreed and acted like he understood what I needed so that he could secure the job, I on the other hand am fully to blame because I was glad to quickly pay and get the burden of the website design to someone else , an action that costed me a substantial amount of  money  not to talk about the lost of respect from my business partners due to the turn out of events concerning the website.

The fact is that I am not the only one who has had such horrific experience  and thus suffered the loss  of money in the process which does not even include wasted time, after searching the internet for some time I came across www.intigradhost.com a website development and hosting company that actually  helps  users both novice and professionals alike through the visual user specification methods whereby a user can select and see the look of his or her website before it is even built.

Another very interesting thing is that the cost of website development at www.intigradhost.c.om is actually  five times cheaper than what I even paid many years back for my very first website which I never used, besides that I also discovered that www.intigradhost.com not only offers affordable website development in real time but they also offer services that newbies in web service technologies can find very useful for owning aa sound responsive and productive website.

The services that I discovered at www.intigradhost.com range from not just website development but also website management, the cheapest and most effective SEO service, decent  content writing that actually reflects or relays the information that  I want the visitors of my website to get,  secure certificates  and even much more. The lab at www.intigradhost.com was also a very nice experience for me because based on my own opinion the setting is absolutely unique, the adherence to set milestones given in www.intigradhost.com  seems to be like a religion because throughout the timeline where my website https://www.9jaacademy.com was being developed not a single milestone was missed.

The team of developers at www.intigradhost.com are very meticulous in their  website development process leaving no stone unturned, every specification that I submitted was handled and delivered exactly as I wanted so when I got the project completion email from www.intigradhost.com  which also included the uniform resource locator (url) obviously I was nervous judging from my first website experience therefore I needed to sum up the courage to look at the end product.

My first glance at the website developed by www.intigradhohost.com was mesmerizing  as it completely covered all of my specification, the way at which I my project was handled and even delivered was with the outmost professionality, the cost or website development at www.intigradhost.com is absolutely fair and affordable when compared with other website development companies.

The website management service provided in www.intigradhost.com is also an absolutely amazing service which ensures that both the functionality and promotion of my website www.9jaacademy.com  are fully optimized thereby giving me the chance to place my focus on other aspects of my business.