Africa Business Communities

[Interview] Akin Oke, Senior Consultant, EasyData Resources, Nigeria

Akin Oke is a Management Consultant with Easy Data Resources Ltd., Nigeria and Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Leadership. He is an incurable optimist about the possibilities of Nigeria.

Would you please introduce EasyData Resources to us?

EasyData Resources is a strategic research and intervention consulting company, specializing in providing integrated business evaluation, intelligence and communication services in Nigeria. Our services include customer intelligence surveys (omnibus surveys), competitor analysis and design as well as implementation of market intelligence strategy.

We deliver this customer intelligence in real time, so that our clients can quickly respond to market influences that have a significant impact on their industry.

In which industries does EasyData Resources operate?

Although we started out as an IT services company, we have managed to remodel into a research company now providing business intelligence solutions to aid our clients in performance improvement efforts. Our focus is primarily on service-based industries.

What are the USP’s of your business?

We provide our clients with an independent and transparent service delivery assessment/rating of their business, using our proprietary Customer Satisfaction measurement tool – the first of its kind in Nigeria. A robust customer experience/satisfaction assessment designed to unearth the somewhat hidden issues encountered at the ‘moment of truth’- when customers access a firm’s services.

Who are your clients?

We offer our services to both public and private organizations.

How does EasyDate remain competitive in a fast-changing global marketplace?

Quite simply, we leverage on our international partnerships with leading service delivery measurement and rating agencies in order to remain at the forefront of new approaches, methodologies and technologies.

What can be done by entrepreneurs and government to stimulate the business environment in Nigeria?

A lot of the entrepreneurial activity in Nigeria has thrived despite the lack of a strategy for unbundling the real bottlenecks inhibiting business growth and development. These bottlenecks lie somewhere deep within Nigeria’s fractious federalism and the bureaucracy responsible for driving economic policies, as manifested in incidences of multiple taxation (by federal, states and local agencies in some cases), lack of critical infrastructure to support development of business hubs, and a general lack of consistency in the fiscal policy regimes for important sectors.

In my opinion, government needs to eliminate fiscal policy somersaults and kneejerk reactions to economic planning. This can be achieved if real efforts at defining and measuring policy impact are undertaken, as a requirement for achieving meaningful economic prosperity for businesses.

Do you think women entrepreneurs in Nigeria typically have a harder time accessing loans through traditional bank channels?

I believe the financial inclusion in Nigeria is still a work-in-progress and not just for women entrepreneurs. Although there have been giant strides owing to government commitment to supporting SMEs – including funds targeted at women entrepreneurs.

However, the difficulties women entrepreneurs face in accessing funds through traditional bank channels can easily be traced to the general problem of financial access in a largely informal economy. Most women entrepreneurs are in the SME sector and they often lack the capacity to draw up technical documents required by mainstream commercial banks where the SME funds are currently domiciled.

Do you believe Social Media and the Internet to be a plus to the business environment, as it applies to your industry?

The influence of the Internet and Social Media is invaluable to our business model. Valuable information about customer perception, real-time tracking capabilities and feedback management is at the heart of the service we provide. The ease of information gathering therefore is directly linked to the pervasiveness of the Internet and Social Media – the multiplatform offerings are significant advantages for defining and implementing robust content management strategies for our clients.

With Nigeria’s increasing mobile and internet penetration on the rise year-on-year, we continue to see opportunities for leveraging across platforms to reach more audiences in gathering vital metrics for business intelligence.

What expectations do you have for Nigeria´s economy in 2015?

Considering the slow and chaotic start to 2015 occasioned by the general elections, we do not expect significant changes to impact the business ecosystem until Q3 or Q4 2015. The 2015 budget was prepared by the outgoing government based on its projections and policy direction and the incoming government is unlikely to be able to make wholesome changes until 2016 fiscal year.

We anticipate ongoing reforms in power and the extractive industries will likely remain, albeit with slight changes to accommodate the assessments of the new governing class.

Overall, if the prudent approach currently being advocated by the President-elect is upheld, we will see considerable savings in government overheads. The anti-corruption stance may also plug some of the leakages in government revenue streams, freeing up funds which are likely to be channeled towards building a quasi-welfare system for the large army of the unemployed – as promised by the APC during their campaigns.

Economic growth will likely remain stable especially as the falling oil prices means less funds will be available for injection into the system. The implications of this scenario for business remain unclear but there is no likelihood of hyperinflation as long as the new government doesn’t introduce any policies that could shock the equilibrium.

Which African countries will perform best in 2015?

That’s really a tough call considering the differences in regional dynamics of African states between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. However, if the resource-rich nations are able to manage their fiscal policy issues more transparently I expect Nigeria, Botswana and Cote D’Ivoire to be somewhere near the top of the list for 2015. While Nigeria and Botswana have for the past 3 years posted large percentage increases in GDP growth and tax revenues, Cote D’Ivoire has kept inflation in the low single digits and the political outlook remains stable.

Nigeria and Botswana will continue to rely on extractive industries revenues; Cote D’Ivoire appears to be increasing its GDP steadily and is harnessing more of its revenue from taxation for deployment into infrastructure investments.

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Africa Business Communities is conducting a series of interviews with CEOs and executive professionals in Africa. Are you, and are interested in an interview? Please send an e-mail to Andrea Ayemoba: andrea@africabusinesscommunities.com

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