Chief Executive Officer of Signal Alliance, Mr. Collins Onuegbu, has predicted that Nigeria will be among the top 10 countries of the world in internet usage and penetration in few years' time.
 
Onuegbu, whose company specialises in software development and service delivery, gave the prediction in Lagos at a forum organised by Signal Alliance to appreciate its customers and to advise them on new business model that would help them stay relevant in a technology evolving world.
 
Onuegbu, who based his prediction on the 110 million telecoms subscribers in the country, said since the figure was an accumulation of mobile phone users in the country, there is the tendency that it will boost internet penetration and usage, because majority of Nigerians use smart phones with internet access for their daily browsing.
 
"As the number of mobile phone subscription increases, the volume of internet usage is likely going to increase, and this will move Nigeria to become among the top ten economies of the world in internet usage and penetration," Onuagbu said.
 

Insisting on transparency as a recipe for growth in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, during his presentation at the five day customer forum, Onuegbu said a number of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) went under over the years. The reason, he said, was because of capitalist idea brought into ICT business, which tends to support one sided growth in an ecosystem that involves several players.
 
Using the hypothesis of 'You Grow We Grow' and 'We Grow You Die', Onuegbu said unless organisations begin to trust their service providers and vendors and at the same time display high level of transparency in business, more SMEs would continue to fold up.
 
As part of the activities to mark the annual customer appreciation week, Signal Alliance visited its clients drawn from banking, insurance, manufacturing, aviation, energy and public sectors of the economy, aimed at demonstrating its customer relationship abilities.
 
Justifying the importance of the annual customer forum, Onuegbu explained that though information technology activities would tend to eliminate the personal touch needed in business relationships, the forum was intended to bring back the age long means of interacting with customers.
 
"We cannot let machines rule everything in our life and that is why we take out time to organise customer forums for our client and show them, as humans, that we appreciate doing business with them as well as reward them for sticking with us as preferred service provider" Onuegbu said.
 
Signal Alliance used the forum and visitation to clients to reward its customers by offering free services via 'Gift Vouchers'.
 
Head, Branding and Marketing Communications at Signal Alliance, Mr. Desmond Omovie, said: "The 'Gift Vouchers' contain four specialised offers from the company and each worth at least $3,000."
 
Activities for the Customer Week rounded off with a visit to the Little Saints Orphanage in Lagos as well as a breakfast meeting with industry experts and customers of Signal Alliance in Lagos.

Copyright © 2013 This Day. Originally  published by Emma Okonji, 14 February 2013. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).