A 2024 study submitted to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) by Perazim Development & Planning Limited has nine recommendations that would allow Digital Businesses, Entrepreneurs and Startups to thrive in the digital economy being championed by the federal government.
The report titled ‘Consultancy Study on Developing Sustainable Digital Entrepreneurship Business Model in a Digital Nigeria’, noted that since ICT has proven to be a vital tool for the digital transformation of businesses across various sectors, there must be some guiding principles that will allow businesses leveraging ICT to progress.
According to the study, Digital businesses in Nigeria are plagued by different challenges such as macroeconomic factors, national infrastructure issues, insecurity and internal capacity problems. Hence the need to adopt a sustainable digital entrepreneurship and business model that can assure the success and survivability of digital businesses in Nigeria.
“The transition to a digital economy has been on a steady rise in the last five years and has promoted socioeconomic growth and development in the country. Many indigenous businesses have metamorphosed into digital enterprises through the use of digital technologies and the Internet. But, the developed conceptual framework for sustainable digital business model development is guaranteed to help Nigerian digital entrepreneurs and businesses succeed and evolve into global enterprises,” it summarised.
The Nine Recommendations for Digital Businesses, Entrepreneurs and Startups.
- Ensure to document and validate a proper business model before commencing business operations.
- Embrace the culture of periodic business performance evaluation.
- Business decisions should be based on empirical data and not perceptions.
- Institute a culture of accountability and bookkeeping.
- Ensure to know the difference between revenue and profit; cashflow should be considered more important than profit within the first six months to one year.
- Think big, start small and plan for scale-up.
- Constantly engage with customers to obtain feedback on products and services as well as customer needs.
- Practice the “Kaizen” principle of continuous improvement.
- Leverage new and emerging technologies as they can provide the needed competitive advantage.
