The number of design and grammatical errors observed on the iGuide Nigeria (http://theiguides.org), a federal government’s up-to-date online portal, containing necessary information and relevant data for willing investors unveiled last have been identified by Business Hilights Intelligence Unit (BHIU).
The Unit is an independent research consultancy division under the parent body, Media Hilights Integrated Company Limited, publishers of Business Hilights.
Among the critical design errors observed on the site is the inability of the scrolling list of Nigerian states to get to the last state in alphabetical order.
Otherwise, scrolling the list of an investor can only manage to get to Kwara State, meaning that other states below Kwara cannot be accessible. This means further that out of 36 states and FCT Abuja, only the 23rd state (Kwara) can be accessed. The affected states include Lagos, Rivers, Sokoto, Zamfara, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and six others.
Apart from flashes of wrong use of Rule of Concord in English language in some presentations, the idea of attempting to use ‘Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)’ to introduce a strategic sector like Information and Communications Technology (ICT) where more investments are needed in Nigeria seems to be a big structural error.
Otherwise, ICT, just like other sector like power, mining, agriculture and others should stand alone clearly so that potential investors will not be confused as to the explanations made under the BPO category.
For instance, write up on the BPO said in parts: “Business Process Outsourcing (BPO); The National Information and Communication Technology Policy was developed by the Ministry of Communication Technology, in 2012 to help facilitate the transformation of Nigeria into a knowledge-based economy. The need to growth the BPO segment in Nigeria features within this policy document: “It is important… especially as Government continues to stimulate the creation of jobs – to urgently promote a conducive environment that will enable … firms to invest in and participate in the global BPO economy.”
This is more confusing as wikipedia.org defined BPO as “a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business process to a third-party service provider. some of the examples given include Knowledge process outsourcing, Offshore outsourcing and Legal outsourcing,” without making any reference to ICT.
Going by the above explanation, potential investors in ICT are likely to be more confused on areas of investments in Nigeria because the clarifications are not on site.
On the other hand, contrary to claims by the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) that it had been driving the campaign of encouraging MDAs to key into designing or redesigning their websites to be in line with government’s dedicated servers of .gov.ng, the iGuide Nigeria portal is on .org.
The list of sector in need of investors according to the site fall under the ‘Growth Sectors and Opportunities’. They include 1. Economy and Domestic Production, 2. Market Access, 3. Agriculture, 4. Mining, 5. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), 6. Power, 7. Manufacturing, 8. Oil & Gas, 9. Transportation, and 10. National Integrated Infrastructure Masterplan.
BHIU also noticed what the site called ‘What Investors Think’ as not too good for public digest as the comment has a deeper meaning capable of discouraging or confusing even prospective investors.
The comment said in parts: “Investors are eager to see the government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) in action. They recognise the position of Nigeria as Africa’s largest market, and say that despite the challenges in the environment, Nigeria is still worth investing in, particularly because of its population, geographical location, and proximity to international markets. However, they stressed the need for significant infrastructural improvement, which they consider as critical to the success of sectors prioritized for investment”.
In general, BHIU recommends a total shutdown of the site to give room for better reconstruction in a way and manner the site will be alluring and easy to interpret facts and figures.
Business Hilights recalls that on Thursday last week, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Enelamah at the launch in Abuja, said the portal would greatly improve the Ease of Doing Business in the country.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Edet Akpan, the minister averred that “The ranking of Ease of Doing Business for now is not good enough for Nigeria; we are working hard to ensure that in the next ranking the country will be among the top 10.”
Earlier in his address, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Yewande Sadiku, said the portal would help investors get access to the basic information needed to make better informed decisions on Nigeria as a preferred investment destination.
She argued that “iGuide is an easy to use online platform providing investors with up-to-date and pertinent information on the processes, procedures and basic costs of doing business in Nigeria.
“It provides information on starting business, labour, production factors, land, taxes, investor rights, growth sectors and opportunities.”
