By: Omoleye
Technology is a veritable tool to achieve deliberate, planned and sustainable developmental goals. It is the bedrock upon which every meaningful growth is built. The development of any geographical place is directly proportional to their efforts at improving their technologies
and applying same to their everyday life. It therefore can be summed up as a scientific knowledge for practical day to day purpose which is rooted in applied science.
The first world nations of the world realized early enough, the importance of technology and its inherent benefits which is the reason why they are moving in leaps and bounds today.
The Chinese and the Americans of today have invested a lot in technology and capacity building which translates into the success stories we see and hear from them.
Over a couple of decades ago, the backward state of the Nigerian Technological involvement was responsible for most of the economic problems. The administrative processes took a lot of productive energy and quite a lot of meaningful developments could not be made.
Clerical staff had to grapple with the slow paced postal services, Telegrams, Telex, letters and other means of communication.
This relegated the Nigerian economy in no small measure before the paradigm shift- A new business and communication order.
Information is key to the success or otherwise of business. The Nigerian business model was getting tiring and obsolete and a lot of investors bowed out to establish in neighboring countries thereby raising the percentage of the unemployed.
A great number of promising went under and the economy was in a state of comatose. However, the technological advancements that followed in the wake of year 2000 brought about a complete relegation of the old paradigm in business and the general lifestyle of the people.
Mails were moving in a speed of light at the proliferation of electronic mails. This reinforced the confidence of the discerning older generation in what we now have as the new normal.
Just as the people were reveling in the new found success, there came a new feature in the form of instant messages where one can send and receive messages on the spot!, chat with business associates, friends and family right on their devices. Yahoo messengers and host of others came to the scene and life became easy.
This finally erased the cynicism in some people finding it hard to join the new paradigm and a new business and communication order was birthed.
The evolution continued in quick succession as cabinet files were later replaced with electronic records in form of drop box and other cloud storage making life easy for everyone.
Constant technological improvements have been the saving grace for many Nigerians. It has helped a lot of corporations in terms of overhead cost reduction which translates to lesser costs of doing things unlike what was obtained in the former business order.
At the moment corporations can now conduct meetings via different platforms, speak with their stakeholders, reach resolutions and move on without having to spend huge sums on traveling and expenses. This is a great innovation and a saving grace for many organizations during the heat of pandemic.
This technological innovation challenged a great number of the Nigerian teeming youth population which constitutes over 62% of the National population as at the last count. New managing directors and CEO’s are currently taking center stage in the Nigerian market.
Gone are the days of total reliance on the government to provide the unemployed youths with jobs. Many of them are currently business owners and employers of labor reducing the number of the unemployed across the Nation.
This shift in paradigm has opened their eyes to online sales and freelance services as against the old ways of business operations. Socio-economic challenges such as absence of financial aid no longer hold water as youths now operate virtual offices, get jobs done and delivered to clients even without a start up capital and the stress associated with funds for office space and other costs.
Religious organizations have also tapped into this new order as there are more religious gatherings on the Cyber space compared to the physical gatherings. During the heat of the corona virus pandemic, religious houses were locked down and there was a tremendous increase in the numbers of online worshipers.
This is one of the inherent advantages of technological improvements. Live streaming has replaced the conventional gatherings, reduced stress of transportation while achieving the same aim.
Manufacturers and marketers have also benefited from this technological evolution. They can use short videos to tell their stories of product benefit and usage.These videos are simply posted on different platforms and they reach the intended targets on a larger scale effectively. A lot of do it yourself (DIY) videos have also made things easier.
The government, Banks, Immigration Service and other government agencies benefited immensely as they are able to do data capturing for the populace on various occasions using bio-metrics and other data capturing applications to store data for future references.
The Banking sector has witnessed a tremendous improvement in the new business order as they are now able to reduce the numbers of the unbanked population which has been the sector’s long standing challenge.
Incidence of cash theft has significantly reduced since the advent of zero cash transaction in the last decade. Traders now move electronic cash and are less susceptible to robbery attacks
even though there are cases of electronic fraud which the sector is working tirelessly to bring to the barest minimum with the aid of advance technological surveillance and controls.
The nation has no doubt enjoyed quite a lot of improvements from various technological innovations and application developments. Cab hailing services on different applications, music streaming that promotes budding Talents, social networking that reduces stress and depression by ensuring constant touch with friends and loved ones irrespective of the distance and many more are the blessings of this nation in the new business and communication order.
No matter what we do or wherever it is done, it does not matter what the financial capacity at the moment looks like, pundits have variously posited that there is a market for everyone and anyone intentional to make a living. This include those desirous to stand out in the ever competitive global market.
The Nigerian government and stakeholders should therefore look further inwards, make the most of the technological advancements and steer the teeming youth in this direction. It is a multi billion dollar market which should be given more serious attention, thanks to the current Nigerian realities and the new normal.
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