Lynda Saint-Nwafor Tells How Emerging Technologies Will Upscale Businesses

The Doing Business in Nigeria Conference (DBNC) held its annual event themed “Business Unusual: Breaking Barriers”. The conference, which was held in Landmark Event Centre, Lagos, played host to business professionals and top executives of companies from across Nigeria.

Chief Enterprise Business Officer of MTN Nigeria, Lynda Saint-Nwafor, during her keynote address, stated that most of the businesses in Nigeria are Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) and highlighted that these businesses contribute 46% to the National GDP as of 2022.

A 2021 National survey by SMEDAN revealed that limited access to funding, rising costs of doing business, and increased technology usage are three critical trends observed within the Nigerian SMEs landscape. In her keynote address titled “Leveraging Emerging Technologies to Improve SME Productivity,” Lynda remarked that leveraging emerging technologies would drive scale, optimise cost, and bolster operational effectiveness.

“Technologies such as Digital Marketing, ERP/CRM, Big Data, Cloud Computing, IoT Solutions, Cyber Security, and Artificial Intelligence would improve SMEs within the country. Businesses can leverage AI to automate tasks and workloads, analyse data, and predict trends while Cloud Computing provides cost-effective solutions for technology infrastructure and management,” she stated.

President/Group CEO of Transcorp Plc, Dr. Owen Omogiafo, submitted that preparing a proactive crisis management plan would help businesses stay afloat in turbulent times. 

Linda Uneze, Convener of DBNC, noted that several factors pose threats to businesses, especially in Nigeria; and to attain set goals, businesspeople must do the extraordinary. To this, she said, “I do not believe in limitations, and I am always confident that start-ups can blossom if they put in the right attitude and work. Also, established companies have more opportunities to scale through more heights.”

Experts at the conference agreed that with more collaboration between the government and private sector, businesses would thrive better. She encouraged the government to look into the impact of existing business policies and review areas that may constrain and serve as barriers to doing business within the country.