Discussing the Evolution of Digital Space in Nigeria with Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho of Futuresoft

Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho, CEO of Futuresoft Nigeria, a leading full service digital agency and IT solutions company, shares her assessment of the digital space in Nigeria.

“The digital space in Nigeria has really evolved over the years and we have been a player in that space for the last 13 years. The reason why we started Futuresoft was to put African businesses on the map. We used to just sell hosting and help people develop their websites to ensure that they could start having a digital footprint so that they would be found on Google. From there, we extended our services into becoming a full service digital agency. The way that the company has evolved is the same way that digital and the requirement and the need for those services has evolved as well. Six, seven years ago, if we had told people that we can help you manage your social media, they would have said it was a waste of money. Why would they want to do that? There were very few brands that would trust us if we said this is what they should be doing. Those brands are still reaping the benefits of investing into their digital presence really early and investing into their social media presence at that stage. There is still a really big opportunity for anyone who works in digital marketing or digital solutions in Nigeria because there is still so much work that needs to be done when we look at some of the solutions and marketing campaigns that are being created on a global level. There are a lot of innovative solutions that we have seen in the local market, but there is always room for improvement. The consumers are very different. The adoption of technology and of digital is a bit slower in some areas and then much faster in other areas which means that there has been a lot of having to figure it out. These trends are similar to the global trends, but sometimes completely different where you have to approach your segment very differently simply because the level of knowledge around digital technology is either lower or the expectations of what a solution should do are much higher than in other places. If we look at the FinTech industry, for example, there are many applications that we have seen come out of emerging markets like Nigeria that are much more advanced than what you see in Europe or in the US. That is because we are a mobile first economy and we are looking at what can we do on the mobile phone before we look at any other medium. That changes consumer behavior in ways that are so fast and so rapid and so permanent. That is really where the beauty and the exciting part of my work is – being able to create services and solutions for the African consumer, ensuring that African brands are able to position both locally as well as globally, and ensuring that they are able to attract the stakeholders that are important for them, which are customers, partners, suppliers, subcontractors, and vendors locally, Pan African, and globally. This makes me really happy because that is really what I started doing 10 years ago. It was all to put businesses on the map and ensure that they can get benefits from having an online presence. I am really excited to see where the future takes us on this journey. It has definitely been a very exciting 13 years looking at the change and the evolution that the digital sector has gone through. The COVID pandemic has accelerated this even more, where every single brand now is thinking about how they can harness the power of digital, how we can engage our consumers, ensure that our consumers can buy our products, that we can educate our consumers, create brand awareness. There are so many different reasons why a brand would go online, but now, the coin has dropped for everyone and everyone is really ready to take on that journey which is really exciting because there were many brands who are still very traditional. Now, everyone is on that digital bandwagon. I think we are going to see very exciting things in the next few years”, says Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho.

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