WhoNigeria
internet gateway to corporate Nigeria
Friday 22nd of August 2008 02:32
:: 05/11/06 ::
Gateway To Corporate Nigeria
HE is a Nigerian businessman based in the United Kingdom, but since 2002, Chike Arinze has been in the business of building websites for Corporate Nigeria. The love for his fatherland, as well as the need to enhance the growth of internet-based businesses in Nigeria had informed his decision to set up shop in Nigeria.
He said his personal dream and interest at the moment is to use IT and the internet to promote Nigeria, and change some of the negative views the West has of Nigeria, especially on the internet.
Despite the increasing popularity of the internet in Nigeria and the drive by the federal government to make all parastatals have a functioning website, most Nigerian-owned websites have remained relatively unpopular and unknown to the world.
Against this backdrop, Arinze, Managing Partner, Firenze Consulting, an IT consulting company, says whonigeria.com is coming to the rescue. According to him, whonigeria.com is the first internet gateway in Nigeria designed to connect internet users directly to corporate websites in Nigeria as it specialises in providing internet-based IT solutions to meet the Nigerian companies' IT needs.
Conceptually, Whonigeria might not just be another directory of companies in Nigeria but a gateway to help people get to the companies themselves via the internet, by connecting them directly to companies' websites, without necessarily using the "search engines".
Basically patronised by oil companies and other companies, Arinze claims that today, Firenze has succeeded in getting several Nigerian companies to subscribe to the whonigeria.com network.
Most of Firenze's work is about helping companies develop their operations using IT communication satellite system. "Like in Nigeria, you know we have problems using NITEL. So we come up with the use of satellite for communication. Indeed, we are using VISAT technology to help companies communicate from their different offices around the world, or from their different offices in Nigeria," said Arinze.
"We started off in 1998 in the UK by a group of guys who were working for different companies. I was working for IBM prior to that. From there, we came together as a group and started IT work in the UK. And later, we had a project in Port Harcourt, which brought us back to Nigeria. The project was about setting up an internet company for the Port Harcourt district area. After that project, we felt that there were opportunities in Nigeria we could explore. Our first project was with the DPR in Lagos. From there, we got into oil and gas. We just finished a project with Chevron. Most of our work - about 80 per cent - is in the oil and gas sector.
"It was actually in 2002 that we started in Nigeria. The end of that project was in October. So we have been operational here for about four years now. So just this year, we got a new idea based on "who is who" in Nigeria, and the whole idea is "who is who" on the Nigerian internet. The idea came about because we had a couple of expatriates who visited Nigeria asking for our airlines. They were asking a lot of questions, like where they could stay in Abuja or Port Harcourt. Strange enough a lot of people in the UK have that problem when they come to Nigeria. And they are not sure where to go or which flight to take. So the idea was to enable people search for hotels and others on the internet.
For Arinze, however, the use of the internet to promote business is not a Nigerian thing yet. "Even though a lot of companies have websites, they are still not promoting it. Many companies have not looked into the importance of the global reach, which having internet sites can bring them.
"So that is what we are trying to promote by saying look, your website is a global thing. I can be in China and want to come to Nigeria; I can do a search for airlines, hotels and so on. The cost of websites depends on the component. For example, you can have a simple information website. To build it, a company can have a brochure from which information can be taken for the website."
WHILE efforts are still ongoing to ensure that more Nigerian companies, especially the banks, join the trend, Arinze decried the fact that most Nigerian youths are yet to appreciate the hidden wealth in internet business. According to him, while young people in the western world are making billions of dollars out of the internet, some Nigerian youths see the internet as a God-sent medium through which they can defraud the white man.
"But the internet is a goldmine where you can genuinely make your billions if you are creative enough," he observed. The 34 year-old technical director of the company explained that consulting firm was formed in 1988 in the United Kingdom (UK) by himself and a close friend who is also an IT expert. He said the initial idea was to do freelance work as contractors outside their daily job.
Arinze's fascination and obsession with computers and IT began just before he left the university. "Luckily, when I graduated, IBM, the largest computer company in the world, hired me. I worked for IBM for a while, got bored and moved to Abbey National, one of the biggest banks in the UK as a network engineer. This was in 1998, the beginning of the Y2K panic. In year 2000, I moved to an American investment bank in the UK in search of new challenges," he explained.
When in 2002, the stress of working in the city of London began to take its tool on Arinze, he decided it was time to move on again. "I started looking for new challenges," he said. "By chance, a friend was heading a project to set up an ISP in Port Harcourt, and asked if I was interested in joining him on the project. I agreed, and that was how I found myself in Nigeria in 2002 working for IP Works Internet."
After eight months in Port Harcourt, Arinze discovered that what he really wanted to do was bring Firenze Consulting to Nigeria. And the reason was simple: "IT was booming in Nigeria and I could see endless opportunities. One of my partners at Firenze in the UK joined me in Nigeria, and together we started the journey of building an IT company in the challenging environment called Nigeria."
Four years after, Arinze is still in Nigeria because he believes his home country has the potentials. "I believe there is a lot I can contribute to my country using technology. I have Nigerian friends in the UK who think I am crazy for being in Nigeria when I have it all in the UK. I tell them, 'home is home'."
Arinze continued: "To help boost the image of Nigeria on the internet, we have developed the first internet gateway for Nigeria called whonigeria.com. The idea is to let the world know that Corporate Nigeria is on the world wide web. We want to let the world know that in the midst of the so called fraud and 419 in Nigeria, there are legitimate companies that you can do business with. We also want to let the world know that there are nice places to visit and stay in Nigeria. We don't want foreigners to just take our word for it; we want them to visit these company websites by going to whonigeria.com.
"The internet has created a whole new industry of online trading. I believe that one day Nigerians will be able to do 60 per cent of their shopping online. The western world has achieved this using a system that was born many years before the Internet - the VISA payment card and pure simple honesty. While we can achieve the former, I am sceptical about the honesty part. Online trading sometimes is based on honesty, because as a customer paying for goods online, what is the assurance that Mr. A in Aba will deliver the mobile phone I am buying from his website using my VISA card? So you see we still have a long way to go with e-commerce in Nigeria, but I believe we will get there. The banks are trying in this aspect at the moment."
By MARCEL MBAMALU
Chike J Arinze
UK +44 7759511509
Nigeria: +234 8033276662
info@whonigeria.com