Feature/OPED
Driving Scalable Growth Through Exceptional Customer Experience
By Kehinde Ogundare
Establishing and managing a business in Nigeria can be very challenging, especially when competing for customer attention and scarce resources. Delivering exceptional customer experience would be a strategic approach for businesses operating in Nigeria that want to stand out, take advantage of the opportunities, break-even, and stay successful.
Businesses usually have a common goal of expansion. However, when the competitive business landscape is fierce, mere linear growth may no longer suffice. Instead, companies should strive for growth at scale to increase their revenue without a significant influx of additional resources.
One of the most crucial starting points for growth at scale is to focus on customer experience (CX). CX can be defined as the comprehensive range of a customer’s cognitive, emotional, sensory, and behavioural reactions throughout their entire journey with a company, spanning from pre-purchase to post-purchase stages. CX can either be a catalyst for success or the downfall of a company.
While it may appear as an exaggerated claim, it carries substantial weight when considering that, according to one report, 81% of customers say that a positive customer experience significantly increases their likelihood of making repeat purchases. Equally noteworthy is the fact that 61% of customers would readily switch companies following just one negative experience. These statistics emphasise the critical importance of cultivating and maintaining a superior customer experience.
Understanding the significance of CX is one thing, but delivering exceptional experiences is an entirely different matter. Bearing this in mind, how can organisations guarantee that they consistently deliver the utmost satisfaction to their customers? Although the answer may differ depending on the specific industry, there are several fundamental steps that any organisation can undertake to achieve this goal.
The power of contextual data
One of the most impactful measures to undertake involves dismantling data silos. It’s critical to recognise that information fuels every department within an organisation. Ensuring access to contextual data empowers customer-facing teams to have impactful engagement with the customers, thereby improving the experience they can provide.
Furthermore, it enables the delivery of personalised experiences to each customer, further augmenting their perception of the organisation. In this regard, the implementation of a customer experience platform assumes significant importance. Ideally, such a platform should offer a seamless and contextual flow of data between different systems, single sign-on (SSO), and granular access control. At Zoho, we have dedicated efforts to incorporate these features into our customer experience platform— Zoho CRM Plus—that brings sales, marketing, support and other customer-facing teams together.
A single view of marketing
The consolidation of customer data is vital for organisations, but it’s equally crucial to have a unified perspective on their marketing endeavours. It’s essential to recognise that the customer experience encompasses all interactions with an organisation, even those occurring before a purchase is made.
It’s also important to remember that marketing doesn’t just entail advertising. It also includes your branding, both online and offline, your social media presence, and your media and stakeholder relations.
So, it’s critical to deliver consistent experiences throughout all of your marketing activities. Achieving this goal requires that the whole marketing department has insight into each and every activity carried out by different teams. This approach prevents the duplication of efforts, promotes transparency, and provides visibility to the managers who can use the insight to assess the impact of various activities.
Get the post-purchase service right
After a customer makes a purchase, it’s essential to follow up with them in a non-intrusive manner to gauge their satisfaction with the product and the service they received. By collecting feedback, businesses can obtain valuable insights that can be used to further improve not just their engagement with a particular customer but also their offerings. Any company that is listening and acting on customer feedback will sooner or later outperform its competitors.
Feedback on the customer experience serves as the foundation for further enhancing the post-purchase experience by enabling accurate recommendations of other relevant products from the inventory. This iterative process ensures that the customer experience continues to evolve and improve, fostering long-term customer loyalty and driving repeat purchases. Even a simple survey tool can help a company gather valuable insights, which can then be used to improve overall CX efforts.
Building a foundation of excellence
While numerous elements contribute to the creation of an exceptional customer experience, the foundational principles outlined above are undeniably crucial. With these fundamentals firmly in place, businesses can proactively cultivate an environment conducive to fostering long-lasting customer relationships and achieving sustainable growth.
Kehinde Ogundare is the Country Manager for Zoho Nigeria
Nigeria’s financial services industry stands at a decisive crossroads as technology leaders prepare for the January 1, 2027, data residency deadline set by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The regulatory mandate requiring all payment transaction records, customer personally identifiable information (PII), and account ledgers to reside within domestic data centres is forcing a structural re-evaluation of banking IT architectures. For executive teams across the country, navigating this transition without interrupting daily banking operations is becoming the ultimate test of leadership.
For years, the industry’s reliance on foreign hyperscale providers delivered quick elasticity and global tools. However, transferring entire production stacks – encompassing real-time transaction processing, API gateways, and fraud scoring engines – back to local infrastructure requires significant engineering effort. With the country handling billions of electronic transactions annually, CIOs are seeking to preserve system uptime while severing deep operational dependencies on foreign data centres.
Experts have opined that the core challenge confronting financial technology teams is the lack of empirical, vendor-neutral benchmarks for domestic cloud platforms. Evaluating whether local data centres can sustain mission-critical financial traffic requires rigorous stress testing rather than relying on theoretical SLAs. The risk of potential downtime during a live migration makes vendor vetting the most crucial phase of the compliance roadmap.
To mitigate these operational risks, infrastructure partners like MTN are mobilising domestic capacity and technical insights tailored for the financial sector. By offering sovereign cloud solutions and collaborative engineering frameworks, MTN is helping CIOs and startups navigate the migration path with minimal disruption. Their localised infrastructure serves as an operational bridge, providing the uptime and data sovereignty assurances that both institutions and regulators require.
Lynda Saint-Nwafor, the Chief Enterprise Business Officer for MTN Nigeria, put it succinctly when she explained the upside of hosting data locally: “Hosting locally means lower latency, faster response times, and compliance with Nigeria’s data regulations. More importantly, it gives Nigerian businesses control, keeping sensitive financial, health, and government data within national borders.”
As the January 2027 benchmark approaches, the metric for success will depend on technical execution and operational discipline across companies.
By Osasikemwen Ighile
For many Nigerian families, the summer holiday is a season of fun, relaxation, and spending quality time together. But with the kids at home, more outings, higher electricity consumption, and extra entertainment costs, it’s also a period when expenses can quietly pile up.
The good news? You don’t have to choose between making memories and managing your finances. With a few smart habits, you can enjoy the holidays while keeping your savings goals on track.
Here are five practical ways to save smarter this summer.
1. Ditch Cash and Spend Smarter
Ever noticed how cash disappears faster than you expected? Whether it’s buying snacks for the kids, paying for transport, or making quick market runs, spending cash can make it difficult to track where your money goes.
Using a debit card can make it easier to track transactions and monitor spending. FairMoney customers can use their debit card for eligible transactions, subject to applicable terms and conditions. You can make payments conveniently at stores, shop online, and easily monitor your transactions. Instead of carrying cash everywhere, you get a clearer picture of your expenses and can avoid unnecessary impulse purchases.
Small changes like this can make a big difference over the course of the holiday.
2. The Kids Are Home—Stay Ahead of Your Utility Bills
School holidays often mean one thing: the TV is almost always on. From cartoons in the morning to football matches in the evening, your cable subscription becomes more important than ever. Add fans, air conditioners, gaming consoles, and other appliances, and it’s easy to see why electricity bills tend to increase during this period.
Rather than waiting until services are disconnected, planning and paying bills on time help households avoid unnecessary late-payment or reconnection charges. FairMoney customers can pay eligible bills and services through the platform, subject to applicable terms and service availability. You can conveniently pay for Cable TV subscriptions, Electricity bills, Internet subscriptions, Airtime and data for the entire family.
Paying bills on time can help reduce the risk of late payment consequences or applicable reconnection charges. Summer is filled with birthdays, outings, family visits, and spontaneous spending. While these moments are worth enjoying, your savings shouldn’t take a holiday.
3. Enjoy the Holidays—but Don’t Pause Your Savings
A simple strategy is to save first before spending. FairMoney customers can also use eligible savings products, such as FairSave and FairTarget, to set aside money towards specific financial goals, subject to the applicable product terms, conditions and eligibility requirements, even if it’s in small amounts. Already planning for the next school term? FairMoney customers can also use eligible savings products, such as FairSave and FairTarget, to set aside money towards specific financial goals, subject to the applicable product terms, conditions and eligibility requirements. Already planning for the next school term? Consider setting aside money regularly towards your school-fee goal. FairTarget can be used to help you organise savings around specific financial goals, subject to the applicable product terms, conditions and eligibility requirements. By starting early and saving consistently, you can better prepare for school-related expenses when the new term begins.
4. Plan Weekly Family Activities Instead of Daily Spending
The holidays don’t have to be expensive to be memorable. Instead of spending money every day on outings, cinemas, or restaurants, create a simple weekly activity plan. One weekend could be a family movie night at home. Another could be a picnic in a nearby park, a cooking competition, indoor games, or a visit to relatives.
Planning activities ahead helps you control spending while still giving everyone something to look forward to. Sometimes, the best memories cost very little.
5. Buy Household Essentials in Bulk
With everyone at home, groceries seem to disappear twice as fast. Instead of making frequent trips to the store, which often lead to impulse purchases, consider buying regularly used items in bulk.
Depending on the retailer and quantity purchased, some household essentials may offer better value when purchased in bulk.. You’ll spend less on transportation, reduce unplanned shopping, and avoid running out of important items.
Summer should be about creating happy memories not financial headaches. By spending more intentionally, paying your bills on time, planning ahead, and staying committed to your savings goals, you can enjoy everything the season has to offer without putting unnecessary pressure on your finances.
A few smart habits today can make the months ahead much easier. And that’s a win for every household.
Osasikemwen Ighile is the Brand Manager for FairMoney Microfinance Bank
Feature/OPED
Beyond the Screen: How Sports and Entertainment Keep Nigeria’s Economy Moving
When we talk about Nigeria’s economy, the conversation usually centres on oil and gas, banking, agriculture, manufacturing and technology. But there is another industry quietly creating jobs and driving economic activity: entertainment and sports. Most times, we only see the finished product. We watch the show, cheer during the match and move on to the […]
When we talk about Nigeria’s economy, the conversation usually centres on oil and gas, banking, agriculture, manufacturing and technology. But there is another industry quietly creating jobs and driving economic activity: entertainment and sports. Most times, we only see the finished product. We watch the show, cheer during the match and move on to the next thing. What we do not always see is the amount of work that happens before those moments reach our screens.
Take Big Brother Naija
When viewers tune in and see the housemates moving around the Big Brother house, it is easy to forget that the house itself is a product of many people’s work. From the interior designers and set builders who create the spaces to the electricians, carpenters, painters and technicians who bring them to life, an entire team works behind the scenes before the first episode even begins.
Once the cameras start rolling, the list gets even longer. Producers, directors, camera operators, sound engineers, editors, stylists, makeup artists, caterers, production assistants and security personnel all have a role to play. Then there is everything that happens outside the house. Publicists, photographers, videographers, digital teams, content creators and media platforms all contribute to keeping the conversation going. The housemates may be the faces audiences remember, but they are only one part of a much bigger entertainment ecosystem.
Sports have a similar impact
When the Super Falcons play a major game, the focus is naturally on the players and what happens on the pitch. But outside the stadium, the game can mean business for viewing centres, food vendors, restaurants and bars. Sports analysts and commentators have more to cover, content creators have something new to create around and businesses selling jerseys and football merchandise get an opportunity to make sales.
A major sporting event can turn an ordinary evening into a busy one for businesses that have little to do with what happens on the pitch. That is the part of sports and entertainment that is easy to overlook. The value is not only in the stars we see or the content we consume. It is also in the network of people whose skills and businesses keep these industries moving.
And this is where DStv and GOtv become an important part of the picture. They do more than give audiences access to the shows, matches and moments they care about. They connect the people producing this content with millions of viewers who keep the industry going.
Every time someone tunes in to Big Brother Naija, follows the Super Falcons or settles in for a major sporting event, they are engaging with an industry that supports producers, creatives, technicians, businesses and other professionals.
The impact of sports and entertainment, therefore, goes beyond what happens on the screen. By bringing some of the biggest entertainment and sporting moments to Nigerian audiences, DStv and GOtv help keep this ecosystem active, visible and working. Because sometimes, when we sit down to watch, we are not just consuming entertainment. We are also supporting an industry that provides jobs.
