Although online retail business is thriving in Nigeria, lack of clear defined regulatory policy is still affecting its growth. In this interview with Emeka Aginam, the Chief Executive Officer of phonekings.com.ng, one of the leading online retail stores in Nigeria, Tayo Olusanya said that passage of cyber security bill would boost online retail store. Because of the endless benefit of the online platform, he said that government should extend internet penetration in the rural area to further boost online retail business.

Excerpt

Why operating in Nigeria

We have looked that Nigeria is a vast market of over 170 million people, yet there is low penetration of internet in terms of online retail stores. And therefore, we came out with the concept of Phonekings.com.ng. and we believe it is one big innovation hub of getting people to buy mobile phones,tablets,Computers,Games & Consoles,Electronics and other gadgets at the best and cheapest price ever without stepping outside their living room.

Target of 30% market share in one year

We believe it’s achievable. The sector is still virgin. though we understand that competition in the market is high. We have the cutting edge technology and required man power to capture not just the 30% market share but also overtake the projection. We have put in a mechanism and well documented blueprint of sustainability in Nigeria and other African countries.

We are also dealing with poor house numbering system. When it comes to distribution of logistics, we have put in place everything that will make it work.

Yes, we understand the huge problem in Nigeria in terms of house numbering . We have been able to put together a good and detailed plans in terms of getting the good delivered in record time. Our delivery target time is a maximum of forty eight hours.

Dealing with security in the Nigeria online market place

We understand that the security situation in the country is a serious issue. and nobody is disputing that fact we are aware of that. But what we have tried as much as possible to address is that our team have their means of identification/tags and they are always in their uniform. Our cars are customized with phonekings.com.ng logo, So this gives customers the confidence that the delivery team from our company are genuine.

If you are talking about the Cyber or online security now, in terms of people using their Mastercard, Visa,Interswich and Verve cards online, our platform is very interactive,scalable, robust and security is 100%.

The back ends o f phonekings.com.ng is handled by major players in the industry. Our payment gateway solutions licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),if you are using Mastercard,Visa, Interswich and Verve cards it is being handled. Once you you log on to the site,make your order and if you want to pay online,it takes you to the portal of the banks/financial institution that issues the cards.

The payment solution is not domicile with phonekings.com.ng but handled by the banks directly. Soyou can pay for your product seamlessly.

Double debit

If a customer is debited twice in the course of online payment, it will be reversed automatically.

Measures put in place against hacking

Our back-ends is not just handled byphonekings.com.ng but domicile with the various banks and financial institutions so, the only challenge is if the hackers are able to get through to the back-ends through the financial institutions but from our ends,there certainly will be no problem. We are 100% safe.

How regulatory environment affects online businesses

At the moment, there is no clear defined regulatory policy on online businesses. We hope that the government and government institutions who are in charge of this will be able to sit down and draft a policy for online businesses online business is not regulated. Government will come with the clear cut policy regulating the IT and online business in Nigeria.

Key things to address in e-commerce policy

Security is very important. They should also look at the Telecommunication stakeholders as they also have an input into this by for Instance increasing internet penetration to the rural areas. There is so much restriction in the rural areas. so all these and more are what they really need to look at and formulate a policy to push this ahead, because they benefit of the online platform is endless.

Passage of Cyber security

The passage of the cyber security bill will of course go along way in turning around the fortunes of eCommerce in the country, because if your are doing any transaction online, you want to be sure that your transaction is safe. If you put up your details you want to be sure that nobody tampers with your sensitive information. My appeal is for the legislators to pass this bill on time so that there would be a regulatory frame work for national security and even internet security in Nigeria. E-Commerce helping to growth national economy.

Phoneking.com.ng in the next five years

In the next few years, we are anticipating exponential growth, we hope to open to African countries, such as south Africa Ghana, Kenya Namibia, Botswana,among others.