Wednesday 30 October 2013

VConnect powers 800,000 SMEs online

At the just concluded 2013 annual science and technology conference and exhibition held at the Lagos Business School, Ajah, Lagos State, the General Manager, VConnect Global Services, Africa’s largest search engine , Mr Rustagi Deepankar has said that the company has also brought over 800,000 small and medium enterprises online.

While asserting that VConnect is Africa’s largest search engine, he said that the company is a localised search engine created to help Nigerians locate service centres and businesses around them rather than relying information from limited sources; which sometimes lead to waste of time. According to him, the search engine does not only provide information for emergency situations, but has gained the peoples’ trust as more than 3,000 businesses are added and verified daily.



“In ensuring trust to its registered businesses, VConnect carries out an intensive verification process on all businesses registered on its website to assure users they can do business with them”, he said.
He cited the example of a VConnect business owner who while being interrogated at a foreign airport gave his business details and showed means of identification but when the immigrations officer was not convinced and asked for more proof, he referred him to the VConnect website. This helped establish that he was the owner of a legitimate business in Nigeria.
According to him, VConnect is focused on helping SMEs in Nigeria by taking them online and building trust in their brands.
According to him, a research carried out by Nigeria Communications Commission, found that there are about 50 million Nigerians online daily and according to SMEDAN, there are 17 million small and medium enterprises, 4 million of which are full structured businesses.
Most SMEs, he said are prone to using one-on-one sales methods, promoting businesses to their friends, neighbours, mosques and churches,
“These businesses are the small giants waiting to erupt. Combined, they would make a big fish. This big fish does not have any power until we infuse the power of digital technology” Deepankar further stated.

Source: Vanguard

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