Mark Essien, Hotels.ng founder, who grew up in Nigeria, provided an insight into the new African consumer, suggesting that brands should be adapting their offers to a new wave of affluent Africans and that mobile technology was paramount to any company’s success in the region.

 

Essien immediately pointed out that data about Africa – issued by the government or affiliated agencies – is generally unreliable. Instead he provided his insightful evaluation of the size and growth of the African market.

 

He said he believed that two factors make Africans relevant in global travel commerce: Income and sophistication.

 

Then using the key indicators of Facebook users, the amount of travellers and hotel bookings painted a more accurate picture of the Nigerian market’s potential.

 

“Nigeria is growing enormously sophisticated and the number of Facebook users is a far better way of measuring this than internet users. You can quite easily access the internet by accident, so these government issued figures are not reliable or a true representation.”

 

He confirmed what has been assumed of Africa for a long time that mobile is the primary computing platform for pretty much everybody. He urged companies who wanted to enter the African market to develop mobile technology first.

 

“Prices of mobiles are very low in Africa. Smartphones will become the default screens and laptops will be secondary…many don’t even understand the concept of a computer. They do not really see the website as a website, but a feature of the phone.” Essien said it was important for companies to be aware of consumers perception of information being accessed on a mobile phone.

 

Outside of Nigeria, Essien pin-pointed Senagal the Ivory coast and Ghana – which is similar market to Nigeria – as areas of potential growth. He also mentioned Kenya and South Sudan. Interestingly Essien highlighted that there is not a lot of regard for customer service in Africa and that more staff training than normal is necessary to conform to international standards.

 

Essien also mentioned that the Nigerian government is singularly uninterested in tourism and that almost nothing is being built to cater to tourists. “The trouble is that we don’t pay a lot of tax in Nigeria and the collection rate is much lower,” he said. He pointed out the Nigerian Government biggest revenue streams come from oil and minerals and such.