By Olorunwa Enitan
The advancement in technology has greatly affected the way of life of Nigerians. In society, there has been constant evolution, from food delivery to financial transactions down to human resources, there has been an upgrade. Daily, there are new innovations to make things more awesome for Nigerians. In a lot of ways, it has been a great blessing for anyone born in this generation to witness some of this feat. It even becomes more beautiful after the convid with the relevant changes in logistics, food delivery became the main thing with Chowdeck, Glovo, Hey Food and more making headway in cities like Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja and Port-Harcourt.
Ten years ago, I needed to visit the nearest bank to get cash. The long que was worrisome, the attitude of the bankers was infuriating yet this was a hassle I had to face just because I needed cash to transact business. Right now in the middle of 2023, it has changed. There have been new innovations by the banks. We have the point of service (POS) machines scattered around with the operators having readily available cash for potential users.
There has also been an increase in the rate of financial banks around. Most Nigerians have constantly explored the service of Opay, Monie Point Microfinance bank, Kuda Bank, and the list goes on. With the constant disappointment by traditional banks, Nigerians have resolved to use Fintech as they tend to be faster, reliable. Take for instance, rather than make a transfer that hanged for days, this banks would show you the network rate of the banks. There have been moments when they warned users against transferring to a particular bank. This is something the traditional bank would always do. Also , complaints by customers are attended to on time, it doesn’t take them much time, they give you the number of days it would take and most times, it doesn’t get to this day before they do the needful.
I once explored the service of Fixtops, a technology based company that connects phone repairers to their potential client. In a poverty stricken country like Nigeria, it has become hard to even set up after an apprenticeship. With a platform like Fixtops, it doesn’t require a physical shop set up, from the comfort of your house, offices, or car, you can get a client, deliver and get paid. It has been a life changing experience for me and other thousands of Nigerians that have explored their service since it was created in the last quarter of 2021.
Although it is still situated in Lagos, Chowdeck has already changed the template for food purchase. The users get to use a code they tell the bike man when he reaches it. This way, the order is being monitored till the end. Hey Food, Glovo and others also do something similar in different ways. At the comfort of their homes, Nigerians now order food, get it delivered on time, this has saved the stress off people.
There are impeccable gains of technology, it also has its lapses, the network situation in Nigeria has not improved. There have been hanging transactions. Some delivery guys eat customers’ food before it gets to them, ATM cards have been used to withdraw huge amounts of money from accounts via POS.
While this challenges sound enormous, I think the government, society and the stakeholder have a role to play. The government might need to serve as the needed check and balance on this technology company, punish some defaulters, this way, it would serve as a lesson to others.