Techpreneur seeks govt funding for digital sector

The founder of Aggital Works, Oghoghozino Otefia, has called on the federal government to provide monetary support for the country’s technology space.

The tech entrepreneur asserted that the tech space in Nigeria has been surviving with grants and donations from foreign bodies and Non Government Organisations.

Speaking during the unveiling of the company’s office in the Ajah area of Lagos on Friday, Otefia appealed to support digital agencies in providing more jobs for teeming unemployed Nigerian youths.

He said, “I want to beseech the government to look into supporting the technology space and digital agencies with grants. The industry has been able to survive without government support.

“Only when you acquire funding from foreign bodies outside Nigeria will the government not look towards you. Let them look towards us. Let them support digital agencies. We have ideas. We have things we want to help ecosystems.

“But without support, much cannot be done. I will say it anyway. You see, money is like a gas for any business. That is just the way it is for us in the digital space. We source for funding by ourselves from foreign donor bodies.

“The government cannot continue to ignore this crucial sector. It shouldn’t be so. The government should give us grants. They should give us so that it can help propel us. That’s my message to the government.”

Otefia said despite his company trying to drive creative improvements for the digital age, he has faced numerous challenges since starting the firm in 2016.

He said, “So the whole thing started in 2016. So, one of the biggest challenges is getting the correct type of project. We’re a development and digital agency. The first challenge we initially faced was hiring talent. I want to say the initial challenge we encountered was hiring the right set of talents that can deliver on the job.

“But then, someone said to one of my senior friends, he’s not here now. He’s in Houston. He said, you know, a more straightforward way to do it and not procure so much cost. It’s plenty of work. You will then have to do everything. Then, hire friends and family to teach them. They won’t charge you so much, and that’s how we survive. And with this advice, I had to take time to learn every single thing we do with that. I know everything that I can do. Everything.

“Projects come, but then the right set of projects is not easy to get. Projects from corporations and government bodies. And it’s a challenge. I wouldn’t like to dwell on so much challenge. However, how we solve this tends to come down to serving a larger mass of people.”

Speaking on the company’s flagship product, Ushoppen, Otefia said, “We understand that it is a lot to start a small business, and you are paying so much to have a website or a digital space. At Ushoppen, we help online vendors to help sell their products. So, Ushopppen has come to fill that gap. With Ushoppen, everyone has a website where they can sell their product. And we are transcending from just being a website leader to being you can do.

“I mean, the the reason why Ushoppen is is to help cope with the high cost and the unnecessary bureaucracy that comes with owning an e-commerce website. There are so many back and forth. You think about how to connect events online. You think about servers. You think about you think about developers.

“On Ushoppen, just create your account, and you have a website, Then you upload your product, upload your details, and that’s it. Also, one important thing, one of the things that makes us stand out from all the different online store users is the fact that we do not collect charges. Every one of them collects charges. So when you create an account on some other platforms, you sell your products.”