The Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, on Monday opened the Lagos edition of the Get Nigerian Businesses Online (GNBO) campaign at the Ikeja axis of the commercial centre.
She also commended the partnership between Google Nigeria,
Ecobank and MTN Nigeria in creating the enabling environment for Nigerian small
and medium businesses and anchoring this
on the nation’s cyberspace, the country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), .ng
being managed by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA).
Johnson noted that the campaign to Get Nigerian Businesses
Online by the partners aligned with the mandate of her ministry in pursuit of
President Goodluck Jonathan’s desire to empower more Nigerians, especially the
youths.
She further urged Nigerian SMEs to take advantage of this
opportunity being led by Google.
Welcoming participants to the event, the country manager at
Google Nigeria, Ms Juliet Ehimuan, said the five-day web fair is targeted at
getting about 5,000 small and medium sized enterprises online.
She said, GNBO has been designed to make it easy and free
for businesses to register an online presence and take advantage of internet
prospect.
Ehimuan pointed out that small businesses are the key driver
of growth in Nigeria and that GNBO is here to assist in removing the barriers that
stop such small businesses from getting online, which include lack of time,
anticipated expense or simply a lack of knowledge.
“Our tools make it quick, easy and free to set up a website.
We’re looking forward to helping thousands of small businesses establish an
internet presence over the next few days,” she declared.
The initiative, she said, offers free, easy-to-build,
professional website for desktop and mobile; a free sub-domain name on
gnbo.com.ng; free hosting for the life of the website as well as free local
business listing on Google places in addition to free Google App tools,
resources and support.
Noting that since the launch of GNBO in September this year,
over 200 SMEs have taken advantage of this campaign to register businesses and
even get online.
Remmy Nweke
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
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