CEO of Saltside, owners of Efritin.com, Nils Hammer has described data cost in Nigeria as the most expensive in the West African region and even beyond.
Speaking on why the online classified marketplace closed its office in Nigeria last week, Hammer said in comparison to other parts of the West Africa, Africa and the rest of the world, cost of data in Nigeria is the most expensive.
“It is very expensive to use the Internet for the vast majority of the people. It is very difficult for e-commerce and classifieds because they are quite late in the evolution of the Internet industry,” said Nils.
He explained that Efritin.com didn’t get the desired returns on its investment here in Nigeria for the last 16 months because of the high cost of data and other operational costs. “So we decided to scale back on our investments in Nigeria and that means we are forced to let many people leave the company.”
Recall that in November 2016, it was reported that the former marketing manager of Efritin.com, Uche Ajene who is well known in the online retail space had accused the Somalian national and former MD of Efritin.com, Zakaria Hersi of stealing thousands of dollars, turning a blind eye to internal mismanagement and false fully creating invoice trails.
According to Techmoran, senior members of Efritin.com management who pleaded anonymity say that Zakaria Hersi’s activities were the beginning of the end for Efritin.com Nigeria as they struggled to raise further investment to scale the business.
The staff of the company are already leaving the head office, which is located in Ikeja and the properties of the company are being put up for sale. However, the company clarified that the site is not going to be shut down but it will be up and running as it has been. But how do they intend to manage this?