Expectedly every environment continues to change and changes trigger new business opportunities. Nigeria is not different. Over the past one year, there have been new government policies, economic changes, new trends, technological shifts, and new laws.

Using the PESTEL framework, these changes have been analysed in the context of the Nigerian macro environment with changes in political, technological, and economic factors found to be leading the pack in prompting new areas of business opportunities.

Even though, there will always be opportunities in almost every area, the focus here will be on the opportunities that will be most promising in 2013 considering the changes in the last one year.

They are ideal for existing businesses in the concerned areas as well as potential entrants and are as follows:

Capacity expansion(Telecommunication)

This opportunity is driven by two kinds of need – the need to improve call quality and the need to accommodate the increasing demand for internet.
Most people currently experience very poor call qualities from the telecoms operators and the primary reason is over-subscription meaning that the number of subscribers on the operators’ networks is more than what the installed capacity can carry.

For internet, the increasing demand and the availability of bulk bandwidth (brought in by MainOne, Glo1, and Sat3) implies that additional network capacity is needed.

Hence there is pressure on the telecoms operators to expand the network to meet these needs. While expanding the network, most operators will also solve the usual problem of technological obsolescence and take advantage of new features (e.g. upgrade from 2.5G to 3G or 3.75G network).

Few operators are also already looking at introducing Long Term Evolution technology – a new 4G wireless communication standard designed to offer high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals.

All of this will create big business opportunities for technology providers interested in this area. In other words, if your business can solve the following problems, do the needful and grab the emerging business opportunities:

- find cell sites in key locations
- install new 3G or LTE equipment
- swap old equipment for new (3G or LTE equipment)
- supply backhaul equipment (microwave or optic fibre)
- Build radio towers (masts)

Electric Power Systems Installation (Energy)

However cynical we may have become in Nigeria, the reality is that a lot of changes are going on in the power sector and this will create good business opportunities in 2013.

There have always been opportunities in the power sector like generator sales, diesel supply, inverter sales, solar power sales and installation, etc. This year will bring new kind of opportunities. Companies or individuals who have expertise in the supply and installation of electrical power systems required in the distribution segment of the electric power value chain are bound to see more opportunities.

It’s obvious that this present government knows how important reliable electricity is to the Nigerian people and will aim to use it to regain people’s confidence after several years of failed attempts by previous governments. There will be a more serious effort to significantly improve power this year especially if the current president wants to seek a second term in office.

E-commerce (Information Technology)

Internet penetration has continued to increase over the past few years and there is a great possibility for more increase this year as bulk bandwidth remains available - more will even likely come through MTN’s WASC.

Given the fact that internet penetration has direct positive impact on the economy (10 percent rise in broadband penetration is linked to a 1.3 percent increase in economic growth - World Bank estimate for Africa), government is making conscious effort through its agencies to keep increasing penetration.

Also as the telecoms operators expand the network capacity to distribute more bandwidth, internet becomes more available. This is in combination with the fact that prices of access devices like laptops and smartphones are already significantly low. You can get a good laptop (not mini laptop) for as low as N57,000. You could click here(http://www.bit.com.ng/Products.aspx?scid=1) for more information on current prices of laptops.

The overall implication is that more people will have access to the internet this year. However, what makes this opportunity interesting is not just the increasing access to the internet but the fact that commercial transactions (e-commerce) on the web are increasing and will surge this year.

One major factor that influences users’ disposition to e-commerce is trust. For instance, do people believe that when they make payment online the goods will be delivered? Do they believe that when they use their ATM card on an e-commerce site their money will not be deducted erroneously? This is the case all over the world then add the peculiarities of the Nigerian environment.

However, clever Nigerian entrepreneurs have come up with “pay on delivery” options on their sites to break this barrier of trust and it’s working.

In addition, the CBN’s cashless policy has contributed in enlightening Nigerians more about electronic payment and this is helping to increase the adoption of online shopping. Also if well adopted this year, mobile money will become an additional payment option and will impact positively on e-commerce.

Do you sell deliverable items? This year may be a good time to introduce an online channel and increase your sales. If you’re not already selling anything, you may as well form alliances and partnerships and go into e-commerce. Whichever, please be ready to get logistics right so as to fulfil orders satisfactorily.

Logistics (Supply Chain)

This opportunity is triggered by e-commerce. For the online shops, e-commerce goes beyond making purchases and making payment online. Fulfilment which involves making timely delivery of the purchased goods to the customers is key and it’s more of logistics. Most online shops will not do this themselves but will outsource to third parties.

Thus this is a great opportunity for those interested or already in some kind of logistics business. Nigeria is a big market and trading will remain the number one opportunity. With more buyers now preferring e-commerce in order to gain some level of convenience, there will be increased need this year to move goods around.

Sale of smartphones, tablets, and computers (Trading)

This opportunity looks common but it will still increase this year. If not, how will people access the increasingly available internet? How will government agencies and educational institutions start getting computer literate? How will lead users keep pace with new processing speeds, bigger memory, and other new features?

The primary barrier to entry to this business is mainly financial capital. There aren’t much intricacies in understanding the business even though it is technology-based. As a result, there is competition and the margins are relatively low. But with infrastructural deficit and the size of the Nigerian market, this will remain a lucrative opportunity in 2013. Volume will make up for little margins and that’s why good financial capital base is a critical success factor.

It’s also important to note that for computers, laptops will sell the most – not desktops. Reason: how do you continue working when electricity supply goes? Yes you can use a UPS but it’s additional cost and lasts only for few minutes whereas the laptop backup battery lasts for hours.

Besides, desktops are now more expensive that laptops. The lowest price for a branded desktop preloaded with Windows operating system is about N85,000 where as you can get a laptop for about N57,000. See more possible desktop prices here (http://www.bit.com.ng/Products.aspx?scid=2).

Hence the demand for laptop is higher than that of desktops and the trend will continue this year. Sale of smartphones and tablets remain hot opportunities with good financial capital still the critical success factor.

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