Stephen Akintayo, chief executive officer of Gileadbalm Group, is an inspirational speaker, youth leader, entrepreneur, a digital marketing consultant with account of 10 of multi-nationals in Nigeria.
His company’s product and services span from Information Technology, Telecom, Marketing Consulting, Real Estate, Oil and Gas and Agriculture.
Akintayo also has a Vision of helping in the establishment and growth of 20,000 businesses by the year 2025 with his CEOProtege project.
In this interview with peter ugwu, he listed Bulk Short Message System as a platform yet to be fully exploited in the Nigerian telecom sector.

Gileadbalm’s Areas of Interest
We are focusing majorly on online and Mobile Services because it is not just viable but even develop countries see it as the future.
It is through online that you can start a company and in 6 years you are a Billionaire given facebook as a case study.
Africa is not there yet but soon we will be and that is why a smart entrepreneur will take position now.

Why?
It is easier to build online business than off line business and its cost effective. In the 70’s and 80’s when US economy had several challenges, online related was businesses were such that people like Bill Gate, Micheal Dell, Steve Jobs and other tech giants delved into’ surprisingly, that helped increase the GDP of the United States.
In a country like ours, where unemployment is over 40%, we need people who will build software instead of CV, business plans instead of profiles. I want to influence the establishment and strengthening of 20,000 businesses between now and 2025.

Technpreneurs Motivating Factors
To succeed as a Techprenenur, be ready to celebrate your small beginning. Life is in phases, Men are in sizes, live your size per time.
Like I often say that Techpreneurs are not big boys rather those who have monthly salary that are big boys because ego sells, “eno” sells, salary must be paid.
But as an entrepreneur, you must work hard else your business will not stand five years talk more of 50 years. In simple words, be patient, consistent and determine never to quit.

Potentials of Bulk SMS Sector
Bulk Short Message System (SMS) is an area Gileadbalm has been doing very great. Some people have asked why should a company, for instance, use that medium to reach out to its customers hence there are many channels available today.
Yes, text messaging is over 5billion naira industry that is far more valuable for small entrepreneurs than any other aspect of Telecom industry.
With just N35,000 you can start a bulk SMS business and if you are a skillful marketer you can grow that to multi-million business in less than three years.
It is a gold mine smart individuals should start their techpreneur from bulk SMS but don’t stay there. Any business that brings money on a daily bases is a business you cannot under-estimate.

Bulk SMS and Technological Know-How
Bulk SMS is not that technical. I studied microbiology and earn from online today. The challenge is that some get reseller website with a wrong company that uses Indian gateways that don’t deliver text message sent on their platform on time.
Under 30 seconds when you send message on our platform, it delivers hence we are indispensable. We are not cheap but reliable and the best. That is our goal and that should be the goal of anyone going into this industry.

Adoption Rate
The adoption rate is high. The same way every aspect of digital marketing is being embarrassed, is how bulk SMS thrives, because conventional Media is no longer at the reach of some companies, particularly those looking for measurable and effective platform for marketing. 98% of bulk SMS is open.
That is a massive rate. What is the issue however is getting accurate data to send advert SMS to and that is why we deal with sales of targeted GSM and email data.

Regulation
Some have suggested that bulk SMS should be regulated as NCC regulates the telecom SMS, but I think otherwise.
At least not really, because it is a saturated market and price is not the issue. Bulk SMS is lesser than N4 which is the normal price for sending through your telecom provider.
Still Bulk SMS can be customized, you can send to hundreds of thousands of people at the same time. Regulation should come in the form of enforcing quality service, checkmating fraudsters who use bulk SMS for scam purposes as well as other social devices.

Difference between Bulk SMS & eMail
First of all, note that not all the SMS you receive from MTN or GLO or Airtel is directly from them. We call some short code business, where you partner with the provider to provide services like quotes, sport scores and updates, health tips and people subscribe with N30 or N50.
That is another business under messaging. Targeted Bulk SMS is to send messages to your existing clients or potential clients to buy your products and services. We offer both services.

Increasing Unsolicited eMails and Privacy
There are two types. There are the fraudulent ones from people claiming to be your bank or that you have containers or won a gift etc.
The second type is now the legal ones and its rented email campaign whereby you send email to email ID that you bought from those whom the owner of such ID subscribe. For example, I can start a campaign online as I give certain services and ask people to subscribe and I may choose to sell those emails to a client so that he or she sends campaign of his or her services to such individuals. However, you can always unsubscribe from such mail.
eMail marketing is new to Nigeria but it is proving to be a very effective form of marketing since the advent of smartphone, where people now, instantly, get alert.
The best form however is to build your own list which we help companies build and we train cooperate bodies on this.
The bottom-line is that marketing techniques have change from online and conventional media to digital media and everyone must come on board or be left behind.