In support of the remark made by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami that the country’s march towards attaining 95 percent digital literacy in 2030 now looks more promising than ever, the group CEO of Alerzo, Adewale Opaleye has said the realisation of this target will drive increased technology adoption among informal retailers and micro businesses in the country.
Opaleye noted that there was a need for informal retailers and micro businesses to key into the federal government’s 95 percent digital literacy projection for 2030 as contained in the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), 2020 – 2030.
He corroborated the minister who maintained that ICT was not just an independent sector but the key enabler in trade, investment industry and other sectors. He further stressed that technology will help informal retailers in running their businesses with ease and make more profits.
Digital literacy is needed to harness the innovative solutions brands like Alerzo and other B2B tech firms are providing to the age-long challenges that informal retailers experience which includes restocking, logistics, bookkeeping, etc.
Alerzo’s unique proposition involves meeting the needs of informal retail businesses at their comfort. These thousands of retailers being serviced by Alerzo are not challenged with running out of stock nor stepping out of their stores to restock as they easily place orders for groceries on Alerzoshop app and receive deliveries within a maximum of four hours, while also receiving and making payments with the Alerzo POS terminal.
Veedez, another product of Alerzo, a bookkeeping and inventory management app, helps retailers to calculate their profits, track their stock and get prompts on goods with low inventory.
Opaleye further stated: “Informal retailers need to move away from the old ways of doing business to embracing technology. To provide a solution to the problem of logistics, we did something unthinkable by buying a fleet of vehicles and owning our warehouses.
"We also developed our software, we do deliveries within four hours of order because we own our entire vehicles. We ended up building a bank of solutions for our retailers.”
While harnessing the benefits of digital literacy through the federal government’s vision, there’s no doubt that this will drive an array of innovative Nigerian products that are affordable.
