E-Business
Marketers Need to Master the Unification of the Physical and Digital: Here’s why

By Stephen A. Newton, Managing Director for Africa, Aleph
There was a time when physical and digital marketing were approached in completely separate ways. This separation demanded distinct strategies, budgets, departments, and more often than not, personnel. It’s becoming increasingly clear, however, that businesses taking this approach are missing out and that a more integrated approach is required to hold the attention of today’s customers.

Stephen Newton, Managing Director, Sub-Saharan Africa, Ad Dynamo by Aleph
As more and more elements of the digital world are integrated into the physical world, marketing has followed suit. In this new world, the most successful marketers use measurable marketing strategies that combine digital and physical advertising in ways that encourage brand building and conversions. This kind of strategy also means that customers who see your brand’s physical marketing are also going to engage with your digital output. As connectivity becomes increasingly affordable and ubiquitous in Nigeria, that overlap will only become more pronounced.
As a result, customers increasingly expect a well-integrated and thorough mix of physical and digital touchpoints. They already experience it in the retail environment, with online shopping enhancing their brick-and-mortar experiences and vice versa, rather than one being preferable to the other. But how can brands and marketers best ensure they can deliver the kind of unified experiences customers want and set their businesses up for success, providing a unified and enhanced customer experience?
Integrated campaigns
Marketers must continue to develop a seamless marketing plan, integrating both physical and digital elements. For example, use traditional advertising methods like billboards or print ads to drive traffic to digital platforms, where customers can engage further with the brand or make online purchases.
Unified brand messaging
Marketers must ensure that they are consistent in their messaging across all channels, online and offline integrated into one comprehensive message. The brand’s values, voice, and image should remain cohesive, reinforcing a unified identity in the minds of consumers.
Cross-channel promotion:
Marketers must implement cross-channel promotions where activities in one channel complement and enhance the experience in another. For instance, using a QR code on a physical brochure or billboard could lead customers to an exclusive online offer, creating a seamless transition between the physical and digital realms.
Data Integration:
Marketers should leverage customer data collected from both physical and digital interactions to gain comprehensive insights into consumer behavior. This integrated data can inform more personalized and targeted marketing strategies, enhancing the overall customer journey. There are undoubtedly more privacy issues when dealing with data, so marketers have to ensure that they are compliant with data security, but the benefits of proper integration and usage of off/online data are immediately impactful.
Technology adoption:
Where possible, marketers should embrace emerging technologies like augmented reality (AR) or near-field communication (NFC) to bridge the gap between physical and digital experiences. Interactive elements in physical spaces can lead customers to engage with digital content, creating a more immersive brand experience. In bandwidth-challenged areas, this may prove more difficult, but the rewards of the immersive experiences some of these technologies offer are unrivaled.
Omnichannel retail:
Marketers in the retail space need to continually emphasize an omnichannel retail approach, where online and offline stores work in tandem. Provide services like click-and-collect, enabling customers to seamlessly transition between digital product discovery and physical purchase.
User-Generated content:
With the proliferation of social media adoption, marketers must encourage customers to share their experiences with the brand across both physical and digital platforms. User-generated content creates a sense of community and authenticity, fostering a stronger connection between the brand and its audience.
Adaptive marketing strategies:
As in most things business-related, marketers need to stay agile and adapt marketing strategies based on real-time feedback and performance metrics. This iterative approach allows for continuous improvement in delivering a unified and effective marketing mix.
Employee training:
C-levels need to ensure that their marketing professionals are well-versed in integrated marketing. A well-informed team can seamlessly assist customers in navigating both physical and digital touchpoints, enhancing overall satisfaction.
Continuous monitoring and analysis:
Don’t set it and forget it: Marketers must regularly monitor the performance of marketing efforts across all channels. Analyze data to identify successful strategies, areas for improvement, and emerging trends, allowing for ongoing refinement of their approach.
By implementing these strategies, brands can create a more integrated and customer-centric marketing approach, capitalizing on the synergy between physical and digital channels to achieve both brand-building and conversion objectives in a rapidly evolving market.
E-Business
Kike, Nigerian Tech Firm Launches ‘Kike AI’ for Kitchen Innovation

Kike Technologies, a Nigerian technology firm, has launched ‘Kike AI’, a revolutionary artificial intelligence-driven kitchen application designed to transform Nigeria’s food and cooking gas industries.
The app aims to enhance convenience for consumers while optimising gas supply through predictive technology.
Speaking at the launch event, Femi Oye, CEO of Kike Technologies, highlighted the app’s ability to address a common household issue, unexpected depletion of cooking gas.
“Using advanced algorithms and data analytics, this app can forecast when a user’s gas cylinder is running low, enabling them to order refills ahead of time,” Oye explained.
Beyond individual household benefits, Kike AI is expected to have a broader economic impact by creating jobs within the logistics, gas retail, and food industries.
“We anticipate significant job growth as the app gains traction, particularly in delivery and gas station services,” Oye noted.
The app is also designed to bridge the digital gap, specifically targeting women and marginalised groups by providing them with opportunities to showcase their culinary skills and earn a sustainable income.
According to Oye, this initiative will not only empower women economically but also help preserve Nigeria’s rich culinary heritage.
By leveraging AI technology, Kike AI aims to revolutionise everyday cooking experiences, support economic development, and create essential employment opportunities in Nigeria’s growing tech and food sectors.
The application is expected to drive a shift towards more efficient cooking gas management, ensuring affordability and ease of access for millions of users.
E-Business
Africa’s Data Workers are Being Exploited by Foreign Tech Firms – Report

Data workers in Africa often have a hard time, according to a report published in theconversation.com, a nonprofit, independent news organization dedicated to unlocking the knowledge of experts for the public good.
The article by Mohammad Amir Anwar, senior lecturer in African Studies and International Development, University of Edinburgh, found that data workers in Africa face job insecurities – including temporary contracts, low pay, arbitrary dismissal and worker surveillance – and alarming physical and psychological health risks.
The consequences of their work can include exhaustion, burnout, mental health strain, chronic stress, vertigo and weakening of eyesight.
Data work includes text prediction, image and video annotation, speech to text validation and content moderation.
The world of data work is built on labour arbitrage – exploiting the fact that workers earn less and have less protection in some countries than in others.
Large technology firms often outsource this work to the global south, including African countries like Kenya, Uganda and Madagascar, and also India and Venezuela.
The result is complex production networks that are generally opaque and shrouded in secrecy.
Workers and researchers have issued many warnings about data workers’ health.
Despite numerous court cases in multiple jurisdictions, nothing much has been done to address these issues either by tech companies or by regulators.
Still, the news of the death of a Nigerian content moderator, Ladi Anzaki Olubunmi, who was found dead in her apartment in Nairobi, Kenya on 7 March 2025, came as a shock.
While the circumstances of her death are still unclear, it has renewed calls for wider systemic change.
Her death has sparked condemnation from the Kenyan Union of Gig Workers, which demanded an investigation.
Since 2015, we have been studying the central role of African data workers in building and maintaining artificial intelligence (AI) systems, acting as “data janitors”.
Our research found that companies rarely acknowledge the use of human workers in AI value chains, thus they remain “hidden” from the public eye. In other words, the world of AI is built on the toil of human workers most people are unaware of.
In this article, we outline key steps needed to protect these data workers in Africa.
They include business process outsourcing regulations, ensuring quality rather than quantity of jobs, and providing social protection. There is also a need to name and shame companies that maltreat data workers.
Data work needs tighter regulation.
Regulation
Business process outsourcing is the practice of procuring various processes or operations from external suppliers or vendors.
Firms that do this are sometimes trying to evade local regulations (like minimum wages) and responsibility towards workers’ welfare (via sub-contracting and the use of temporary employment agencies).
This is happening in Africa as some data training firms and digital labour platforms circumvent local labour laws.
But there is more to the story.
Data work is also seen by lawmakers and practitioners as a solution to the rampant unemployment and informality across Africa.
African governments have actively created regulatory environments that enable these practices to thrive, despite adverse outcomes for workers.
Nonetheless, new regulations have been proposed lately, like the Kenyan government’s Business Law (Amendment) Bill, 2024 targeting the wider business process outsourcing and IT-enabled services sector.
Particularly, it makes business process outsourcing firms responsible for any claim raised by employees. It ensures some accountability for firms bringing data work to Africa.
Other governments should follow with similar measures ensuring worker rights are enforceable. Some data workers are hired on contracts as short as five days and get paid less than the local minimum wage.
Firms found violating labour standards should be penalised.
In fact, there is an urgent need to create regional or continent-wide regulatory frameworks covering the business process outsourcing sector, limiting the space for firms to exploit workers.
It’s possible, however, that jobs might be lost as firms relocate to places with favourable laws, an everyday reality in the outsourcing networks.
Quality, not quantity
African governments should prioritise the quality of jobs and not quantity. Policymakers should think about wider national economic development plans, particularly structural diversification and upgrading of their economies.
Historically, these strategies have resulted in success in some states, addressing social and economic issues such as unemployment, poverty and inequality.
Another option for African governments is to enhance social protection among data workers.
Financing this is a serious issue, so proper taxation and compliance among workers and employers is urgently needed.
Finally, there is a role for naming and shaming firms that treat their data workers poorly. There is evidence that such efforts improve compliance and firms’ behaviour.
Worker movements
African data workers have taken risks in openly speaking about their experiences.
But these kinds of approaches work well when combined with collective bargaining.
Workers have historically won their labour and civil rights after long and hard-fought struggles.
There is a long history of African worker movements and trade unions resisting the apartheid and colonial regimes across the continent.
While the freedom of association is enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and most governments have legislation committed to collective bargaining, it is rarely implemented in the new outsourcing sectors, particularly data work.
It is also difficult to organise workers in the industry, because of the high churn rate. For instance, data training firms like Sama offer short-term contracts to employees, often as short as five days.
Some firms are hostile to workers’ organising activities.
But numerous data worker-led associations have emerged in Africa recently, some led by the co-authors of this article.
Techworker Community Africa, African Tech Workers Rising, African Content Moderators Unions and Data Labelers Association are among them.
These initiatives are crucial to ensure workers have decent remuneration, work-life balance, adequate working hours, protection against arbitrary dismissal, safe working environments, and contributions towards their health and welfare.
Several high-profile court cases are currently being pursued by African data workers against Meta and Sama.
There is precedent. In 2021. Meta was ordered by a Californian court to pay US$85 million to 10,000 content moderators.
AI-dependent tools such as ChatGPT or driverless cars would not exist without African data workers. They are tired of being “hidden”. They deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.
Mophat Okinyi, Kauna Malgwi, Sonia Kgomo and Richard Mathenge co-authored this article.
E-Business
NIMC Says NIN Mandatory to Government Loans

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) said the National Identification Number (NIN) is a mandatory requirement for securing government loans.
NIMC said on its social media platform that the identity number has become compulsory for Bank of Industry (BOI) loans.
NIMC said, “Enroll for your NIN today to access business aid and other opportunities from the Bank of Industry.
“To access the services of the Bank of Industry (BOI), enroll for the NIN.”
Recall that the federal government, through the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment (FMITI), established three funds totaling N200bn to support businesses across Nigeria.
The fund will be accessed at nine per cent interest, to be disbursed by the Bank of Industry (BOI).
The funds established by the government were the Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme (PCGS), the FGN MSME Intervention Fund, and the FGN Manufacturing Sector Fund.
The government appointed BOI as the executing agency for the funds and is empowered with the responsibility for their day-to-day administration.
“The Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme (PCGS) is a N50bn grant scheme to support eligible Nano Business owners. The grant will be disbursed to a minimum of 1,000 beneficiaries, especially women and youths, per Local Government Area (LGA) in the 774 LGAs across the nation and the six Council Areas in the FCT.
“The target Nano businesses include traders, food vendors, ICT businesses, transporters, artisans, and creatives, among others,” said Dr. Olasupo Olusi, managing director/chief executive officer, BOI.
- Broadcasting2 days ago
DStv Revenue Plunges as MultiChoice Loses Nearly 4m Subscribers
- News1 day ago
NIPSS Projects Petrol Prices to Hit ₦750/Litre Before Year’s End!
- Telecom2 days ago
NCC Asks Consumers to Monitor Data Usage to Authenticate Consumption
- Telecom2 days ago
Phone Theft: AMCODET Urges Mandatory Registration @ Point of Purchase
- News2 days ago
TikTok Sale Deal Expected Before April 5 Deadline – Trump
- News2 days ago
Questions Over House of Reps Threat to Arrest NIMC DG
- E-Financial2 days ago
Fidelity Bank Records a 210.0% Growth in PBT to N385.2bn
- Telecom2 days ago
Cassava and Microsoft Boost Youth Employment in Green Tech