Technology will help SMEs to increase efficiency, says Cellulant boss

Head of Small and Medium-scale Enterprise (SME) Sales, Cellulant Nigeria, Ademola Okuleye, said adopting technology would help small businesses to reduce operational costs, increase efficiency and optimise profits.

Okuleye stated this when he appeared on Arise TV’s Global Business Report, where he discussed how to use technology to improve the performance of Nigeria’s SMEs.

He spoke on the role of technology in streamlining the activities of business managers, giving them more time to focus on core operations and minimising waste.

In recent years, he said, technology has been a significant driver in improving the efficiency of SMEs in many areas such as power, human resources and payroll administration.

Okuleye, who explained that adopting technology would help SMEs reduce operational costs and maximise profit, said Cellulant provides a secure, seamless payment and collection platform that allows them to focus on other business areas.

He explained that technology has been a significant driver in improving the efficiency of SMEs in Nigeria in many areas such as power, human resources and payroll.

“There are many ways technology through the use of software and apps readily available today is helping SMEs cut operational costs. If you look at power, renewable energy helps SMEs reduce power costs. Non-core staffing functions can be outsourced to existing apps for accounting, payroll and setting up meetings.

“There are many apps for communication, too, and that is why the value of voice calls is reducing viz-a-viz data calls. You are here in Lagos but can set up meetings with customers in any part of the world.

Technology improves your revenue because your cost of operation is reduced,” Okuleye said. He noted that Cellulant is committed to the growth of SMEs through the provision of safe and secure payment system support. He added that Cellulant was onboarding SMEs to resolve their payment and collection issues by providing solutions that enable them to collect payments or make payments to customers.

“We have a platform that makes it easy for businesses to monitor transactions, reconcile and settle funds seamlessly. If you’re a CEO in Lagos and have several stores across the country, you can view all your business transactions on one dashboard. Easy access to your payments operations gives business leaders across Nigeria more time to do other things,” he said.