Facebook and Jumia Nigeria have partnered together to host the first ‘Boost Your Business’ event in Nigeria, providing a platform for budding entrepreneurs to network and grow their business.
In November, Facebook and Jumia Nigeria partnered to host the first ‘Boost Your Business’ event in Nigeria. Held at the Landmark Event Centre in Nigeria, more than 500 Nigerian entrepreneurs gathered to network, hear about marketing best practices, and learn about how they can use Facebook and Jumia to grow their businesses.
The event served as a rallying call for Nigerian entrepreneurs, who have an invaluable role to play in growing the country’s economy. The one-day workshop provided entrepreneurs and business owners with best practices and advice from top business owners, illustrating how using Facebook and Jumia could help them maximise sales on Black Friday. The first 200 people that registered each received a N5,000 voucher for Facebook ads.
“We enjoyed sharing our ideas at last week’s workshop about how effective, easy to use, and mobile social media solutions can help Nigerian entrepreneurs accelerate the growth of their businesses,” said Nunu Ntshingila, Head of Facebook Africa. “SMEs are the backbone of Nigeria’s economy and encouraging entrepreneurial activity is critical to its growth and development. As of May this year, more than half the people on Facebook in Nigeria were connected to an SME.”
Added Jeremy Doutte, CEO of Jumia Africa: “Jumia is proud to partner with Facebook in Nigeria for the very first time. We are delighted to host an event for the booming Nigerian business community and our sellers in particular, providing them with a better understanding of how they can use Jumia and Facebook to grow their businesses exponentially…This event was thus an opportunity for us to bring our sellers together, and coach them on how to make the most of Black Friday.”
With more than 15 million monthly active mobile users, 16 million total monthly active users, and 7.1 million daily active users in Nigeria, Facebook is the mobile solution for Nigerian businesses of all sizes.
“SMEs are the engines for job growth in the world economy, accounting for 80 percent of jobs worldwide. As a platform that democratises marketing, Facebook can help small businesses to reach their full potential,” said Ebele Okobi, Facebook’s Head of Public Policy for Africa. “We give them a platform to advertise where customers already spend their time and make it easy for small businesses to communicate with people anytime, anywhere.”
Nigerian start-ups and small businesses are already benefitting from the way that Facebook helps them to talk to customers in an affordable, personalised manner. Jay Osbie Clothing, a seller on Jumia for example, is using Facebook to promote its brand for fashion-forward men and bring interested customers back to his shop on Jumia.
“Facebook is significantly cheaper than other channels. Actually, it’s not even comparable,” said Jay Osbie, the founder.
His Facebook page has 6,500 fans and his Instagram page has 1,800 followers. Jay produces strong visual content and reached an average relevance score of 7 out of 10. He also recently ran link ads and paid $260 for 14k clicks ($0.02 per click).
Girly Essentials, a one-stop shop for affordable and unique women’s products, has 176,000 fans on Facebook and 3,200 followers on Instagram. It’s all about building a community, says founder Chinma Nwaozuzu, added: “People ask how I’ve grown my business – I say Facebook.”
