The Billion Dollar Opportunity

For the first time at work today, people were way less serious than usual. Normally, everyone would walk right there at their own timing, head to their offices and then lock in at their desks, buried in their tasks for the day. But this time, we had an interesting common ground.

Someone suddenly stood at her desk and began to lament. Others asked what's up, and then she said, "What kind of rubbish is MTN doing? They just tripled the cost of the best data bundle. And that's when it happened. Like everyone was waiting for something that'll give them a break from their intense work focus, we're all making comments.

"That's so crazy," was all I said at first. I mean, I wasn't surprised because I had seen it for myself earlier when I wanted to buy some data. Others began to quote the book of lamentations. But some others had a rather opposing view of the situation. Apparently, the network provider wasn't going mad or something; they had been suffering for far too long providing the previous cost of data, and the regulatory body in Nigeria had been stopping them all this while... until now.

I could understand why they had to increase it, but what I didn't understand was the shock they didn't mind giving their customers. Of course, they know that everybody would only complain for a few days and get back to the status quo. Nothing anyone can really do. Anyway, it was a while into the co-lamentations that I contributed. I mean, why not? I needed the break too, but more importantly, it was an opportunity to even learn about these other familiar strangers and allow them to know my personality.

However, I really wondered. Are these incumbent network providers now so comfortable that they feel like they can do and undo however they want? While the 200% rate is alarming, I see it as one of those big opportunities for some new network provider from nowhere to come save the day.

Remember the whole time we had a cash problem nationwide? It was then that these digital banks began to shine. Many of the traditional banks somehow struggled with maintaining their customer banking experience across their apps and ATMs. The digital banks provided fast transaction speeds and POS facilities for easier cash withdrawal systems. Now take a look at them now.

These things are not always direct and straightforward, though. Even Starlinks had to double the cost of their monthly payment plan. And it'll cost a lot of money to begin to build the infrastructure, let alone provide competitive alternatives to poach customers from the incumbents. Notwithstanding, the opportunity is here and now. Perhaps I should even take it and make a name.