How to be gainfully employed in the Telecom Industry in Nigeria

These days, it is one thing to graduate from the University and it is another thing to be gainfully employed. Graduates roam the streets day in day out in search of jobs yet a greater percentage of them remain jobless. Some end up doing menial jobs while others engage in social vices. 

In this article, I will be taking a look at the Telecom Industry in Nigeria and ways Nigerian youths can take themselves out of the labour market. The Telecom Industry in Nigeria is capital intensive. By my definition, Telecom Industry includes: sellers of phones,laptops,android devices, SIM cards, recharge vouchers, VTU, data bundles and related products and services. For young graduates that are not financially buoyant, I  do not recommend sales of phones and laptops initially because it requires a huge start up capital. I would advise that they invest in recharge cards, Virtual top up and data. They may choose to do it as retailers or wholesalers. If they are selling recharge cards as retailers, they should note that they should add other products and services because the profit margin in recharge cards is low. Some as low as 2 or 3 naira. Though the profit margin is low, the turnover is always high. So, for the retail business, the entrepreneur may choose to add provisions such as beverages, soft drinks, biscuits etc. He or she may choose to also add food stuff such as rice, beans, garri, condiments, etc. Since a lot of people use recharge card, when they come to buy recharge cards,they can see other products in the shop and pick at once instead of getting them elsewhere. 

On the other hand, the person may choose to go into wholesales. Here, the entrepreneur will focus on buying large quantities of the vouchers and sell them to retailers. He may also print the recharge vouchers by himself and the vouchers will bear his or her company name. He can achieve this in t ways :

1. By entering into partnership with the network service providers who vend the recharge pins to them in encrypted decrypted form. They entrepreneur then uses special soft wares to download and print out the vouchers. This method requires a  huge start up capital because it may at times require that the entrepreneur gets a franchise from the  network service provider and here in Nigeria, we have four major network service providers that include: MTN, AIRTEL, 9MOBILE and GLOBACOM. To get the franchise from each of them means that the entreuneur is already financially buoyant. Hence this method is exclusively beyond the reach of an average graduate. 

2.The entrepreneur may choose to use websites to get there recharge cards and airtime. Websites such as zoto,Recharge and get paid and Getconnected Telecommunications. Zoto and Recharge and get paid only sell airtime as virtual top up. Registration at Recharge and get paid is from 5000 naira and above. The business operates as MLM. This means that the more downlines you get, the fatter your bank account. Getconnected Telecommunications has provisions for printing of recharge vouchers directly from their website. The website is easy to use hence you don't need any special skill or software to succesfully print out your recharge vouchers. You only need to follow the instructions on the website to achieve your goal.   Getconnected Telecommunications for now provide pins for Airtel, 9mobile and Globacom on their website.They also have other products and services such as data bundles, cable TV subscription, airtime VTU, electricity bill payment as well bulk SMS. Registration at their website is also free. They are currently running a new year promo on their website for MTN data. The promo gives out 1gb data that lasts for 30 days at 540 naira.They also sell other products and services at discounts to their clients.