He will bring a wealth of experience to his new position, having worked at the intersection of media and technology for over two decades.

A key focus for Carl Jordan will be to grow partner representation, including territory footprint and, by extension, revenues.

This includes platform acquisition and representation, country launches, and advertiser and agency engagements.

“I am excited to work for a global company that is serving both developed and emerging countries and understands the link between growing the SSA region’s digital ecosystem and social impact. I’m especially pleased about the opportunity to educate businesses about the efficiency of digital channels, as well as to collaborate with the telcos, to make it more cost effective, for consumers to access the digital economy,” says Carl.

According to PWC’s Insights from the Entertainment & Media outlook report, In key markets such as Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, digital advertising still accounts for less than 20% of total media spend, suggesting that the SSA region offers substantial growth potential for the digital economy.

“The development of local / regional businesses, the creation of jobs and delivering social impact, are all made possible by serving communities,” Jordan explains.

Carl Jordan has held a number of leadership and commercial positions, most notably for Yahoo, Google, and Thomson Reuters in the UK, as well as Outbrain and Datafree across SSA.

He has contributed to the growth of Africa’s digital economy and start-up (disrupter) ecosystem over the last three years with Meta, in collaboration with VCs, brands, agencies, and startups.

Ad Dynamo by Aleph is Spotify, Twitter, Snap, and  Yahoo’s  exclusive media buying extension in Africa. As an enabler of digital advertising in emerging markets, the organisation is helping to break down barriers.

“As both  a developing market and a continent with a rapidly growing population, Africa is poised to house not only a sizeable portion of the world’s population but also a sizeable portion of the world’s eligible workforce,” says Newton. “I am excited to play a part in implementing Aleph’s goal of breaking barriers.”

“At Ad Dynamo by Aleph, we plan to continue to grow in anticipation of our partners’ needs and solidify our position as a preferred partner,” he adds. “We will build where they need us using tried and trusted methodologies, and we will continue to collaborate to create platforms that reduce the friction associated with doing business in these markets.”

Stephen Newton, an entrepreneur at heart, has more than 25 years of experience leading EMEA businesses across the digital space.

He is currently on a number of advisory boards for startups and mid-sized African companies that work in different parts of the online space.

He is also the chairman and co-founder of The Illuminate Africa Group Ltd., a consulting firm that helps companies achieve their African expansion goals.

Stephen Newton has worked as managing director of Google South Africa, vice president and managing director of the Ad Exchange for Google-bought DoubleClick EMEA, managing director of Africa for PostivoBGH, chief executive officer of Date.ce, and interim chief operating officer of Universal Music Group Africa.

Brian Abel, the Regional Sales Manager, West Africa for Ad Dynamo by Aleph shares four drivers that would impact Nigeria’s digital advertising in 2023:

Nigeria has long been considered Africa’s largest economy in terms of GDP, this should come as no huge surprise, especially considering its population of over 200 million, making it the largest in the continent, and boasting an abundance of natural resources, as well as strong trade links with its neighbouring countries.

However, as vast as the Nigerian economy may appear to be, it is still very much going through stages of growth.

Helping to drive this evolution is the rapid digitalisation of many economic sectors. Consider the financial sector for example, while Nigeria has been a major centre of African banking for many years, recently it has also become the leading fintech player in the continent.

Moreover, of Africa’s handful of unicorns (start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion), the majority are in fact headquartered in Nigeria.

Rapid digitalisation has also impacted the world of advertising, with the country’s current digital advertising sphere worth over $179.20 million. And, as we know, digital advertising isn’t static, it’s constantly evolving, driven by ever-shifting trends, a fact that remains as true now, in 2023, then it has ever been. With that in mind, it is beneficial to understand the major trends, and recognise which are set to impact Nigerian digital advertising over the course of the year.

1. Twitter to build on its return 

At the start of 2022, the Nigerian government reversed its seven-month ban on Twitter. At first, ordinary Nigerians and advertisers alike were a little cautious when it came to returning to the social network. After all, once a service has been banned, it’s hard to imagine that the same might not happen again.

Fortunately, Twitter and the Nigerian government were able to come to an agreement, developing a Code of Conduct in line with global best practices. Over the months that followed, Twitter continued to make gains and once again proven its worth.

The platform is slowly but surely securing its stance as the best location for advertisers to reach mass audiences, enabling them to build brand recognition, whilst developing trust, establishing relationships, increasing sales, and improving the customer’s experience.

While the government is keeping a close eye on the social network, especially following Elon Musk’s acquisition, it is set to remain a valuable digital advertising platform in 2023.

2. Post-Covid adjustments 

During the peak of Covid-19 between 2020 and 2021, came an unexpected shining light for digital marketing and technology companies alike.

With strict lockdowns in place globally, people were mostly confined to homes, and it should come as no shock that the need to connect took on new forms, as the masses flocked to their online devices to reach loved ones, purchase goods, and seek a sense of normality.

However, as we stepped back into the outside world again, both tech and digital marketing witnessed revenue hits.

Nigeria was not spared this cooling-off period, which was exacerbated by internet access issues for people during the year. That said, as connectivity becomes more reliable, ubiquitous, and affordable, digital marketing should continue its rise, with some analysts predicting that the sector will be worth close to $259 million by 2027.

Not to mention, once the Pan-African telecommunications service provider, Seacom, launches their West African hub in 2023, that number could be reached even faster.

3. Marketers leverage entertainment and media 

As far back as 2017, PwC predicted that Nigeria would be the world’s fastest-growing entertainment and media market. While Turkey currently holds the top spot, E&M growth in Nigeria remains strong. In fact, analysts predict that spending in the sector will increase by an average of just below 9% in the next five years.

One of the most visible areas of growth can be seen in music streaming. Since its Nigerian launch in February 2021, Spotify has achieved impressive growth in the country. Within a year after launching in Nigeria, music fans in the country had curated some 1.3 million user-generated playlists.

Additionally, during the same period, nearly 21,000 songs were added to the platform. In fact, Nigeria was the country with the second most streams after Pakistan, among new markets, with Kenya following behind third in the ranking.

Digital marketers and media platforms have embraced the potential that comes with this advertising growth. Spotify, for example, has a 3D audio feature which allows brands to provide high-quality advertising through an immersive, dynamic, and sensory audio experience. Advertisers around the world have also realised this power and spend is expected to increase in Nigeria, and on a global scale.

4. Demand for digital marketing skills grows 

One of the effects of the accelerated growth in Nigeria’s digital advertising sector has been a growing gap between the available skills and those required to operate effectively. While it’s a figure that applies to more than just digital advertising, research from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) reveals that approximately 230 million jobs across Africa will require digital skills by 2030.

ALSO READ: Top Digital Marketing Personalities in Nigeria 2022

Fortunately, a number of players have stepped forward to try and turn the situation around. Our own Digital Ad Expert Programme, for instance, aims to educate, certify, and connect thousands of Africans with the digital skills they need, enabling them to succeed in this increasingly digitised economy.

Whilst these skills will of course open the door to an array of career opportunities in digital advertising, they will also accelerate the broader digital economy and provide much-needed jobs on a global scale.

Embracing shifts 

Ultimately, whilst at present we foresee these trends to be the 2023 drivers for the world of digital advertising and marketing, it is important not to dismiss the possible emergence of others throughout the coming year. Thus, the ability to understand and navigate these shifts will be your key.

This can, however, be not notoriously difficult, and therefore using a media buying partner, with significant experience in Nigeria and across the biggest digital platforms, to guide you through the maze can go a long way.

There was a setback in 2021. We all know that Twitter was shut-down for 9-months in Nigeria, which caused Ad Dynamo a bit of momentum. But it’s back to business as usual. The company is growing rapidly in Nigeria and we dare to say that Ad Dynamo is finally giving a very large market the level of investment that it demands.

In a request Q&A Session, Sean Riley, CEO of Ad Dynamo gave some insights into the company’s acquisition, skills development, the digital ad market in Nigeria and future trends.

Excerpt:

Please, speak more about the recent acquisition of Ad Dynamo by Aleph Group, and the free digital academy launched in Nigeria:

Okay great. So we’re very excited to be a part of the Aleph family. I would say one of the really important points to highlight behind this is that we have known the senior leadership team at Aleph for many years. Interacting with the guys for 7 to 8 years. We know each other really well, which has made transitioning into the Aleph family a very smooth process for us, and knowing each well makes that so much easier.

Gaston Taratuta, the Founder of Aleph, is very passionate about global education and feels that what is really going to accelerate growth across all emerging markets, is by closing skills-gap, by introducing more career opportunities to young individuals across all emerging markets. Nigeria is really key in that regard.

To explain how important Nigeria is to Aleph worldwide in terms of extending its training program, Digital Ad Experts, Nigeria is the first market where an English version of the product has been made available. Aleph began where its roots are, Latin America, and Nigeria is the first market outside of Latin America where we’ve opened it up for local candidates.

Maybe if I can talk to the Ad Expert for a minute, because it’s not always that clear. I think the website is being refined a little to make the opportunity clearer to individuals. There’s a lot of free training on the site that anyone can just register and complete free of charge at any time.

And you can slowly but surely complete a comprehensive set of tools in digital advertising. But then we also have the online ad degree, a more formal process that takes three months to complete and this is peer-to-peer learning. There’s a dedicated instructor who guides all Nigerian students through the process.

The goal is train 500 students at a time. There are two very different elements. The one is everyday opportunities where you can log-on and complete courses, and then there’s the other one the online Ad Degree.

Something very important about the online Ad Degree is that Snapchat and Twitter have invested in Aleph. So a part of the process is that you receive a Twitter Certification, you receive a Snapchat Certification as a part of the process. So really for an individual there are a lot of certifications that you gather by going through that process.

How are you navigating the current market given all the challenges that some brands are facing, particularly Twitter?

If we look at our current growth in Nigeria, we had two dedicated people in Lagos at the start of the year, as of today we have 14 dedicated people representing us in Lagos. And, of course, they are supported by a larger team of dedicated people in either Nairobi or JHB or Cape Town that help to support the Nigerian market. I can’t disclose numbers but I can tell you what’s been interesting for us – Nigeria has been a tricky market over the past decade. It’s the one market that breaks so many rules where we’d have a great quarter then we learnt the hard way with Nigeria that one good quarter means nothing for the next quarter.

It’s been a bit of a lottery on a day-to-day basis, but over the past three years we have kind of seen the market mature, a lot of predictability coming into that. So, we started to see straight line growth, quarter-after-quarter in Nigeria regardless of what we’ve been seeing in world circumstances.

As a direct answer to your question; financial markets are depressed but we’ve seen that digital advertising often proposers in tough times. It’s the most measurable form of advertising. It’s where advertisers go where they start counting dollars or Naira and make every investment count. So, we’ve the whole COVID period for us as a business, we were fortunate to achieve growth despite a massive global pandemic.

On Twitter – they’ve been through good times and tough times. This is not the first tough chapter in Twitter’s existence. But we like to believe that advertisers will go to where they see value. And yes we have a bit of a side show right at night with management and Elon Musk but for now it’s business as usual, and as long as Twitter continues to deliver value to advertisers that’s the most important thing.

You mentioned that Nigeria is supposed to be the first place English version of Ad Experts was launched. Was it based on research? Also the gap you are trying to bridge; I’d like to know the gap?

I think what we’ve seen entering the market is a development – I think it would be very arrogant to say that Aleph is going to come and close a skills gap in any market. Aleph wants to be a part of skilling up more resources in the local market. But even without Aleph, and without our efforts on Digital Ad Experts we’ve observed a rapid decline of the skills set.

Digital advertising world is all about skills available. Anyone can load 100 dollars on any platform and spend it, but optimizing that and building great creative, are all critical attributes to achieving performance. We’ve seen that skillset develop in Nigeria.

And I think the easiest way of assessing that skillset is assessing the caliber of the people we are busy hiring. And the caliber of the people we are finding on the ground has been exceptional. If I think back 10 years ago to today, we think that the team in Nigeria is world class and can hold their own compared to any other market. I think we can put all frills on it, but we are a sales business and the one area we need to get better in Nigeria is (and this is not exclusive to Nigeria, it’s the way in very many of markets we operate in), but I still think it’s an environment to achieve good sales results with relationships.

This is an important part of it, but at the same time you have to get to the point where you are achieving results because you are delivering value. If you are showing compelling results and a compelling outcome it shouldn’t matter if we are best mates or not. That is still a transition that we are busy seeing but we are seeing that transition. We are also seeing brands and agencies maturing a lot. In my last visit we had a lot of big brands stating  that one of their KPIs is to pay their suppliers within 7 days…

As a follow up on that question, skills development is key; but are you seeing brands in Nigeria are able to absorb some of these skills because recently a lot of young people are eager to relocate abroad in search of better placements?

We are absolutely seeing that trend. I think that what reinforces that for us is that brands are owning the shortfall a lot more openly. A lot of brands are recognizing the gap, whereas a few years ago brands would pretend there was no gap because they felt out of their depth or threatened by a fast changing world. I think all markets are going to have that challenge, not only Nigeria, of young talent wanting to cast their wings and go on an adventure abroad.

I think after time a lot of that young talent comes back. A great illustration for me is that if I were to pull out our top 30 clients from 10 years ago to today at least 30% of our top 10 clients didn’t even exist 10 years ago. Which shows us that the change happening in Nigeria is fast. I think that talking about skill, a part of it is not only skill but attitude, for example in a market like UK it’s not unusual for a brand to spend 30 to 35% of total budget on amazing creative. In most African territories brands treat creative as an afterthought, and if they spend 1 or 2% of the total budget towards creative that’s a lot.

So, we need brands to understand that better creative delivers better results; distinguishes your brand from competitors, helps you to stand out. And so as brands adopt that change in perception it will grow the creative part of the industry. When we talk about digital, everyone focuses on numbers and metrics and the hard mathematical numerical part of the role, but creativity is a critical role to the development of the market.

You mentioned the Digital Ad Academy you recently launched. Are there special considerations before people are accepted? And where do you see social media space in terms of brand advertising in the next two to three years, as we know everyone is advertising on social media. Also, how are tackling the challenges in the market?

For digital ad experts, the only criteria are a willingness to learn. We have a belief that most young school leavers are a target audience, but someone could be in their early 40s or any stage of life and decide they want a more comprehensive knowledge of digital marketing so one of the criteria is anyone with an appetite. And we measure that appetite by asking candidates to complete a short bit of pre-work and the ability to devote the hour to pre-work and demonstrate an aptitude.

In terms of social evolution, and where brand advertising is going – part of me immediately goes to Augmented Reality – looking at Snap Lenses, Instagram Lenses, TikTok, augmented reality has become such a part of brand advertising. When we talk about snapchat the metrics are very different we don’t look at clicks, we look at playtime.

With lens it’s not a banner that someone saw by accident, it’s a lens that someone chose to engage, make a video of themselves, share with friends, on snap off snap, and same with TikTok or with Instagram Lenses.

In Nigeria, for example a brand with a lens generates two years of playtime in a single day, which is a lot if you compare it to TV views, YouTube or any other video. But at the same time, it’s really important to say that different brands have different target audiences, different objectives. I am a big believer that each brand has to go hunt for its sweet spot, based on who your audience is, where they are in the purchase cycle, and what you are trying to achieve. If you are asking for a trend, it’s that brands are going to choose less social platforms and try to excel at them rather than try to be present across all of them.

Expensive data: Nigeria is comparatively cheap to many African territories. But something all our partners have done with local telcos is to do zero-rated deals, where we pick up data costs on behalf of the user. But a lot of those deals have not been promoted well enough to the local market. We have not told Nigeria that you can use Twitter free of charge on this network, as an example. This is something we realise we can be better at.

How would you rate Nigeria as a business friendly environment in Africa? How much are you committing to training young Nigerians? And lastly, as an advertiser you have been here for 10 years, the issue of Twitter ban is still controversial, how much did you lose to the Twitter ban in Nigeria?

How friendly is Nigeria in the context of Africa; it has progressed to be reasonably easy. In the past we have found getting a single answer on tax, or on various elements has been tricky to get clear guidance on how to go about operating but this has improved a lot.

Bizarrely, Ghana loves to believe that they are the best in West Africa, and we have found the hurdles have been much bigger than Nigeria.

Obviously, the Naira-dollar issue that is ongoing has been costly to us at times. Many years ago the government formally linked the naira to the dollar overnight, we lost 50 percent of our cash in one minute; that was irrecoverable.

So the naira-dollar exposure has been an ongoing issue. But we’ve also seen partners such as Twitter, that opened up local billing in naira which has started removing that risk for local businesses, and really we believe if you’re in Nigeria you should be working (earning) in naira; you don’t go to another market and force them to pay in dollars, but the exposure that the naira presents does make that tricky. However, we’ve started to see more stability; we’re comfortable doing business in Nigeria.

In terms of the training. Aleph has a dedicated team running digital ad experts. Their goal is to skill 8000 Nigerians. That’s an ambitious goal. We’ve seen a strong uptake and we’re comfortable we’ll see that. We know that digital ad experts take a lot of effort, as you know the industry moves fast and changes fast, so maintaining current content, adding new platforms as they emerge is a never ending task so the work will never be complete.

The twitter ban: Obviously, a market that we’ve been operating from, 10 years of steady growth to zero income over the course of 9 months was a hit, but the biggest loss to us was the loss of talent.

We were busy building out a dedicated Twitter sales team in Lagos and we lost a lot of talent because of that, and we had to restart that process once they switched on. For us, the loss of talent was the thing that hurt us more than revenue if we look back over that tricky time.

Somehow controversial: so, recently we’ve seen digital platforms having their headquarters in Ghana, as a company where would you choose to be – what’s your preferred destination?

That is a controversial question (smiles). Maybe we should step back and recognize that when we look at the market where we want to be present in Africa, it’s not driven by which market we prefer or where we think the biggest opportunity is. It’s also driven by the existing partners we happen to represent.

For example, we have no platforms that are strong in French speaking countries within Africa, and it doesn’t mean that we don’t believe there’s a big opportunity but you have to follow the markets that have the biggest audiences on those platforms as you have to go somewhere where you have something to sell. So for now I would say that it would be tricky one for us to choose. I would say, one challenge that could prevent us from putting all our eggs into Nigeria tomorrow, by having a central operation out of Nigeria would actually be the ease of traveling in and out of Lagos.

It’s not easy and it takes a lot of time to go through that airport, compared to many other airports in Arica. One of the logistical challenges to us placing a central office that serves much of Africa in Nigeria would be the airport and the ability to travel more freely.

I think there are a lot of options for young Nigerians out there, a lot of other training for soft skills, Java, coding etc., the challenge with applying digital skills is that’s easier for you to get a job to become a software developer faster that you can become a digital ads manager. Do you offer the trainees opportunity for somewhere to practice upon completion of the training?

So, on the training – it’s a good point, software developers are in great demand. Part of our vision is to help place those candidates that complete the online ad degree. We recognize that there’s no point in building talent and not helping them find employment. So part of what we hope to do is complete the ecosystem by connecting that talent to our customers and the agencies we work with in Nigeria and abroad. Aleph operates across 90 different countries worldwide, so there are opportunities to place some of the talent in Nigeria but for a foreign advertiser looking for local knowledge and competence with ability to help manage digital campaigns in Nigeria. We feel that the aleph network is large enough to assist a lot of new talent coming into the market.

An important factor on our role in the market, we never seek to – in some cases we’ll service advertisers directly, in other cases we will work with an agency and in some cases we work with an advertiser and the agency to achieve the best outcome, but we’re not an agency and our role and our mandate from each of our partners is to be an extension of them on the ground.

When it comes to end-to-end solution, we do have comprehensive solutions, Aleph has a strong global performance team, but that team will always look at working with agencies or brands to achieve the right outcomes. But our role when talking about end-to-end solutions is to help give you seamless access into Twitter, Spotify or any other platform that we represent at the same standard if you would enjoy if at their HQ in New York or San Francisco. We see our role as a facilitator of best practice and a facilitator of access. And of course everything we do is fully transparent, we don’t charge a markup, what you see on Twitter’s ads dashboard is what we would bill you, we don’t charge our customers in Nigeria for a service; we are paid by our partners to provide that.

Local market data is your next question, it’s a shared frustration for you and for us and many other clients in Nigeria and many other clients in other markets. So you know each of our partners goes through stages of being more or less free with their data, but what I can tell you is that our job is to answer those questions that you may have, so any client in Nigeria that has a challenge with data, or has a challenge in understanding how big is this demographic, how would I reach them, what are their behaviour it’s our job to surface that data and disclose it. We have always been prohibited from disclosing this publicly, I can’t tell you why, but those are the rules of engagement that we are given by the partners that we represent.  But we can walk into a room and confidentially tell you how big a certain demographic is and we can source that data for you.

What is the volume of your business in Nigeria?

We can’t really disclose our numbers but I can tell you it’s a sizable multimillion dollar business, so it’s noteworthy for us as a group. I think when I look at my time in Lagos, and my first arrival being fascinated by everyone in the middle of the busy roads, paying vendors to rent one page from a newspaper and read the news with the sports page; and the news page with front page headline coming at a premium and the others being so much cheaper, and you go through the streets now and those guys are no longer in business, that shows you a rapidly digitising world in Nigeria.

Obviously Nigeria has the benefit of massive scale, so even though there’s a large population that is not digitized yet, the there is a part of the population that makes it a noteworthy market already. I think a lot of the platforms we work with, and in fact an important truth about social media, is that influence is very often not one-to-one, it’s one-to-many.

So if you are reaching one person who is a digitally connected person in a household, and the rest of the household is not digitally connected you are still influencing everyone in the household. Twitter especially, because news breaks faster, you go to find out what’s happening in the world around you. People on Twitter tend to be early adopters, so if you can reach one Twitter user in a household you tend to influence that entire household, so for us it’s not the power of one-to-one it’s one to many.

In May 2019 the U.S. wanted to separate advertising from the big tech companies, and the UK also looked at separating citing anti-trust concerns. Do you think that the future of digital advertising separating and outsourcing is better than companies running it themselves?

That’s a difficult question to answer. All I can say is that there has been evidence over years of big tech companies exploiting their access to data. Which I think can make competition very unfair and so any oversight that makes the environment equally competitive to all is welcome but I don’t have an answer to that very difficult question for you. What I can say is there absolutely is an issue that needs to be addressed.

In the last 10 years of doing business in Nigeria, what have been your biggest challenge, your wins and your milestones?

In the early years, the biggest challenge was local talent. We are measured and scared by our partners and our ability to represent them effectively. It doesn’t mean that Nigeria changed much, it could mean that we have changed. Because at the stage of your lifecycle when you’re an employer you attract different talent when you’re an ad network that competes with Google you’re a-nobody, and your pool of talent is smaller than you can hire from. When we look at Aleph and Ad Dynamo these days, people don’t work for us because they love Ad Dynamo they love the brands that we represent. When someone applies for a job with Ad Dynamo they’re not applying for Ad Dynamo (per say), they’re applying for Snapchat or Spotify. But our access to talent was limited in the past.

The naira-dollar rates have been a challenge, and it is still a challenge but slightly less of one. In most market it’s normal for an advertiser to be granted credit terms, and in Nigeria it’s no different we like to do that but if we get paid 90 days late and we extended someone credit in naira and we have to pay Twitter in dollars the exposure for us is enormous.

So, finding the compromise between giving local brand the best possible trading terms whilst managing our exposure to the naira-dollar exchange rates and what it does on any given day has been a bit challenge and continues to be a big challenge but we’re getting much better at it

What other plans do you have in respect to expansion in Nigeria? And also what new technology we should expect. You talked about AI, etc. is there anything new we should look out for?

In terms of growth, Aleph represents many partners that Ad Dynamo doesn’t, so we are hoping to bring a few of those to Nigeria. So, you’ll see an enlarged portfolio in the next 6 months. For those of you that don’t know, part of our model for operating is that we’ll never have an employee representing more than one platform.

So, our goal is to represent Twitter in the same standards as Twitter would represent them-selves and the only way we can do that is to have a dedicated Twitter team. So, for each partner we have in Nigeria we build a dedicated team. It is quite a big investment for us when we bring in a new partner; we have to build an entirely new team for that partner.

In terms of new tech, augmented reality- we assist a lot of brands and agencies in Nigeria with creative; we have a team that can assist. We also have plans to introduce a level of self service offering to small and medium businesses.

We can’t justify a dedicated account manager for clients of all sizes. That’s a challenge, how do we give a level of service to a client on all sizes no matter what they spend so a self-service is something we’d like to bring to market to extend our offer to smaller clients.

Facts & Figures about Digital Advertising in Nigeria

• Total internet advertising revenue is projected to grow from US$73m in 2018 to US$133m in 2023.
• Online ad market has seen an unprecedented growth between 2015 and 2018, By 2023, online advertising is forecast to generate US$133m on revenue
• The market’s largest segment is Video Advertising with a market volume of US$87.61m in 2022.
• 68% of total digital ad spending will be generated through mobile in 2026.
• Just recently, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON now ARCON), the regulatory body responsible for advertising in Nigeria rolled out plans to regulate online advertising in the country in a bid to sanitise the industry and curb inflammatory advertising messages.

Recent Trends about Online Advertising and digital marketing in Nigeria

• Covid has shifted and accelerated consumer behaviours to online trade channels.
• The rise of social media apps like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook (Now Meta) is becoming entertainment hotspots for millennials and Gen Zs, turning more people to social media influencers and making them crucial to Nigeria’s advertising industry.
• Advertising is becoming more data and technology-focused, with advertisers working to integrate some form of artificial intelligence or machine learning into the mix.
• A Federal Communications commissioner is calling on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores over concerns that user data from the wildly popular social media platform is being accessed in China.

In a world when everything is online and any business that isn’t online is losing money, failing to teach our children digital skills for today and tomorrow will only widen our continent’s skills gap. This is due to the fact that more than half of today’s professions demand technical abilities.

So, why is it critical for the technology industry to be involved in education at all levels?

Nurture future champions of the industry 

Technology literacy and digital literacy are crucial for Africa’s future. And while we are making progress with the introduction of coding in primary schools in countries like Kenya and South Africa, we still have a ways to go.

“We know that every technology business is hampered in its growth by a severe lack of talent across Africa, and it is up to us as a part of that ecosystem to help develop and nurture future champions of the industry,” says Sean Riley, CEO at Ad Dynamo by Aleph.

“Unfortunately, there is still a substantial skills gap in Africa, and to solve it, we must begin at the grassroots level. We live in an increasingly digital world, so it is only logical that we begin teaching digital digital skills,” adds Riley.

Provide more flexible pathways 

According to a World Economic Forum report, 65% of today’s primary school children will eventually be working in job types that do not exist yet, while the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that by 2030, more than 230-million jobs in Africa will require digital skills.

 “It is therefore clear that emerging economies face significant upskilling challenges, which need to be addressed throughout the educational careers of young people. Businesses and educational institutions must work together to ensure that learners are equipped to handle the ever-changing nature of work. The business sector, in particular, should take the lead in this regard, whether through training sessions, providing more flexible skills pathways, or through the recognition of short courses, as well as online and self-learning,” says Vanashree Govender, Huawei SA spokesperson.

Technology innovation is happening so quickly that training must now be adjusted constantly, almost in real-time, as new systems, applications, and devices come to market. 

Conscious of the need for technology-driven upskilling, Huawei has built strong relationships with training and education institutions, and established programmes such as our ICT Academies at universities and TVET colleges, and our Seeds for the Future programme which aims to develop skilled, local, ICT talent.

Contextual education 

Education needs to be contextual. “ It should enable children to understand things around them and prepare them to be ready for real-world challenges.

As technology has become ubiquitous, it is important to teach children how it impacts the world and help them understand how it can be utilised to solve various problems,” says Andrew Bourne, Regional Manager, Africa – Zoho Corp.

Prepare students for an evolving workplace

Students require more than a functional knowledge of digital and tech skills to succeed in the world. By incorporating these technologies into the normal curriculum and ongoing activities, institutions ensure that their students are more equipped for the modern workplace.

In terms of wealth inequality, seven in ten of the world’s most unequal countries are located in Africa.

Moreover, Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly, World Bank Country Director for Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa points out that despite many African countries “undertaking some of the most redistributive spending in the world, particularly on education and health, inequality remains extremely high”.

This suggests that in order for the continent’s population to thrive economically in the future, it must also address digital inequality. 

While many articles have been written about the continent’s ability to ‘leapfrog’ stages of economic development, through the likes of cellular technology for instance, this isn’t universally true. Even though cities in some of Africa’s biggest markets embrace 5G, access still remains a major barrier for many.     

If Africa is to reach its full potential and secure the economic future that so many believe it is capable of, it is imperative that digital inequality is addressed immediately. 

Promising growth, but still room for improvement 

There is however, promising growth especially when it comes to internet access. According to Statista, Nigeria is set to add 35 million new users by 2026. In Ghana, World Bank figures show that 58% of the population is now online, with the number of new internet users also increasing by 6% between 2020 and 2021. 

Yet, there is still significant room for additional growth. Focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa, upwards of 800 million people are not yet connected to mobile internet.

A comparatively small proportion of those people (270 million) are not connected because they do not have the required coverage. However, of greater concern are the 520 million people across the region who could theoretically access the mobile internet but still don’t. This comes down to a number of interconnected reasons, including cost, lack of skills, education, age, and location.

As connectivity becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, those numbers should organically decrease, presenting some economic benefits on its own, but it won’t be enough to ensure that Africa reaches its full potential. 

After all, 50% of the Global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is already digitalised, a percentage that is expected to only increase in the coming years.

However, unless the right skills are developed to complement increasing connectivity, and enable the continent to effectively compete in the global digital arena, Africa risks becoming a net consumer in that economy, as organisations and entrepreneurs who fall into the other 50% will benefit.

Wide-scale skills development is needed 

In order for Africa to truly reach its digital economic potential, it also needs to address the unequal spread of digital skills across the continent.

This is true both for those entering the job market and those looking to become entrepreneurs, for which it is important to remember that a broad range of skills will be increasingly required.

Furthermore, those able to develop software, or build and repair digital infrastructure will of course remain sought after, but those who can effectively market businesses to growing online consumers will also be of high importance.

According to a study by The International Finance Corporation, 230 million jobs across the continent will in fact require a level of digital skills by 2030, Included in that number are HR, marketing, sales, and operations roles.

Newly online consumers represent a lucrative target audience for businesses around the globe. As such, they are largely targeted via major social platforms including Twitter, Snapchat, and Spotify. Thus, it is also imperative for businesses across Africa to understand how to effectively reach their audience organically and through platform advertisements.

This is something we at Ad Dynamo and the wider Aleph Group fundamentally understand, which is why we want to be part of the solution. This is why we recently launched our Digital Ad Expert educational programme in Nigeria and Ghana.

The free online programme aims to educate, certify, and connect thousands of people across Africa with the necessary digital skills to succeed in a rapidly digitalising economy.     

While some people in these markets have the resources needed to build up these skills on their own, we believe it’s critical to narrow the gap and reduce inequality as much as possible. 

Now is the time

Thus, it is time to truly bridge the divide, and close the gaps evident across the African continent, so we can ensure its digital future.

Fortunately, there is a growing number of prospects opening up to people in Africa, and with the help of solutions such as those provided by Digital Ad Expert, the opportunity to discover the world of digital marketing, and the potential it holds for you, or your business is unparalleled.

Coming fresh off the back of its recently announced expansion in the country, the programme is designed to equip young Nigerians with the skills they need to succeed in digital marketing.

Hosted on the Aleph Group’s proprietary learning platform, Digital Ad Expert is a peer-to-peer learning programme that aims to educate, certify, and connect thousands of Africans with the digital skills needed to succeed in a rapidly digitising economy, allowing them to compete at a global level for jobs in this growing industry.

“Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and is also digitising rapidly,” says Sean Riley, Ad Dynamo CEO. “With Digital Ad Expert, we want to ensure that young people have the best possible chance of benefiting from the opportunities presented by that growth and expansion.”

It’s estimated that an additional 35 million Nigerians will come online by 2026, meaning that digital marketing will be a significant growth industry. It will also have an important role to play not only in reaching ordinary consumers but also in helping businesses across the country grow and thrive.      

Aleph has set a goal of using Digital Ad Expert to educate 50,000 digital learners worldwide with digital marketing skills, and Nigeria is a big part of this ambition.

People participating in the programme get an introduction to digital marketing, as well as modules covering strategy, analytics, and content creation.

Additionally, they learn the ins and outs of advertising on specific platforms including Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and TikTok.

The programme also gives participants an overview of job opportunities and the labour market.  

“We have no doubt that Nigerian youth have immense digital potential,” Riley concludes. “We’re proud to play a role in ensuring that they’re given the necessary help to unlock that potential.” 

How to apply

Applications for Digital Ad Expert opened on 27 June and will run until 18 July. The first cohort is then scheduled to kick off on 25 July 2022.

Candidates can apply to complete a free three-month comprehensive digital ad degree here.

The company’s expansion comes off the back of its acquisition by Aleph Group in January 2022, a leading global enabler of digital advertising in emerging markets.

The 100% acquisition, which was completed in early 2022, gives Aleph Group an important footprint in Africa where Ad Dynamo has a long and successful history of over a decade exclusively representing Twitter, Spotify, Yahoo, and Snapchat in the continent’s largest online market. 

The next step in Ad Dynamo’s Nigerian investment is to open up Aleph’s signature education program, Digital Ad Expert, hosted on the group’s proprietary learning platform.

“With a national GDP exceeding $400bn and a large share of youth in the local population, we seek to equip thousands of Nigerians with the tools needed to succeed in a rapidly digitizing economy”, says Ad Dynamo CEO and founder Sean Riley.  Aleph has set a goal of educating 50,000 digital learners worldwide with digital marketing skills, and Nigeria is a big part of this ambition. Aleph’s educational programs are free and will be accepting applications for Nigeria’s first 12-week peer-to-peer learning program between June 27-July 18, 2022. The first cohort is scheduled to kick off on July 25, 2022.

“We’ve always understood that Nigeria has the potential to be one of the world’s greatest internet markets,” says Riley. “It’s been a privilege to witness its growth over the past 10 years and to help advertisers reach their consumers with impactful messaging on the right platforms. With the backing of Aleph Group, we plan to grow even further in Nigeria in the coming years.”

Ad Dynamo sets itself apart from other digital media sales houses by offering dedicated sales teams for each partner it represents. It also doesn’t charge a markup on any media, meaning that ad buyers have price transparency across all advertising investments.

“With more than 35 million additional Nigerians set to come online by 2026, effective digital marketing will become more important than ever,” says Gaston Taratuta, Founder and CEO of Aleph Group. “We’re incredibly proud that Ad Dynamo, as part of the Aleph family, will play a major role in ensuring that brands across Nigeria have the best possible marketing presence on some of the world’s biggest technology platforms.”