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55% of Nigerian businesses fully return to on-site work – Zoho Report

 

By Juliet Umeh

A new report by global technology company Zoho has revealed that 55% of Nigerian businesses have adopted a fully on-site work mode. The study, titled “The State of Productivity and Collaboration in Nigeria, 2024”, surveyed over 500 organizations with more than 50 employees across the country and uncovered significant workplace productivity challenges.

The report highlights that data silos, fragmented systems, and inefficient app usage are major barriers to workplace productivity, driving an increasing demand for unified collaboration platforms.

Growing demand for unified digital platforms

Speaking on the report’s findings, Country Head, Zoho Nigeria, Kehinde Ogundare, said: “Nigerian businesses have adopted various cloud tools over the years to support digital transformation. However, many now recognize that disconnected tools create silos, hindering collaboration and productivity.
“This has led to a growing demand for unified collaboration platforms with advanced AI capabilities. We’ve seen increased adoption of Zoho Workplace in Nigeria, reflecting this shift.
“Zoho Workplace, which set the standard for a unified experience as early as 2017, brings contextual data to the forefront, saving time and enhancing efficiency.”

Key findings from the study

Work Models: 55% of businesses are fully on-site, while 31% operate in a hybrid setup, and 14% are fully remote. Remote roles are mostly occupied by individual contributors, while hybrid workers struggle with communication barriers.

App usage trends: 51% of employees use 1–5 apps daily, 35% use 6–10 apps, while 14% rely on more than 10 apps. Senior executives use the highest number of apps, with 81% of C-Suite executives using more than 10 apps daily.

Commonly used tools: Productivity and collaboration tools (68%) lead usage, followed by project management (47%), business intelligence (47%), and accounting (43%). Despite high app usage, only 50% of employees track tasks in a unified view.

Challenges hindering productivity

The biggest workplace collaboration challenge in Nigeria is poor WiFi and data connectivity (80%), highlighting the need for solutions with offline functionality and low data consumption.

Other major challenges include:
Digital fatigue (54%)
Information scattered across multiple apps (45%)

Communication barriers for hybrid and remote teams

To improve productivity, respondents suggested: Quick access to information from different apps (78%)
Adoption of AI-powered technologies (72%)
Seamless communication within business applications (55%)

Technology adoption and economic outlook

The survey found that 51% of businesses have adopted new technology to prepare for economic challenges. Employees in these businesses rated their ability to compete higher (4 out of 5) compared to those in companies that have not embraced new technology (just over 3 out of 5).

However, respondents highlighted slow adoption of emerging technologies like AI (46%) as a key factor limiting competitiveness. Other challenges include:
Low adoption of digital tools (45%)
Employees switching between too many apps (41%)

As Nigerian businesses navigate economic uncertainties, the report suggests that investing in AI-driven, unified collaboration tools will be critical for enhancing productivity, reducing digital fatigue, and maintaining competitiveness in an evolving market.

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