Cyber cafes are vanishing

Unlike last year, Oluchi Nwokocha now takes okada [commercial motorbike] or bus to go wherever she can find a cyber cafe. The one about two streets away from her home at Ikeja, which she regularly patronises, is out of business. And she has neither computer system nor internet access at home.

“Really, it’s hard to find cyber cafe these days. We used to have two in my area, but now we don’t have any one. We now go to far places to browse” Ms. Nwokocha said.

Earlier this century, when browsing the internet was still considered a wonder, cyber cafes were the in-thing in Lagos. The business of owning a cyber cafe was lucrative or so it seemed. Every two or three streets had at least one. They were either big, with over 20 computer systems and printers, scanners and photocopiers, or small, with two or three computers in a small kiosk, big enough to take about five persons at a time. No matter the size and location, a few years ago cyber cafes were always filled with people, both in the day and sometimes at night.

“In those days, around 2000 and 2001, I used to go to cyber cafe, pay money to check my yahoo email. You know the feeling that time was powerful. I was the only one who could browse amongst my friends then. We will go to a cyber cafe and crowd around one system, five of us, and then the systems were always very slow, so if we hear that one cyber cafe somewhere was fast we will go there,” said Solomon Edema, a computer engineer. “Now, all of us browse with our phones. I also used my laptop. I have not gone to a cyber cafe for over a year now, Mr. Edema, adds.

Nowadays, the proliferation of computers and 3G mobile phones, including the famous China phones, has resulted in cheaper prices. As a result more people can afford internet-enabled phones. Similarly, the competition in the telecom industry has also led the telecom firms out-doing one another in offering cheap modems and internet access. Traders at Computer Village, Ikeja, now offer software that enable free internet access on laptops and mobile phones.

“That’s why people are no longer patronising cyber cafes. We don’t have customers again and we still have to use generator. Imagine you have 10 systems and one or two people come to browse and there no light, you have to on the generator for them. You are burning money on diesel and you are not making it back. It not easy, that’s why some have packed up and changed business” said Adekunle Okanlawon, who runs a cyber cafe at Ojodu.

Businessmen not experts

However, Tunde Ayorinde, the Chief Executive Officer of One Stop IT Solutions, a firm that provides IT services and runs a cyber cafe at Agidingbi, argues that the cheaper cost of internet access is not as much a factor as the fact that many of the defunct cyber cafes were being run businessmen with IT expertise.

“I don’t think that’s the problem. It may be in highbrow areas like Ikoyi, VI, Lekki, but not in areas like Orile, Agege, Iyana Ipaja and so on. 98 percent of people there cannot afford internet access at home” he said.

“The number one problem is lack of infrastructure, power. There has not been light, I’ve been burning my diesel for the past four days. Number two is that employees are not reliable. They steal. They are rude to customers. They watch customers keep their legs on the UPS, they won’t say please don’t place your legs there. Customers vandalise the system and they don’t say anything because they are not concerned.

“Third is attitude of the business owners themselves. Some people go into this cyber cafe business without being IT professionals. That way it’s easy for their employees to cheat them. Besides, if you do cyber cafes alone, you will go out of business. You have to combine with other aspects of IT business. Lastly, the customers, some of them are obnoxious; they always say the customer is always right forgetting they are referring to a reasonable customer.”

As the remaining cyber cafes struggle to survive, they will soon lose yet another loyal customer. Ms. Nwokocha’s savings will soon be enough for her to buy an internet-enabled phone.

“Once I buy that phone, I won’t be going to cyber cafes again” she said.