revolution in the ICT sector also contributed immensely to the boom in the business. And so, the role of the Internet as a means of bridging the digital divide came to the fore.
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, a Cyber café is a place where one can use a computer with Internet access, mostly for a fee, usually per hour or minute; sometimes one can have unmetered access with a pass for a day or month, etc. It may serve as a regular café as well, with food and drinks being served.

Located world-wide, many people use Cyber cafes when they are travelling to access the webmail and instant messaging services so as to keep in touch with their family and friends. Beyond this however, in many developing countries like Nigeria, Cyber cafes serve as primary form of Internet access for citizens because a shared-access model is obviously more affordable than personal ownership of Internet facilities.

Apart from Cyber cafes established by hotels, libraries and airports for the convenience of their customers, a substantial number of Cyber cafes in Nigeria for instance, are privately owned. And it is these privately owned ones that are massively patronized. But in recent times, the Cyber café business in Nigeria is crumbling at alarming proportion. And from every indication, it seems set for further degeneration.

Described as a natural evolution of the traditional café, what has today popularly become the café started as a place for information exchange, and has always been used as a place to read the paper, send postcards home, play traditional or electronic games, chat to friends, find out local information.

Elsewhere, while most Internet cafés are private businesses, many have been set up by government and non-governmental organizations to help bridge the 'digital divide', providing computer access and training to those without home access. For example, the UK government once supported the setting up of 6000 telecentres.

In looking at the evolution of the Cyber café, Wikipedia recalled that as Internet access is in increasing demand, many pubs, bars and cafes have terminals and so, the distinction between the Cyber café and normal café is eroded. But there appears to be a global recession in Cyber café business however, the situation in Nigeria looks alarming.

So, why is this once lucrative and vibrant business extinguishing with such supersonic speed in Nigeria? Why is Cyber café business becoming history in this part of the world? Or is it not an irony of sort that while the ICT sector in the country is growing with such an impressive rate, the Cyber café business is rapidly dying? Questions!

Experts spoken to by this magazine were united in agreeing that poor business knowledge and plan were monumentally responsible for the recession being witnessed in the business today. Perhaps only a few of the operators knew that Internet related business is a cut-throat one especially when it is done without sufficient business knowledge.

And this is why experts argue that there was need for any prospective Cyber café operator to do an audit check on the performance of available ISPs and pick the one that most suit his expectations. The process will save the prospective operator money and the grief of running around in search of solution when it would have become late.

The ISPs have their peculiar problems. While some of them would fail to pay for bandwidth space on time, others come slow in responding to distress calls. Whereas some of them are problem-prone during rainy season, some others lack the technical know-how to respond to problems from clients. These are some of the issues that need to be considered by prospective Cyber café operators.

But why are the Cafes dying?
Reports have it that recession in Cyber café business has assumed a global phenomenon. In European countries in particular, the number of pure Cyber cafes is decreasing by the day since more and more normal cafes offer the same services. There are also some European countries where the total number of publicly accessible terminals is also decreasing.

It is believed that the cause of this development is a combination of complicated regulation, relatively high Internet penetration rates, the widespread of notebooks and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) in use and the relatively high number of WLAN hotspots. In Germany for instance, many pubs, bars and cafes offer WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network),

not too different from the situation in Europe except for the issue of infrastructure. Infrastructural problem like power is generally seen as the greatest challenge militating against the growth of industries in Nigeria including Cyber café business.

Many of the Cyber café operators could not cope with the cost of running alternative power source. President of the Nigeria Internet Group, Engr. Lanre Ajayi agrees that erratic power supply is the greatest factor responsible for the pre-mature dearth of Cyber cafes in Nigeria. “There are basically two factors that can be traced to this. One is the cost of powering the cyber cafe; the bulk of expenditure of cyber café goes on power or diesel. And that is affecting the profit, eating into the margin very deeply.

“Again, the cost of the bandwidth is very high. Those two cost elements are affecting the margin of operators and users are not willing to pay more. They have the situation where revenue remains constant but the cost keeps increasing. So when the cost overtakes the revenue, then they are running at a loss. That is what happens to the cyber cafes and they are forced to close up”.

Ajayi who insisted that the real cause why the cafes are shutting down has to do with power argued that if the cost of power comes down, the cyber café will be comfortable and some people will go to them. In addition to this he said the computer as an important instrument for Internet access should be made affordable.

“The argument that the access at home is affecting them is a factor but it is not the major factor because I can tell you that not every home can afford a computer. The computer is still much more expensive than the television which is available in almost every home. So until we are able to bill the cost of the computer at par with the cost of the television, I am afraid not every home will be able to afford it.”

Both Adekunle Adekoya, chief software architect, Havila Cyber café, Lagos and Taofiq Mustafa, head operator, Cybertech, Fadeyi agree that the major predicament being suffered by Cyber café operators is the absence of power supply. Besides, they argue that the entry of traditional voice telecom operators has in no small way contributed in pushing Cyber café operators out of business.

In an interview he granted a Lagos based daily, president of the Association of Cyber café and Telecentre Operators of Nigeria, Layo Omotola attributed the state of affairs in the business to a number of factors including the incessant clampdown on operators by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) as a result of increasing cyber crime in the country in addition to the inclusion in their bouquet, Internet service provision by private telecom operators- fixed and mobile.

Omotola noted that individuals and organizations who hitherto were customers of the Cyber cafes have now abandoned them in preference for telecom operators. This situation he said has resulted to a drastic decrease in the number of functional cafes in the country.
According to him, in 2003, the country had over 15, 000 Cyber cafes with over 10, 000 of them sited in Lagos State alone. “As at the end 2007, the number had dropped to 1,002, and with a recent statistics taken by us, functional cybercafés are now below 600.”

challenges. In fact those of them who had to borrow from the bank to float the business are today biting their fingers as the debt burden on their head, resulting from their inability to pay up is rather heavy.

One other problem faced by operators is the activation of some virus-carrying messages by some unsuspecting customers. Some of these messages have easily ravaged networked computers in a café. Some of the operators cannot equally afford original software because of what some of them consider as the 'exorbitant cost'.A greater percentage of the customers that patronize Cyber cafes are within the age bracket of 15 and 35. Many of them, who visit the café especially for night browsing, come there to watch pornographic movies online. And experts insist that online pornography come with various forms of virus.

Again, privacy is considered a key factor in the course of sending information over the Internet. And this is one thing the Cyber café cannot guarantee. Some criminally minded people capitalize on the porous nature of the café environment to spy on what some other people are doing on the Internet.

It is common knowledge that in situations where a user does not sign out properly from his e-mail account for example, another user could gain access to some of the information in a previous user's account, and could use this to the detriment of the legitimate user hence the desire of Internet users to have private access at home.

ease than the PC especially the upwardly mobile corporate executives. Nowadays, subscribers to Smartphones for instance, hardly patronize the Cyber cafes nor worry about getting to the office or carrying the laptop computer about before accessing their mails or looking for veritable information in the Internet. The Smartphones now do the jobs.

Indications are rife that the patronage for the Smartphones would continue to hike especially if prices of the phones continue to come down. In fact, a research result released sometime ago by Point Topic and YouGov showed that while current usage of the mobile phone to access the Internet is dominated by work-related applications, new users are much more interested in entertainment and keeping in touch with their friends.

The research pointed out that the quest for this mobile technology is driven by the consumer's desire for convenience and practical solutions especially in the case of Nigeria, now that there is growing interest in mobile banking.

the system gently. That's why you'll be glad to have Windows SteadyState - with user restrictions to help prevent problems and Windows Disk Protection to wipe away any problems that do occur”.

Highlighting the high rate of pirated software usage in Nigeria as one of the reasons for the failure of cyber café business, the Microsoft representative stressed the need for cyber café owners to invest in original software license for genuine products as this will ensure that their computers would always have the needed support offered by the solution providers and reduce downtime and associated risks.

Chief software architect for Havila Cyber Café, Adekunle Adekoya believes the solution to this failing business is merger and acquisition, a replica of what happened in the country's banking industry.