WordPress is Thriving in Nigeria w/ Emmanuel Eluwa

matt

[00:00:00] Matt: Hey, Emmanuel, welcome to the WP minute.

[00:00:02] Emmanuel: Yeah, thank you for having me. Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be on.

[00:00:07] Matt: I saw some of the work you were doing at a recent hackathon. I want to talk about that in a moment. Um, it seems like the WordPress community is alive and thriving, uh, in your part of the world. Speaking of your part of the world, where are you? Where are you recording

[00:00:25] Emmanuel: Alright, so, um, like he said, my name is Emmanuel. And, um, I’m recording from Port Harcourt, uh, in Nigeria. So, um, it’s, it’s, it’s wonderful relating back to the past events. It’s wonderful having events such as that, that helps bring people together, helps bring, uh, the community together because, um, a lot of persons are looking for places to fit in.

[00:00:54] Emmanuel: And it was also an avenue for people to network, make friends. [00:01:00] Uh, while, uh, At least supporting the cause, a worthy cause. So it was, um, it was wonderful to have everyone come out, show up on that day. And, uh, we had fun. We had fun while working. And, uh, I think, um, the, the, the, um, goal was achieved at the end of the day.

[00:01:19] Emmanuel: We were able to help nonprofits. Based here in Port Harcourt, we are able to help them, uh, have websites and, um, with branding and also because we had a mix of, um, creatives, uh, designers, um, brand, brand managers, really. So they were able to give their skills to help these nonprofits, um, establish their online presence.

[00:01:46] Emmanuel: So. Yeah, it was, uh, it was wonderful.

[00:01:49] Matt: You run an agency. I believe the name of it is called Brella. Uh, you’ve been running that now for just over six and a half years. Talk to me about [00:02:00] the The business side of WordPress in Nigeria. I know we talk about it a lot in the U S and in the UK, we have the ups and downs of running a client based business.

[00:02:10] Matt: What’s it like, uh, running it in Nigeria and what’s the, what’s the overall, um, ecosystem like, is it, is it thriving? Do you have a lot of customers or is it still just like here in the U S very competitive, hard to get customers? Like you got to work really hard to, to get

[00:02:24] Emmanuel: Yeah. So just, just like you have in the U. S. is, uh, competitive here in Nigeria because a lot of persons opt for WordPress because of it’s easy to use. It’s easy to understand. So a couple of, um, businesses, small businesses, and also large scale corporations, as well as government paracetals use WordPress.

[00:02:46] Emmanuel: They utilize WordPress to build up their online presence and they’re able to use that. And, um, it’s a struggle because almost everyone is, um, you know, have something to offer in terms of like, uh, [00:03:00] offerings based on WordPress. So it’s really, um, Um, it’s really competitive. Uh, another thing I think, um, gives that edge, gives us the edge is, uh, word of mouth and referrals.

[00:03:14] Emmanuel: Uh, it’s very easy to land a client when, um, a satisfied client or a satisfied client is saying, oh, you know, I know these guys and they, um, do good work. And they are satisfied with the work. So it’s easier to land clients that way and be able to be, um, fortunate enough to have, um, clients coming through the doors by saying, Oh, you know, um, customer a referred me to your company and that’s why I’m here.

[00:03:42] Emmanuel: And I think in that sense, we don’t have to do, um, much selling to the person and say, Oh, this is what we can do for you. Uh, we can just like highlights what, uh, the features and things that they want to have on their website. Basically having some kind of like [00:04:00] discovery call with them. And it’s really easy on from there.

[00:04:03] Emmanuel: But, um, I’d, I’d have to say, I would have to admit that as a competitive landscape. Yes. Um, to put that in perspective, Um, we have about 36 states, 36 states and more than, um, I think WordPress powers at least, um, 65 percent of websites here in Nigeria. So it’s, it’s like a huge,

[00:04:28] Matt: Wow.

[00:04:28] Emmanuel: it’s like a huge gap, it’s like a huge gap.

[00:04:31] Emmanuel: It’s just, um, I think just, A little bit of a customer base do opt for custom build softwares and all but WordPress is like the in thing so which gives to the community like sort of like reviving here in the country so something to be proud of.

[00:04:51] Matt: Hmm. Is there, is there that, that is pretty amazing. Is there a second place content management system? Is it Wix? Is it [00:05:00] Squarespace? Is it Drupal? What’s the next one?

[00:05:02] Emmanuel: So, um, I would, from, from experience, I would say it’s usually, um, up to the customer to choose, like, okay, you know, we can give our recommendations and say, Oh, you know, this is what you can use. This is what is going to serve you best, but you also have the opportunity to say, okay, this is what I’m comfortable with.

[00:05:24] Emmanuel: So, but, um, regarding question, I would say, um, Webflow is coming up a bit. It’s coming up a bit, but, um, I think after after Webflow, I would say Drupal. Drupal is, is something that, uh, the, like, uh, I wanted to say the oldies, but, but, uh, Drupal is what, uh,

[00:05:50] Matt: Yeah,

[00:05:51] Emmanuel: um, use. Let’s say the second place is Drupal, amongst other things, amongst other, um, content management systems.

[00:05:59] Emmanuel: We have. [00:06:00] Yeah.

[00:06:00] Matt: sure. So one of the biggest debates, and I was sort of debating this yesterday on a live stream. Not really debating it, but we were highlighting it. Is a lot of folks say that WordPress isn’t easy to use. Um, especially the block builder. Especially where, you know, Gutenberg is still, you know, in active development.

[00:06:20] Matt: And changing almost every, every day, if not every iteration. What, what about for you? Do you find it complex or do your customers find it complex? And if they do, how do you bridge that gap? Are you doing a lot of education? How do you onboard them? Is it truly as easy as, as we all think it is?

[00:06:38] Emmanuel: I think for, for beginner, they might find the whole thing overwhelming, but it just needs a little bit of guide. So what we usually do during the boarding process, we usually ask if they, they have a department that would manage the website for them. If they don’t, they can also opt for, [00:07:00] um, a maintenance department.

[00:07:01] Emmanuel: Package or plan that’s going to help them, uh, which means that our, our agency is going to help them, um, manage their websites for them. But in any case, if they decide, Oh, we still want to learn how to do this. So it means that we’re going to have some form of training for them to just know the basics. It, uh, um, updating content, um, uh, creating posts, blog posts and all just more like, uh, helping them put out content on there, make the websites more engaging, put out press release.

[00:07:38] Emmanuel: the press releases and all. So, um, I would say training helps cut down that need for the agency to keep stepping in at every point in time. So, um, the gap or will I say the bar for learning? It’s not really, it’s not really difficult, right? I [00:08:00] would say it’s up to the Speed at which, uh, the clients or the customer is able to grabs like, um, the concepts of using content management systems for everyone.

[00:08:13] Emmanuel: There are persons who would be of the opinion that It’s easy to use and there’s also people that are going to find it difficult to use When it comes down to page builders and all so, um I would say for me it comes easy. Anyway, it comes easy for me and um for for us we use we we We use a couple of, um, page builders, uh, which, uh, Elementor is like kind of the first because of, um, its functionality and the ability to, um, customize things down to the, down to the board.

[00:08:52] Emmanuel: So, um, it’s wonderful. And it’s also wonderful to see, um, Gutenberg, uh, come up and evolve, right. [00:09:00] He’s also evolving still in the process of, uh, getting there. We’re also hopeful, looking forward to what the future holds for Gutenberg in terms of like customizations, custom posts, how we can utilize, uh, utilize it.

[00:09:16] Emmanuel: But overall, um, looking at the strides and, uh, um, the track, uh, or progress so far, it’s, it’s been nothing short of like, it’s, it’s been wonderful. Okay.

[00:09:33] Matt: you look at Elementor versus Gutenberg is, and it sounds like you, you might be using Elementor on a lot of client projects. Is there something that stands out to you that says, if Gutenberg had this, or if, if WordPress core had this, I would use it more over Elementor? Is there a particular feature set that, that you need WordPress to have in order to, to use plain old vanilla WordPress on your client sites?

[00:09:58] Emmanuel: So for these, I have to [00:10:00] think, but, but for the first part that comes to mind, it’s just a, why I just mentioned on the last, uh, minutes, uh, about the custom, uh, custom, um, pages that allows you to have custom sections and, um, It’s ability to integrate manly with, uh, ACF, ACF, because, uh, we have customers or clients who come to us and they are very, very specific as to what they need.

[00:10:33] Emmanuel: And, um, usually the go to is usually elemental because we just know that, okay, you know, he has the, um, capability to do that without us stressing, stressing about it. But, um, I don’t know how far it goes because I’ve not tested it out, so I can say really that, okay, this is what’s obtainable for Gutenberg.

[00:10:58] Emmanuel: I’ve just only used it to, [00:11:00] you know, do one or two things. And, um, I would say that’s the area I’m just looking forward to. It’s the ease to customize and have loops. Yeah, loops. Yeah, it just came to mind now. Loops, if that can be, you know, part of the futures in the future releases. I think it’s something that can ease the stress.

[00:11:25] Emmanuel: In terms of, um, uh, customizations and all for clients as well.

[00:11:31] Matt: Yeah, yeah, that’s what I, that’s what I hear a lot, right? Is custom templates, custom archive pages, dynamic data. I mean, a lot of that stuff, I think, is, you know, you can do, you can do dynamic archive pages now. Like you can have custom archive pages, which, you know, it’s, It’s doable. It’s just not as, as elegant or as, uh, you know, in depth as what Elementor or another page builder would, will do, but it’s doable now, but I’m certainly there with you, like when you start getting into dynamic [00:12:00] data, ACF displaying these more complex, uh, websites, that’s where it lacks.

[00:12:05] Matt: But I think they know, I think they know that it’s just, it’s just going to take

[00:12:09] Emmanuel: Yes. Yes. I, I see.

[00:12:11] Matt: to get there. What’s your thoughts? I mean, a lot of,

[00:12:14] Emmanuel: sorry. Sorry. Go ahead.

[00:12:16] Matt: Sorry, go ahead. The question was going to be, What’s your thoughts on the time factor? We hear that a lot. We always hear, Oh, it’s going to take, you know, it’s a ten year project. We’re six years into it. Are you wondering like how much longer or are you much more calmer, uh, than we are waiting for these features to

[00:12:35] Emmanuel: I think, I think I’m calm because I already have, um, you know, something that serves. That sounds to me. Well, I think the only aspects, the only time I would be a little bit on the edge is, Oh, this page view that is out of commission and I can’t use it anymore. Then I think, you know, you know, makes me, I think at that point I would, I would [00:13:00] really get answers as to what’s the timeline for this to, for these features to come up.

[00:13:06] Emmanuel: And, um, I, I, I think I’m just, I’m just on there, you know, on the fence, on the fence on that. So,

[00:13:14] Matt: So I can understand why WordPress, uh, is so, uh, popular, uh, with, well, with everything, right? WordPress being the leading CMS, it’s largely because it’s free. Um, but sometimes that free part can overlook the open source part. Okay. Um, of the project or the value of having an open source project. Does open source matter to your customers and to your region of the world?

[00:13:42] Matt: Like, do they, they care about the open source factor or is it more like, Hey, this works for me because it’s free, which is totally fine because I think that’s how a majority of people use WordPress. Um, but how, how much does the open source underpinnings matter, uh, in your market?

[00:13:59] Emmanuel: Um, [00:14:00] looking at the tech, uh, landscape here in Nigeria, I don’t think, um, it really matters to the end users as to, um, Is it open source? Is it a closed system? Um, I, I, but I would say that the fact that it’s an open source, uh, system has given a lot of persons edge to either play around with, uh, the system, try to learn and also try to end as a source of livelihood or a, a, a means to an end.

[00:14:33] Emmanuel: So it, it has helped people also. like, um, learn more about the WordPress ecosystem. So, but, um, looking at how important it is to Nigerians as such, let’s say people who are in the tech world, it doesn’t really matter that much. Um, at the end of the day for customers, I would speak from my own experience anyway, for customers, what matters at the end of the day [00:15:00] is.

[00:15:00] Emmanuel: Um, their vision is portrayed and their vision is portrayed and they’re able to do a X, Y, Z, as they’ve, uh, you know, explained in the onboarding during the onboarding process. So whether it’s an open source or closed system, it doesn’t really matter to them. Um, I think for us, we are the ones who can say, okay, it matters to us because, um, it gives us this, um, ability to, um, Play around with system thinker and find out what works, what doesn’t work for us.

[00:15:33] Emmanuel: Um, and in terms of like releases or testing our plugins, we’re able to test out this things. Uh, we eat that on our local hosts or on any server that we’re using. So Um, I think that that makes sense in that way. I know it’s more popular and, um, more, I think it matters more to people in areas like Europe and, uh, Europe and America, but, um, speaking [00:16:00] from my own perspective here, Um, people don’t really look at it that way.

[00:16:05] Emmanuel: Yeah, but I think it’s something that’s going to need a little bit of education for people to understand what it means for something to be open source and for them to understand why it’s important.

[00:16:16] Matt: Another sort of challenge, um, and I know you’re a, uh, a meetup organizer, uh, as well. And I want to talk about like WordPress events and stuff like that. But one of the things that we’ve been debating a lot lately is the, uh, the age of, of WordPress users, right? A lot of us are getting older. I’m 43. Uh, there’s just a lot of older folks still, you know, using WordPress these days.

[00:16:41] Matt: What about Uh, in your region of the world are, is it a younger group? Are, are younger folks coming to WordPress to learn how to code and develop, and that’s how they get into the tech world. Um, you know, again, thanks to open source, like what’s the age, uh, population look like, and are you concerned as a meetup organizer to get, you know, [00:17:00] younger folks into, into WordPress?

[00:17:02] Emmanuel: think, um, the age, uh, the age bracket for. For meetups here from the top of my head, I would say between 1817 Upwards to like 40. Yeah, it’s like 40 Down here because we have a couple of persons who students Uh, we have student bodies who said, you know, I would love to be part of this. We would love to learn more about WordPress because a lot of persons are just moving towards soft skills, learning how to code, learning how to build websites, learning how to blog and sort of Everyone has this that, you know, WordPress seems to be, uh, the solution.

[00:17:43] Emmanuel: So we have, um, students, student bodies who reach out to us and say, you know, we want to be part of this. How do we be part of this and how do we join the community? So regarding the age bracket, I say we have younger persons coming in and we also want to, we are also [00:18:00] looking forward to have, um. You know, new events, new types of events that would also promote, um, you know, uh, what I say, high school that will promote, uh, the use of Internet and, um, the use of WordPress to high school students and also sort of like building that, uh, community base and helping people, um, understand, uh, more about the web.

[00:18:26] Emmanuel: Yeah, really. So,

[00:18:28] Matt: Yeah. How, how is the meetup and WordPress events going? And obviously that hackathon sounded like it was a pretty good success, but is it, uh, consistent and are you, uh, always doing new events and have plenty of topics

[00:18:41] Emmanuel: Oh, okay. So, um, we, we reactivated the meetup, uh, sometime last year, sometime last year, I think January last year. And, um, due to, initially the meetup was a dormant since, uh, 2018, uh, [00:19:00] due to some issues, uh, that WordPress had to look into, uh, with the past, um, organizer. Okay. So, um, we really had to speak with, uh, the WordPress community, the global community, and See a way of, you know, um, reactivating and it just stems like at the time I was volunteering to reactivate meetups and I have to speak to them like I’m in the city and, uh, people are just looking for a community to be part of, um, coming down to, uh, Port Harcourt for the first time.

[00:19:34] Emmanuel: Um, We we had a couple of persons, you know, acts and there are also persons who say, you know, what’s happening. Um, I see what press, you know, events happening in bigger cities like Lagos and Abuja, but it’s not happening here. What’s, you know, what’s happening? And, um, we had to speak and I think the global community was more lenient.

[00:19:57] Emmanuel: Um, [00:20:00] also look at our requests and, um, they were able to say, okay, you know, you guys can, um, kick off and we’re able to start. I think I think our first, our first event was, um, the 20th anniversary, uh, was the 20th anniversary. So we had to do that, reach out to sponsors. And they, we had a couple of persons come together and make the events a success.

[00:20:24] Emmanuel: So we usually, um, have meetups monthly, mostly virtual, because we’ve not gotten like a physical space to, um, have our meetups, but we are looking and working towards that. But in the meantime, we are having our meetups. Uh, virtually, and it consists off like workshops and all, um, there was also the time to have fun because, uh, I think sometime in December, we had, um, an end of the hangout sort of where we had to come together, play games.

[00:20:58] Emmanuel: Uh, discourse more about [00:21:00] what press have three years and it was fun. So coming down to this year, we just have still have, you know, virtual meetups except for, um, the part, the day where we had the do action charity hackathon that we had to come. All together to one place to help give back to the society.

[00:21:19] Emmanuel: So it was a wonderful experience. It was, um, successful. How can’t it does? It was successful because, uh, so many things happen in the planning. You know, it’s not most times. It’s not usually easy to, you know, coordinate things and bring things together. But, um, we’re able to have that event and it was successful.

[00:21:37] Emmanuel: Um, all the same.

[00:21:39] Matt: Yeah, that’s, that’s awesome. Yeah. The, the photos look great. Uh, be honest with me on this answer. How popular. Is blogging, uh, with, you know, the younger generation with where you’re at, or is it just, Hey, we’re just going to do Tik TOK and Instagram like that. We’re just going to do social media. Like are people really still blogging and is it [00:22:00] important to those that do?

[00:22:01] Emmanuel: Okay. So, uh, there are people who still blogging and, uh, is mainly, you know, on the entertainment side. Um, a a a couple of persons are still blogging. If I’m to put it on a scale of one to 10, it would be six. It, it, it will be on, on, on on six because the, the people who are going into blogging are going into blogging, uh, for the sake of either try to get AdSense, AdSense approval and any money online.

[00:22:32] Emmanuel: But with the rise of, uh, TikTok and um, other platforms that. Oh, give some sort of like royalties. Um, people are starting to divert to that because it seems like, you know, the fast way to make, to make money. I myself, I was a blogger before. You know, any of this I was, uh, I was blogging at at the time. That was, um, far back.

[00:22:56] Emmanuel: Uh, that was as far, far back, 20, [00:23:00] uh, 2012, I think. 2012. 2012. So I, I was blogging initially. I, I was using, um, blog sports. Then I found out about wordpress.com. Use WordPress. com for a little bit before I, you know, um, evolved out of to using, um, the WordPress core on the local host and trying to create, um, something I know it was a bit of struggle back then due to the fact I didn’t have any technical, um, skills at the time.

[00:23:33] Emmanuel: The only thing I knew how to do at the time was to. Um, the only programming language I knew at the time was visual basic. And aside that I couldn’t do much. So it was a learning curve, but we are here now. We are here now. So, yeah,

[00:23:50] Matt: Yeah, that’s, that’s what I learned to visual basic and then slowly learn my, my way up from, uh, from Drupal to, to WordPress. Um, fantastic [00:24:00] stuff. Emmanuel, anything else you want to share with the audience, anything else coming up for your meetup, anything that you’re launching, anything else you want to plug the

[00:24:07] Emmanuel: yeah, yeah. So, um, We are planning to host our very first WordCamp in November. Uh, we’ve not made the announcement yet, but we are planning picking out a venue and after picking out the venue and the dates, then we are able to, you know, announce, but it’s, it’s sort of like going to be like a big thing for us.

[00:24:30] Emmanuel: And, um, I think, uh, WordCamp has, uh, Hosting what camps in Nigeria? I think there’s only been about two what camps here in Nigeria. Um, one in one in Lagos. I don’t know if they’ve had any budget, but, um, it is. This is like a huge deal for us here in the community alongside my co organizers. So we’re all excited to have People come together across Nigeria to host this wonderful conference, [00:25:00] and we are happy to be the first here in the South South, the South South side of Nigeria to host it.

[00:25:07] Emmanuel: So, we are all excited, fingers crossed.

[00:25:10] Matt: Yes, that is, that’s fantastic stuff. Emmanuel, thanks for hanging out today and sharing your story about WordPress. Uh, where can folks go to say thanks? What website do you want them to visit? What social media do you want them to

[00:25:21] Emmanuel: Oh, they can, um, you mean for the community or for my business? I don’t know. Hello.

[00:25:28] Matt: Fantastic stuff. I think we might be losing connection a little bit, but Emmanuel, it was great talking to you today. Um, you know, congrats on all the success and I wish you all the best of luck. If you have any questions, feel free to feel free to shoot me any questions and I’ll let you know when this

[00:25:46] Emmanuel: I will. Thank you very much for having me on the show.

[00:25:49] Matt: Thank you. Thanks, Emmanuel.

[00:25:50] Emmanuel: a nice day.