The internet has become a major source of livelihood. Everybody, from the student to the teacher, the professional and the entrepreneur uses the internet for one reason or the other.

There are success stories of developers of social media platforms such as facebook and whatsapp who have become multi-millionaires. Website designers and graphic designers are also not left out.

The internet has become a hub for commercial activity and some individuals here in Ghana are also taking advantage of this boom.

Joy Business speaks to Kojo Obuama-Botchwey, who has been selling furniture on a large scale for 2 years now. He uses online platforms such as whatsapp, tonaton, OLX and the like to market his products.

He says, “there are some applications on the market where for a small fee, say GHC200, you can broadcast your product to 1000/2000 people who are your target. Once these ads get exposed to your target, those that are interested would give you a call. So that is how I’m utilizing some of these platforms to sell my business and it’s working for me.” He adds “about 70% of the sales that I generate come from the internet.”

Nii Okai Quaye is also a corporate professional who does some part-time business on online platforms. He says, “I loaded an advert for a phone I wanted to sell and in the next minute or two, I was receiving a lot of calls from people who were interested- who wanted to buy. So we met and I sold the phone. I have met a lot of people through this.”

On his part, Technology Analyst, Kwabena Nkrumah believes the internet has “allowed for small businesses to compete with large ones.” He cites the example of whatsapp. “If whatsapp was operating in a small place working, it wouldn’t have been purchased by facebook for those big monies. But it was easy for facebook to get to know whatsapp because of the internet. ”

There is no doubt that the internet is an excellent tool for facilitating business and that online commercial transactions are here to stay.