World’s third largest independent software vendor, SAP, has seen prospects in the Nigerian economy just as it plans to increase its market share in the country.

In addition, the firm said it had so far invested $1.3 billion in research and development. The regional manager, West Africa, Ms. Yemi Keri, hinted newsmen in Abuja that they are planning to increase SAP’s investments in Nigeria because of growing demand of business solutions.

Ms. Keri said "we have gained momentum in the last three years as more companies seek to build capacities of their staff. The response has been alarming".

Reforms in Nigeria may have attracted several international firms with foreign direct investment hitting $13 billion in 2007.

Addressing a gathering of financial chief executives, she said companies and organizations must build the capacities of their staff in order to remain competitive.

She noted that SAP has evolved business solutions that measure the performance of sales representative, market intelligence and appraises the performance of firms over a given period of time among others.

The regional manager of SAP said one factor militating against the growth of business in the country was their resistance to change.

"Most firms have a tradition of doing things and tend to resist innovations. This tends to affect businesses, especially in Nigeria," she explained.

The business solutions provider said it had significant investment in research and development to answer customer’s evolving needs as well as provide insight into best practices and business knowledge transfer.