Cape Town-based digital agency Bluegrass Digital is planning to expand in Africa digitally by extending its operations to West Africa after working on a series of projects with various ad agencies in Nigeria.

The most recent of such collaborations is the creation of a microsite for Dettol using one of the world’s leading content management systems, Umbraco; developing a mini flash game for Morteins and Mobile Money banners for Stanbic Bank.

Bluegrass Digital is an expert in website technology, development, online marketing and forward thinking. With its expansion plans, the company is aiming to bridge the gap between South and West Africa digitally.

Bluegrass Digital is looking to broaden their business reach into Africa via a trip to Ghana in May this year. The expedition is looking to include five to ten local Cape Town businesses with a desire to tap into the West African market.

The mission’s aim is to gather knowledge and begin building business relationships with the ultimate goal to attract new partner agencies and business in West Africa, , a statement released by the company said.

Speaking on the company’s expansion plans, Bluegrass Operations Director, Mark Hawkins said “A huge opportunity exists in Africa as an emerging digital market.”

“There’s demand for digital services as countries like Ghana and Nigeria need to outsource work internationally because there aren’t many digital agencies with the skills to provide a specialised service locally.”

Mark further stated that “Digital spend increased by 58 percent in 2012 and is expected to increase this year, most notably in the home and mobile sectors. Interestingly enough, although South Africa’s mobile internet penetration is 70 percent, its desktop internet penetration is only 11 percent compared to that of Nigeria where both mobile and desktop penetration are over 20 percent.”

“As the internet is continuously growing, we understand the need to grow with it and that means identifying emerging online markets and helping these grow too,” Managing Director, Nicholas Durrant said.