Category Archives: Nigeria

Letter to Glo and Big Mike

Dear Glo/Big Mike (same thing)

I think it is really cool that such a big telco like GLO is a Nigerian company.

I think it is really cool that you are almost the single business model for Nollywood and the Nigerian entertainment industry. – Get popular, Big Mike will give you big money if you take silly pictures with a mobile phone on a green background. #YesIDeyBeef

I also think it is cool, you gave the Nigerian Premier League the first load of cash they ever saw.

I also think it is really cool that you sponsor African Voices on CNN. More Nigerians get to feature on it now.

You know what is not cool? Locking me out of my home and office.

I live and work online.

I have not been able to be productive for almost a week now and things have showed no signs of abating.

It will be marvellous if you got back to excelling at your primary duty: providing excellent telecommunication service (Voice+Data). It seems you have forgotten that you are Nigeria’s second national carrier (2nd NITEL) and you have not connected ONE SINGLE LANDLINE!

Not cool.

Remember that number portability begins in a few months. At this rate, this behaviour will not be condoned. We, the customers will  just walk away. And don’t tell us ‘One Nigeria’ when we do.

My tone sounds conciliatory because the customer service lady in Shoprite was really apologetic when I complained.

So please do something to this network yesterday.

Oo

— sent using an MTN dongle.

I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.

How to Salvage #INECRegistration.

The time allocated for the registration of voters (in Nigeria)  is supposed to end this weekend. If it does, it will be a disaster because millions of people would not have registered. If that happens then the election is as good as the one done in 2007. Although I have my reservations about  some things done so far, I will leave that for later and list out things that should be done to salvage this voters registration drive.

  1. Voters registration will have to be extended by another week. There were a lot of hiccups at the beginning and that time would have to be got from somewhere.
  2. 2-3 days of public holidays will have to be declared in the extra week to ensure people have the time to stay at home (where they will vote) and register. Before you shout, far less important things have led to the declaration of holidays. I do believe a week of public holidays is not too much to sacrifice for the future of Nigeria. besides it will not be done at the scale ever again. so they say.
  3. Registration days have to be lengthened: I hear registration closes by 3 on Sunday. I think having registrations until 8pm is not too much to ask for at these last days especially in greatly populated areas.
  4. A queuing system would have to be deployed. I went to vote yesterday morning and was told i would have to return the next day as too many people were before me. The problem is, what time do I return? I should be sent a test approximately 30 minutes before it is my turn. A lot of people have very limited free periods so it will be appreciated if their times are optimized. secondly, a queuing system will allow INEC to know how many people are yet to register. “text your name to 1960 if you are yet to register”

If some of these things are not done, we will see queues of 300 people in the last hour of the last day (Naija style) turned back?

Please, if you have not registered pleas do. I have that very sweet feeling that this is the time, I promise you will not want to be left out.

I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.

Camera Phones,BB, Twitter, Facebook and Nigerian Elections: A match made in Heaven?


“Ballot box, corper and police kidnapped and taken away in black Toyota LandCruiser reg number TP 887 KJA” [E. Imasuen, Warri] #DeltaRerunless than a minute ago via webtolu ogunlesi
toluogunlesi

The above is an example of a Tweet that was sent during the recent Governorship elections held in Delta State Nigeria. It is self explanatory and to the point. I guess what is missing is a picture.

I have previously agreed with those that said shouting on Twitter/Facebook cannot lead to reform but I think the Nigerian elections will be an interesting case.

You see, one of the reasons riggers have been allowed to go  scot free by INEC and the courts after stealing votes has been the ‘absence of proof’.  It was up to the opponents to provide evidence which was just too expensive! This time around, evidence gathering would be distributed and performed by the electorate.

During the last 2007 elections, a Deputy Governor personally stole a ballot box. He did not want to leave anything to chance. Had it be done this time around, I an certain mobile phones would have been there to capture the embarrassment. It would be easy to distribute this on Twitter, BB, and share on Facebook. Yup, people will tag the sons and daughter of riggers and maybe the riggers themselves.

So in addition to my predictions for the Nigerian tech space, I see tweets being used as evidence in law courts this year.

We would also have to be aware that these tools can also be used to spread false information so we should be VER careful before we retweet, re share or rebroadcast any thing.

*I have heard a lot of great things about Ushahidi but Not really sure how works so did not speak about it. My understanding is that it maps information. e.g SMS of incidents on a map. I do not know how easy it is for public distribution.

I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.

11 Predictions for the Nigerian Tech Scene in 2011.

Happy New Year peeps!

On the heels of Gbenga  Sesan’s predictions for the Nigerian tech scene in 2011 I thought I should do mine.

Enjoy!

  1. Mobile Payments will take off: The Central Bank of Nigeria has given licence to companies to effect mobile payments. Although we will be playing catch up, it will be at a rapid pace. It will herald real ecommerce in Nigeria.  Watch out for PagaTech; When 3 Stanford graduates are in a market, expect some exciting competition.  Watch out Interswitch.
  2. Broadband Price crash: MainOnefibre has landed, GLO one I assume has too. NigComSat will send a communication satellite to space this year. The way the price of bandwidth will crash while increasing in capacity will be unprecedented in the world.
  3. Twitter and Facebook Protests:It is election year in Nigeria and like the Iranians, Nigerians will shout fire and brimstone (online) if the results do not go their way. Attempts will be make to co ordinate protests via social media. It will be interesting.
  4. Eastside vs Westside:Like Mr Sesan said, there will be a more pronounced rivalry between east Africa (Kenya) a and West Africa (Nigeria) about who is supreme. Nigerians would believe being the ‘giant of Africa’ they should be regarded as number one even though Kenya has the achievements that can be pointed to. Hopefully the competition and rivalry will be healthy.
  5. Reforming NIRA:The .ng issue will blow up this year  and the regulators NIRA will be reformed. .ng will be sold at a normal price. (more on this in the coming days)
  6. Real Web Programming: Sorry to say, but most Nigerian programmers are of the Charles Taylor and the Idi Amin breed. Access to bandwidth will mean access to tutorialsthat will teach a lot of us modern programming.
  7. Less Clones, more startups: With more people knowing how to program and with mobile payments, will see people start creating real startups. We have actually startedalready
  8. More Blogging. Contrary to what my man Gbenga Sesan thinks, Blogging will be on the rise. It will be consist of  Picture and Micro blogs. Posterous and Tumblr will be the friends of Nigerians.
  9. Internet Security: Nigeria will start paying attention to internet security. As I was typing this, I saw the report of the defacing of the Kenyan websiteby a hacker. Nigerians will use their new found programming knowledge to test their might. What better way to do it than to  test the authorities. Also, the advent of mobile payments will make the compromising of security more attractive.
  10. International Tech Visitors: Mobile payments, better broadband, more startups, mobile penetration, and Nigerian topics trending on Twitter Globally, we will see Global companies taking note of Nigeria as usage of their apps will see a surge from this parts.  We will see SeedCampand co  looking towards this side of the world. Google, Microsoft and co will start paying more attention to the developer community. More exciting international events will be held here.
  11. Global renowned Nigerian founded startups: Watch out for Identified, BookNeto, Precurio, Lotaar (mine:) , and some more startups by Nigerians that will make a mark globally.

Wild Cards

  1. Nigerian Porn sites:As a result of the broadband crash and improved bandwidth, people will now put scarce media content online. :)
  2. Government censorship: The internet will invade the country like never before and the government will be caught unawares. They will try to respond by passing some ill thought out laws.

If you are interested in  penetrating the market of the future, NOW is the time. If you are Nigerian, it is time to come home.

May you live in exciting times!

I am Oo, founder of GBEDU.FM where I hope to make sense of this business of music. I once tried to kill the business card with OnePage.