I just tried Google’s Business Sitebuilder created for Get Nigerian Businesses Online (GNBO) initiative. Swift and easy to use. It even offers custom “com.ng” registration for just N1200 per year (about $7). Google hosts the sites free. I must say I like it!
Google’s strategy in Nigeria is primarily directed at getting people online, and creating and growing local content. This makes a lot of sense. At about 150 million, Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa, with the second largest economy after South Africa, and with at least 24 million Internet users (as of 2009), about 17% of the population. And of more than 1 million registered businesses in Nigeria, only 17,000 have presence online. Continue reading…
A self-made, gas-generator powered All-Terrain Vehicle, Lagos, Nigeria. Source: PM News
Nigerian ingenuity. ATV built by Ahmed, 15 year old boy in Lagos, Nigeria.
What’s to be a sobering, nerve racking and proud moment for the people of Chile commenced today. I’m watching the extraction of the 33 Chilean miners who have been trapped half a mile underground for 68 days. As I watch, I could not help but imagine what could have happened had this been Nigeria. Continue reading…
Let’s hope out of the Abuja tragedy, agony and mangled wrecks comes a renewed vigor to turn around the worsening conditions in Nigeria. Continue reading…
Barring any major hitch, should Nigerians be expecting up to 14,000MW of electrical supply by the end of 2013?
This appears to be one of the mid-term goals of the Prof. Bart Nnaji-led Presidential Task force on Power, as the Roadmap for Power Sector Reform was launched yesterday. The projected capacity will boost current supply by more than 500%.
I’m very impressed the task force has a website, a very decent one for that matter: http://nigeriapowerreform.org. The executive summary of the power reform is available for download (PDF).
The Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Dr. Bukola Saraki, criticized mobile operators while speaking with journalists about the increasing incidence of kidnapping. He accused the operators of becoming accomplices in the menace of kidnap, stating “kidnapping had become a purely technology-driven crime“.
Continue reading…
I once read somewhere that “development is the gradual emergence of a problem-solving system”.
Nigeria is fraught with problems, the tooth-achy type that seem to last for ever. Power failure, crumbling infrastructure, failing institutions, etc.
Half a century down the road, can one say Nigeria has developed over the year?
Has any problem-solving system emerged since 1960 when the Brits passed on the baton? Food for thought!