Poor power supply cannot stop me from talking on my mobile phone

This is a common sight at many local markets round Lagos. This is a small petrol generator powering a board of mobile phone chargers.

In a situation where most people do not have regular power supply at home, they rely on the gracious "generator" owner or mobile phone charging centre owner who agrees to charge the mobile phone batteries for a fee. This generator owner has built a board with about 20 power sockets and mobile phone chargers. This board is connected to a small petrol powered generator. The fee for the service ranges from 30 - 50 Naira. A mobile phone requires an average of three hours with a desktop charger. The frequency of charges per customer ranges between one per day to twice per day depending on the frequency of calls made by the customer and the state of the battery. But with the fluctuating cost of the petrol to fuel the generator and sometimes fuel scarcity, one wonders whether an alternative e.g the solar powered phone charger would not do well in Nigeria. Nigeria is also endowed with an average daily sunshine of 6.25 hours, ranging between 3.5  – 4.0 peak sun hours at minimum at the coastal areas and 5.0  – 5.5 peak sun hours at minimum at the northern region. The northern region of Nigeria can have a maximum of 9.0 peak sun hours.

But anybody who wants to sell these mobile phone chargers should have the right market in mind. Most of the phone chargers in the market priced above the purchasing power of the average man. The manufacturers seem to the wrong people (the middle class) in mind. These middle class people prefer to charge their phones at home and they have generators for power supply. They also have car chargers just in case the battery dies during the day and they are not near a power source. They are also not so environmentally conscious to bother about environmentally friendly products.

I think the market is for the low income earners such as the drivers, artisans and the manufacturers should have these people in mind. They are the ones that would appreciate these solar powered battery chargers but they must within their expected price range.  Manufacturers take note.

But what would happen to the "generator owners or mobile charging centers"?  Hmmmm.......

Google announces the launch of Adsense for mobile content in Nigeria

Google announces the launch of Adsense for mobile content in Nigeria and 14 other countries. The other countries include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Slovenia, Thailand, and Turkey.

AdSense for mobile content allows publishers to generate earnings from their mobile webpages using targeted Google ads. Just like AdSense for content, Google matches ads to the content of your site -- in this case, your mobile site. You'll earn money whenever visitors to your mobile site click on the ads they see.

For mobile websites, AdSense will automatically detect the type of phone viewing your site and deliver ads to match. For example, if someone views your site through an iPhone, we'll deliver ads specifically designed for high-end phones.

Celebrating Hetty Onwuegbuzie for wining the 2010 Emerald/ALCS African Management Research Fund

Hetty Onwuegbuzie

I first met Hetty when I attended the Executive MBA program at the Lagos Business School of the Pan African University in Lagos, Nigeria. Unlike the current situation where she is now a Lecturer at the same school she graduated from, back then we were both students. Oh, wait a minute, we also worked at Oceanic Bank before the Lagos Business days. 
Hetty recently won the 2010 Emerald/ALCS African Management Research Fund. This was for a research project on “Achieving Sustainable Development Using Indigenous Knowledge and Entrepreneurship”. 


Her research brings to the fore the potentials for delivering sustainable development through grassroots innovations applied by indigenous entrepreneurs using indigenous knowledge.  

It received the award as the best African research project in the field of management.  The award is offered by Emerald and the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society, (ALCS)  in association with the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) and the International Academy of African Business and Development (IAABD). 

According to Onwuegbuzie, home-grown solutions tend to be more readily acceptable and sustainable as they incorporate the cultural values and interests of the people.  She therefore advocates substituting top-down development strategies for more collaborative bottom-up engagements towards achieving sustainable development.  

She has presented this topic at the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference, South Carolina, in January, and will be presenting it at the International Academy of African American Business and Development conference, in Edmonton, Canada, and at a workshop on socio-economic development in Africa at INSEAD’s Abu Dhabi campus in June.

She leads sessions in entrepreneurship both at home and abroad, and also teaches problem solving and decision making. 

May Mobile Monday (MoMo) Nigeria - 23 May 2011

The May Mobile Monday (MoMo) Nigeria Lagos meet-up is around the corner and it will take place on May 23, 2011. Find below the details of the event:

• Event: MoMo Nigeria Lagos MeetUp
• Date: Monday, May 23, 2011
• Time: 5:30 – 8pm
• Venue: Robert’s (Brown’s) Cafe, V/I
• Theme: Government Policy & Mobile Business in Nigeria

The meet-up will focus on the impact of government policy on mobile business and plan is underway to get someone within the government ICT ministry to speak at the event. If you are interested in attending this month’s meetup, kindly visit MoMo event page to register.

Sarah Lacy's article on tech startups in Nigeria

This is an interesting piece on tech startups in Nigeria. This was done by Sarah Lacy, (senior editor, TechCrunch) based on a recent meeting with tech startups sponsored by Dealfish Nigeria in Nigeria. @sarahcuda has done well.

Her article is aptly titled "Yes, There are Tech startups in Nigeria. Here are my favorites"

Enjoy

Microsoft purchases Skype for $8.5 million in cash

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer, left, and Skype chief Tony Bates. Picture: AP Source: The Australian

Microsoft has announced its purchase of Skype for $8.5 million in Cash.

The deal will see Skype established as a separate business division inside Microsoft, named Microsoft Skype. Tony Bates, the Skype chief executive, will become president of Microsoft Skype and report directly to Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer.

The software giant was motivated to acquire Skype because communication technologies have been "the backbone" of Microsoft's growth in recent years and that Skype has "built a real business" in the communications field, said Mr Ballmer.