What Nigeria tends to gain from Mark Zuckerberg's visit

Mark Zuckerberg's surprise visit to Nigeria is coming at a time the economy needed a JumpStart.Standing as the 7th richest man in the world.His first foray into Nigeria was a handsome $24m joint- investment in Andela with Priscilla Chan.

In Nigeria,he will have a chance to visit Andela,a tech training company that has in such a small time had great traction.It has trained close to 200 tech engineers in a space of two years.It has received over 40,000 applications and with an acceptance rate of 0.97%.

Mark will visit Rosemary Njoku's Coollink the owner of ExpressWifi.Facebook is in collaboration with Coollink to provide affordable internet connectivity to Africa.This week Facebook is launching a satellite into space to enable more entrepreneurs sell ExpressWifi across Africa.

Mark Zuckerberg,Facebook founder visits Nigeria

Mark Zuckerbeg is in Nigeria to flag off a joint project between Facebook and Cool Link called EspressWifi, that will enable people living in not too privileged locations to have WiFi access at a very affordable price.

Facebook is providing a software that will help local ISP providers and entrepreneur sellers provide internet with a 15% commission.It will officially be launched   in some parts of Lagos and later to other parts of Nigeria.The fees are going to be very affordable.

Mark Zuckerberg in Co Creation hub,,,,,,image credit  Techcabal

Nickel metal discovered in Northern Nigerian town

Nickel has been discovered in commercial quantity in Dangoma village, about 160 km northeast of Abuja,capital of Nigeria.An Australian organisation headed by Hugh Morgan, a mining expert discovered it. Nickel is a transition element and its hard and ductile.It is megnetic at near-room temperature. It is a silvery-white element with a slight golden look. The Nickel discovered, is rumoured to be of a top notch grade.

IBPlc Kickstart Season 2-turn your ideas into a business

Opportunities abound in the Kickstart Innovation Business Plan Competition. International

Breweries Plc  Foundation Kick-start Entrepreneurship Initiative is for youths between the ages of 18-35.You can register your brilliant business idea and have a chance of creating your own firm. Winners will receive business training, mentorship and a grant.

Season 1 saw 25 lucky winners receive grants to kick-start their business dreams and ideas. It was hosted in Ibadan,Oyo state  on August 6, 2015.

To apply download the form at www.ibpkickstart.com

Buhari hosts Startup founders in Aso Rock

Thirty selected start-ups are going to pitch their ideas in front of President Muhammad Buhari on Friday September 2,2016 in Aso Rock.The Aso Rock Villa Demo will see the emergence of one startup as winner.

The startups are going to have the opportunity of exposing their ideas to business angels,joint venture capitalists,incubators,accelerators, etc. There will be speakers from many sectors to enliven the event.

Slush Global Impact Acceleration hub competition excercise held successfully in Abjuja

Slush Global Impact Acceleration is a programme created by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and some Global partners.Its purpose is to assist start-ups from emerging countries who have potentials to solve critical problems in their society and the world at large.

Before qualifying for the Acceleration Programme, start-ups will vie to qualify in their local hubs situated in strategic emerging countries.Luckily Nigeria was selected.  

14 startups competed under the platform of Venture Platform,an Abuja based incubator hub, and three of them scaled through: 

1.Cash Madam-is a simple an innovative app that assists small and medium scale businesses use technology to leverage the market with better return on investment and business growth. 

2.Mobile Forms-An app that assists firms go digital, thereby increasing their productivity. 

3.PayConnect-an online lending platform for small business owners to take short-term loans without any collateral. 

The programme will help the start-ups attract additional funding and exposure and make them have greater impact.It will be held in Finland from November 22-December 2 ,2016

Ogavenue receives $45,000 seedfunding

Ogavenue,a Lagos based online events platform has received $45,000 seed funding from Spark and Hotels.ng.Ogavenue covers seven cities and offers discounts for weddings,meetings or any outdoor event.The founder of Ogavenue, Andrew Airelobhegbe is so excited by the funding, especially by them joining the Spark family.

Spark is a joint venture capitalist owned by Jason Njoku, co-founder of Iroko Tv, and specialises in building companies, especially the Tech start-ups.

Mark Essien,  the CEO of Hotels.ng, an online hotel booking platform, was full of praise for Andrew because of the great traction the platform has garnered over a short time.He sees the investment as being symbiotic,since events booking and hotel booking when leveraged will bring out the best in the industry.

Formelo:Helping businesses create top notch apps effortlessly with so little

Mobile apps have been at the forefront of the new wave of digital innovation. Apps are essentially platforms that assist individuals and organisations to work more efficiently, and reduce their paper work digitally, putting aside much paper work.

Formelo is an enterprise mobility platform that enables companies to build mobile apps quickly.It is user friendly and highly innovative and helps companies create custom mobile apps that perform different functions including helping sales executives connect to their company's CRM, providing doctors with quick access to medical records, and helping government inspectors carry out more inspections efficiently.

Formelo is highly secure and has highly scalable servers, and runs on severs located around the world in such places as Virginia(US),Strasbourg (France),Falkenstein(Germany).

Niyi Gbodimowo (co-founder,Formelo)

Niyi Gbodimowo, one of the founders, narrated to me how they started. The company started as an idea hatched in the US in 2014, but commenced business officially in January 2016 after over a year of development and proof of concept for company's in US and in Africa. It is a premium software as a service(Saas) to individuals  and companies. In Nigeria they have assisted Department of Petroleum  Resources (DPR) to carry out inspections seamlessly. They have also assisted Stanbic IBTC Pensions Managers to automate their data collection  and Management  operations. 

Niyi who read Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Bristol, UK, says his team sees rapid growth for the company in the near future. Before Formelo he co-founded a successful digital media advertising company called Trafficspaces in the US.
www.formelo.com.

Keep In Touch With Your Classmates

Keeping memories of school mates is something worthwhile. That camaderie feeling one gets by seeing faces of pictures taken in school days and contacts is something out of this world. I attended a reunion of my set in secondary school just recently.It was fun to see old faces once more.

Yearbooke is a platform created to put pictures, contacts and information of school mates. It is useful for both students and school.It is a platform where students or former students can access information of classmates.

While talking with the founder, Ignatius Ukwuoma, he said his platform started officially in April 2016.He has a team of about twelve people. He sees the platform to be a single spot where people around the world keep contacts and information of their classmates.

Pleasant way to watch Tv-Diamond Tv

Diamond TV is a platform owned by Diamond Bank Plc that enables viewers watch TV from all mobile devices, phones, desktops and smart TV. It is a pleasurable way to watch TV either you are at your home or office.

It's features includes Lifestyle, Business,Entrepreneurship,Tech, Entertainment,Women etc. You can download the app on Google Play or Apple.It is integrated with a payment gateway. It is built in such a way that you can create your favourite channels.

Diamond TV uses a top notch technology called ibolz.This technology affords you to spend less by allowing limited data to be consumed on your device as against other platforms that consumes your data within a short time.

To watch Diamond TV click My Diamond Tv

Africa's most reliable freelance site, 'eWorker' taking centre stage

Ike Okosa,a Tech entrepreneur has blazed the trail by founding eWorker-a freelance digital jobs outsourcing platform. After studying the market in Africa and the world at large he came up with ideas to form the company officially started in February 2016. Freelancers offer services ranging from:UI, graphic design, web development etc.There is a whole lot of skills at display: C#,Css,html,php,photoshop,etc. The most interesting thing is that all the freelancers are curated.

Another interesting service it offers is 'eWorker Business Process Outsourcing'.The service provides online full-time staff for companies. The remote freelance staff provide services like:Marketing,software development, social media management, creative solutions like UI, graphic design, etc.eWorker gets its revenue on two basis:commission basis and service fee based on experience. Like the other freelance sites it operates an escrow account where all monies paid are kept and only released to the freelancer when the customer is satisfied with the work done. 

The founder has a degree in computer science, from Middlesex University.He owns a Digital Marketing Agency in UK which is still thriving.Call him a serial entrepreneur, you are not mistaken. He sees his company creating many job opportunities to help build and develop talented workers worldwide

www.eworker.co 

Import affordable products from China online

Have you heard of Ali express online store? Ali express is a subsidiary of Alibaba company based in China. It has thousands of merchants selling different products.When  you need to order just log in to www.aliexpress.com ,go to a category of product you need.Click on the particular one you are interested, choose the size, colour,quantity and the mailing company you want. Hong Kong express, China express, EMS, DHl, are listed with their prices. China and Hongkong express mails are the cheapest and with them it takes between 21days to 40 days(but in practice it is about 22 days to reach Nigeria)  then you proceed to payment with either your MasterCard or visa card. PayPal is accepted. Another method is alipay( https://intl.alipay.com/)started in 2004.

The product will get to a Nigerian post office close to your location. When it arrives,you go with a valid ID card and claim it. If you find the product desirable,you sign off or other make a protest-your money will be refunded less mailing cost.
Note should be made that once you pay,the money will be held in an escrow account by aliexpress coy.Once you sign that the product is what you wanted, then Ali express will pay the merchant.

MEST Entrepreneurship meet in Lagos with entepeneurs held successfully

Melt Water Entrepreneurship school held a successful meet with upcoming tech startup entrepreneurs in Neo Cafe Ikoyi on Tuesday 23rd of August 2016.The event was well attended with a blend of upcoming,established and wannabe entrepreneurs being in attendant.

Entrepreneus behind Startups like E-worker,Formelo,Yearbooke,Diamond TV,Tech Cabal,etc were in attandance

The event started few minutes to 7pm with the co-ordinator of MEST Ghana introducing the incubator of  Nigerian branch,Neku Atawodi.Thereafter, the panelists who were to explain some aspects of  joint venture capital,business angels and traction for investing were introduced.Thereafter questions were been asked by the entrepreneurs and the panelist answered.One of the question was:what are they things business angels look out for before investing.The answers were somewhat similar.The basic ones were: passion,the team,traction,etc.

The meet afforded the attendees opportunities to network amongstthemselves.These and many more meets will be covered.Stay tuned....Diaspora Opportunities

HOW TO GET WORK IN UAE

UAE has become a thriving nest for expatriates most recently. Many western companies can be seen thriving on the luscious economy. Construction sector is thriving copiously with both Asian and Western influence. The country produces oil, but not withstanding the tourism sector compliments it.It cannot be said to be a manufacturing country with most of their goods imported from China.

Looking for work in UAE is hard and easy.The hard part is if you do not get prepared you definitely going to find it hard.The easy side is if you get your documents authenticated in your home country and you apply for jobs on the popular sites  with your CV(UAE standard)before you come,you have a chance of landing yourself you dream job.In Nigeria you would authenticate with Ministry of Education and Foreign Affairs before taking it to UAE Embassy all in Abuja.

The salary is relative.Nationality matters when it comes to salary negotiation.International certificates are well respected and given prior attention.

Some job sites to apply to:www.bayt.com,www.dubizzle.com,www.careerjet.com,www.flashydubai.com,www.indeed.com

How to get a Loan in Nigeria with no collateral

Doing business in Nigeria for a small scale business can be somewhat difficult without adequate funding.Most banks and finance houses demand for collateral to enable them give you loans
Three banks presently giving out loans without capital:
1.First Bank
2.Diamond Bank
3.Stanbic IBTC Bank

First bank- They make you pass through a psychometric test and if you pass you give them your business plan and financial projection.

Diamond Bank-Their loan can be assessed through:revolving credit,Instalmental loan,Local Purchase Order(LPO)Finance and contract Finance.However you need to open a corporate account with them before you can assess an SME loan.

Stanbic IBTC bank-You need to furnish them with projected cash flow statement,your own contribution,your business financial statements,CV of each member of your management team,the reason for needing the finance,Personal statements of assets of Management team.

Tony Elumelu Entepreuneurship foundation

Tony Elumelu Entrepreurial Foundation was initially created to groom 10,000 entrepreneurs for ten years-1000 annually.It started in 2015 when 1,000 entrepreneurs where chosen out of 20,000.They number represented Anglophone,fancophone,Lusophone and Arabic bloc in Africa.The remaining 19,000 entrepreneurs will receiving online trainings.The 1000 successful entrepreneurs underwent a two day training and received a loan of $5,000.The list for 2016 successful entrepreneurs are out.

http://tonyelumelufoundation.org/teep/

Stop complaining,look for opportunities

Jack Ma,founder of Alibaba group once said 'stop complaining and look for opportunities'.He was rejected from Harvard university ten times.He was refused employment twenty three times.He finally went to teach in a teachers' institute where he was paid $10 a month.

He learnt English on his own.He started Alibaba e-commerce site by chance.He started it when the world was a bit ignorant about internet.He believed in it and he has succeeded.

Opportunities are everywhere,just look for them.With the near-recession economy world-wide,one has to be creative in order to eke a living.

Make money as a freelancer

Do you know you can make money as a freelancer either you are working or a self-employed person.Are you an web designer,developer,graphical artist,netwoker,writer,editor;you can make good money online.Have you heard about:www.guru.com, www.fiverr.com,www.upwork.com ,etc
These sites will help you make money

To be great, read Bill Gates blog daily

Bill Gates the founder of Micosoft owns a blog www.gatesnotes.com
He updates this blog regularly and shares his thoughts on how to be successful

Melt Water Entrepreneurial School of Technology holds a meet in Lagos August 23

Melt Water Entrepreneurial School of Technology based in Ghana is having an a meet with upcoming Tech startups in Lagos on August 23,2016.MEST is an incubator hub based in Ghana for upcoming startups in Africa.www.meltwater.org

MEST started in 2008 and over the years have invested $2m on 200 startups.Some of the startups have showcased their idea on techcrunch and other startup contests.

Venue:Cafe Neo - Adeyemi Lawson Street, Ikoyi, Lagos -

Registration:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mest-talks-lagos-investing-in-tech-startups-tickets-27167905938

When to look for work in UAE

United Arab Emirates enjoys a boisterous economy and a vibrant labour market.Every year thousands of job seekers throng the country in search of greener pastures,but not all gets lucky.

Best time:Mid January-April,September-Mid December.
June,the month of ramadan should be avoided because of fasting.Most recruiters do not recruit.
Hollidays like December or summer months of July,August and September should be avoided.

Discover a Good tutor

Do you live in Nigeria and you are looking for a tutor,then visit www.tuteria.com
There you would meet hundeds of tutors from different backgrounds for you or for your wards

Earn money Online teaching

Earn money while lecturing in Udemy www.udemy.com

You can earn good money while uploading you recorded teachings on Udemy platform.Students enroll and from their payments Udemy pays you.It's a good way to beat the recession...

Latest jobs in UAE

Get latest jobs in UAE . www.bayt.com
United Arab Emirates is a hub in the middle east.It has the lowest unemployment Rate in the world.Jobs are numerous in various sectors.Though the pay is relatively good,it depends on your nationality.Those from western countries earn higher than those from Asia and Africa.

The Emiratis constitute about 15% of the population while the rest are expatiates from other nationalities.

There three major cities:Dubai,Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

For Nigerians to work in UAE,you have to apply online for jobs or go to UAE with atleast a one month tourist visa.

Sona Breweries is recruiting

 Sona Breweries is recruiting:
1.Oven Operator
Age:35-40 yrs
Experience in oven operation,Biscuit industry(min 5 yrs)
Job Description:
To operate gas and diesel fired oven and to do preventive maintenance

2.Mechanical Supervisor
Age:30-40 yrs
Experience:10 years in Biscuit industry
JB:Supervising the entire mechanical technicians team,shift,shift activity,root cause analysis ability,planning of weekly P.M,
Ability to carry out project and in-house development work

Sona Breweries recruiting

Opportunities exists in Sona Breweries Plc for the following positions:
1.Production Manager/Shift Manager
Age:35-45
Exp:Experience in Biscuit Industry
Job Description:
Independently handle the entire manufacturing process.
Overseeing production process,target achievement and wastage control

2.Shift Supervisor(Store,Mixing,Moulding,Oven,Packing)
Age:30-40
Graduate needed
Job description
Supervising entire work/process from RM PM requirement,man power control,training,discipline,hygiene, and housekeeping etc
Supervising production and maintenance process during shift

Send your cv to murugesan@sonaagroalliedfoodsltd.com

Sales Executive

Vacancy exists for a Sales Executive in Lagos
G4S is in the business of providing secure transport,security technology,training and integrated security solutions..
For more details visit www.g4s.com

Indian Worker neede

A company is in need of an Indian Marketer Qualification:Minimum of 5yrs working experience in Nigeria 2.Experienced in outdoor marketing of FMCG goods Send CV to ashok@jovisa.biz Deadline:1 week from today

www.numbrabooks.blogspot.com

Wave of Innovation in Africa

The world is witnessing a high wave of innovation in terms of products and information.Over the years the European,Asian and American countries have led in this Tsunami.

Presently Africa has joined the bandwagon of startups.Startups are new companies set up to rapidly break the norm and start making money within a short time.Herman Chiney-Hesse a Ghanaian programmer was among the first to start the wave in 1991.Herman has two companies:Soft Tribe and Black Star line.
In Nigeria the likes of Tony Elumelu(Tony Elumelu foundation),Seun Osewa(Nairaland),Wakanow,Printivo,Tuteria are making Africa proud.