The internet space is Nigeria is growing really fast and a lot of money (not enough yet) is coming into the industry to fund innovation. It is good to note that the internet has given birth to young millionaires (in USD) in Nigeria who are doing great works.

Things that can work for us include;

• The growing number of internet users; currently 43million.
• Vibrant mobile users
• Mobile money
• e-payment (that is about to explode).
• And growing internet usage across the continent

I think we should appreciate the growing interest of South African investors in the country; they are actually validating the market and showing possibilities to those who are still sceptical.

How to become an Internet Billionaire

Truth be told, I also wish to become an internet billionaire, so, as we go on the journey, here are the things I’ve taken to heart and doing;

• If you don’t know how to program, go learn it. It is not enough copying and pasting codes from hotscripts. Those can’t build ground-breaking solutions. You need to get your hands dirty doing great works. It could be difficult hiring developers to innovate for you, but you could likely get someone who can help you out on the business side.
• Learn about internet business; I’ve heard people say business is business. I beg to differ on that. Internet business dynamics is different from other businesses. You want to know; are you going to be profit-focused or growth-focused? How do you measure success? How do you measure conversion, return rate, operating margin etc. Knowing a bit about it even if you are a code-junkie will help you know which advise to take and which to trash.
• Build for the millions; the number of people who use your service will determine how much you can make from them. If your service is free and your market is as huge as 500million users, it gives you options on how to make money. From advert? Subscription or what? I doubt if being a web consultant will ever make you a billionaire. It never will! Let me ask you, how many clients can you service as a web consulting/internet marketing outfit? 100, 200, 1000? How much will they pay? What’s your operating cost? What’s your stake in the company? Be sincere with yourself and take a stand.
• Forget about money now! Yea! I’ve heard people a time and again asking about money at first instance you discuss an idea with them. Money is good, but those who actually make the most of it are not those who are worried about it but those who are passionate about a solution. If you ever going to need money to get started, it should not be the money to get your prototype out, well, if you want to start a space exploration business, you might need huge money. But to start a web startup, your prototype does not necessarily have to be funded, fund it yourself. You will get money faster if you show your prototype.
• Build first for Nigeria, but focus beyond Nigeria: If there is anything I think a couple of people are not getting right, it is the fact that to build for the world requires a lot of funding while building to target Nigerian market (which is still in need of innovation) is cheaper, faster and will get your result. You can scale out of Nigeria with the money you make from Nigeria.

I don’t want to talk too much, as I won’t be doing much talk going forward. I need to see those who are ready to take action. It is better to be inspired than be motivated!

The quest is out to see who will become Nigeria’s first ever internet billion in the next five years. Given the growth the industry is growing, I think by 2015 we should have one and a couple.

If you know any internet millionaire (in USD) who started and run their business in Nigeria, please drop in the comment.

Be Inspired!

All orders placed on Kalahari.net will be fulfilled and customer service will also be available till the last order. Entrepreneur, what do you think?

Update: Update to this story is available here.

Microsoft Open Doors Lagos. Developers

Event ID: 1032496192

Civic Centre, Lagos

Ozumba Mbadiwe Road,Victoria Island
Lagos Nigeria.

Language(s):  English.

Product(s):  Microsoft Business Intelligence and Microsoft Visual Studio.

Audience(s):  Pro Dev/Programmer.

Click here to attend.

Today, the federal government of Nigeria launched Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (You WiN!) Programme to help young people with innovative ideas to get funding and mentorship. The program is between 3 ministries; Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Communication Technology (CT), and the Ministry of Youth Development.

The initiative is very brilliant and much needed in Nigeria as millions of Nigerian youths are unemployed. The application opens today and will close on the 4^th of November this year.

It’s a business plan assessment competition; experts are drawn from the private sector and will assess your business idea and vote you up.

Specific Objectives of the Programme include to:

• Attract ideas and innovations from young entrepreneurial aspirants from Universities, Polytechnics, Technical colleges, and other post-Secondary institutions in Nigeria;
• Provide a one time Equity grant for 1,200 selected aspiring entrepreneurs to start or expand their business concepts and mitigate start up risks;
• Generate 40,000 to 50,000 new jobs for currently unemployed Nigerian youth over the three years during which the three cycles will be implemented;
• Provide business training for up to 6,000 aspiring youth entrepreneurs spread across all geo-political zones in Nigeria;
• Encourage expansion, specialization and spin-offs of existing businesses in Nigeria; and,
• Enable young entrepreneurs to access a wide business professional network and improve their visibility.

There is no cap on the funding you can receive but it will be made available in tandem with your business need as provided in your business plan. You really need to participate in this, click here to apply.

It’s a new month again, another time for us to check out how Nigerian sites performed last month. At the top of the rank is vanguardngr.com keeping in it strong on the number one spot for 3^rd consecutive month as nairaland.com still find it a tough task to take on. As expected, there is nothing much in the top five spot as the sites in the rank only reshuffle moving up and down within the top five. Vconnect.com is not resting on its laurels having cracked into the top five spot for the first time last month. Gtbank.com gained a point and moves from the 5^th spot to 4^th. Vconnnect.com is now the third most visited Nigerian site. Punchng.com as top contender with nairaland.com for so many year can only settle for the 5^th place.

We predict that, by the end of the month, jobberman.com will enter the top 5 spot given its impressive moves since the start of the year and also as 234next.com continues to battle to exist as a business. The company recently published its last print edition and revealed that doing media business is a tough one in the country.

Lindaikeji.blogspot.com entered the top-ten for the first time in its history, driven majorly by the rape issue she blogged about last month. The blog post has stir a revolution in the country against women abuse. It has also got the National Assembly to set-up a committee to review the rabe issue that happened in Abia State University (ABSU). Dealfish.com.ng drops two places to finish on the 10^th spot.

Top Movers

1. uniport.edu.ng +88
2. myjobmag.com +48
3. swiftng.com +25
4. tradestable.com.ng +20
5. flyaero.com +18

Top Shakers

1. jamb.org.ng -22
2. waecdirect.org -15
3. naijajobslink.com  -13
4. jetheights.com -13
5. yabatech.edu.ng -10

If the trends happening globally since the start of the year is anything to go by, movements online will continue to have major impact offline. With the Arab spring, Occupy Wall Street and Linda’s ABSU Rape exposé, we should expect more of “from online to offline” discussion going forward.

On the internet sphere in Nigeria, unlike 2010 and 2009 where news websites dominated top Nigerian sites with most eyeballs, this year will end with an impressive showing from other internet service companies. Sites like; jobberman.com, dealfish.com.ng, vconnect.com will end the year on an impressive note.

To view September’s ranking, please click here.

On Wednesday, we gathered at the Co-creation hub to learn how to monetize mobile apps and web, led by InMobi, the fledging mobile ad network. We had an interesting time, and I really learnt a lot from interaction I had with developers present.

The whole event really gave me hope that, Nigerian developers are not asleep but working the little way they can to take on the world. Co-creation Hub is the birth-place of ideas and if you want to watch Nigerians on fire burn, go there to have a feel.

Some mobile apps (below) were presented and we had a popular vote to choose the winners;

1. Akede
2. Mobile Maths Practice
3. Constitution App
4. My Cash
5. Mkpuruokwu Igbo
6. All-in-one
7. Mobile Quotes

Akede: sms-based social networking/broadcasting platform is founded by 17- year-old Constance Paul and Celestine. The application helps you connect to your network via sms. Say, you want to reach out to all your friends on FB and Twitter at a time, like wishing them all “happy new year”, it helps you do that. This app won, and was given $500 worth of InMobi Ad credit.

Mkpuruokwu.com, translates igbo languages to English and from English to Igbo. A very innovative stuff at this age and time when our local languages are being wiped out.

In what I will call a massive validation of the Nigerian internet market, I got a scoop from a reliable source that NollywoodLove just raised a whopping 3Million dollars to bring Nigerian entertainment online. They got the funding from a US-base investment fund that has continued to shine its light on Nigerian tech market.

The company, launched last year by Jason Njoku, has gained widespread media coverage (including CNN) and has got license to blockbuster Nigerian movies. You can watch the full length of these movies on Youtube. Just recently, the company was said to have generated $1million dollars from Adsense under a year.

This is just the beginning as many more start-ups have raise good amount of money to compete in the market. Info will be made available as soon as they are confirmed.

About GNBO and what Google is giving

“We are providing an easy and free end-to-end website solution that will enable small and medium businesses in Nigeria get online. We are giving away for free; an easy-to-build and maintain professional website, a sub-domain (e.g., mybusiness.gnbo.com.ng), webiste hosting for the life of the website, a local business listing on Google Maps and Places.  If a user decides to purchase a customised domain name (e.g., mybusiness.com) they will also recieve for free 10 customisable email accounts (to match the domain), Google Apps for up to 10 users.  Additionally, businesses will also have access to other tools, resources, and training that we are providing to support the process of creating a web presence.” -  Google

Here’s what you get:

• Free easy-to-build and maintain, professional website
• Free matching mobile website
• Free gnbo.com.ng sub-domain
• Free website hosting

And when you purchase a customised domain name*

• 10 Free email accounts (@yourdomain.com)

Google’s Country Manager, Juliet said “The number of Nigerians online has grown by 81% every year in the last 10 years. The numbers are expected to continue increasing”

Google has also partnered with Ecobank, MTN and vendors to make the service successful.

What does this mean for Web Designers?

Well, the picture is getting clearer, web design has become a commodity and the earlier developers get to start consumer internet service the better. For high-end clients, and those who do not know about this initiative, they can still employ the service of web design consultants. Also, the service is just for basic web pages and not for database driven site, so, I still see developers getting jobs from clients who need advanced web development.

What will Google Benefit?

Well, it’s a long-tail thing…Google is a search (advertising) company, searching Nigerian local contents has been a major headache for Google, with this initiative, more businesses will come online and when people make searches about a business, they can link to their official site and as well get advert served on the search result, with this, Google will make money. This is business, every business will implement whatever strategy to sustain, grow and increase its market share. Google is simply doing what it feels will help it secure Nigeria’s boom internet market. If a Nigerian business had launched similar initiative, I’m sure small business will be glad to cash in. Google has done same in the UK and got a whopping 100,000 businesses online, same initiative was recently launched in Kenya and other African countries will follow.

The Benefit for Businesses

For small businesses that have found it difficult to cough out 50,000 (average cost of web design in Nigeria) this is an opportunity for them to get a website at almost no cost to them. It will also increase their business in the long run as their businesses will now be “Googlable”, which means more deals and money.

The Benefit for Internet Users

For everyday internet users, their quest is to get the information they need when they search, they don’t want to know if you got the site for free or paid huge amount to get it up. Since the site is also mobile-friendly, it will serve internet users right as most searches in Nigeria are made through mobile phones.

If you are interested in getting the free website, go to the official website: gnbo.com.ng

Joseph Jones, one of the site’s co-founders, post on his Facebook wall early this morning;

80,000 hits in 7-days is a massive hit a new website can get. They currently cover budgets for Federal Government and Lagos state Government. You can check out the site at: yourbudgit.com

Jobberman, Nigeria’s leading job search portal has launched a dedicated mobile platform to cater for the growing need of job seekers in Nigeria. Founded in August 2009, the site has since dusted others in the space.

“We have seen an increasing shift of internet usage from PC to mobile over the months and the time has come to provide our users with a mobile site that meets their need for convenient access to jobs in Nigeria anywhere, at any time, through a mobile device,” says Opeyemi Awoyemi, Marketing Lead and co-founder, Jobberman.com. “We designed this site to make job search and applying for jobs easy. Jobseekers and those just checking out vacancies in Nigeria are able to do so with so much ease. The days of laptops and “I’ll apply for the job when I get to my system” are disappearing. People need information and they need it now. The new mobile.jobberman.com website provides that,” says Opeyemi.

The mobile version of the site is cool and easy to use, major functionalities of the site (Search, Apply, Register and Login) are working excellently on the new version. Jobberman last August joined the list of top-ten most visited Nigerian sites first time ever.

To make use of the mobile version, just visit jobberman.com on your mobile or mobile.jobberman.com.