This is a welcome development to the cash-strapped Nigerian startup scene as funding remains a major challenge for so many Tech Entrepreneurs out there. While the barrier may still be high for tech. startups, things are getting better. There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. So, let the tech. entrepreneurs show up!

However, from the press release made available to us it was not made clear how startups can apply for the fund, but the Lagos-based Cc-Hub will act as an incubator designed to accelerate the successful development of the funded social technology ventures through an array of business support resources and services developed and orchestrated by the hub’s management. The Tony Elumelu Foundation has already identified and selected the following three social technology ventures being incubated by CcHub, who will be the first recipients of the business development grants:

• Efiko is a product of a social tech start-up targeted at improving the pass rate for Nigeria’s secondary students in national exams. The solution is a mobile testing platform tied to school curricula and designed to provide access to assessment and learning resources for secondary school students.
• OfficeMotion is a software company that develops software products for small and medium-sized businesses. They are currently developing a product called Traclist, a web platform that allows micro and small retailers to showcase their inventory over the Internet, thereby giving consumers access to their inventory from web browsers and mobile devices.
• Varsoft is a product of Varsoft Technologies Ltd. It is an inclusive ICT product targeted at congregational type audiences, i.e. libraries, churches, seminars, libraries etc. The solution enables content delivery without the use of the Internet.

Last Thursday we were at Co-creation hub to observe the progress thus far and also to add to the design structure. Progress on the site is quite impressive and next month’s launch is right on track. About 10 of us attended, Myself, Yomi Adegboye of Mobility Nigeria, Jesse Oguntemehin, Emmanuel Oluwatosin, Mayowa Owolabi, Bosun Tijani, Femi Longe and a couple of others. On the walls of the hub laid various gardens for everyone to claim, I claimed mine by writing my name on the wall. So, next time you visit the hub, make sure you write your name on the wall.

The structure is well laid and gives room for hackers, business and access to market to test social solution that will be innovated from the hub.

Below are some of the shots.

Web4Africa could as well change it’s name to Afromazon becoming a Juggernaut in the hosting space across Africa.

Details soon!

Paga, the pioneering mobile money platform in Nigeria, launched in February 2011 after receiving approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The company’s initial set of products are delivered to meet critical needs of the Nigerian public: ability to transfer money fast and reliably, pay bills, top-up airtime or pay merchants safely. Paga delivers these services via the mobile phone and internet. The annnoucement was written on their blog today about the latest investment in their business;

Today, we announced the investment of Tim Draper in our company! Tim, who is the Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, is known for investing in early stage companies and in emerging markets. Some of the successes under his belt include investments in Skype, Baidu (Chinese search engine), and Hotmail (acquired by Microsoft).

We feel very fortunate to have Tim as a personal investor in Paga. His vote of confidence is humbling and we are grateful for the time he continues to spend with us. With him on board we are even more fired up about transforming lives by delivering innovative and universal access to financial services across Africa!

Investors, if you are looking at another kind of validation as to why you should invest in Nigerian technology industry, I think this just nailed. Speaking about his investment, Draper said “My decision to make this personal investment is premised on the simple fact that I believe in the bold vision of the Paga team and I trust in their ability to execute. Paga is a great innovation which will simplify life for millions of people in Nigeria and beyond. I look forward to the company being a major African success story that serves as an example for many more to come.”

Am sure by now you must have heard about connectNigeria.com in one way or the other; the site has been in the lead position with a dynamic innovation in portal service in the country. Launched couple of years ago, the site has featured numerous celebrities in Nigeria on their ConnectNigeria TV while also havinabout 200 profiles of Nigerian celebrities and over 14,000 businesses in their database.

ConnectNigeria was recently nominated in the “Team of the Year” Category at The Future Awards held last sunday. As they said…their best is yet to come. Below is the Press release we got from them about their latest technology.

Press Release

Lagos, Nigeria – We are excited to introduce a new information search portal for Nigeria which offers a new way for millions of people to search and find local information about Nigeria.

Today, with over 14,000 businesses listed, 200 celebrity profiles and much more, we provide users with the most relevant search results you can ever find on the Nigerian web space. You can search for events of all types, jobs, real estate, cars for sale and news.

Search Re-defined

Our new search portal redefines search. It offers a new way to find local businesses, celebs, jobs, events, classifieds and more in Nigeria.

“Simply put, we want to make Nigeria’s information easy to find and easy to use”. – Emeka Okafor, Founder/CEO of ConnectNigeria.com

Our search algorithm displays search results about businesses in a specific city, town or state. Currently, you can find local businesses across several industries and sectors including restaurants, banks, shopping centres, artisans, electricians, tailors, cake makers, barbers, and even places to eat amala.

For example, if you are looking for ‘restaurants in Ikoyi’ or ‘atms in Victoria Island’, simply type the phrase ‘restaurants in Ikoyi’ or ‘ATMs in Victoria Island’ in the search bar and it will display relevant results that are related to your search term. To start searching now, go to http://www.connectnigeria.com/

At the moment, four out of five searches on ConnectNigeria.com are related to location, and our goal is to make sure that businesses are able to be found based on their location.

Mobile Search

With CN Mobile Search, you can search and find businesses right from your mobile phone.

The mobile version accessed via http://www.connectnigeria.com/mobile.php , let’s you search for businesses simply by typing the name of the business, the type of business, or specific keywords related to the business you’re looking for, right from your mobile phone. You can also find events, cars for sale, classified and movie times from your mobile phone.

It also allows you to Search by Location, thus you can find businesses in a particular location – city, town or state. For example, if you are looking for ‘restaurants in Ikoyi’ simply type the phrase on the search bar and it will display relevant results that are related to your search query.

One of the most unique features of our mobile version is that once you’ve found the business or service you’re looking for, you can call the business instantly by simply clicking on the phone number available on the business listing page.

Also you can instantly send an email (if available) to the business by simply clicking on the email address or visit the website of the business, if any, without typing it.

Advertising Re-engineered

According to Oludamola Akindolire, Business Development Executive of ConnectNigeria.com,

“We are introducing a new and easy way to advertise your business and target customers. For a free 30-day trial advertising, businesses in selected cities and markets can make their listings stand out via CN Tagging. Also, our listing and advertising plans offer advertisers a great way to expose their brands. With CN Impression Ads your adverts appear in a more effective and compelling manner to your target customers and with this you can now target customers in any town, area or state you choose. You can also set a limit for how much you want to spend – a method that is ideal in today’s economic climate.”

We are also offering a platform that enables business owners to claim their business page and supplement their business information to include hours of operation, photos, videos, coupons, product offerings and more.

Future Re-assured

We are building Nigeria’s largest database of information and are extremely proud to be involved with such a laudable project.

Over the next few months, we’ll be releasing some new and cool features that will let you find everything you need and connect you with people and businesses that you are looking for and that are looking for you.

We’re excited about the launch of ConnectNigeria.com, and would like to say it’s just the beginning of what’s to come from our efforts to make business information in Nigeria more local.

If you want to learn more about ConnectNigeria.com and how you or your business can get involved, you can get in touch with us via connect@connectnigeria.com

About ConnectNigeria.com

ConnectNigeria.com is an information search portal that helps you find everything you need and connects you with people and businesses that are looking for you or your business. We aim to become the home of the most relevant and reliable information about Nigeria and to make information easy to find, easy to use.

ConnectNigeria.com makes information easily accessible for everyone. It provides the fastest, easiest and most innovative way for you to find information about businesses, real estate, automobiles, jobs, events, travel, sports, entertainment, health, education, technology and lots more.

Date: Saturday, January 22, 2011

Time: 9:00am Networking + 10am Start

Venue: Centre for Information Technology & Systems, UNILAG

Agenda:

1. Discuss #INECregistration issues, possible solutions (existing poll locators at http://yrn.me/clp, http://yrn.me/sng, http://yrn.me/nec, http://yrn.me/maps, http://yrn.me/ushahidi, etc)

2. Escalating to INEC. More solutions.

3. Visit Polling Units to see what’s happening, volunteer to keep order, generate buzz (tweets, pictures, video, etc), raise awareness around the area

Today one of Nigeria smartest tech minds, Zubair Abubakar launched a blackberry app for Nigerian Constitution.

Tell me if you have read the whole (or in part) constitution to be able to know your right…well while you ping on your BBM, you can as well learn about the document that guides our daily life in Nigeria.

This is a brilliant idea and one that is very important in Nigeria’s definitive time.

Go get the app here.

Update: in less than 50mins, the app has been downloaded 120 times! Nice one!

Camping essentials

Time and place

Thursday 13th January, 5.30pm
Best Western Hotel, Ahmadu Bello Way, Bar Beach, Lagos

This kick-off evening will be a chance to meet everyone over cocktail to learn more about the camp, meet the idea proponents and decide on which idea you fancy getting involved with over the next two days. The event will be opened by the Lagos State Commissioner of Science and Technology (Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat) and will have representatives of corporate partners in attendance. You’ll also get the chance to learn more about all the ideas while networking with professionals of like minds.

Friday 14th January (9am – 6pm) and Saturday 15th January, (9am – 3pm) – Core of the Camp
Pan African University, 2 Ahmed Onibudo Street, Off Adeola Hopewell, Victoria Island, Lagos

We’ll lay on a bright and early breakfast start on both Friday and Saturday between 8am and 9am. The way the rest of the day works will be up to you and your team. Over those two days, your teams will have the task of building your idea and your presentation for the”Show and Tell”. This is the hard work part of the camp and the reason we are all coming together. Please take time off to be present at the WHOLE of the camp and remember, strictly NO NIGERIAN TIME!!!

Saturday 15th January, 3:30 – 5:30pm

“Show and Tell” session where each team pitches the output of their work to the panel of judges whom will then select the winners and announce the top 3 ideas.

The Ideas

The ideas shortlisted for the camp are:

* Gyno-Trip: a mobile/web based tool for the promotion of women’s health both maternal and gynecological.
* e-Mandators: an on-line platform for tracking and communicating government performance to citizens
* mWanted: a web based tool for tracking criminals and missing people
* SalesOnTheFly: a web enabled sales tool for managing POR and gaining access to back office business information
* NaijaGuides: a social network of Nigerian tour guides
* 123 Health Information Services: a free 3 in 1 service combining telephone helpline, SMS and on-line chat to promote better health and lifestyle

Food

There’s going to be a lot of food and plenty to drink. If you have any special food requirements, you should please let us know.

What to expect

The technical bit

Pretty simple: if you’re going to need your laptop, bring it. We’ve got wireless connection plus lots of power sockets. The lovely people at Pan Africa University will be on hand to deal with any issues.

Twitter: We’re @sicampnigeria on Twitter and and the harsh tag for the event is #sicampnigeria

As ever, we like to hear your questions, comments and criticisms – get in touch if there’s anything you need before Thursday. If for any reason you can’t make it, please let us know as soon as possible so we can open up your spot to someone on our waiting list. Call Femi on 08136241976

Press Release

Lagos, Nigeria. January 11, 2011 – Peery Foundation, a Palo Alto-based family foundation established in 1978 by Richard Peery, has invested in Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN).

“We’re excited to be supporting PIN’s work!  Following series of discussions and checks by the Foundation, we are proud to make this social investment. We are encouraged by the thoughtfulness of PIN’s model and the importance of working with such an under-resourced demographic in Africa,” stated Dave Peery.

Peery Foundation invests in and serves social entrepreneurs and leading organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world, and their mission is to strengthen youth and families to build lives of dignity and self-reliance. The conversation between the foundation and PIN started after a member of staff of the foundation listened to a presentation on PIN’s work with youth in Nigeria by PIN’s Executive Director, ‘Gbenga Sesan, as part of the requirements of his participation in the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) program at Santa Clara University in August 2010.

According to Sesan, “the grant will help PIN kick-start series of technology-for-entrepreneurship (‘technopreneurship’) training programs for youth across Nigeria. The training programs will serve as the foundation for PIN’s plan to host an annual conference, from the last quarter of 2012, tagged “Techie. Entrepreneurial. Nigerian. Talented” (T.E.N.T) – where young talents can meet with the industry and investors.” He continued, “we believe that if we don’t discover, train, mentor and support young people with interest in ICT innovation while they’re in their early teens, they can’t become ICT experts and legitimate billionaires in their late twenties.”

PIN, a Lagos-based social enterprise, addresses the gap between Nigeria’s disadvantaged youth and economic opportunities by providing demand-driven Information and Communica­tion Technologies, entrepreneurship and life skills train­ing.

PIN’s Ajegunle.org training program connects trainees with internship opportunities which result in full-time employment or provide training towards small businesses that improve their livelihoods – and allows them to serve as role models to other youth. Through its Internet Safety, Security and Privacy Initiative for Nigeria program, in partnership with Microsoft, PIN works to redirect the energy of young Nigerians from cybercrime.

Contact:
‘Gbenga Sesan
gbenga.sesan@pinigeria.org
www.pinigeria.org
+234-1-741-56-25

Even if your business is ignoring the growth, possibilities of social media and is busy ensuring the ban on Social Media in the office is upheld, three categories of people are still using it – your clients/customers, your competitors and… wait for this… your employees still sneak ( maybe you should seize phones! lol). If for anything, employers and employees have to be careful the way they use brands when engaging in Social Media in and outside of the workplace. While some brands have opened Facebook pages and have gone to sleep, much more have engaged social media by banning employees from using it and ignoring the effects of leaving other people to continue discussing their brand.

What to do when they decide to join the virtual community is one of the challenges business decision makers face. The way to go is to first develop a social media policy for your organization.

A social media policy is a document that defines the principles that will guide employee decisions and activities so as to help achieve organizational objectives. It will also help guide against misuse and abuse by members of staff. You need to bring everyone in the company on the same page; they are your brand ambassadors. First you need a social media policy and strategy while your employees need education. Whatever an employee says about your organization or any other issue on social media goes a long way in shaping the reputation of your organization. Get most internet savvy employee to engage your employees on the best practices.

Ok, but my concern today is to have a social media policy that set guidelines that will both promote and protect the image of the company. Developing a social media policy is not rocket science, but you can get your law firm to fine tune it for you. Here are 25 public examples of policy guidelines which have been developed by large corporations to guide your development; it is working for them why not you?

Deola Kayode is a Consultant at Teleios Consulting; a Brand Consultancy with competencies in Brand Strategy, Social Media & Communication. He can be reached through deolakayode@gmail.com