Nnadi was at the Co-creation Hub for Developer Parapo, and he demo’d an interesting website for igbo language dictionary. Imagine learning the language and you want to expand your vocabulary, the website is a perfect solution for you. Check out the site at mkpuruokwu.org and you can you read below for his plan and other stuffs.

Nnadi is a computer science graduate with innovative mind, he has build solutions most people won’t find interesting but necessary for African cultural development.

WTN: Why Igbo dictionary?

Nnadi: As opposed to Yoruba dictionary? I’m still learning Igbo and I’ve been collecting Igbo learning materials for myself, and to help me teach my kids in the future. The searchable dictionary helps me quickly lookup new words when my parents and grandparents are chatting.
WTN: What is the reception so far?

Nnadi: Horrible! Less than 10 hits a day. I guess I’m the only Igbo guy who doesn’t know what words like adaka mean.

WTN: Do you hope to extend it to mobile apps (or they exist already?)?

Nnadi: It *is* already a mobile app: you can access it from any mobile phone with Internet service. As far as making it accessible offline, that depends on if I can get Maaz? Echeruo’s permission to continue with this project.

WTN:  Is there any other projects you have done that we can check out?

Nnadi: I’m glad you asked. If you need to type ? or ? regularly and are tired of copy-pasting, you can download a keyboard layout from Nigeriankeyboardlayout.com that will make it a breeze. Or have you ever wondered what events and competitions in Nigeria are available for an aspiring entrepreneur like yourself? Then check out Wetindeyshele.com or follow @wetindeyshele to keep up with what’s happening. What’s that? Your phone bills are too high? Then visit Nairaperminute.com to compare mobile phone plans in Nigeria.

WTN: What should we expect going forward with this solution?

Nnadi: Simply put, the eradication of AIDS on earth. Barring that, I expect that some people will get a bit more Igbo-literate by having easy access to the dictionary.

Visit Nnadi’s personal site here.

At Noki a’s ongoing developers’ training, we saw success stories and passionate people who are willing to replicate the success. Meet, Akinwale, a young Nigerian whose Mobile applications have been downloaded in more than sixty countries and has earned good cash developing for Nokia’s platform. Note, the apps are not free, the apps for sale, and it actually sold!

This is the beginning of mobile revolution in Nigeria, and with the level of interest shown by developers, I really think something great will come out soon.

WTN: Akin, Let’s meet you…

Akin: I’m your average 24yrs guy who’s mostly into computers and video games among other things.

WTN: How did you get started in programming?

Akin: I started using computers since I was 4 and developed a passion for them over time. Eventually, I started to read programming textbooks and practiced coding with the tools I had at the time.

WTN:Why did you choose Nokia platform?

Akin: The iOS platform was saturated with a lot of applications and I was hoping to get early sales on the Ovi Store after it was launched by Nokia.

WTN: Share with us, what your experience has been so far?

Akin: It’s been pretty good so far. Sales have been decent and my applications have been downloaded in several countries.

WTN: How did you get your money?

Akin: Bank wire transfer into my domiciliary account.

WTN: How many countries are your apps being downloaded?

Akin: Over 60 countries and growing.

WTN: Can you share a couple figures with us on how the apps are doing in the market?

Akin: Over 3,000 downloads shared between the 3 apps so far.

WTN: Have you got any leverage from Nokia?

Akin: I don’t understand the question.

WTN: If not OVI, which platform would you have chosen?

Akin: Probably iOS.

WTN: What do you think of Nigerian mobile development sector?

Akin: I believe people need to be made aware of the possibilities. They’re endless.

WTN: Where do you see Nigeria mobile developers in the next couple of years?

Akin: I can’t say but if people know how easy it is to get into mobile development, I see a lot of developers picking it up.

WTN: Talking about Smartphone’s battle, Android, iPhone and now Windows 7 what do you think will happen to Nokia?

Akin: Well, Nokia’s currently still the market share leader but they’ve adopted Windows Phone 7 as their primary Smartphone platform moving forward so we’ll see how it goes.

WTN: For those willing to dive into Mobile app development what do you think awaits them?

Akin: Like I mentioned earlier, endless possibilities.

Connect with Akinwale of Facebook

Twitter: @akinwale

Blog: AntiNormal

Current Apps: SimpleIRC, Ultimate Stopwatch and Slide8

We caught with Mr. Emeka Okoye the developer behind raving election monitoring mobile application develop for use for the Nigeria April elections. He shared with us, his experience in the industry and other thoughts.

WTN: Let meet you…

Emeka: My name is Emeka Azuka Okoye. I am a Software Engineers and a Techpreneur based in Lagos, Nigeria

WTN: We understand you have been very active in the tech industry since the early days, please share with us your experience thus far?
Emeka: Yes, I have been in this industry since 1992. I started out as a programmer in a small IT firm before moving to Soft Solutions Limited, publisher of desktop business applications, as an analyst in 1994. Here, I was part of the development team behind their famed SSL Account, SSL Human Resource (I was the lead here), SSL Stocks (I was the lead) and SSL Hotel Management System (I was the lead too).

I left in 1996 to start my own startup. I designed the first banking website in Nigeria with IBTC merchant bank at the launch of the Nigerian Equity Fund in December 1996, created the first internet banking app, which IBTC used for their online banking in 1997. Later the app was used to demo as part of a banking system by a local reseller to win clients. In 1998, I co-founded Nigeria Exchange, ngex.com, one of Nigeria’s earliest web portals. The portal was a one point source of Nigerian news, forums, Nigerian-themed greeting cards, search engine, etc. We were competing with Odili.net and South African Ananzi.com on the continent.

Through my software company, called Netron Systems Limited, we created the first local e-commerce platform, beating the likes of  Solix Technologies to win the Xerox Nigeria e-commerce project. The project was supported by UPS, FSB bank and Valucard Nigeria Limited.

I resigned from Nigeria Exchange in 2001 when we could attract funding from Venture Capitalists including from Rev. Jesse Jackson team that came visiting Nigeria to support startups.

I joined one of the biggest middleware companies in the world, OpenLink Software Limited as Head Professional Services in Lagos in 2001. Later rose to become the Country Manager for West African region. I was mentored and worked under the world renowned semantic web guru, Mr. kingsley Idehen. One of my memorable projects is the creation of one of the biggest replication site in Africa. Our software was used to replicate image files of customers for Union Bank of Nigeria in over 300 locations.

I left OpenLink in 2005 and started Vikantti Nigeria Limited in 2006 as a software development house. We develop mostly banking related products like our Signature Verification System, Cheque Confirmation System, ATM Journal Management System, Mastercard Applications, etc.

I am also the Mobile Product Manager for StorySpaces, storyspaces.org, an online storytelling platform for civic journalism, education, business and media.

WTN: You developed the ReVoDa mobile app, share with us how it feels to develop something that will have huge impact in the history of Nigeria?

Emeka: I started on Mobile Development in early 2010. So I had a full grasp of the mobile space and ecosystem when the promoter of EnoughIsEnough Nigeria, Mr. Gbenga Sesan, called the NigeriaDecides ICT meetup in October, 2010. I proposed this solution whereby voters can use their cheap phones to generate reports that can be sent to a central location, where the data will be cleaned and turned to information, in a very simple format and manner.

A lot of people did not comprehend this but Gbenga did and he said we should keep discussing. Earlier in a Google group created by Victor Miclovich called ICT elections, I had posted about this solution as far back as September 2010.

After the Mobile Web West Africa, it became clear that the mobile is the future of computing in Africa, so Gbenga now invited volunteers like me and others to work on an ICT-based election reporting tool. Even at the initial meeting, the mobile app was not well received but Gbenga persisted. So I started work on it and within a week the first prototype came out and everyone flipped, including me.

The Election app has been shown in Ghana, Liberia, Togo, UK, USA and Tunisia. Even the electoral body and the Police have seen it. In Africa, this is a first and I am happy it is coming from Africa.

It will have huge impact as it will increase the awareness of mobile apps and may start a wave of mobile app creation or a revolution.

I am happy to be again part of history making venture in Nigeria. I have a very strong creative persona so this a comfort zone for me.
WTN: What impact do you think technology will have in shaping the future of the country (socially, politically and economically)?

Emeka: Increase usage of technology will increase growth in the country. Technology is supposed to make us better or do things better. Technology solutions are supposed to address a need. Technology can solve a lot of our infrastructural challenges e.g banking, agriculture, logistics, education, etc.

Technology can also make us efficient!

WTN: Talking about mobile applications in the country, where do you think Nigeria is on the continent?

Emeka: We are at ground zero. Nigeria has not started. Nigeria will start slowly due to dearth of software engineers. Kenyan, South African, Ugandan, Egypt and Ghana are ahead for now. At this rate, a catch up is not likely except a change of attitude happens.

Another sad development is that the few developers we have that design website or write software are the same ones that are going into mobile.

WTN: With the internet revolution set to hit Nigeria, what do you think will happen in the industry in the next couple of years?

Emeka: I am not optimistic about the industry due to the kind of attitude the people have. The people have the wrong attitude to be innovative that is why there are a lot of excuses. You cannot claim to be innovative and you still claim that electricity is a problem for instance. You are meant to solve problems, not to enlighten us!

You cannot claim to be innovating when you are copying or cloning existing business or technology model when you are not addressing a need.

A lot of people like deliver the next big thing with their mouths.

WTN: What advice do you have for budding tech entrepreneurs?

Emeka: They should be passionate about technology and whatever they are creating should be addressing a need. Their thought process need to be very deep and they must exhibit patience. Think less of the money first but on user’s satisfaction. They should steer clear of hype but follow hard facts with numbers.

They have to be grounded on what is happening in the industry and also follow forward-thinking mentors so that they can learn.

They should stop reading headlines only. Lol!

For me, I have done my part. Others should do theirs.

WTN: Thank you for the chat!

Emeka: You are welcome!

Nmachi Jidenma: Thanks for joining us at CP-Africa Seun!

Seun Osewa: Thanks, Nmachi.  It’s a real honour to be here. CP-Africa is going places.

Nmachi: Thanks Seun. It is our pleasure and honour to have you on. Let’s start with the origins of the site. When did you start the Nairaland Forum?

Seun: I installed the Simplemachines Forum on the 10th of March, 2005, and opened Nairaland to the public on the 25th of March, 2005 after working on it for about two weeks.  That’s about 14 months after Mark Zuckerberg launched TheFacebook.com.

Nmachi: Interesting…Why did you choose to start Nairaland?

Seun: About 2 years earlier I had attempted to start a web hosting business, but after 3 months I could only boast of one customer, so I ran out of capital and the business died.  It would probably have succeeded if I had managed my capital more wisely or raised more money as I got many hosting requests I couldn’t satisfy later that year.

After that first failure, I was encouraged to get certifications and a regular job, but I couldn’t go back to that kind of path after tasting creative freedom, so I kept researching business ideas and presenting them to friends and family, but no capital was forthcoming to carry any of them out.  I did this for less than 2 years.  (The last idea was a site for sending SMS messages. I picked up Python to implement it.)

Eventually, I decided to start a web forum, because it was the only idea that required no additional capital:  I already had Internet access and a $15 per month VPS graciously paid for by a family friend.  I created 3 forums in November 2004 (one for higher institution students,  one for IT discussions, and one to cover the emerging GSM industry; the Mobile Nigeria Forum at MobileNigeria.com).

The Mobile Nigeria Forum took off, so I relaunched it in February 2005 with the assistance of Mr. John Sagai Adams, who posted a link to the forum on his mailing list and participated enthusiastically in those early days.  Other mobile enthusiasts like Mr. Yomi Adegboye pitched in to make the site a success.  In a month or so, the forum had about 300 members, but the growth potential didn’t satisfy me.

I decided to start Nairaland when I noticed two odd things about MobileNigeria:

(1) Despite its narrow focus, it was the only Nigerian community that gave a voice to Nigerians at home.  Most other Nigerian sites were owned and dominated by Nigerians in the US or UK.  They covered only issues of interests to Nigerians abroad.

(2) The off topic section of the forum, covering topics outside telecoms, like romance and jokes, was becoming more vibrant than the Mobile Nigeria Forum itself, suggesting the need for a more general-purpose Nigerian forum.

This gave me the confidence to take forums like Naijaryders and Talknaija head on by starting a general purpose discussion forum with a strong bias towards issues of interest to Nigerians at home.  I felt that such a site could attract enough traffic to make enough money from Google adverts.  That’s why I started the Nairaland Forum.

Nmachi: When will you say Nairaland hit its “tipping point” that helped launch it into the mainstream in the Nigerian internet community?

Seun: I don’t believe there was a real tipping point, because we were providing something people really wanted.  Growth has been linear from day one. However, I can tell you about some memorable moments in our history.

I remember a time we got about 30 registrations a day from our coverage of Gulder Ultimate Search.  I think that was the first month.

I remember when the Job section became so popular that most Nigerians at home thought Nairaland was a job portal.  It was a bit annoying, but I embraced it.

I remember when our business section became popular when all those wonder banks were in vogue.  And after that, spammers and advertisers finished it off.  It used to be great.

I remember when I realised I could no longer respond to every thread on the forum, and after a while I couldn’t even read every thread.  Now I can’t even check every section in day.

I remember when I first realised that revolts by old members couldn’t kill the site because of the constant influx of new members.  This, coupled with stress from the rapid growth of the site, led me to adopt a Buhari-style approach to managing the forum, which tarnished my reputation quite a bit.  I’m trying to change that now.

I remember when I locked all Nairalanders out of the forum during a public holiday because I couldn’t keep up with spammers anymore.  I was spending several hours every day just deleting spam and I was tired.  Mukina2, a famous Nairalander, volunteered to help by moderating and recruiting other volunteer moderators.

I remember when I wrote an ‘antispam bot’ because moderators couldn’t keep up with spam.  And it wasn’t enough.  Then I added a registration CAPTCHA and it didn’t make any difference.  Nowadays, everyone hates the bot, because it often makes mistakes, but we would have had to lock down the forum if we didn’t have it.

Nmachi: How many users/members does Nairaland currently have? How many people currently use the site?

Seun: We have about 650,000 user accounts.  About 30,000 were logged on in the last 30 days.  Most Nairalanders don’t bother to login or register.  They just read the site like a newspaper site and search it with Google.  Our daily visitor count is much higher.

Nmachi: Who are your main competitors?

Seun: NaijaHotJobs, NigeriaBestForum, Goal.com, and maybe Jobberman.

Nmachi: What do you think has set Nairaland apart from other Nigerian online forums over the years?

Seun: Compared to Nigerian forums that preceded Nairaland: local point of view, better organization, more serious topics, and guest-friendliness.

Compared to our current forum competitors; momentum.

Nmachi: What were some of the initial challenges you encountered when you first started out?

Seun: Power – I had to get an inverter with my last savings to run MobileNigeria.

Troublemakers – Some people refused to follow the rules of the forum and caused fights.

Nmachi: Are you looking to outside investors to further scale the service? Why or why not?

Seun: Not really.  Right now, our major problems are due to the nature of an internet forum.  Very few forums grow as big as Nairaland, because several problems crop up as many people try to interact on the same forum.

One is trolling; some people just love to behave badly on anonymous forums. They derail discussions, insult others for no reason, and treat people asking for advice with insensitivity.  In a small forum, it’s easy to identify these people and exclude them, but in a large forum like Nairaland, it gets to a point where you can only deal with the extreme cases.  Trolling becomes part of the experience, and that limits growth quite a bit.

Another one is spam, which I discussed earlier. Any popular site that allows strangers to post what they like for free will have that problem.

The last one is the most subtle and difficult to solve.  A young internet forum is like an extended family.  Everyone knows everyone, and people really care about each other.   Being part of one is a very nice, cozy experience.  That’s what the Mobile Nigeria forum was like.  But as a forum grows, it becomes a community of strangers, like Oshodi before Fashola.  Most members are forced to become spectators.

I don’t think these issues can be solved by having a lot more money.  We (Nairaland moderators and I) will just end up doing the same things we’re doing now in more expensive ways.  But I have been working on a plan to solve these problems by changing the way the forum works.  It will be incredibly risky and time consuming, but won’t require much money.

Facebook has 1 employee for every 300,000 monthly active users.  Nairaland has 1 employee (me!) for just 30,000 active users, so I think the priority for now should be to make Nairaland 10 times more efficient.

Nmachi: Do you intend to include other features, such as evolving Nairaland to become a social networking hub? Why or why not?

Seun: This is such a nice question.  If I got 5 naira every time a developer offered to help me make Nairaland like Facebook, I would be rich enough to buy the moon!

But here’s the thing.  You can’t beat Facebook. even if your website is perfect.   Social networks benefit from ‘network effects’, which means the bigger they are, the better the experience.  Facebook has grown so big that the only thing other social networks can do is die.  MySpace, Hi5, and even Google’s social network (Orkut), and Microsoft’s Live Spaces have been beaten and are still losing members every day.  If Google and Microsoft can’t beat them, I don’t think I should waste my time.

There’s an element of Facebook I’d like to incorporate, though.  The ‘social graph’.  It’s the reason why Facebook can have 500m users on the same site and yet, unlike most big forums, doesn’t feel over-crowded.  The social graph approach scales so well.

Nmachi: How profitable is the Nairaland forum?

Seun:

Nmachi: Haha. Nice one! Is this where you envisioned Nairaland when you started out?

Seun: My initial dream with MobileNigeria was to make more than 60k a month, which seemed like a reasonable salary at the time, and then use any extra income as capital to start a more promising business.  This was reasonable to me, afterall the total capital I wasted in my failed hosting business was under N60k.  Nairaland flew past this target within the first year, and continues to grow.

Apart from wanting to create a place where Nigerians at home could feel at home, I didn’t have lofty visions for Nairaland, save to remain number 1.  I just wanted to succeed at something for once, and I thought this was the cheapest thing I could try.

Nmachi: Where do you see Nairaland in the next five years?

Seun: Hopefully, someone more capable than me would be running it by then, and it will be the most popular African website (we’re currently number 2).  Little steps!

Nmachi: Any last words for readers who are currently members of the Nairaland community?

Yes, just two words:  Thank You!  I have so many people to thank.  If I’m ever interviewed again, I’ll surely mention more names. 

Nmachi: Thanks so much Seun for sharing your story with us! Very inspiring to say the least. All the best with Nairaland!

So inspiring! If you want to go into entertainment or want to promote your brand online, I think you can learn something.

WTN: Let’s meet you
Mola: My name is Demola Ogundele better known as Mola OG in the notjustok.com community, founder of notjustok. Other members of the team are Ovie and Lalaboiy.

WTN: Tell us about NotJustOk and it’s impact on the industry
Mola: The impact I will leave for analysts to judge, but I will at least tell you what notjustOk is about. We are a website or portal (just to sound cliché) that delivers quality, new music, music videos and related material in a timely manner. We pride ourselves in exposing the remarkable acts from Nigeria to the world at large. In 2010, we also started offering albums for sale in the same timely manner as we do songs and videos.
WTN:  Are artistes finding it easy using your platform to promote their music?
Mola: Artistes who qualify based on requirements of the notjustOk team are finding it easy to promote their music via the platform. Unfortunately we don’t post every song that we receive due to quality requirements.
WTN:  Do other media (TV, Radio) feel threatened by your growing influence?
Mola: They should not, we are on different platforms. We are on the internet and they are on their respective platforms, although they probably are working their way to the internet at least presence wise.
WTN:  What impact has technology played in promoting entertainment in Nigeria?
Mola: A big role, but the impact is not yet obvious to majority of the consumers as a whole, even to some artistes. However, we all know that almost all adults and teenagers in Nigeria owns a cell phone and several cell phone users purchase or find a way to get ringtones on their phones; so that is one way technology is playing a role in entertainment. Also, you notice that Nigeria has the most internet users in Africa. A lot of these users find a way to keep up with entertainment content online while using the internet for other reasons like email, Facebook or Twitter.

Currently, majority of our audience (78%) reside in Nigeria which tells us that many music consumers in Nigeria are using technology to consume music, videos and music related content.
WTN:  What do you think Nigerian artistes are not getting right on how to use the internet to promote their brands?
Mola: Well, the answer to this question can fill a 15 page paper, but I will strongly advise artistes to read our Ask Ms. Uduak column which is a weekly offering; there are a lot of valuable jewels in Ms. Uduak’s articles.
First of all, I feel that each artiste should have an active Facebook and Twitter presence. If you don’t have the time, try and hire a trusted person to run them so that their fans can get updates on what they (the artistes) are up to; more so for established artistes, but also applies to up and coming acts that are gaining some popularity. DonJazzy, eLDee, M.I, Darey, RuggedMan and Banky W are pretty good with these.  Also, for up and coming acts, I would advise that before they start promoting a single, they should have 3 or 4 solid singles in the cooler ready to follow up the 1st single which may or may not be a banger. I know the model in Nigeria is to hoard your music as much as possible and promote single by single (2 singles deep) and then release an album, but the internet will not work this way. To be honest, I think this is where the music industry is going. This (hoarding singles or new songs) will typically only work for an established act like Dbanj, M.I, Psquare, Banky Ws, Eldees and more.  If you are starting off, have at least 4 singles ready and one video ready and be ready to get back in the studio to make more Bangers. Learn from D’Prince; he dropped 3 bangers and followed up with a huge collaboration called “Jonzing” and now a video for his new single, Give It To Me. You have to be consistent and remain dominant in the audience’s mind. It´s not enough to drop 25 ok joints that you want to add to your mixtape, all that does is make you work hard on the wrong thing and it puts you in the mix tape artiste box. Now there is nothing wrong with dropping a mixtape, but if you are dropping a mixtape, you are better off sitting down and making sure that all songs are up to par or over-killing. I know it´s easier said than done, but I´ve seen it happen and work. Above all, the internet is free. To get your songs posted is free, to get a link of your song posted on Facebook and twitter is free so everything is pretty much free.
WTN: You guys are very active on social networks (Facebook and twitter) what impact is it having on your business?
Mola: Yes we are, thanks to OvieO, he is the man on twitter. I like to tweet, but I can’t find time to tweet as much as I would love to. However, yes it is a major help and even though we are really active on twitter, Facebook still accounts for majority of our social network referrals; it’s interesting how it works.

WTN: Can you share with us, a big milestone NotJustOK has achieved in recent time?
Mola: Well we hit over 60k pageviews one day, being given the opportunity to sell digital albums on the notjustOk platform (1st album we sold was the late DaGrin’s CEO), top 10 videos (which is currently on hold for now), getting over 1000 comments on a post, moving to our wordpress platform, first voiced track “You Bad” by Wande Coal which was done out of frustration.
WTN:  How do you think technology will influence popularity of up and coming artiste?
Mola: Well Technology can help increase the awareness and popularity of an artiste. Label heads are paying attention to NotJustOK and some artistes have actually been signed on by well know record labels, partly due to the exposure we have provided to many upcoming artistes. Also, several artistes have become very popular via the NotJustOK platform; we are not radio and are unable recycle, or repost a song we already posted, but the songs are always accessible.
Moving forward, an up and coming artiste will need to be consistent with dropping material in a 2 month period so that every other week or less his name appears on the site/internet (this can only be done if their song is exceptional); this will make his/her presence dominant in the minds of our frequent visitors and if the artiste happens to drop a major banger or a very catchy song, then the post suddenly becomes a viral. This recently happened to Yung6ix who dropped his first single (a remake of IcePrince’s Oleku) but he is the exception; most people will have to drop 3-4 singles to get that HIT if they are good.

WTN: Internet and privacy do you see internet as a threat to music sales or enabler?
Mola: Full time enabler! Although there will always be folks giving out free albums, internet or no internet. Look, if every Nigerian could purchase albums online, a little below one quarter of us would. The numbers would be huge; I mean right now or as of 2009 The World bank estimated that Nigerians between the ages of 15-64 make 82 million of the population, imagine if 500,000 of those Nigerians bought music online on a consistent basis and all artistes were collecting their fair share of the net income off their music. The industry would immediately get restructured and artistes would be increasing one source of their income apart from the current most lucrative source; shows and concerts.
WTN:  What should we expect from you going forward?
Mola: Expect innovation and the continuous addition of value to the site without overwhelming our users.
WTN: What one thing do you think if solved will boost internet business?
Mola: If Nigeria had an effective, reliable, safe and secure online payment method, internet business would boom without a doubt in my mind.
WTN:  What word do you have for upcoming entrepreneur who are planning to launch out on the internet?
Mola: First of all, I personally know that God has played a major role in building notjustok so far. A lot of results that we got were not expected. So I think you need that supernatural factor; some call it luck others call it being at the right place at the right time. I call it favour or blessing.

In addition, enjoy the process which means you need to have a natural and strong passion for whatever it is you are doing. Also, let go off any cockiness if you have team mates, listen to everyone in your team and make decisions with best interest of the brand at heart and remove your self-interest from the equation. In addition, Dream BIG and believe!

Let’s roll!

WTN: You are a brand to recon with in the internet space in Nigeria, how did you start?

Adeolu : I started Nov, 2005 I believe. I wanted more than my Job was giving, I had the feeling that I could do more, and be more, and I needed a platform to express myself… the rest is history

WTN: Talking about money making, am very sure it’s very important and as such we need many ways to get that right in this country… what are basic money making businesses people can start with relatively small capital?

Adeolu: Yes, it’s important that we are legitimate, and pursue opportunities that add to us and give us an opportunity to gain value… remember it’s not what you get that counts, it’s who you become!

There are a variety of money making opportunities…. so many I don’t know where to start… but I can say that with Avenues to Wealth… you can access a lot of them…

WTN: I want you to share with us, the holidays and cash (now Avenues to Wealth) story… the current wave making network marketing business.

Adeolu: Hmmmm… it’s a long story… I think the story is not due yet though… it’s going to be a best seller but let me give you some highlights…

Two years ago, I got to hear about an opportunity… I despised the opportunity. I had just about had enough of Network Marketing… the taste of failure and the taste of success was not different… as far as I was concerned.

There seemed to be no difference…and I had decided not to be involved again… I paid to buy the “privilege pack” back then… knowing for sure that I had lost my money. I had decided not to be involved.

For 7 months, I held the bargain I had made to myself… even though I had read less than 1/20 of the books I have read today, I thought I knew it all. My cup was full! I held on to this bargain… until one day!

That one day, I am forever grateful for…

One day, I met someone who sold me another opportunity with the same reward plan… they had driven the opportunity for 9yrs. It had a similar model, but because it was new and had grown over time, I was drawn.

I took out time to check them out… the whole experience cost me over N1.5m… at the end of my research… which involved travelling to Malaysia… I knew that Holidays and Cash (Avenues to Wealth) could work. I knew that what would make the difference is how it is managed, and how the people who take responsibility for driving it.

I got back to Nigeria… had a series of meetings with the leaders; they were also willing and ready. And together, we began to recreate a world class opportunity from what we had then.

In the Last 1yr 10months, we have concentrated on adding so much value to the privilege pack that it would be ridiculous or plain ignorant not to still be a part of it.

Today… we have created something I’m really proud of… when I say we, I mean in the company of leaders like my dear Wife and partner,  Mr. and Mrs. Emma Chukwu, Mr. and Mrs. John Akwarandu, Mr. and Mrs Chilaka, Busayo Akanro, Ola Daramola, Mr. Matthew Abolurin, Solomon James, Tony Muoka and many wonderful leaders too numerous to mention.

Today the Avenues to Wealth Privilege Pack, has something for everybody… Can you imagine, that with N42,000 per year, you have a personal shop space online, you have free adverts that can be seen by over 50,000 people all year round, you have e-books worth over $3,000, you have discounts in over 200 local products, you have access to cashless distributorship in premier companies, you get access to become part of an exclusive cooperative that is committed to the prosperity of it’s members, you get access to world-class life transforming training for FREE… you don’t only get all these, you also get the opportunity of earning extra income weekly for telling your friends about it. It’s simply exciting!

WTN: cool!

Adeolu: Today, I watched, with almost close to tears, as members took turns sharing their testimonies of what Avenues to Wealth (Holidays and Cash) has helped them to achieve in few months to a year… it’s awe inspiring.

Is it extra income, personal development, more time for their families, family support, children moving up to best schools, opportunities to help people? There were loads!

One that caught my attention was a guy who got his dream Job while trying to market the advert space that Avenues to Wealth offers businesses. Just this week, he got the Job, was given a Hilux Jeep as his official car, and another support Jeep as backup… he came with pictures, fliers e.t.c. People were really touched.

WTN: Wow!

Adeolu: If you hear about this opportunity and find it easy to sleep the night after… you didn’t get it. If you do, it will keep you excited and awake! I thank God, for being patient with me and helping me to be involved in driving this business. Helping people is not lip service, I’m doing it… and I’m enjoying my life.

WTN: Talking about web hosting, with one of your companies (Nairahost) being a top hosting firm in the country, how is the business like competing with foreign firms?

Adeolu: Hmmm… I’m off Nairahost… Kayode Muyibi holds the reigns on that one.

WTN: Looking at our internet industry, what can you say about the potentials and the realities on ground?

Adeolu: There are huge potentials…. I believe we are on the brink of great times.

With the internet about to stabilize in Nigeria… it’s the birth of the under 35 internet billionaire era in Nigeria. If we position and synergize, with about 43million internet users in Nigera… we are about to experience our very own internet boom!

Main 1, Glo 1, and mobile technology alone… things are going to open up, and there will be an avalanche for fast movers!

WTN: People have discussed about investors, entrepreneurs and all that, how can internet startups attract investment or should they simply bootstrap?

Adeolu: Well they can bootstrap… and they can also attract investors. Investing in Startups seems to be a possible next step in my evolution

WTN: How can they attract investors?

Adeolu: The same way every other type of business attracts investors, by making a business case of their opportunity, and developing a win-win proposition for people to invest or partner with them. Internet startups are not very expensive to kick off, and with a crowd online, investors are getting interested in possibilities already

WTN: What next should we expect from you soonest?

Adeolu: Many things…

1. Expect to see a lot of me in 2011 on Avenues to Wealth. I didn’t market A2W this year, I simply focused on adding value, 2011 you’ll see me doing a lot more marketing.

2. I’m giving more time to my blog.. and starting an online newspaper… htt://www.saltofafrica.com it’s not yet finished… but watch out

3. I’ll be investing in a few online startups myself, and bootstrapping with some other entrepreneurs.

4. Politics. I’m going to be having a voice, and positioning some people for leadership

WTN: wow! That’s cool!

WTN: Looking forward; in the next 3-5years what do you see Nigerian web industry becoming?

Adeolu: In the next 3-5yrs the industry would be core and key. With the changes and their effects… MEGA!

I’m hoping that comes with a great leadership in the country… then it will be really great. I’ll say we’ll be slightly ahead of where SA is now…

WTN: and probably be challenging them by then…?

Adeolu: Oh yeah… we always had the numbers… what we need, is what we are likely to be getting

WTN: So finally, what do you have for budding entrepreneurs?

Adeolu: Plan to Fail!

Don’t build your dreams around shortcuts; don’t hope for the best to happen on the first attempt. Plan that you will fail, be ready to experience tough challenges, and make up your mind to simply stick with it until it happens.

Plan for 2% conversion rate… and make sure 2% is profitable for you…. success happens when we give ourselves no other choice. When failure doesn’t deter us, when giving up is not a choice.

If you are not online… you are not alive in 2010, you are living in the past. Get online, get a blog, join us at Avenues to Wealth, it’s the New School!

WTN: Thank you for the great time and insight.

Adeolu: It’s a Pleasure.

Have you ever visited a site and before scrolling down you say “This must be a Nigerian site”? Well, same is for Dolapo and Damola who are keen on developing quality and aesthetic websites. The twin brothers co-founded Unotech Media and have become a force to reckon with in the industry. We caught up with them to hear from them how the journey have been so far. Please read on the know their stories.

WTN: First, I want to appreciate your sponsorship of Barcamp Nigeria last May, God bless you.
Unotech: You are welcome. We are always happy to lend our support to the ICT community which we are a part of.

WTN: Let’s meet you guys
Unotech: Well my name is Dolapo Taiwo and I co-manage Unotech Media, an online communications agency here in Lagos along with my twin brother Damola. Our backgrounds stem from freelance web development careers in the UK, consulting for the likes of NTL Telewest, Virgin Media, Asos and Grand Union; and project management respectively.  We each have close to 10 years experience in the web development industry and offer solutions in areas of ecommerce, e-learning, multimedia development and Brand Identity.

WTN: How was starting up?
Unotech: As with any other new business, starting up was hard and difficult especially with the absence of startup capital. We literally had to struggle our way up crossing various hurdles. Then imagine having to deal also with issues like electricity, poor internet connectivity and the likes. I can remember more than on one occasion when we felt like quitting and just going for a day job or something. But the love and passion for what we did kept us going. Today we are the better for it.

WTN: Can you share with us, your experience so far in the industry?
Unotech: We started Unotech Media because we felt there was a lot we could contribute to the Nigerian web space. Back in the day, I remember looking at various ‘Nigerian Websites’ and feeling very ashamed of our nation. We thought we could change the way these websites looked for the better and that exactly we did. Today ‘Nigerian Websites’ are of very high standard and can easily stand shoulders with anything obtainable abroad. Web design agencies are now seeing the importance of usability in design, ease of navigation and standards compliance.
Meanwhile I feel there needs to be some form of organization and standardization in the industry. For example I don’t know of any web design association in Nigeria. This really affects the developer community negatively. Issues such as free pitching (where companies throw out requests to various web design agencies to each create samples of work and then they choose the best) can be addressed. I know for example that advertising agencies charge pitch fees which owes to the degree of organization in their industry. Also job pools can be created where larger companies throw excess work to smaller agencies on an outsourcing arrangement.

WTN: In music we have PSquare, you guys are DSquare, how is working together like?
Unotech: Haha. DSquare … That’s a new one!
Well, working together brings its advantages and challenges. Its always good to be able to bounce ideas off each other and synergize each individual’s strong points.
Meanwhile because no two people are the same – even twins! – they may have the tendency to want to do things their own different ways. We have learnt however to always assess our common goals and push only for decisions that will drive us closer to those goals. This has helped us stay together as a team.

WTN: Talking about web building how easy it is convincing companies to build sites?
Unotech: You’ve got to be a good seller to be able to convince a company to build a website. It’s not an easy job at all. The easiest way to go is to sell them the benefits they’ll derive and not the Jquery or animations you can do for them. This was part of the initial challenge for us as we quickly noticed that we needed to transition from web developers to business men. No one wants to know how good you are until you can prove how your offering can benefit their business.
Interestingly enough, we also noticed that it became easier to sell to companies after we achieved a level of success. Therefore if one can struggle through the initial stages then there will be a point when growth will transition from arithmetic to a geometric progression.

WTN: Your view about business adoption of internet?
Unotech: Businesses are beginning to see the importance of the internet and are getting to realize that a large chunk of their target audiences are hanging around the internet. Social media and mobile penetration are part of factors responsible for this. I mean what is the point of having an expensive billboard when you can have an online ad the visitors can easily click through to your website.

WTN: What is your view about the Nigerian Internet market?
Unotech: The Nigerian internet market is ripe. Many people now have access to the internet through their mobile phones, social media is taking over the landscape, two companies are about launching resources that would change bandwidth accessibility for good. When could it be better to take the dive. The future looks so bright for the internet market that any company that is yet to move onto the new online virtual market place will be left redundant!
Ecommerce is beginning to get realistic for the Nigerian market with interswitch and the advent of VISA. Security has been beefed up in the e-channels which means more people trust these channels (chip and pin). Also in my opinion “419″ is on a steep decline and Nigeria is fast regaining it name in the international online community.

WTN: If you are not doing web business, what business would you have been doing?
Unotech: A big part of us that most people don’t know is the music part. I (Dolapo) play the keyboards while Damola plays the bass and this has merely been in hibernation. I would have probably pursued a career in music production or sound reinforcement. We have also had interests and tried my hands on film making and video production in the past.

WTN: What impact have social media had on you personally and business wise?
Unotech: Social media has helped us to have a form of feedback system and also helped us bounce ideas off our immediate community.

WTN:  Investors & technologist, what do you think is missing, money or innovation?
Unotech: I believe its a hybrid of both Nigeria needs. Most people are of the opinion that the lack of ideas is not what Africa suffers from but the resources and leadership to power them up. I totally agree with that school of thought but I also know that a very good idea cannot be covered up whether there’s money or not. Worst case scenario, it would be a time bomb waiting to explode. We need to put on our thinking caps and find solutions to our peculiar problems.
We can also do better with funding. The average Nigerian millionaire will rather throw a lavish party than put that money toward a good cause. The leadership will rather enrich its pocket than push for the betterment of its people.

WTN: Going forward, what should we expect from you guys?
Unotech: Well, we hope to keep churning out good creative stuff. We will strive to make every new client endeavor better than the latter and eventually position Nigeria on the map. We hope to push into new and emerging technologies and markets and you can expect a few problem solving startups in the nearest future. Most importantly, we are thinking beyond profit!

WTN: For our internet market to grow at a faster rate, what should we do as investors, technologist, entrepreneur, business and government?
Unotech: Well that’s very simple. Investors should put their money into good and worthy causes, the technologists, entrepreneurs and businesses should develop and position innovative products while the government needs to understand the responsibility bestowed upon it and do what its supposed to do – provide the amenities and enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Website: unotechmedia.com

Follow them on twitter: dolapot damolat

We caught up with Yomi Adegboye’s one of Nigeria’s brightest minds in mobile technology. We shared his mind with us about the industry and its future. He also took us through how mobilitynigeria.com got started. Read through and enjoy our interview with him.

WTN: Let meet your sir

Yomi: I am Oluyomi Adegboye, a simple, unassuming person who loves to work behind-the-scenes. I love to have fun at all that I do. I was born in 1973 and have been married since 2000. My wife and I are blessed two kids. I am Managing Director of Alireta Nigeria Limited, one of Nigeria’s top web hosts. I also own and run Mobility Nigeria, the largest, most visited, most referenced, and most respected online source of information on mobile technology in Nigeria. Lastly, but most fulfilling of all, I am a Bible teacher and a serving pastor at Crown Bible Church in Lagos.

WTN: Your site, mobilitynigeria.com is one of the best resources on mobile technology in the country, gist us about it

Yomi: Mobility Nigeria started was born out of my personal passion for mobile connected and computing devices. There was a vacuum in the Nigerian webspace with regards getting credible information about mobile technology in Nigeria, so I simply stepped in with Mobility Nigeria. At first, progress was slow. Today, it is one of the highest traffic Nigerian websites, and certainly the most respected in view of all things mobile in Nigeria. When people get stuck with their devices and networks, they turn to Mobility Nigeria. When people from different continents need information about mobile technology in Nigeria, they turn to Mobility Nigeria.

Due to popular demand, the site now includes a delivery-only mobile store. We deliver medium and high-end mobile phones to customers located as far away as Maiduguri and Owerri. Above all, I am simply having a ball running Mobility Nigeria.

WTN: Talking about mobile and internet what opportunities are there for us to tap in Nigeria?

Yomi: The Nigerian mobile and internet landscape is still virgin territory.

One, while our internet penetration has jumped in recent times, the huge bulk of it is still in terms of social networking. There is still a dearth of quality content creation on the internet among Nigerians. As a webhost administrator, I am privileged to have access to information about the content of Nigerian websites.  Sadly, the majority do not offer anything compelling in terms of really credible and useful information or in terms of services. There are a handful of brilliant Nigerian websites out there, but those are clearly in the minority. Where there is a dearth, there are opportunities.

Two, as a country we are still skirting the edges of e-commerce. Most of the services passed off as e-payment platforms now are still so cumbersome (and in some cases simply unaffordable) that nothing much is happening in this area for now. That leaves huge opportunities. Imagine what will happen when we have functional and affordable e-commerce platforms in place. The opportunities for both e-payment platform providers and merchants who will ride on such platforms are simply huge.

Three, pretty much the same scenario with e-commerce exists for mobile payments.

All in all, we are still scratching the surface here in Nigeria. We really do not need to imagine the possibilities. They are all too glaring.

WTN: Connectivity is one of the problems we are facing in the country, what do you think telecom/ISP should do to solve this?

Yomi: We must note first that telecoms providers and ISPs face tremendous challenges that have been well documented over time. It is almost a miracle that they are able to stay in operation at all. As such, they deserve our understanding.

Still, it is my informed opinion that there is a lot of overselling going on in the ISP business. By overselling, I mean that operators take on more subscribers than they have the capacity for. Naturally, this leads to less than satisfactory performance and broadband subscribers get to experience narrowband speeds.

I must add that overselling is also a prevalent practice in the web hosting sector as well – and the results are obvious. Service providers need to stop this practice.

It is also a known fact that the majority of subscribers use up very little resources while a select minority consume the majority of bandwidth. This is in spite of the fact that for the most part both those who use much and those who use little pay uniform tariffs.

For example, I am aware of some of them who charge differently for different cap speeds. There are also those who charge differently for monthly bandwidth. Those are good solutions which should yield dividends if overselling is put aside.

If ISPs make people pay for what they use, instead of taking everyone on and making the service unusable for the majority, we should see an improvement in subscriber experience.

WTN: Their prices seem to be the same across the board, is there a kind of cartel behind this?

Yomi: Well, it very often looks so. However, there is no way to prove that. Personally, I think that it is more of the “follow-follow” syndrome and no-one wanting to rock the boat or stick their neck out.

WTN: How will you rate Nigerian internet market in terms of how we have harnessed is opportunity?

Yomi: By and large, we haven’t harnessed the opportunity too well. As mentioned earlier, there are a few stellar performances, but the average is less than satisfactory.

For example, there are internet startups springing up all over the country. I have been watching things keenly for years. One of these has brilliant ideas and concepts, but most of those startups have no viable income generation plan. Part of the problem is a lack of e-commerce and m-payment platforms. As we see better infrastructure and enabling environment, it will be easier for the average Joe to play profitably on the Nigerian internet market.

It is not a hopeless forecast though. At least, more and more people are getting on the internet market. The more the merrier. Hopefully when the enabling environment comes on stream, things will get really hot.

WTN:  What is missing is it funding or innovator to put Nigeria in the right place?

Yomi: It is a combination of both.

Funding is largely missing. The Nigerian business environment demands 2-3 years of rent, sundry government levies and taxes, extra expenses such as expenses for fuel generation, et al. Yet, banks generally only pay lip-service to supporting SMEs. Some months back, my company approached our bankers for a small loan. Our bank records were good. We had the cash flow to cover the loan, but we were told that the group head had put an embargo on loans below N10 million.

We did not need even a million. We needed less than that to cover a temporary shortfall of funds and we were disqualified because we weren’t asking for N10 million. Being small was our only offense.

Small and medium enterprises are largely on their own in the Nigerian market.

There isn’t a lot of innovation out there either, but as I have already stated there are some ideas that simply cannot fly now because certain infrastructure are not in place. I doff my hat to the individuals and groups that are able to make things happen right now inspite of the prevailing environment.

WTN: Can a world class mobile/web application emerge from Nigeria?

Yomi: The question (not the answer) is “Why not?”  All someone has to do is either look for a unique need and meet it, or play around long enough with ideas till he or she hits a home run.

WTN:   What should we expect from you anytime from now?

Yomi: That is a difficult question for me to answer. While I am a very brilliant and intelligent person, I am not ambitious as most people define ambition. I don’t live looking for the next big thing. I enjoy what I do now, what I have, where I am and try to simply make a difference in the little everyday things.

Right now, I am happily serving our webhosting clients at Alireta, running Mobility Nigeria, and pastoring. I am involved with mentoring young people through AspirePrime.com, a personal project. I am also helping married couples to address the most vital issue marriage through The Marriage Bed Seminars, a new project of mine.

You will agree with me that I have my hands full already. I’ll just keep being me, taking life one day at a time, and putting the best effort into what I am already doing, and innovating with those. Still, who knows tomorrow? If I have anything new, you’ll certainly hear from me!

WTN: Where do you see Nigerian Internet market in the next 3-5years?

Yomi: The Nigerian internet market will grow in leaps and bounds. With the arrival of two major submarine cables, we are looking at lower tariffs and better service. That will promote growth. Hopefully, the other factors required to mature the market as discussed already will be thrown into the mix as well and Nigerians can play ball and truly compete on the global scene.

WTN: What should we be doing now to get there?

Yomi: Everything that we can. It is always a bad idea to sit down and do nothing because there are problems on ground. We should be doing everything within our power to move forward and find a way around limitations. Even if it is one step forward that we are able to make, one step is progress. Hopefully after taking one step, we can take another, and another, and so on.

WTN: Any advice for technopreneurs?

Yomi: Dare. Dare to imagine. Dare to think. Dare to plan. Dare to step out. You won’t get anything done by complaining about the shortcomings. Complain if you will, but dare to aspire!

WTN: Thank you

Yomi: Thank you for the opportunity, and do keep up the good job.

Connect with Yomi: Yomiadegboye.com, on Facebook here.

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