WTN: First, congrats on your last award and recent Joomla day Nigeria, you are really an inspiration!

Bade: Thank you. The award was totally unexpected. I would say it is God oh! For Joomla Day, we truly believe in Open source, though we did not get as much support as we expected (it was the 3rd edition) , we are glad the event was successful.

WTN: Let’s meet you

Bade: My name is Bade Adesemowo. I am an ICT consultant. I presently serve as Deputy Group Head [Development] in Bincom ICT solutions. I  studied electrical engineering from Unilag. I have a few certification in various areas of IT (A+, prince2, Itil, microsoft e.t.c) . I would say I am an  open source ambassador though I work more with social media right now  . Oh and recently, I won future awards for best use of technology.

WTN: Can you share with us, your startup experience?

Bade: I always knew i would be starting a company before I left school. though the plan then was to work for about 3 years first (in then Celtel). The company literally started with a boy, his laptop , with a phone and his car trunk for office. We eventually started using my room as an office , moving the bed out during the day. Back then all we used to do was web development. But we grew very fast first as a team and then in our service areas. Lets just say God is blessing us .

WTN: Your view about business adoption of internet?

Bade: Businesses adoption of the the internet is still in its infancy stage. The level is far from the potentials possible. But I would not hesitate to say that we are growing, gradually but surely.

WTN: How is getting businesses interested in web presence generally?

Bade: It depends generally on the client. Some clients are already in search for a solution so it is easier to facilitate best use of tech for their needs. The converse are clients that you generally have to identify the issues and then proffer a solution . And then “fight” the management to implement change and some times fight their accounts to realease enough funds.

WTN: What is your view about the Nigerian Internet market?

Bade: It is growing. I mean it is easy to look around us now (LAGOS) to find people that have a version of mobile internet or the other. But then in the other areas of nigeria , Almost every body I know are always on facebook and at worst facebook mobile. But then those are the people I know. I do know statistics say that penetration is currently less than 10%.

WTN: Investors & technologist, what do you think is missing, money or innovation?

Bade: I think money is not an issue if there is innovation. However, it is considerably harder to get financing for ideas in Nigeria.  I also believe in  thinking big , starting small and growing fast.

WTN: How has growing the Joomla User group been, any updates?

Bade: Truthfully, we have not been able to do any meetings since the last Joomla Day in December 2009 . We are looking forward to having some sort of meet up sometime in the 2nd quarter of 2010. It may however be a CMS meet-up and not necessarily just joomla. These things cost us a lot in terms of resources, time and finance. We truly want to give back as much as possible to the open source community

WTN: Joomla University, what is the turnout like?

Bade: The turnout was weak at the beginning (last april) but very gradually the Joomla!Uni has grown into formidable brand. We ran a version of the beginner class with NTA lagos recently.

PS: we are starting Drupal trainings in May too .

WTN: Internet connections in Nigeria, what’s your view about it?

Bade: Our broadband is like a quarter of the speed in the UK . I think it can be better. One of the challenges is the

WTN: If you are not doing web business which business would you have been doing?

Bade: Probably communication, I studied electrical engineering, you see.

WTN: Going forward, what should we expect from your company?

Bade: Best Use of Technology I guess. We have some great plans for 2010 . Our social media arm is growing . We just finished a project for one of the leading banking brands. It should launch before you publish this. We also started a management ICT strategy and training service. Ultimately, We are growing as an organisation .

WTN: For our internet market to grow at a faster rate, what should we do as investors, technologist, entrepreneur, business and government?

WTN: I guess the challenge is competition. If more people are willing to invest (and not just in money) in this sector, other industry leaders would sit up. The truth is that these things are not difficult.. The problem is the “WILL” .

WTN: What do you have for budding entrepreneurs?

Bade: Well we are starting Bincom ICT career talk bimonthly from April 17 . It is specifically designed to answer questions of young people considering careers in ICT and maybe also budding entrepreneurs. We intend to bring industry leaders in Nigeria to give talks to their potential protegees . Basically creating a mentoring platform in ICT . This is one of our main CSR goals for 2010 . http://www.bincom.net/ict-career-talk

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Today we will be looking at social media; someone may want to ask “what is social media?” What is the noise about? Well before we go further let’s understand the brief definition of the term Social media “…it’s media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many).” Simple enough? That is to say, it helps you to transform your monologue to dialogue, it makes the communication two-ways, and it changes communication from talk-to to talking-with. You are not only able to read what others have published but you can join the conversation, you can create you own!

The underlying technology behind social media is web 2.0 which is driven by democratization of content, sharing and community. Some of the most popular social media tools include: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Digg, Blogger and Wordpress.

Social Media enables viral communication and spreading of ideas. It is not limited to business; it takes different shape and forms based on the idea. One of the biggest achievements of social media is helping Barack Obama win the US presidential election. When information hit the media, and spread by someone within his network and others spread within their own networks, then the growth continue like wild fire.

There are some sharp contrasts between Social media and the Industry media as analyzed on Wikipedia, they include;

1. Reach – both industrial and social media technologies provide scale and enable anyone to reach a global audience.
2. Accessibility – the means of production for industrial media are typically owned privately or by government; social media tools are generally available to anyone at little or no cost.
3. Usability – industrial media production typically requires specialized skills and training. Most social media do not, or in some cases reinvent skills, so anyone can operate the means of production.
4. Recency – the time lag between communications produced by industrial media can be long (days, weeks, or even months) compared to social media (which can be capable of virtually instantaneous responses; only the participants determine any delay in response). As industrial media are currently adopting social media tools, this feature may well not be distinctive anymore in some time.
5. Permanence – industrial media, once created, cannot be altered (once a magazine article is printed and distributed changes cannot be made to that same article) whereas social media can be altered almost instantaneously by comments or editing.

Social media has various branches;

• Social Networking (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5)
• Microblogging (Twitter, Jaiku, naijapulse, kukurooku, gistcaster)
• Bookmaking (delicious, StumbleUpon)
• Blogs (Wordpress, Blogger, TypePad)
• Video (YouTube, Vimeo)
• Wiki (Wikipedia, PBworks)
• Etc.

Social media has transformed the media industry and shaking it right now! The power has shifted to the consumer; they can voice their opinions, engage each other and become publisher cheaply. In the business side, it has helped brands to keep their customers engaged and increase brand loyalty. For social causes, it helped in recent Haiti Earthquakes to raise millions of dollars for the victims, helped the protest in Iranian election. The LightupNigeria protest started on Twitter and the recent youth protest in Nigeria tagged Where is Yaradua also started on social media platform.

Social media is here to stay is we shall see it enhance in the coming years, because we humans are social being, and the thing we have been expecting from the internet is the social part, now we have and we are enjoying it!

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Nigerian Pidgin Bible; Crowd-sourced Project on Facebook

Pidgin english is a simplified English language people in Nigeria use for casual conversation.
A project developed by 9ja BusStop; the Facebook application hopes to translate the Christian Bible to pidgin English.

Most visited Nigerian sites in February 2010

As usual looking at how Nigerian website feared in the recent month. It again no surprise that nairaland.com remains on the top spot but its good to note how punchng.com rally from shadow of its formal glory to take back the second spot.

NetNaira.com another Nigerian e-payment site

If you have been following this blog since the start of the year, you will notice a growing pattern in the Nigerian web space. I wrote last time about an e-payment service for Nigerian (FasteCash).

Interswitch webpay, a dying goldmine

Interswitch the leading payment gateway in Nigeria, in fact has a near monopoly stronghold on the e-payment industry in Nigeria.

Startups Act 2010, US wants technopreneur around the world

I was reading through Techcrunch and came across this post. Silicon Valley technocrats are drumming up support for the bill proposed by Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) to be discussed next week Thursday.

Innovation Hub lands in Kenya

If there is a country on African soil that has shown consistent commitment towards technology development in recent time, I sure will choose Kenya! Kenya is home to M-Pesa and some other innovative technologies.

Facebook worth $11.5billion, Twitter $1.4billion, Linkedin $1.3billion

Whether you want to say, social networking is fun or business, I guess a company worth over a billion dollars is no more a child’s place.
Facebook is the world largest social networking site with over 400 million users worldwide. Oh! 400 M, yeah! 400million eyeballs you can market to!

Nigerian Blogger Featured on Oprah Show

Nigeria internet scene has been growing massively on the positive side, Google recently stamped its footprint on the Nigerian Internet Market last month; as other large scale investment is going on to harness the potential of the Nigerian internet market.

BBN SMS launched bulk SMS recharge cards

BBN SMS is one of the leading bulk SMS operators in the Nigeria’s growing bulk SMS market. To serve more customers, BBN believes that bulk SMS does not have to run into thousands but some Naira. Today the dealer recharge PIN has been launched!

Zain Nigeria not for sale to Bharti

Mobile provider ECONET is making attempts to block any possible sale of Zain Nigeria to Bharti Airtel of India. According to Bloomberg, CEO of Econet, Strive Masiyiwa says his company has the first option to buy the stake acquired by Zain.

Egypt’s Orascom, eighth largest mobile network in the world

The past decade has been a highly successful one for the leading Middle Eastern and African operators. PRTM, a global management consultancy, has a new report in which it says that Egypt’s Orascom Telecom has become the eighth largest mobile network in the world by customer numbers. As a result, the company is now ahead of some of the well-established international operators.

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BBN SMS

Godwin Noah, MD/CEO said we are reaching out to more customers, creating more revenue streams for our dealers.

Card Denomination

The table shows, how you can get 50 SMS for just 200 Naira. Dealers can start with just 2,000 Naira and generate cards online!

Details available on their website here.

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Uche Eze, is the blogger behind the popular entertainment blog, bellanaija.com. She is very passionate and consistent about what she does! She was also a finalist at the recent Future Awards for best use of technology category. Uche shared on the blog that she’d dreamed of appearing on Oprah show, well if they say dream comes through, this is a testimony! She dreamt it and it came to pass just under 3 months. Uche was selected amongst thousands around the world in current Oprah series “Beauty Around the World”. The show covers themes of body image and many other things.

This is a big boost to Nigeria’s growing image of positive web impact. Congratulations UChe Eze, you are an inspiration!

Spread the word!

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Facebook is the world largest social networking site with over 400 million users worldwide. Oh! 400 M, yeah! 400million eyeballs you can market to!

An analysis from sharespost.com release worth of the following companies on its website to help people willing to invest in private companies know their worth.

• Facebook: $11.5 billion
• Zynga: $2.6 billion (A gaming company based on Facebook platform)
• Twitter: $1.4 billion
• LinkedIn: $1.3 billion
• Linden Labs (Second Life): $383 million

Facebook is estimated to earn over a billion dollar in revenue this year, with over $700million predicted last year and recently reported that it has turned cash-flow positive; this year will surely be its year.

Look at the estimate closely and you can deduct somehow funny stuff;

Facebook is worth almost 10 times of twitter, Zynga (Facebook Gaming Company) is worth almost 2 times of twitter. Twitter is yet to figure out an effective way to make money other than its recent license to search engines to search its real-time tweets.

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Innovation hub or simply iHub is an open environment for techies to express themselves, launch startups and take on the world! The place was launched yesterday in fanfare!

iHub: “It’s an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in the area. This space is a tech community facility with a focus on young entrepreneurs, web and mobile phone programmers and designers. It is part open community workspace (co-working), part vector for investors and VCs and part incubator.”

Facilities

• 10MBs internet connection (hardwire and WIFI)
• Free Membership Access
• Space of startups to meet with VCs, Investors and local business
• and many more

For innovation to thrive , an accommodating environment is very important! This is a step in the right direction and it will reduce the startup headache of running an office before generation fund.

Advisory board

• Riyaz Bachani, CTO of Wananchi
• Josiah Mugambi, Co-Founder of Skunkworks
• Rebeccah Wanjiku, Tech reporter and entrepreneur
• Conrad Akunga, Blogger and Software Manager
• Erik Hersman, Tech blogger, Founder of AfriGadget and co-Founder of Ushahidi

Big ups to Kenya for this great foresight!

I hope to see this happen in Nigeria soonest! We have the market, we have the techies… can we make it happen?

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Here is what the bill plans to accomplish:

The Startup Visa Act of 2010 would create a two year visa for immigrant entrepreneurs who are able to raise a minimum of $250,000, with $100,000 coming from a qualified U.S. angel or venture investor. After two years, if the immigrant entrepreneur is able to create five or more jobs (not including their children or spouse), attract an additional $1 million in investment, or produce $1 million in revenues, he or she will become a legal resident.

That means that entrepreneur from anywhere around the globe who could raise $150,000 and a $100,000 from a US investor is qualify for the Visa.

Immigrant Visa in the US has been a big issue ever since and this will not be any different as response on Techcrunch blog shows. Though some supports and others don’t. Argument ranges from abuse by other corporation to pushing jobs for foreigners at the expenses of already jobless Americans.

What does this mean for Africa?

As someone commented, a group of 15 people can invest like $10,000 each for a colleague to spearhead the startup plus get funding from US and set up the company then invite others. While this seem cumbersome, it’s the least possible option (i think).

A price tag of $150,000 is such a huge amount that is good enough to start a company here in Nigeria and become a multi-million naira company. Anyone who could raise this and still want to go out there; its either  the company will require large sum of money or just want to check out.

A brain-drain of technology talent 2.0

Africa sure experience massive emmigration of its talented population to the West in the ’80s till now, this will surely aggravate the trend.

Overlooking of emerging market

Well, if you are a US citizen and doing well, it is sure a good thing to see innovation continue from the valley and US still leading the pack, well this will help the US as companies registered their pay taxes and helps the government meet the demand of its population. On the other side, the US companies can also acquire startups outside of the US and operate them  as some promising startup may not be able to raise that much or be willing go to the US.

Africa will be the last on the list of expected applicants for this visa, Indians, Chinese and other easterns countries with great talents are the main target. Given contibution of people from these countries to Silicon Valley, VCs still believes that more are still available in these countries.

African market is emerging, our web life-style is just getting shape, the world might not notice for now, I believe in the next couple of years, ideas hanging between our hears will be implemented.

How do you think this impact Africa? If you can raise $150,000 can you apply for this visa if it’s eventually passed?

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Interswitch the leading payment gateway in Nigeria, in fact has a near monopoly stronghold on the e-payment industry in Nigeria. Though, it is supposed to be the preferred gateway for online payments but has scared web merchants away with its exorbitant setup fee of N150, 000. Interswitch charges N150, 000 for setup fee, 1.5% per transaction and N2, 000 flat on transaction above N150, 000. I’d expected that it automatically transfer its presence on the card system to online but I must say, its strategy is not internet-business friendly.

2Checkout a top brand in online payment gateway accepts credit cards (Master card, Visa card, Discovery and many others) on its platform. The setup cost is just $49 and 5.5% + 55 cent per transaction which is still high but takes off the setup huddle.

It won’t belong that competitors grab the space with the development going on around the web space in Nigeria. I have spoken with couple of innovators and we should expect many more e-payment platform before the year end. We could even have a Nigerian M-Pesa before December. GTB (they have a discounted web pay platform that works fine with Interswitch) recently launched a master card powered debit card and gradually disconnecting from Interswitch.

Personally, I think the setup fee should not be more than N10, 000 while they make up the money from the commission from turn over on the site operating on their platform.

What do you think about Interswitch strategy? Do you think they will change soon or be forced to change by the market? How do you think new entrants with influence their decision?

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If you have been following this blog since the start of the year, you will notice a growing pattern in the Nigerian web space. I wrote last time about an e-payment service for Nigerian (FasteCash). I went o Interswitch on yesterday (Tuesday) to ask for any update regarding their payment platform, well nothing has changed in the setup fee and transaction commission and no plan (as much as I know) to review the price.

In their own word: “NetNaira is a secure pointing/credit system designed to solve the problem of exchanging goods and services for value online speedily and securely.”

NetNaira aims to help small businesses with facility to accept payments directly on their websites without having to share their bank information with their customers.

A New Deal?

Not really a new deal but very strategic deal to the growth of the industry. A number of websites have been online for quite sometimes now providing the same service. Looking at Nigerian web industry, this service is yet to be fully embraced and any site that starts early and can build its trust capital should be profitable when people’s apathy to online payment is relieved.

Real Deal

• NetNaira Allows easy, secure payment platform for those who are not willing to disclose their card detail to just any website, like in the case of a recent fraudulent site we wrote about.
• The platform is secured with Comodo.
• Helps merchant accept payment on their website.
• It also has a simple website integration API that allows communication with its server.
• Referral commission on new customer introduced to the platform
• Transfer fee is 1.2% + 10 naira
• Account is free to open and to receive payment
• An escrow service that allow anyone to become a cashpoint for the platform
• It’s seller are numerous (where you can withdraw your money)

Downside

• Just about 7 merchants are available on its directory
• Maximum transaction cap on personal account

Business model

Transaction broker; it helps people fulfill deals across the internet and making money from commission.

At this point in time, services like these are extremely needed to help facilitate buying and selling on the internet in Nigeria. Given the peculiarity of Nigeria Trust wise, having your money channeled through third party could be a safe way to buy stuff online

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