The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has mandated the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to adhere strictly to the provisions of the Executive Orders 003 and 005 as contained in the Presidential directives of 1^st May 2017 and 12^th February 2018 respectively, in awarding contracts in the sector.

The Minister’s latest directive came as a response to issues raised by stakeholders drawing his attention to the non-compliance of the sector regulator with the policy, as a result of which indigenous companies in the sector have continued to be sidelined.

The Executive Orders 003 of 2017 and 005 of 2018 were specifically enacted to give impetus to the Local Content Development and Promotion drive of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as the Telecommunications sub-sector is one of the most important.

Executive Order 003, which is aimed at support for Local Content in public procurement by the Federal Government of Nigeria, expressly states that, all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) shall grant preference to local manufacturers of goods and service providers, in their procurement of goods and services.

Executive Order 005 which was signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on 12^th February 2018, however, is even more specifically directed at the sector. The document  titled Planning and Execution of Projects and Promotion of Nigerian Content in Contracts of Science, Engineering and Technology, directs all MDAs to engage indigenous professionals in the planning , design and execution of national security projects and maximize in-country capacity in all contracts and transactions with Science, Technology and Engineering components.

“In light of this, it is our obligation to entrench the rule of law and ensure as much as possible, National Security Infrastructure and information, is domiciled locally with local companies as a first choice, and indigenous innovation is developed by adhering to the tenets of the Executive Orders outlined above,” the statement signed by the Minister’s spokesperson, Mrs. Uwa Suleiman, said.

The statement adds: “The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, in line with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) Policy of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Ministry’s mandate, has directed the sector regulator NCC, to immediately:

• Review the Telecommunications sub-sector activities and give top priority and preference to Nigerian companies, with the requisite skills and qualifications;
• Provide an enabling environment for local capacity to develop through collaborations with foreign companies, in the event that the contract is awarded to a foreign company, where indigenous capacity is lacking; and
• Ensure that patronage of Indigenous Content as outlined in the Executive Orders are complied with in the sub-sector.”

It further said that the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, is confident that the leadership of NCC will rise to the occasion and expedite action on this matter a month from the date of issue of the directive.

Pantami assures all Nigerians of his commitment to the protection of the rights of all citizens and the delivery of our mandate.

Once again, Nigeria is one of the top 20 countries affected by spam calls and SMS globally, a recent report by Truecaller has revealed.

According to the study, the average Truecaller user in Nigeria receives 8.4 spam calls per month, which is 20% higher than last year.

This year, Brazil topped the list, with the average Truecaller user receiving 45.6 spam calls monthly.  Brazil is followed by Peru and Indonesia at 30.9 and 27.9 spam calls respectively.  This report had countries in North and South America dominating the list.  They were: Mexico, Chile, USA, Colombia and Canada.

The other continent which featured prominently was Asia, parading countries like Indonesia, India, UAE, Sri Lanka, Israel, Lebanon and Malaysia.

Besides Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt were the other African countries affected by spam calls, with the latter having the least record of spam calls in 2019.

For spam SMS, Nigeria ranked 7^th among the top 20 countries affected.  The average Truecaller user in Nigeria received 65 spam SMS per month.  However, Ethiopia came tops with the average Truecaller user receiving 119 spam SMS per month, followed by South Africa with 114 and Kenya with 102 spam SMS monthly.

In all, nine countries in Africa and nine countries in Asia dominated the list of recipients of spam SMS.  Brazil and Colombia were the only American countries on the list.

Truecaller users in Ghana received the least number of spam SMS.

Of the spam calls and SMS received monthly by Truecaller users in Nigeria, 12% were scams.  Calls and messages from operators made up 85% and telemarketing accounted for only 3% of spam calls and SMS.

Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates (UAE and Egypt had the bulk of spams from operators with such calls and SMS totaling 81%, 84% and 74% respectively.

In Malaysia, Australia and Lebanon, scams accounted for 63%, 60% and 49% of spammers, while Israel had the most spam from political calls.

In South Africa, majority of the spammers came from scam calls and SMS, totaling 39%.

Truecaller Insights Report 2019 was aggregated anonymously from incoming calls that either were marked as spam by users – or automatically been flagged by Truecaller during the period of January 1st, 2019 to October 30th, 2019 to understand the monthly average spam rate.

As a go-to app for caller ID and spam blocking, Truecaller application has been installed over 500 million times and records over 150 million daily active users around the world.

About Truecaller

People use Truecaller to stay ahead. It helps them know who’s getting in touch, filter out unwanted and focus on what really matters. The company provides a suite of unique services such as a dialer that offers caller ID, spam detection, messaging and more.

Truecaller’s mission is to build trust everywhere by making communication safe and efficient. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the company was founded in 2009 by Alan Mamedi and NamiZarringhalam. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Atomico and Kleiner Perkins.

Mitchell Elegbe, GMD / Founder, Interswitch Group has advised business owners to identify problems in their environments and find ways to create solutions for them, noting that businesses earn more by solving real problems.

Speaking on Thursday, November 28, 2019 during a Breakfast Chat series at the Co-creation Hub (CcHUB), Yaba, Lagos, Elegbe stressed on the importance of identifying the reason for embarking on a business venture – to solve a problem or make money.

He explained that to stand out in business, it is important to identify problems and develop solutions to them.  He said: “The key is thinking critically. You will be surprised at the kind of challenges you will discover and find solutions to. Problem-solving is what will stand you out and ensure you become indispensable. That should be your mindset”.

Sharing tips on building a globally sustainable business, Elegbe advised that entrepreneurs should run their businesses with the mindset that they can be fired. He also urged business owners to be disciplined, explaining that there are some businesses meant for mere survival but cannot scale to the next level.

Speaking on behalf of the participants, Francis Sani, Acceleration Programmes Manager at CCHUB, expressed his appreciation to Elegbe and hoped that the participants took notes of nuggets needed to push their businesses to a higher level.

Thirty-five young entrepreneurs across various industries attended the series.  Held monthly, the breakfast chat is an exclusive chat series for entrepreneurs to network, address pressing business issues and discuss possible solutions to their business challenges.

Migo (formerly Mines.io), a startup reinventing the way people access and use credit in emerging markets, has completed a Series B equity round of $20 million led by Valor Capital Group, a Brazil-focused venture capital firm.

Existing investors, The Rise Fund (managed by TPG Growth) and Velocity Capital, also joined the funding round. This financing will support talent acquisition and Migo’s launch into the Brazilian market, as well as its continued growth in Nigeria.

Migo is a cloud-based platform that enables companies to offer credit to their customers, augmenting traditional bank and payment card infrastructure. Companies like banks, telecommunications operators and merchants integrate Migo in their apps and Migo underwrites customers to provide them with a digital account and credit line.

The customers can use this credit line to make purchases from a merchant or withdraw cash without the need for point-of-sale hardware or plastic cards. Migo serves under-banked customers who are not typically covered by credit bureaus, having underwritten more than seven million of these customers to date.

An estimated 90 million adults in Nigeria and 100 million adults in Brazil have no access to credit, and this is a massive area of untapped growth for emerging market banking ecosystems.

“Our mission is to drive commerce around the world by injecting liquidity into the last-mile retail sector,” explains Migo CEO, Ekechi Nwokah. “We believe the best way to achieve this goal is to build digital infrastructure to empower local enterprises that already serve millions of consumers and small businesses.”

Migo offers a simple API so its partners can offer co-branded credit services in their own apps and websites, increasing customer engagement and serving customer segments they were not previously able to serve. Migo is particularly attractive for merchants and payment gateways since it can grow merchant revenue due to increased customer purchasing power and transaction completion rate.

As part of the financing, Antoine Colaco from Valor Capital has joined the Migo Board of Directors. “Migo combines world-class technology with a deep understanding of the needs of consumers and small businesses in emerging markets. We are excited to partner with them in Brazil and beyond,” Colaco said.

Migo enables some of the largest retail enterprises in Africa—from mobile operators like 9mobile and MTN to payment companies Interswitch and Flutterwave to banks like Bank of Industry and Fidelity Bank.  Migo is now expanding to Brazil and partnering with some of the largest retail enterprises in Latin America. “The typical Silicon Valley approach of move-fast-and-break-things doesn’t work well in emerging markets. To create durable solutions, it is important to combine the audacity of cutting-edge technology with humility to the nuances of local markets” says VP of Growth, Adia Sowho.

Migo started out as a research project on high-performance artificial intelligence led by Migo Chief Scientist, Kunle Olukotun, a professor of computer engineering at Stanford University. This project came to life after a chance meeting between Olukotun and Nwokah, a computer scientist working on big data projects at Amazon Web Services.

Following their meeting, the pair teamed up to direct the technology toward solving credit in emerging markets. This big data approach is one of the company’s key advantages, as it aggregates massive amounts of data across all of its partners to improve population coverage and credit decisions over time.

About Migo

Migo is a cloud-based platform that enables companies to offer credit to their customers, augmenting traditional bank and payment card infrastructure. Companies like banks, telecommunications operators and merchants integrate Migo in their apps and Migo underwrites customers to provide them with a digital account and credit line. The customers can use this credit line to make purchases from a merchant or withdraw cash without the need for point-of-sale hardware or plastic cards. Migo is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

In today’s competitive job market, companies are having to get creative in how they attract the right candidate to their open positions. Technology giants like Google, Apple, and Facebook are legendary for offering high salaries and luxurious perks. Few tech startups can compete against the six-figure salaries at these industry juggernauts.
As it’s estimated that roughly 4.5 million new tech jobs will be created to fuel the widespread adoption of the Internet of Things, shortages in tech talent will continue for the foreseeable future. Luckily, there are plenty of other benefits a tech startup can offer potential new hires. Here’s what a tech startup can offer – and how they can recruit differently – to compete for talent in today’s competitive market.

Look beyond the CV
Consider this: less than 50% of software developers have eight years of experience in coding; even fewer have more than five years of professional experience. Lots of coders aren’t coming from traditional hiring sources, like universities and computer science programs.
Over 80% of programmers enjoy coding as a hobby, and almost all professional developers are learning their skills informally. Therefore, tech start-ups must get creative in how they find and validate the capabilities of new talent. Monica Zeng, hiring manager at Aragon One, goes straight to a candidate’s social profiles and portfolio to learn more about their work. “We want people who have a high sense of curiosity, a strong sense of purpose, who are active in the open-source community, who have nonconformist ideas both professionally and ideologically, and who are critical thinkers. We want contributors, not just workers,” says Zeng.
Diversify your candidate pipeline by looking away from traditional job boards and reach candidates who are a better match for your tech start-up. Thinking outside the box to improve your inbound recruiting can increase your likelihood of finding a great new hire.

Recruit from the top
As consulting firm McKinsey argues, “Talent attracts talent, especially in technology functions.” Tech startups can leverage high-profile hires to build a world-class team. Be prepared to spend big on a CTO or other senior executive who can bring in a team of the same caliber. Once you have your executive, work with a recruiting firm to mine the executive’s network for passive candidates or to identify those who would work at your start-up. Use your rockstar manager’s reputation as a selling point to compete for talent on the open market.

Highlight your strong culture
Salary is important, but so is company culture. Millennials, in particular, want to work at a place where they feel valued. “Promote the company culture first. Studies show that today’s employees want more than a paycheck. They want purpose and to be working on something they believe in,” one expert told the US Chamber of Commerce.
Culture is more than just a ping pong table in the break room. When millennials say they want to work with purpose, it’s not just about making them feel part of a larger company mission. It’s about the social values of your business as well. One survey found that:

• 63% of millennials said the purpose of business should be “improving society”
• 94% of millennials want to use their skills to benefit a cause
• 57% of millennials wish there were more company-wide volunteer days

Find ways to highlight how your tech startup has impact on society at large. Volunteering doesn’t cost anything but time; it’s a low-stakes, high-reward way to attract talented individuals to your business.

Offer autonomy
One of the benefits frequently touted of working at a startup is that it’s an all-hands-on deck, collaborative, fast-paced work environment. To live up to that reputation, you need to trust the people you hire to do a great job. Flexibility and autonomy are two huge perks your tech startup can highlight in the race for talent.
The CEO of Avvo, a legal services marketplace, says he’s seen a lot of success from giving engineers a degree of independence. “He said Avvo not only gives employees free rein for their work, but ‘even around how we run the organisation.’”
Likewise, Fast Company stays flexibility starts at on-boarding. “Once you extend an offer, give candidates some say over what teams they can join and what work they can begin taking on. The chance to have a say in how they spend their time right from the get-go can be a deciding factor in which offer candidates ultimately accept.”
When you believe in your new hires, they’ll be loyal with you – reducing turnover and decreasing the need for you to dive back into the job market in the future. See how Elevate Talent can help you build a world-class startup team: get in touch with us on LinkedIn.

AUTHOR                

Erin is the Recruiting Manager at Elevate Talent, a recruiting agency that helps companies build their Go-To-Market and People Operations teams.

Funnel Logistics Technologies Limited, Nigeria’s pioneer e-logistics technology company has launched its electronic courier aggregation platform – Funnel.

The platform is an electronic facilitator for efficient and seamless request/fulfilment of deliveries through the best courier operators across Nigeria.

The Funnel technology platform brings together customers in need of courier services and a diverse range of courier service operators at very competitive rates. Subscribers on the Funnel platform can request to have their parcels picked-up and delivered by their preferred courier services at highly discounted rates.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Tunde Oloyede, the Chief Executive Officer at Funnel Logistics Technologies Limited said: “We are excited to be launching this pioneer service in Nigeria. The Funnel platform provides innovative solutions to ease Nigerians’ everyday last-mile logistics pain points. At Funnel, our mission is to be the primary electronic facilitator for efficient request/fulfilment of deliveries across Africa.”

Who can use Funnel?

The Funnel technology platform can be used by retailers, e-commerce platforms and their customers. Social media retailers can initiate delivery requests from within their chats with customers; and customers of e-Commerce platforms can now choose and pay for their preferred delivery service during checkout.

Best of all, anyone can request a pick-up and delivery to any part of Nigeria from their mobile phone/PC without placing a single call/message. Every step from the initiation of the request, to follow up, tracking deliveries and receipt of parcels, will all be done within our apps.

Oloyede further explained that users on the Funnel platform have a range of courier service providers to choose from, He said “We have partnered with the most reliable courier companies (DHL, FedEx, Smartpost, Rapiid, EMS, and many others), and negotiated highly discounted rates with them, to ensure that our users get the best value for their money”.

With the launch of Funnel into the Nigeria market, it is expected that Nigerians will be able to move their parcels, documents, and goods from one point to the other with significantly less hassle. All they need do is go to Funnel.ng to get started.

How to use Funnel

Once registration is completed, making a request or integrating businesses onto the Funnel platform takes just four simple steps which can be completed in less than 2 minutes.

The Funnel apps are easy to use for subscribers of all types; including individuals, businesses, e-Commerce platforms, online stores, warehouses and retailers. It has an intuitive dashboard that allows customers to track orders, provide businesses with various reports that can be used for decision making and planning, gives warehouses the flexibility to print their shipping labels easily.

“A critical bit of our model is to provide as many easy to use tools as possible (apps, plugins, APIs) that offer our potential users and clientele efficient and seamless access to delivery services from our courier partners. So, logistics is made easy for both the customer who is requesting a service and the services provider”. Oloyede concluded.

Microsoft Nigeria has partnered the Candle Career to organise the 2019 edition of the Candle Career Conference which held on Saturday in Lagos.

The conference which will be graced by seasoned speakers in various industries is themed: “Out of the Ordinary: The bedrock of an extraordinary career.”

The conference is a spring up from “The Candle Career,” a community focused on up-skilling and increasing the pathways to success of Nigerian undergraduates and fresh graduates.

For this year’s conference, top industry professionals are expected to share insights on the nitty-gritty of an extraordinary career.

Mr. Orimolade Oluwamuyemi, Regional Marketing and Communications Coordinator – MEA Philanthropies at Microsoft who is set to speak on “Key patterns of an extraordinary career” and Mr. Adora Ikwuemesi, Director, Kendor Consulting Limited are the keynote speakers of the occasion.

Mr. Ikwuemesi will speak on the topic: “Understanding your career trajectory: Beyond a degree.”

The event will also feature other speakers in a panel session such as: Mr. Tochukwu Egesi, CEO, Innovation Corner; Mr. Samuel Akinlotan, Talent Acquisition Partner, Sterling Bank Plc and Mr. Ajoke Emekene, a Management Consultant.

Speaking about the fourth-coming conference, Miss. Yvonne Okoro, Founder, The Candle Career, said that the event would create the opportunity for undergraduates and fresh graduates to be guided on the right career path.

Miss Okoro said: “We are excited to organize our maiden edition of The Candle Career Conference. We are also thankful for the support given to us by Microsoft, Nigeria. We are certain that attendees will gain knowledge that will help them enhance their careers and also expand their network at the event,”

According to her, The Candle Career continues to empower, inspire and educate Nigerian undergraduates and fresh graduates.

The Candle Career is founded as an employability and career hub called to tackle unemployment in Nigeria. The community is focused on up-skilling and increasing the pathways to success of undergraduates and fresh graduates to thrive wherever they find themselves.

By Elvis Eromosele

Technology is an almost indispensable part of human history. It has however never quite progressed as projected. It almost always manages to beat expectations. The automobile, the television and even the computer all defied expectations. One of the biggest fears about technology was always about job loss. This fear never quite materialised.

Technology always manages to achieve net job gain. Rather than take jobs, technology constantly creates jobs and sometimes even whole new industries thus boosting productivity. After all is said and done, technology is now an ally, an ally to humans, an ally for human development.

On the flip side, a major challenge for development is poverty. it has been described as easily one of the most prevalent and challenging issues in the world. Beyond the definitions and categorisation, however, the stark reality is that poverty is deprivation.

According to the United Nations (UN), “To be poor is to be deprived. And the worst kind of deprivation is financial exclusion.”

It is precisely the desire to curb, curtail or else eliminate financial exclusion that has made financial inclusion to become a real big deal in the last decade.

And why not; traditional banks have struggled to reach large segments of the population, both in the urban and rural areas. They have struggled to reach the unbanked. They have struggled to provide services beyond the formal settings.

Banks have been unable to achieve financial inclusion. New ideas are needed. New methods are required. New technologies must come to play.

Thankfully, it is already beginning to happen. It started with payments. In the first instance card and later gradually online payments until eCommerce started to buzz. Interswitch is a pioneer in this space. Now, it has graduated to the level of firms, technology firms, offering the full range of financial services.

Today, these firms, technology firms offering financial services are aptly referred to as fintechs. They are at the root of disruption ravaging the financial services sector and are spreading fast. They are working actively to change the narrative. They seem committed to contributing to efforts to close the financial inclusion gap. They are emerging as the real MVP of financial inclusion.

Fintech, according to Investopedia, is used to describe new tech that seeks to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services.

Fintechs are however not only technology-driven but equally deeply customer-focused, data-powered and service-oriented. They are also currently springing up like mushrooms across the country. This is not surprising as emerging markets such as Nigeria, are today the hotbeds for producing smart and simple financial solutions at an incredibly rapid rate. This makes sense in a country where so many are currently financially excluded.

In using modern technologies innovatively to enhance the delivery of financial products and services, fintechs find themselves not just providing alternative finance but in direct competition with banks.

This need not be the case. Yes, for a long time, fintechs offered mobile-only propositions because they lacked the legacy infrastructure and associated costs of the banks. Banks, on the other hand, lack the technology and agility of the fintechs.

But now, the future is in collaboration. No, not a competition, but co-operation and collaboration. At this point, banks and fintechs must find a way to shake hands and get things done. There are huge opportunities to bridge the gap if the parties will collaborate. They must go together if the goal is true financial inclusion.

The opportunity is huge. Unconfirmed reports indicate that over 90 per cent of transactions in Nigeria are still cash-based. The opportunity to provide financial services is enormous. Every player in the sector must therefore actively collaborate to bring in a substantial portion of the 90 per cent into the formal system.

Here again, fintechs are showing the way. They are driving payments as a strategy to boost financial inclusion. This is precisely why the emergence of new players like Opay is welcome-a new fintech that entered the market with a completely new business model, one that may just be the way to go.

Opay is ensuring that a growing number of people to use its digital payments solution by offering everyday services. Think ORide, OFood, OBus and others.

Fintechs are enabling payments, increasing the number of people with access to financial services and creating jobs. Consider the massive number of agents that now dots the landscape. It is therefore not far-fetched to think that fintechs are driving financial inclusion and jump-starting efforts to free people from the clutches of poverty.

Besides, fintechs are pushing the frontier. They are rapidly expanding the borders from basic financial service such as payment to lending, savings and insurance among others. They can leverage data analytics to provide personalised loans, improve the loan disbursement timeline and promote prompt, somethings almost same day quick loans.

Firms such as Renmoney are in this space, promoting unprecedented access to quick loans. It is now so easy for anyone that desires quick loans (business or personal) to access it.

Financial inclusion, according to the World Bank, means that “individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered responsibly and sustainably.” Fintechs are making this a reality for millions of Nigerians. It is beyond commendable.

Without a doubt, the association between financial inclusion efforts and the reduction of poverty rates is a key driver for the future expansion of digital financial services (DFS).

Progress has been made. Reports indicate that about 50 per cent of adults in the country have access to financial services. It can be better. A lot more still needs to be done.

Thankfully, some banks have seen the light. They are promoting services using USSD, such that customers with the most basic mobile phones can perform essential banking services.

Here, consider Stanbic IBTC’s *909# among others. ALAT by Wema, a first in its class, is also worthy of study. With USSD and other mobile financial solutions, people can access top-notch financial services without stepping into a bank.

Also, now that the telecoms behemoths are getting into mobile money and digital financial services, a huge leap is imminent. They are expected to help advance the quest to reach the unbanked with financial services. This is plausible as there are currently over 150 million connected lines in Nigeria.

The licensed telecoms service providers is a great way to democratise access to financial services in Nigeria. There are reports that MTN plans to roll out over 500, 000 MoMo Agents across the country, through its Y’ello Digital Financial Services (YDFS) subsidiary.

This is the future. The future is already here.

Undeniably for the benefits of technology to successfully and fully harnessed to improve financial inclusion in Nigeria the right developmental and regulatory framework must be in place.

As the world looks to end poverty, technology and fintechs are in the thick of things. Access to financial services is on the rise. The government should focus on enabling the safe and sustainable development of this critical section of the economy.

Policies that seek penalise for using e-payment must be abolished, regulations that restrain e-commerce must be scrapped and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) must shelf the plan to tax online transactions.

Fintechs and indeed all technology solutions providers deserve a break. They are today driving financial inclusion. They are heroes of Nigeria’s financial inclusion success story. They are helping to end poverty.

Elvis Eromosele, a Corporate Communication professional and public affairs analyst lives in Lagos.