They are technical prodigies and they are amazing. Led by KHALID ISMAIL, Byte has a great playbook on digital commerce in Africa. The first phase is social payment. Yes, Byte has built a social payment app which simplifies the process of paying, requesting payments, or splitting payments between friends.

With Byte, you can use an email, phone number, or byte tag to pay people directly from your bank account or credit card. Byte launched today.

Tekedia Capital is super-excited to be working with these young people. And I ask you to download their app  and visit their website.

Nigeria managed the covid-19 paralysis better than the UK. Yes, you can throw those statistics that Nigeria does not keep records for a decent comparison. Yet, we do not need government data to know when citizens are dying here and there. So, allowing the UK to seem like a more serious country on curtailing covid-19 would have been a big mistake.

That was why I joined some Africans to demand that UK rescinds its ban on travels from Africa because technically it was UK that was risking Africans including Nigeria as it recorded more troubles during the pandemic than Nigeria: ‘The United Kingdom will remove the travel red list that has pitied it against African countries who saw the decision as “discriminatory” and “unjustifiable.”’

The United Kingdom will remove the travel red list that has pitied it against African countries who saw the decision as “discriminatory” and “unjustifiable.”

The government has said that all 11 countries will be removed from the UK’s travel red list from 4am on Wednesday, putting an end to the diplomatic controversy the decision has stirred.

Late November, the UK announced it has placed Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe on a red list to prevent further spread of Omicron, the newest covid variant, from these countries.

The travel ban was widely condemned especially in Africa, with the UN calling it “travel apartheid.” The UK had earlier said it will not reverse the decision even as countries like Nigeria threatened to reciprocate.

I thank the leaders of the UK for doing just that. Now, we can leave our blackouts, bad roads, unworking clinics, insecurity, etc and travel easily to the UK. As the 2023 approaches, the UK health system will be welcoming many special visitors from Nigeria who need to be “cleansed and checked” by doctors  to avoid distraction during campaigns. So, we’re ready: 2022 is the year for UK travel; covid-19 restrictions gone!

UK Removes 11 African Countries from Covid-19 Red List

The United Kingdom will remove the travel red list that has pitied it against African countries who saw the decision as “discriminatory” and “unjustifiable.”

The government has said that all 11 countries will be removed from the UK’s travel red list from 4am on Wednesday, putting an end to the diplomatic controversy the decision has stirred.

Late November, the UK announced it has placed Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe on a red list to prevent further spread of Omicron, the newest covid variant, from these countries.

The travel ban was widely condemned especially in Africa, with the UN calling it “travel apartheid.” The UK had earlier said it will not reverse the decision even as countries like Nigeria threatened to reciprocate.

However, the health authority is changing its mind as the UK becomes the epicenter of Omicron variant. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said it had spread so widely the rules no longer had much purpose.

“Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad,” he told Parliament.

“Whilst we will maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel we will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list effective from 4am tomorrow morning.”

Besides the racial discrimination it portends, the travel restriction brought additional financial burden upon travelers. All UK arrivals from red list countries are required to pay for and self-isolate in a pre-booked, government-approved hotel for 10 days.

The BBC reported that some travelers had paid thousands of pounds to stay in government-approved quarantine hotels, with complaints of chaotic organization and inedible food during their stays.

But with all 11 countries being removed from that list, it was confirmed that those currently in managed quarantine would be allowed to leave early and “follow the rules as if they had arrived from a non-red list country,” the report said.

While the government claimed that it put countries on the red list to act quickly to slow the spread of Omicron, targeting African countries belied the decision. It also supported the belief that the restrictions were geopolitical not scientific as many western countries with rising Omicron cases were exempt from the red list.

The hospitality industry has joined voices with African leaders who called for the travel ban to be lifted. Tim Alderslade, head of trade group Airlines UK, said emptying the red list made “complete sense” but that the government should also scrap the remaining travel restrictions.

Last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called the travel restrictions “hasty” and “discriminatory,” adding that it will dent countries’ chances for economic recovery.

“The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to, and recover from the pandemic,” he said.

As you develop your playbook, look for critical enablers and optimize “Timing”. As a product goes to market, the function in your limit equation must be set that critical enablers are ready. Go back to  L’Hospital’s rule and evaluate limits of indeterminate forms. The differentiation of the numerator and denominator must deliver a limit which can be directly evaluated if you expect customers to pay attention. Go back to your Further Mathematics notebook.

Never ignore the impact of timing on any business. Timing is an important factor for the success of any startup, anchored around critical enablers.

Take an example: Kalahari, Mocality, Efritin, and Old Konga collapsed or struggled because of timing, not because of execution or the quality of the idea. B2C ecommerce has a promise for Africa but the time is not ripe yet until someone fixes logistics at scale.

You get the idea: great market winners are those who introduce amazing products at the “perfect” time. And becoming a legend is gaming that timing. #Time

Comment on LinkedIn Feed

Comment 1: An idea whose time has come is an idea that came in its time.

Distinguished, I completely agree with your submission above.

Understanding the thin line of moving in too fast and too slow is uncanny wisdom. May God order our steps in the marketplace and all places.

Comment 2: Physicists define Time as the Progression of Events from the past to the present into the future.

Basically, if a system is unchanging, it is timeless. Time can be considered to be the 4th Dimension of Reality, used to describe events in 3 Dimensional Space (Length, Width and Depth). It is not something we can see, touch, or taste, but we can measure its passage.

Our world is a system. Everything is interconnected, and as a rule, nothing is ever at a state of rest, consequently, Change is Constant. The constant vibrations and behaviours of one thing translate into sequence and series of events that blend into another. Through innovation, we create order from the chaos. Innovation is a moving target, therefore innovators are obligated to calibrate innovation to the socioeconomic dynamic of events. Innovation is a beautiful Sport.

Comment 3: It’s not just in business, #timing is everything in life!!

That’s why the #eagle perches on an elevated plain, #waits until it is 12 noon, when the warm wind currents, due to #thermalinsolation, begin to flow, and then dives into the #wind, with its wings spread, which carries it almost effortlessly for kilometres; while the #flappingbirds that believe in expense of energy, by #wingflapping, go for a distance of only a few miles.

Its thus painful, irritating, and annoying when a #flappingbird begins to control and stifle an #eagle with insidious remote controls from the #shadows!!

Comment 4: Ndubuisi Prof
In all things there is order. Even complete chaos will at some point return to a point of equilibrium. Without huge constant energy to maintain the chaos, it is inevitable.

Recall my Tekedia Institute piece tinyurl.com/Idea-piece-of-paper and view ‘McKeown’s Hierarchy of Business Evolution.
Organic ecosystem’s Lion and Killer Whale exist at the top of a chain of millions upon billions of plankton and algae. B2C commerce is part of the predator spectrum in business. Along with Fintech, Metaverse, virtual assets like NFT, they are top of the chain.

Without all the forms of life from plankton and algae they cannot exist. They depend on the full spectrum of ‘McKeown’s Hierarchy of Business Evolution to be working.

Else, it is like a builder constructing a house who decides to start at the roof first instead of foundation. The roof will not allow itself to be built, suspended in air while the builder puts up the walls and foundation at their convenience.

B2C is particularly vulnerable because the elements of McKeown’s Hierarchy of Business Evolution need to be on ground and working in Nigeria. Nigeria’s killer whales can explore economic food chains dependant on international waters, but must know their currents.