The state of Ohio in the United States wants to classify Google as a public utility. That means Google will be put in the same bucket like your electricity provider and water board: “Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Tuesday filed a landmark lawsuit asking the court to declare Google a public utility, reining in the ways the powerful search engine provides search results to the people of the State.”

This comes after France’s competition watchdog fined the web search giant 220 million euros ($268 million) on Monday for abusing its market power in the online advertising industry.

The Attorney General accuses Google of being anticompetitive, forcing Ohioans to use its products in the first of its kind case.

“Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products–that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive,” Yost said. “When you own the railroad or the electric company or the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody access.”

There is actually a reason for that: Google has become very powerful. In a Harvard article, I used this line to describe this position: “Apart from those areas, everyone is competing against global ICT utilities like Google and Facebook”. Yes, Google is not just a public utility in Ohio, it is a global one.

Yet, Google is in this powerful position due to innovation. The world should not blindly punish it. What I expect to happen is for them to make Google more responsible. It continues to devalue views for publishers even as it continues to declare record profits. So, what took you 2,000 views in 2019 may require 4,000 views for the same amount of money. And Google does this unaccountable to any person. If those selling building materials, medicines, education programs etc do just that, the world will not be happy. So, Google must be put under control!

As they work to fix Google, let them check Facebook which wants to monetize everything after getting most people to converge on its ecosystem: “Social media site, Facebook, says that some of its free services, including fan subscription, badges and online events, will be monetized by 2023.” 

Facebook’s Chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, made the announcement on Monday, stating that the idea is to help content creators eke a living on the platform.

He also assured that the revenue share will favour content creators compared to what Apple and other social media companies offer.

“To help more creators make a living on our platforms, we’re going to keep paid online events, fan subscriptions, badges, and our upcoming independent news products free for creators until 2023. And when we do introduce a revenue share, it will be less than the 30% that Apple and others take.

Pure and simple, the world needs to find competitors for Google because its best feature, data, will keep it biggest.

Tekedia Capital Demo Day is coming up as follows: June 12, 2021 at 4-6pm WAT on Zoom. Through our Syndicate, you will invest in some of the most amazing startups operating in Africa. We have qualified some startups for our investing community. We’ll deploy $$millions into them and help to build the NEXT Africa. If you want to join our Syndicate, learn more by clicking here and schedule a meeting with our team.

In Q1 2021, Nigeria spent 66% of all imports on manufactured goods; that was N4.5 trillion. On export, about 66% of exports went for crude oil but our receipt was only N1.9 trillion. The implication is this: unless we have import substitution  for manufactured goods, our balance of trade will not be good. In other words, there is a high level of imbalance in the balance of payment, and that imbalance is the reason Naira has hit N500/$ in the black market.

How do we solve this problem? I will examine China which is our biggest challenge on trade. Yes, we need to buy less from China, and doing that means we need to make many things we buy from it.

A simple idea we can execute is what I have called “180 Build Plan” which means within 180 days, we can provide 24/7 electricity in six cities in Nigeria (Aba, Osogbo, Uyo, Jos, Potiskum, and Sokoto), by working with renewable energy companies, with backup from Tesla batteries, guaranteeing electricity. We have a real chance of getting light manufacturing up and running.

How do we fund it? Disband N-Power initiative and use the money to provide this electricity. Over time, Nigeria via the private sector will hire more permanent people than give graduates $60 monthly for largely nothing. Then, from these 6 cities, we keep ramping things up.

Ladies and gentlemen, only factories and warehouses (modern and old which include startups, digital, cement, noodles, etc firms) will fix Nigeria’s paralysis as it is easier to cut our import of manufactured goods than improve our export of crude oil.

Tekedia capstone-based Certificate is the practical phase of Tekedia Mini-MBA. We consider it the final year project where we challenge members to use what they have learnt in Tekedia Mini-MBA, pick a research topic, and come up with a new idea on something. When the governor of Anambra state, Governor Obiano, read one on his state, he hired our member, John, as his special advisor on Innovation. The graduate had taken time to model how innovation can improve the state.

In this capstone report by OLadunni Niniola Salaam MBA , FCAI, you have one of the most comprehensive studies in the fashion sector and ecommerce in Lagos state. It is a beauty; part of the abstract.

“This study investigated the effect of electronic commerce on customer patronage and satisfaction with emphasis on consumers in the fashion industry in Nigeria. A study of consumers in selected areas in Lagos state. The study used descriptive research design based on multi staged sampling procedure made up of purposive sampling technique and simple random sampling technique to select members of the population involved in the study. A sample size of four hundred (400) respondents were selected for this study.  The data collected from the study was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0. The findings…”

Tekedia Institute, advancing the wealth in nations through knowledge. We have hit 634 capstone records, primarily by learners who are researching global and local issues. My best remains “How To Win 2023 Presidential Election in Nigeria – A Case Study for an Ijebu Man”. That one is classified!