Nigeria’s telecom subscribers were thrown into panic after the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy mandated the country’s telecom regulator, Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), to ensure that all mobile network subscribers have their National Identification Number (NIN), linked to their phone numbers.

The regulator therefore gave marching orders to mobile network providers to that effect, threatening to cut off those who failed to harmonize their NIN with their phone numbers from telecom services.

The decision has generated condemnation from Nigerians for different reasons; one being that only about 28 million Nigerians have their national identification number and it will take far more than the allotted time for over 180 million telecom subscribers in the country to enroll into the database of National Identification Management Commission (NIMC), where the NIN will be generated from.

In view of this, digital rights group, Paradigm Initiative (PIN) has asked the court to restrain the Nigerian government and telecommunications service provider from carrying out the order requiring that all SIM cards not linked to the National Identity Numbers be disconnected by the telecoms service provider by December 30, 2021.

The organization decries the Nigerian government’s order requiring all telecommunication service providers to ask their subscribers to link their National Identification Numbers (NIN) to the SIM cards within two weeks.

PIN says it is seeking a perpetual injunction restraining the government and the service providers from carrying out the draconian order as it believes it is a violation of fundamental rights to freedom of expression of Nigerian Citizens as guaranteed by Section 39 of the Nigerian 1999 constitution (As amended).

Adeboye Adegoke, Senior Program Manager at Paradigm Initiative said the proposed blocking of SIM cards not linked with the National Identity Number is unlawful and unconstitutional.

“Many young people and others, using their mobile phones for expression or to do business online will be affected by the poorly thought-out policy. No reasonable Nigerian will support such a policy that is geared to make life unbearable for Nigerian citizens,” he said.

In June 2020, the Director-General of the NIMC, Aliyu Aziz said only 38% of Nigerians have any form of identification. According to him: “over 100 million Nigerians have no identity (ID). These include the poorest and the most vulnerable groups, such as the marginalized – women and girls, the less-educated people, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons, people with disabilities and people living in rural and remote areas.”

The said policy has created panic in the polity since it was announced. Nigeria at the moment is experiencing a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic according to the daily numbers from the Nigeria Centre for Defence Control (NCDC) in the past one week.

Valery Nijaba, Communications officer at Paradigm Initiative said the decision is a fire brigade approach to governance that will expose Nigerians to the second wave of COVID-19.

“This is a time when we need to discourage public gatherings, crowding, and the likes, but it appears that the government is not sensitive enough to see those nuances and has asked that 100 million Nigerians should go and register for the National Identification Number within 2 weeks, so we are left with no choice but to seek the intervention of the court.

“Requiring over 100 million Nigerian citizens to register for NIN in two weeks is not only unrealistic but a fire brigade approach to governance that will not bring any value to the people,” she said, adding that decisions like this only encourages corruption.

“Whatever the government is trying to achieve by the strange directive is ignoble. When the same government tried to compel students writing UTME examinations to register for the NIN as a prerequisite to sitting for the examinations last year, many students couldn’t register, with documented cases of government officials and law enforcement officials weaponizing the desperation of the students to register for NIN to extort them and their parents. The government was forced to walk back on the policy at that instance. These are the type of effects the fire-brigade approach to policy making leads to” Valery added.

Telecom service providers were already billing subscribers N20 to check their NIN status until the Minister of Communication Dr. Isa Pantimi asked them to stop.

The Tekedia Person of the Year 2020  is “The Nigerian Healthcare Professionals”. We recognize them for their commitment, can-do attitude, and service to their fellow citizens. When the world was in the miry clay, due to coronavirus, experts around the world predicted that deaths would follow across Nigerian cities. But these men and women rose to the challenge, and saved a nation!

Many of them remain unpaid for months; yet, they continue to support their fellow citizens. We recognize these men and women for designing and executing better protocols than their peers in most parts of the world. We celebrate the decency, honour and service that many did not give up, despite the lack of protective equipment, but went ahead to answer a bigger call in their nation.

For once, Nigeria prepared for something. Yes, the national center for disease control (NCDC) was just months-old before coronavirus came! We recognize the visioning which made NCDC possible. Across all domains, we commend our doctors, nurses, medical assistants, health-sector  cleaners and everyone in that industry.

They served Nigeria in 2020, and we are honoured to select them as our “Person of the Year”.

Who wins Africa’s subscription video on-demand (svod)? I think it could come down to this equation:

Platform + Satellite Broadband = Disruption of SVOD in Africa.

Yes, I think the path may be satellite broadband (like SpaceX Starlink), not terrestrial (as in MTN, Glo, Airtel) due to coverage. If Netflix does what it does in America – pay internet service providers (ISPs) to make its videos “run faster” than other contents to customers – you can have a scenario where Netflix + Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband may be a bundle.

Then, the question would be: would the high voltage animosity on DStv move to Netflix when that happens? I am looking at the data, and it is increasingly looking like a US player will come and dominate SVOD in Africa despite our “first mover advantages”. After all, they just hired a man who promised he could do it, only to fail on that mission.

Netflix has appointed Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa to its board. This is a clear evidence that Netflix sees Africa as part of its future. Besides buying movie rights and signing producers to produce more, having Strive on its board takes the playbook to a new level. Across all domains, this is epochal when it comes to regional SVOD (streaming video on demand) strategy. Yes, Strive knows Africa and has the networks and connections to everybody he needs in the continent.

Why must U.S. companies win these games even when we started well ahead of them? Do not be surprised if Netflix becomes absolute, by 2025, in Africa’s SVOD!

As expected, TikTok has started a redesign: run a double play where it can capture value through video shopping in the Walmart ecosystem. This is the huge element of why this company has a promise in America. This is double play at its best: run the videos and capture via vcommerce (video commerce).

Walmart and TikTok announced this morning they will be partnering on the first pilot test of a new shoppable product experience on TikTok’s social video app. Walmart, as you may recall, had planned to invest in TikTok when the app was being threatened with a ban from the U.S. market unless it sold its U.S. operations to an American company, per a Trump administration executive order — a ban that’s now on pause after multiple legal challenges. Walmart’s interest in TikTok, however, has not waned. The retailer, though seemingly an odd fit for a social network, had seen the potential to attract a younger online consumer through video and, in particular, livestreamed video.

During a Walmart livestream, TikTok users will be able to shop from Walmart’s fashion items without having to leave the TikTok app, in a pilot of TikTok’s new “shoppable product.” The fashion items themselves will be featured in content from 10 TikTok creators, led by host Michael Le, whose TikTok dances have earned him 43+ million fans. Other creators will be more up-and-coming stars, like Devan Anderson, Taylor Hage and Zahra Hashimee.

I explained in the duality element that digital products which thrive are typically both products and platforms. It would be hopeless to build modern digital products without having a moat through platforms. Interestingly, the greatest digital ICT utilities have double plays in their business models: if Amazon decimates many brick-and-mortar stores, it would welcome many online to sell them cloud services. Alibaba welcomes you to its marketplace platforms, and you certainly have signed up for its (partly affiliated) payment processing solutions (Alipay) which command commissions.

Tiktok thinks it has a great future in video commerce, and that is amazing. The promising outlook is that it would capture a lot of values by making it possible for people to buy and sell in its ecosystems. Now, you can see why TikTok could be an orthogonal threat, not just to Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, but ecommerce companies. If you want to buy lipsticks, would you prefer Amazon or TikTok? I will vote for TikTok vcommerce, running on Walmart supply chain!

Use One Oasis & Double Play To Capture Value As You Serve Customers [Video]

CloudTrucks, a digital platform which helps truck drivers find work and organize their business, and founded by Tobenna Arodiogbu, George Ezenna  and Jin Shieh,  have raised $20.5 million in a Series A round led by Caffeinated Capital with participation from Craft Ventures, Khosla Ventures, SciFi VC, Kindred Ventures, Abstract Ventures, and Better Tomorrow Ventures.

Cofounder and CEO Tobenna Arodiogbu said that the problem they were trying to solve was basically helping truck drivers manage their business better.

“We noticed that more and more drivers wanted to take control of their schedule and become entrepreneurs, and needed a lot more help with managing everything: from revenue, cash flow as well as minimizing their costs,” Arodiogbu says.

CloudTrucks has built a mobile app where drivers can see loads coming from many different shippers across the country, and the company has an algorithm (called Schedule Optimizer) which helps drivers make better decisions on which loads to take to increase their revenue.

Logistics and supply chain startups are hot in every part of the world. As the pandemic dislocated the world, many companies went on to depend on these firms to help organize some components of their factors of production.  In Nigeria, players like Zido Logistics have recorded huge growth as a result of the redesign.

CloudTrucks has done well in a very short time: “The company, which launched in May of this year, has grown to $1.8M in freight transactions over the past 6 months and the company is growing 40% month over month, doing over 300 deliveries on a monthly basis.” The world runs on a supply chain!