Learn to INNOVATE with me – and please bring your village along. It is an excursion into the mechanics of market systems. It would be career-shaping. Same level as in my 3rd year in secondary school, when I raised my hand and told my teacher, “I enjoyed this integrated science class on electricity. I will go into science in SSI and later study electrical engineering in the university”. You will remember great moments because you came along. COME here.
The New Challenge in Nigeria’s Electricity Distribution
The controversy surrounding the Nigerian power sector continues to take turns. On Tuesday, the Senate asked the Federal Government to review the privatization policy of the power sector. The upper house of the national assembly said the current arrangement of the power sector needs to be redesigned as it lacks efficiency and the structure that would provide constant power supply to Nigeria.
The senate president said that if things continue the way they are, Nigerians will not be able to enjoy stable power supply in 10 years.
The motion which was moved by Senator Gabriel Suswam was largely backed by members of the red chamber. The power sector recovery plan has been a subject of discussion in the national assembly that its end seems far from near.
Lawan said the Discos have shown incapability to supply Nigerians with constant electricity, and therefore should not be allowed to continue to run the electricity business in their current capacity.
“We gave power to them, (GenCos and DisCos) and they still come to the public to ask for funds. I think it’s time for Nigeria to consider reversing the privatization of the power sector or they should just cancel the entire privatization process completely. If we leave it, we may not have power in another 10 years.
“The privatization of the power sector has so far, not been successful. We expected efficiency and effectiveness in the power supply. The DisCos have no capacity to supply us power. The GenCos have challenges too. It is not a good commentary that we should continue to give them money. They’re private businesses. We need to review this privatization.
“Our committee needs to investigate trillions spent. That’s a lot of money. Try to find out what has happened so far. Government needs to look at this whole thing. There is lack of capital, lack of investment. We feel very bad because we have no electricity and the country is suffering,” Lawan said.
This is the second time in the year that the senate is calling for review of the privatization policy of DisCos. In February, the senate president said the underperformance of the power sector can no longer be tolerated as it keeps deteriorating on the daily. He said the distribution policy of the power sector should be reviewed if not the entire sector.
The major reason for this call by the senate was found in the statement of the power Minister, Sale Mamman, in February. He said that the distribution companies can only transmit a fraction of generated power, which leaves many of the end-users in darkness.
Mamman said that out of the 13,000 megawatts capacity of power, the DisCos can only distribute about 4,500, and only 3,000 megawatts get to consumers. In view of the situation, he backed the call to review the entire process that brought in the present companies. “Companies that are incapable of running the distributors should give way to whoever that is ready to come and invest he said,” he said.
But in reaction, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) warned the lawmakers against revisiting the privatization policy. The acting Chairman, Dr. Anthony Akah, said the Nigerian government may not have the funds to buy back the utilities and may be acting in contravention of the agreement binding the owners of the distribution companies and the federal government, and it will send a bad signal to investors.
Akah, however, acknowledged that the DisCos have fallen short of the electricity transmission level they signed to deliver. He said they are working to up their game.
“The Commission has identified that the remittance by the electricity distribution companies’ level is too and it is totally unacceptable to us. The Commission would soon introduce regulatory mechanism to redress this remittance abnormality,” he said.
It’s been three months now and the story remains the same. Nigeria has invested over N1 trillion in the power sector with little to show for it. Electricity distribution can only reach about 60% of Nigerian households, and it is not constant.
Before now, the problem had largely centered on power generation. But as power generation increases, it shifts to distribution. The inability of the distribution companies to transmit electricity according to the generation capacity of the GenCos has introduced a new challenge to the power sector.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Power announced that the director of Transition Company of Nigeria (TCN), Usman Mohammed has been sacked. The development followed a series of controversies that have trailed the Company, undermining the power sector reform goals.
Unfortunately, the story sounds the same from the past despite huge resources that have been channeled to the power sector, and there appears to be a little hope for stable power supply for now.
How Design Can Create A Better Nigeria
I usually don’t like to comment or talk about political issues, neither do I like to give strategies based on hindsight, because let’s face it, hindsight is nowhere near as valuable as foresight, but the recent coronavirus pandemic, and the manner in which it was handled in Nigeria has birthed a simple conclusion; Nigeria needs Design.
The beauty of Design is less in the product (even though they are beautiful), but in the process itself. Design is a holistic approach to problem solving that involves empathy (understanding the users, stakeholders, and all those who will in one way or the other interact with the solutions you create), problem definition (Finding out what the problem really is), ideation (Engaging a multidisciplinary team, or in this case giving all relevant stakeholders a seat on the table), prototyping (creating a low cost and easy to create version of your solution), testing (Running time bound trials with the prototype created), and finally iteration (learning from the results obtained from those trials, finding areas that don’t properly align with the users or stakeholders, fixing them, and reiterating them to birth better solutions to problems).
The idea behind democracy is simple; we can’t have 200 million people sitting in a chamber in Abuja and giving their opinions on national matters and issues that concern them, so we gather those 200 million people, and instead of stuffing them into an overcrowded chamber, we give them voting cards and tell them to choose 469 people from their various constituencies that they believe can adequately represent them. We give those representatives 4 years to prove their worth, if they don’t deliver, we kick them out and put someone else, if they do deliver, we give them another 4 years, and it goes on and on like that.
The real idea behind democracy is simply this; everyone should have a say on issues that concern them.
The Coronavirus pandemic outbreak in Nigeria was not handled in a ‘Democratic’ manner.
The purpose of this article is not to castigate or praise any political party, allegiance or ideology, but to outline what the ‘Present’ Government can do to mitigate the economic damage that has been meted out to a good number of Nigerians because of a copy and paste approach to handling the coronavirus pandemic called ‘Lockdown’.
How Design can Save the Day.
So let’s rewind the clock and paint a picture of what a design driven approach to the coronavirus pandemic would have looked like.
Empathy
The Government gathers their top advisers to a strategy meeting. The premise is simple; there is a seemingly incurable virus on the horizon that has killed thousands of people globally, and we have recorded our first case. Someone lays down all the hard data; the death rate is around 2%, meaning this disease is not a fatal disease. It can be transferred through fluids from coughs and sneezes, but it isn’t Airborne. 2–14 days incubation period, some people could however appear to be asymptotic (showing no symptoms). Who are the most vulnerable? The elderly.
What are the options on the table? What have other nations facing this pandemic done? Some have introduced a concept called “A Lockdown.” where all economic activities in the country, or affected States are ground to a halt, or partial halt, to avoid movement and spreading the virus. How do those nations support their citizens? They are able to afford to feed people daily, and provide the basic amenities required to keep people alive and living well. Can we execute that? With the facts on ground, No sir. Why? Sir we lack the data to be able to properly distribute food items to people consistently and avoid those items getting into the wrong hands, corruption is also a major challenge, as those tasked with sharing those resources might as well keep them for themselves or chose to sell them to make a quick buck, and finally, I am nor sure we have the financial wherewithal to support such an agenda since oil prices have gone down, and we do not know how long this pandemic will last.
Problem Definition.
The problem then becomes; “How Might We curtail the spread of the coronavirus, while keeping any adverse economic effects at a minimum”.
Ideation
A team of stakeholders from various fields are gathered to brainstorm a solution to the problem outlined above. Experts from Academia, Medicine, Economics, Politics, traditional heads, religious leaders, business leaders, Trade unions and groups are gathered to brainstorm a solution. Concessions are made; public gatherings above a certain amount that cannot be properly controlled are banned, all schooling and academic activity are on hold, Markets are shifted to smaller clusters were social distancing procedures can be properly enforced. Mandatory laws are passed that prohibit moving around in public places without a face mask and hand gloves. The Government supplies hand gloves and face masks to Lower income households that can’t afford them.
Companies that can afford to embrace remote ways of working are encouraged to do so, transport services are given passenger carrying limits. New media services are inaugurated to curb the spread of fake news, rumors, and conspiracy theories.
Prototype
This solution is tested over a 2 weeks time bound trial to observe the results.
Testing.
On trial, it is observed that although people are satisfied with this solution, businesses that may be affected by the pandemic may need some form of financial bailouts to avoid going bankrupt and flooding the labor market which would have an adverse effect on the economy.
Iteration
A reiteration occurs to make sure bailouts are placed on the table to allow businesses directly affected by the pandemic to be able to keep their respective jobs.
This is a design driven approach that could have been embraced to curb and reduce the resultant adverse effect on the economy that a lockdown would have caused, and also to try and arrest the spread of the virus.
What to do now.
Enough hindsight, now to move with foresight, what strategies can the government employ to soften and put an end to the economic side effects of the lockdown procedure?
Design is also the answer.
The problem the Nigerian Government is presently facing when it comes to handling the long-term economic repercussions of the lockdown and the pandemic itself is what we designers call ‘Wicked Problems’. Wicked problems are problems that are complex and require more than a linear process to resolve.
One of the ways to solve a wicked problem, is to engage systems thinking.
System thinking is an approach to problem solving that is based on breaking up problems into systems to gain a holistic view of the situation, knowing fully well that a tweak in any part of a system, will invariably instigate a change in another.
The truth is, the root cause of poverty is a lack of proper and quality education. That means a tweak in the quality of education will invariably affect poverty levels. This is no magic button, this is a long-term strategy.
The Federal Government has to use this opportunity to invest in its human resources. The vast majority of Nigerians are either uneducated, or poorly educated. The school system is based on delivering the ‘Minimum required Quality’, this is why people graduate from institutions of higher learning, and have no valuable skills to add value with.
The Government needs to invest in quality skills acquisition. Not the conventional ‘teaching people to make beads and bake cake’, but teaching the skills of the future. With oil prices dwindling, and the world gradually beginning to embrace clean energy, the coronavirus pandemic has given Nigeria an opportunity to do what it should have done a long time ago, we need to teach the skills of the future, we need to up skill our populace.
How to do so.
- Instead of importing people, or giving “.PhD holders.” These privileges, it is better we tap into the tech ecosystem already resident In Nigeria, and give opportunity to the young men and women all over Nigeria who are active members in the Nigerian tech space to facilitate this transformation.
- Create a system whereby those interested would be allowed to volunteer to teach valuable technology skills part-time in under served communities that are willing to learn.
- Those involved should be given some kind of compensation for their time.
- The Government should promote the program as a rallying call to ignite the patriotism of Nigerians to come together to fight a common cause.
If the Government can support this initiative, and really see it as a top priority, the up skilling of the general populace, to prepare Nigeria to be competitive and relevant in a world where technology is the new norm, we then may be able to use this coronavirus pandemic to our advantage, and birth the beginning of a new Nigeria.
5G, Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories: UK Government Sanctions Chris Oyakhilome
In the latest development on the 5G controversy, the UK’s Office of Communication (Ofcom) has handed a sanction to LoveWorld Limited, a broadcasting channel belonging to Christ Embassy Church, for airing unfounded claims about 5G.
The regulator and the broadcasting and telecommunication authority also penalized the TV channel owned by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome for promoting the view that coronavirus is a global cover-up.
Ofcom said the decision to penalize the church’s TV came after investigation over Pastor Oyakhilome’s “unsubstantiated claims” linking the (coronavirus) pandemic to 5G technology.”
“Our investigation found that a report on LoveWorld News included unsubstantiated claims that 5G was the cause of the pandemic, and that this was the subject of a ‘global cover up.’
“Another report during the programme suggested hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19, without acknowledging that its effectiveness and safety as a treatment was clinically unproven, or making clear that it has potentially serious side effects.
“There is no ban on broadcasting controversial views which are different from, or which challenge, official authorities on public health information. However, given the unsubstantiated claims in both these programmes were not sufficiently put into context, they risked undermining viewers’ trust in official health advice, with potentially serious consequences for public health.
“Given this serious failings, we conclude that LoveWorld Limited did not adequately protect viewers from the potentially harmful content in the news programme and the sermon, and the news reports were not duly accurate. LoveWorld Limited must broadcast our findings and we are considering whether to impose any further sanction,” the Ofcom statement partly said on Monday.
The 5G conspiracy theories brought a toll of violence on telecommunication installations in the UK, due to the widespread belief that it’s responsible for the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Some prominent figures like pastor Chris Oyakhilome were at the helm of the preachment, which consequently resulted in the above sanctions.
But this is coming at a time when the Nigerian Senate suspended the deployment, or any activity relating to the 5G, owing to the unverified claims that it beams with injuries.
The contrast between the two governments’ handling of the conspiracy theory has questioned Nigeria’s chances to develop a tech-based economy, when its leaders appear to be dragging their feet while the rest of the world moves on.
It has also challenged the bases for the campaign promises of President Buhari’s administration to diversify the economy through technology. In 2019, the Minister of Science and Technology Ogbonnaya Onu was notably preaching the government’s determination to invest in technology as a means to derive a cutting-edge over dependence on oil-based revenue.
But the government has not lived up to expectation, and the tech community is left to do the kicking and catching all at once. There has been a little progress though; private tech companies have shown resilience even in the harsh environment, but the missing roles of the government have undeniably immobilized aims and projections in the Nigerian tech sector.
The outbreak of COVID-19 exposed the economic strength and weaknesses of every sector. Though bullied to a pulp, the tech sector is standing taller than many others.
As Nigeria watches its oil revenue plunge to nothing, affecting its financial position in the face of global health crisis, the Nigerian tech industry has stepped in, doing their best to curtail the plague with the little they have.
Lifebank partnered the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), to establish a mobile testing facility and increase the testing capacity of the country by conducting 200 tests daily. 54gene raised $500,000 to enhance the testing capacity of the country by conducting up to 1,000 tests daily.
Startup support organizations also launched COVID-19 innovation challenge, in partnership with the African CDC and GIZ. Their aim is to create innovative measures to be employed in the fight against COVID-19.
These efforts don’t mean that the Nigerian tech ecosystem is immune to the harsh realities of the pandemic; it only means that they could do more if they have the right support. Not only in tackling problems, but also in providing jobs for the people.
In 2019, Nigeria accounted for $663.24 million out of the $1.34 billion funding raised by African startups. There has also been positive news of interest to fund Nigerian startups in 2020, despite the pitfalls of COVID-19 pandemic.
The progress of the Nigerian tech ecosystem has so far been dependent mainly on external funding as the government has not shown readiness to fully support existing and emerging technologies in Nigeria.
Therefore, the Nigerian senate’s decision to halt deployment of 5G technology based on rumors, when the rest of the world is pushing for a faster and more reliable internet service is seen as a deterrent to potential investors in Nigerian startups. The Senate has been encouraged to shun the display of backwardness that will hurt the development chances of the Nigerian tech industry if they really want the country to make progress.
Wanted: WFH Consultants in Lagos!
I noted a few days ago that Nigeria can use WFH (work from home) policy to manage the traffic congestion paralysis in the nation. In cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano, well-redesigned incentives can encourage companies to architect WFH operational models. But for it to work, a national policy may be required. If not, some governors may be afraid of losing tax revenues over WFH. Yes, why will Lagos state support companies that do WFH only for Lagosians to move into Ogun State, and live therein, while working for a company in Lagos? The state government may think that it could lose many residents and the associated benefits of hosting workers. So, Nigeria has to address this issue at the national level, or at least regional, to create a balanced equilibrium in the system.
There is a policy opportunity here: With incentives to get companies to go WFH (work from home) in Lagos and our big cities, the government can magically solve our traffic paralysis! If that policy happens, people can move into second and third tier cities, reducing traffic congestion in big ones like Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt. But for that to happen, incentives must be offered by governments at both federal and local levels.
As that happens, I expect a new sub-sector in the consulting industry to emerge: WFH consulting. WFH consultants will help companies to develop policies, implement WFH and execute the playbooks, making sure productivity is not affected in companies that go WFH. This redesign is real and I expect it to be the new normal.
Facebook is embracing work from home well beyond the pandemic, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying he expects as many as half of Facebook employees to work remotely by 2030. The shift will be gradual and will require new tools to offset lost in-person interactions, said the chief. Current workers who move have to disclose their new address by the end of the year, and potentially face a pay cut. Facebook has more than 45,000 employees, making it the largest company to announce plans to permanently work from home.
Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify said it will allow most workers to work from home indefinitely. Twitter and Square have also announced similar plans.
Google is letting employees work from home through the end of the year, while Amazon and Microsoft employees can continue to work remotely through at least October.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase plans to adopt a “remote-first” policy, allowing employees to decide between their homes or the office, even after pandemic restrictions are eased.
Consulting firms – a new market is evolving.