Airbnb is cutting 1,900 employees. Uber is also re-calibrating with 3,700 leaving. Across sectors and regions, aggregation business models which connect physical elements through digital platforms have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Uber orchestrates a framework where drivers and riders come into equilibrium; Airbnb brings short-term travelers and landlords together. Those entities were dislocated by the pandemic. But platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Google search which depend on digital raw materials like photos, texts, websites, videos, and music have done just well on growth, even if not necessarily financially since adverts have dried up.

Airbnb will lay off 1,900 employees, or about 25% of its workforce, as the pandemic continues to slam the travel industry. The home-sharing company is streamlining its operations in anticipation of its annual revenue being cut in half, according to a memo from CEO Brian Chesky. In total, it’s one of the largest layoffs to hit Silicon Valley since the pandemic struck — and marks an “ominous sign for the tech economy,” says Vox. It’s also a dramatic shift in fortune for the unicorn, which was poised to be a leading candidate for IPO this year.

[…]

Uber is laying off 3,700 employees, or about 14% of its staff, as the ride-hail giant reels from the pandemic and an ongoing battle over worker protections. According to CNBC, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will give up his base pay for the year. The cuts are happening as California sues Uber and rival Lyft, saying drivers should be considered employees and owed a minimum wage, overtime, paid sick leave, and unemployment insurance. The lawsuit also seeks restitution for unpaid wages. Tech news site The Information says Uber’s bookings have plunged 80% from a year ago.

As the world reopens, some of these redesigns will be permanent. I expect new business models to emerge. Think about it: not many companies will hire people and expect them to show up daily at work. Also, surveillance and security protocols to curb virus transmission will become a new normal.

This is the message: Think deeper into what you do, and how a new ordinance in business systems will affect your sector and business specifically.

As crude oil paralysis rattles Nigeria, the government has gone to review the 2020 budget. After the review, many components will go including some federal jobs, National Assembly constituency projects and capex: “As Nigeria faces a fiscal crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to contain it, the Buhari administration has conducted a review of the 2020 budget, which, if carried out, may be the first step required along governance reforms to cut waste and direct revenues for development”.

“All Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) will be required to cut their capital expenditure and overhead budgets by 25%, even where their budgets have already been approved by the National Assembly,” the memo further stated.

Covid-19 is evil – there is no debate about it. But like I have noted, it would offer opportunities for the U.S. to revamp its healthcare systems and push Europe into a new model of economic prosperity by investing in infrastructure and critical systems. For Nigeria, the only right-of-the-number-line outcome we can get from this demon of disease is reform of our insanely crazy bureaucracy and processes. Of course, if the oil spikes above $50 per barrel, the national masquerades will return from Osogbo, Kano, and Umuahia with recklessness of waste and no directions. But while that happens, the cuts happen because like masquerades, it is all a makeup show which comes and then disappears!

Because of Covid-19, America will revamp its healthcare system, Western Europe will push for new vistas on human welfare and Japan will strengthen how its industries work. Yes, Covid-19 will possibly give the U.S. a ticket to rebuild its infrastructure, as it looks for ways to quickly jump start and re-grow its economy. Indeed, the world will not miss this moment, which even though extremely unfortunate, has come!

Who could have believed that rich men can stay home to use local hospitals? An abomination a few months ago, but we have had governors who were touched and treated by “local” doctors, and they are well! Who could have imagined that all the politicians with fraud related legal problems are suddenly healthy, and none of their lawyers have asked the courts to grant them permissions for medicals in Europe or the U.S.?

People, there is an opportunity here – to rebuild our healthcare, schools, etc, and engineer a restoration in Africa. We must not miss the moment, no matter how the push is coming!

There are already reforms on the fuel subsidy and the IMF has pushed for electricity pricing reform to provide a recent emergency loan. These things are coming as a result of Covid-19.

Africa’s Covid-19 Moment

Our apologies that Facyber went overcapacity last night.  A university partner which uses our platform for supplementary training of their students on cybersecurity began testing last night, pushing the system over the bar. Over the last one month, the platform has grown more than 460%, and my tech team did not plan well.

I personally apologize to those that could not login directly and to those accessing from APIs in their respective schools and institutions. 

We use AWS but our dynamic system which was supposed to re-calibrate on capacity was suboptimal last night. Everything should be fine now – please return.

Thank you for your support and please continue to spread the message of facyber.com, the leader in cybersecurity training on policy, management, technology and digital forensics. We crafted a training engine which delivers value to our members.

Since 2011, we have been offering a social service to African students and young people via non-profit African Institution of Technology (AFRIT), a U.S. 501(c)3 charity, the highest level of non profit with total tax exempt. Every year, we buy bulk domain and cpanel hosting, and make access to people and companies. So instead of spending an excess of $125 for domain and cpanel hosting yearly, ARIT offers it at about $25. 

If you need help to get online and tell the world what you do on that school project, idea, mission, inspiration, etc, email my team. They just upgraded to the latest Cpanel with auto scripts for installing WordPress, Joomla, etc. It offers unlimited emails and databases. 

How To Register

• Make a payment of N9,500 or $25 here using Flutterwave, Bank Transfer or Paypal
• Look up for an available domain name using Fasmicro supersite or Godaddy (do not register and pay; we will do that for you)
• Send us the name of the domain
• Quickly, we will register the domain, set up your cpanel and send you the cpanel password.

Contact: tekedia@fasmicro.com

Team can show you email and cpanel interface if you want to check

Shared Hosting and Domain Registration

This offers state of the art cPanel with latest .php and modern scripts for installation of population solutions like WordPress and Joomla. We offer among others, the following:

• Unlimited Email
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A Simple, Powerful & Complete solution for WordPress Websites

• Automatic WordPress Installation Script
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Nigeria: IMF, we need help here as we are low on cash to fight Covid-19 pandemic.

IMF: The Nigerian people must agree on one thing:  pay full cost of electricity consumption with all subsidies removed.

Nigeria:  There is no problem. We will do that from 2021. Can I send our bank account to wire the money?

IMF: Not yet, I need a written commitment.

Nigeria: Draft and we will sign.

IMF: Perfect – document sent.

Nigeria: We have signed. The bank account has been sent also.

IMF: Transfer of $3.4 billion done.

Nigeria: Daalu, e dupe, na gode

People, IMF may be accomplishing the near impossible: get Nigerians to pay the full cost of electricity. Sure, people claim nothing is offered for them to pay. Interestingly, without the improved tariff, investors will not pump money to fix any paralysis in the energy sector. With naira losing value to global currencies, and the power business not relying on sand from Okija or metals from Ogbomosho or trees from Sambisa forest, rate increment seems like a good idea. Of course, not many will agree. But now that the IMF has conditioned on that, we will see what happens. This is a BIG reset if it happens.

Nigerian Government to Remove Electricity Subsidy – It will Be A Battle.