A few days after the implementation of the 7.5% VAT, the implication has hit home with increment in the cost of everyday services. Telecommunication is at the helm of services affected by the VAT increase. Subscribers are now being charged more for calls, data and SMS.

The chairman and head of operations of Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbolahan Awonuga said the increment is as a result of the Financial Tax Bill signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari late last year, which took effect February 1.

The ALTON boss said the 7.5% VAT will reflect in the cost of telecommunication products and services: The charges for data, text messages and phone calls will be increased as a result.

“Further to the assent of the Finance Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari, which reviewed the Value Added Tax from five percent to 7.5 percent, ALTON wishes to notify consumers that our members will begin applying the new rate on all purchased telecommunication products and services with effect from February 01, 2020,” the statement from ALTON said.

Reaction to this development by Nigerians has been scornful. At the introduction of the Financial Tax Bill and the increment of VAT from 5% to 7.5%, the Federal Government has promised that none of it will affect poor Nigerians. The Financial Tax Bill has excluded basic home items from VAT: Honey, bread, cereals, cooking oils culinary herbs, fish, flour etc. basic food items were exempted from the list to ensure that poor Nigerians don’t have to pay more with the little they are earning.

Apart from food, other items that were also removed from the taxable include locally manufactured sanitary towels, pads and tampons, services rendered by microfinance banks, tuition relating to nursery, primary, secondary and tertiary education.

However, the digital tax was not considered as a plight to the poor, and it has hit everyone to astonishment. Call charges have gone up as high as N35 per a minute and SMS is N4.10.

Poll conducted by the International Center for Investigating Reporting (ICIR) shows that about 70 percent of Nigerians out-rightly condemn the digital taxes. The tweets under 7.5% VAT trend on Twitter also show resentment toward it, especially from Lagosians who believe they have had enough with the Okada ban to be inflicted with more suffering.

Meanwhile, the federal government has directed Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to review its policy on SIM registration with immediate effect. The directive came from the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy Dr. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, who was represented by his Technical Assistant, Information Technology, Dr. Femi Adeluyi.

In a statement, the Minister said the need to revisit the SIM registration policy emanated from security reports after the SIM validation exercise carried out last year.

“The revision of the policy is based on the feedback received from the security agencies following the successful revalidation of improperly registered SIM cards in September 2019 and the blocking of those that failed to revalidate their SIMs,” Pantami said.

The policy update is expected to include new requirements. The NCC has been directed to ensure that new subscribers provide their National Identification Number (NIN) as a means of validation to register their SIMs. Foreigners are expected to provide their international passport and visa. All already registered SIMs are to be updated before 1st December 2020.

The new policy also stipulates that no subscriber should own more than three SIM cards, and no unregistered line should be allowed to be in use. The registration will be carried out by telecommunication operators while the regulator has been directed to make provision for subscribers to check their registration status, which includes checking the number of SIM cards registered to their name, the phone numbers and networks.

NCC is also required by the policy to ensure that operators develop cyber-attack resistant security measures that will protect subscribers’ data in line with the regulation of Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). And to deactivate any SIM line that is caught doing something unlawful.

Dr. Pantami said the development has been in accordance with the constitution. Section 25(1) of the Nigerian Communication Act 2003, has empowered Ministers to “from time to time” offer policy direction and notify the regulator of his views in the communication sector.

However, the issue of SIM registration in Nigeria is becoming a cause for concern to subscribers who decry the periodic changes in policy that keep pushing them to re-register their SIMs. Experts have advocated a single database that will save the people the trouble of repeated SIM registration exercise.

A lot of people have wonderful ideas to pitch to investors, but they are afraid to do so. I don’t blame them for that because most of them have passed through a lot of ordeals in the hands of investors and clients. Some have been out rightly rejected, thereby making them feel inadequate; while others were mocked and embarrassed for being bold enough to dream big.

But the one that touches me most is that of those whose ideas were stolen by the investors/clients they pitched to.

This is not a new thing. Many inventors and freelancers can attest to this. It can happen to anybody, even to those in the corporate world. Yes, junior officers can have their ideas stolen by their superiors, who present these ideas to board members without giving credits to their subordinates that thought them up. This situation gets worse when the board assigns this superior officer the responsibility of supervising the implementation of the ideas and then promoting him after the junior officers must have seen it to fruition. We see this everyday in our places of work and it can be very devastating. But the end result is that the junior officers have learnt to keep mute, play ignorant and keep their disruptive ideas to themselves, even if it means the organisation crumbling. It is indeed a case of a vicious cycle.

But this article isn’t about those in the corporate world. Its interest is on freelancers and start-ups whose ideas are hijacked by their clients and investors. It hurts when you think up something, plan it, visualise it and then have it stolen right under your nose. And worse is, the thief gives you no form of credit and makes you look like a copycat should you go ahead to set your idea into motion.

There are reasons why these idea thieves succeed. Sometimes it’s because of some skills they have developed (especially publicity and marketing skills), other times it’s because of the loopholes the proposed investee overlooked. Below are some of the reasons why it is easy to steal ideas from innovators.

a. Revealing too much: There are some investors and clients that will want you to tell them everything concerning your idea. For instance, you are an interior decorator, or should I say, cabinet maker. You met with a client whose kitchen cabinets you are pitching to install. This client may demand that you give him a clear picture of what you have in mind, and being a “good person”, you downloaded the pictures in your head to him in such a way that he is seeing what you are seeing, with exact measurements and dimensions. This person can easily pick up your idea and hand it over to his carpenter to do the job, using your specifications.

This can also be seen among start-ups whose investors ask for every detail concerning the business. Yes, I know these investors want to be sure they are not going to waste their money but some of them still hijack these ideas from these investees and either build them up by themselves or pitch them to others.

b. Being too Conventional: Sometimes it is easy to pick someone’s brain because he’s too predictable. This is not saying that idea thieves prefer going after conventional ideas, but they wouldn’t mind settling for one when they have nothing else to hold onto.

c. Pitching to only one Source: I know a lot of investors and clients don’t like people pitching ideas simultaneously to several investors and clients, but hey, this is about you looking out for yourself. Pitching to one client/investor and spending weeks or months waiting for his reply could be disastrous to freelancers and start-ups. And this will be most disappointing when the response turned out negative, or worse, silent.

d. Little or No Investigative Work: Some start-ups are so carried away by promises of brighter future that they fail to investigate their knights in shining armour. Those “investors” knew how desperate these people are and will therefore lure them with flashy empty promises. Without suspecting much, these start-ups and freelancers offload everything they have without knowing they were about to be robbed.

e. Poor Networking: It is easier to steal from a loner than from someone that moves with the herd. I’m saying you should have the herder’s mentality, but when people don’t really know you and what you are capable of, trust me, someone is going to tie you to a stake and milk you dry.

Without being too verbose, I’ll list out ways idea thieves can be outsmarted.

1. Make Investigations: You can ask around to find out the reputation of the client/investor. If you see or hear any negative review, be on the alert for scam.

2. Give only Rudimentary Ideas: Don’t give out everything. State enough to capture the interest of the person and to convince him that you know what you are doing.

3. Engage in Simultaneous Submissions: Don’t pitch your idea to only one outlet. Spread it out. If all of them are going to steal it, then let them battle that. However, the essence of spreading ideas simultaneously is that there will be more chances of your submissions getting interests shortly after submission. That way, you can start early to work on your project. And you know, the earlier you worked on your ideas, the lesser the possibility of it being hijacked.

4. Be Disruptive: This is the era that calls for disruptive innovations, so you need to be one for you will be sorted after. Let’s assume you pitched the framework of your exotic idea to several people, and you told them it’s simultaneous submission, believe me they will want to hear further from you. Then, you can make your choice.

5. Stay Visible: Visibility is one major ingredient in the sauce called success. It is harder to steal from someone that is known. So stay visible, both online and offline. Find good platforms that will project your image positively and build up there.

6. Don’t be Desperate: This is easier said than done, but it’s good to know anyway. Being desperate has cost people so much. Some will settle for less, while others will settle for none. Though this is not easy, try to remove desperation from your demeanour as you go after clients and investors.

7. Be Confident: This is the last one I want to drop here. It is easier to steal from someone that sounded unsure of himself than a confident person. So be bold, be assertive and exude confidence.

I know a lot of people are expecting to see something on copyrights and patents. Well, all I can say here is that this article is about ideas that have not been invented or published yet. It is about ideas that are yet to be put to work. They are still in their frameworks with no flesh to say how it will turn out. It could be something you communicated to someone orally or in writing, which has not yet been put to test. Therefore, it may not be wise to look for laws that will protect ideas that are still in their incubation period.

But in a case where the idea has already been published or invented, but you seek expansion, you can then consider any of those laws that appy to your case.

“I cannot imagine paying someone to help me re-write my CV. People who patronize resume writers are just simply unintelligent” – this was a comment I received on one of my posts on LinkedIn concerning a heated argument on why you need a professional resume writer to boost your chances.

I clearly understood the sentiments of the commenter – but what he got wrong was that it doesn’t portray unintelligence on your part should you decide to patronize the services of a professional resume writer.

Back in 2011 when I resigned from where I worked, truthfully, I gained major experiences in the non-profit sector. I participated in projects funded by Chevron, USAID, US Embassy, Exxon Mobil, UNDP, and the European Union (EU). I have worked on multimillion naira projects and clearly understood everything from strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy, proposal writing, and every single area in the field.

But after the first one month after my resignation despite sending my CV to multiple organizations and not getting called for interviews, I constantly told myself that it won’t take more than three months, I’ll be resuming with a decent multinational. Eight months down, still nothing! After 18 months I gave up. Here I was a qualified candidate but not one organization called me for an interview.

I didn’t use man-know-man connections, I simply filled forms online. After 4 years of doing this, I met a long lost friend of mine who just got a project and he wanted me to help sort out applications he got from prospective candidates he needed to employ for the project. While sorting these applications, I realized that I could not pick one application. They all looked generic and similar. Then, I understood while no one called me for an interview.

Why this story?

Just like technology, finance, engineering, communications, etc have all moved, job application and candidate selection have also moved on to a new trend. This new trend and movement were spiked by a few drastic circumstances which were bound to happen. According to Vanguard;

The number of unemployed Nigerians rose by 3.3 million to 20.9 million in the third quarter of 2018 (Q3’18), a report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown. Buhari The NBS in its Labour Force Statistics –volume 1: Unemployment and underemployment report for Q3’18, indicated that year-on-year (YoY) the rate of unemployment rose by 3.3 million or 19 percent to  20.9 million in Q3’18 from 17.6 million in Q3’17, while on quarterly basis, it rose by three percent from 20.3 million in Q2’18.

From a recent study, between 1980 till date, the Nigerian population rose from 73 million to 200 million – approximately 180% increase in just 40 years. This increase comes with an increase in students applying to tertiary institutions as most state governments now make primary and secondary education free. This, in turn, creates an influx of graduates which is more than what our current private and public employment sector can handle. The resultant effect? More applications for jobs.

Secondly, there is also a ‘development’ factor. With technology advancements, apps, software, robots, and co, multinational organizations have over the years, embraced these developments as an effective means to cut down operational costs and save more money. Another downside to this is layoffs. And this increases the unemployment pool.

Another salient problem arose for recruiters over the years which have hampered employment processes and most importantly, candidate selection. With each passing year, the number of applications received for any advertised vacancy keeps tripping at geometric progress. It got to a point that recruiters cannot go through every single job application. So, the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) was born.

In 2016, Tude Fowler of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) announced that the organization received over 700,000 applications for just 500 advertised positions. Also, in 2014, 125,000 applications were received for 4,500 positions advertised by the Nigerian Immigration Service. There was also the case of almost one million applications recorded for just 10,000 positions advertised by the Nigerian Police in 2016.

Getting called for an interview has gone beyond flaunting your apex expertise or a multitude of degrees and qualifications in your CV. No matter how qualified you are, if your CV does not scale through an ATS which is now the preferred automated candidate selection program used by multinationals, you will not be called for an interview.

Applicant Tracking Systems are built to parse your CV using a variety of ranking algorithms namely skills/keywords, job title, education match, section headings, date formatting, measurable results, word count, job level match, negative words (buzzwords), education boost, web brand presence (LinkedIn profile), and so on.

For you to actually get called for an interview, you must learn to write and format your CV according to the latest algorithms of an ATS. Most multinationals use in-house ATS programs, but they generally share almost the same ranking criteria. In case you are wondering what an ATS actually is, just remember that form you filled online that asked you to attach your CV at the end when you were applying for that job with Microsoft? That is an ATS.

Professional CV writers are constantly trained on how to write CVs that can scale through an ATS. There are several international certifications that make them consultants. The job of a professional CV writing company is to help you re-tell your career story and properly format your CV to scale through an ATS. Patronizing one does not make you unintelligent as I said earlier, it only helps you increase your chances. Luckily, there are a few companies in Nigeria that specialize in professional CV writing.

When I founded Procivi in 2015, I got mocked and some people told me I had no direction in life. Today, Procivi has become the largest growing and actually the first-ever company to help people understand what they need professionals to help them retell their career stories and rewrite their CVs.

In stern opposition to Trump, the UK government decided to allow Huawei to be used in its 5G services though with some restrictions.

The US Government has banned Huawei totally and restricted it from all access to American 5G operations for security reasons, and had warned the UK of the implications of letting the Chinese company partake in its 5G roll out.

About a week ago, the British government in a defiant move announced that Huawei will be allowed to account for 35% of the kit in a network’s periphery that includes radio masts. But the deal excludes any chance of Huawei supplying sensitive network materials (core). And the company will not be allowed to operate near military bases and nuclear sites.

UK network operators separated their network parts to core and non-core as a way of segmenting security. The non-core part of the network covers antennas and base stations which are easily secured.

Huawei’s cheaper services in the 5G roll out has been seen as the reason many countries are embracing the Chinese company despite the risk of potential security breach that may come from its services.

The US Secretary of States Mike Pompeo has said in an interview with Fox Business that the United States would stop sharing information with any European country which allowed China into its space of technology. That means, the British government is at risk of losing some of its intelligence-sharing ties with America.

But the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the House of Commons that the decision will not jeopardize their intelligence sharing with the US.

“Nothing in this review affects this country’s ability to share highly-sensitive intelligence data over highly-secure networks both within the UK and our partners, including the Five Eyes,” he said.

The US and UK are members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing agreement that includes Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Telcos in the UK have been resisting US pressure to shun Huawei mainly because the companies are already using Huawei’s equipment. Vodafone said it will cost millions of dollars to start afresh even though the UK’s Huawei’s Cyber Security Evaluation Center has criticized Huawei’s cyber security measures last year. In a surprised move, the British intelligence has countered the Cyber Security report, saying that Huawei’s equipment is a manageable risk.

Under Chinese law, Chinese companies are operating under its communist laws even when they are abroad. They may be called to perform national duties by spying for Beijing, and there is no guarantee that the companies would say no. Although Huawei said it would rather go out of business than yield to such demand, it is easier said than done. The risk is the major reason the UK’s Cyber Security wouldn’t approve Huawei’s activities.

“We’ve always treated them as high risk vendors and have worked to limit their use in the UK and put extra mitigations around their equipment and services,” said Ian Levy, technical director of the National Cyber Security Center.

UK appears to have narrowed choices of giving in to US demand at high cost of 5G rollout or letting Huawei in at the risk of national security. They chose the latter.

“Huawei is reassured by the UK government’s confirmation that we can continue working with our customers to keep the 5G roll out on track. It gives the UK access to world-leading technology and ensures a competitive market,” Victor Zhang Huawei’s UK Chief said in a statement.

It is believed that Post-Brexit paranoia must have contributed to the decision allowing Huawei’s services in the UK. It appears that the British Government is seeking to cover whatever trade deficit that may have resulted from the Brexit deals, and keep inflation in check by minimizing the cost of innovations like 5G roll out. It is a post-Brexit strategy.

However, the decision to allow Huawei to carry out its 5G services in the UK despite Trump’s warning may come with a price. The US has zero trust in Huawei’s ability to operate outside the influence of China’s censorship, and may likely renege on intelligence sharing with the UK.

Republican senator Tom Cotton, a member of the US Intelligence Committee tweeted his disappointment.

“I fear London has freed itself from Brussels only to cede sovereignty to Beijing.

“The short-term savings aren’t worth the long-term costs. In light of this decision, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence should conduct a thorough review of U.S.-UK intelligence-sharing.”

Despite the US threat, London appears keen on keeping its trade deals with China as part of its preparation to assert its independence from Europe.