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UberBOAT Launches in Lagos

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
-
6
Uber trialed Uber Boat in Lagos

UberBOAT launches in Lagos in partnership with Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA). Users will be charged a flat amount of N500 ($1.39) per trip. This is encouraging but it needs scale to have an impact. 

One of the most exciting things in Zurich, Switzerland, is entering a public bus, in some areas, with no requirement to pay any fee. Come out from the central station, enter a bus, and go anywhere you want. The government has figured out that by waiving the fees, more people will use the public buses, triggering more productivity via no traffic on the roads, and good things follow. At the end, it will recover all expenses from better tax receipts.

Sure – one cannot compare Nigeria and Switzerland but getting people to drive less and use public transportation systems which must be adequately provided should be a game plan. Waterways, trains and more buses, priced competitively, would save Lagos from itself. As that happens, Lagos needs neighboring states to disperse its traffic under a better tax structure as I have noted.

Global ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] on Friday launched a pilot test of a boat service in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos to attract commuters seeking to avoid the megacity’s notoriously congested roads.

[…]

The waterway service, UberBOAT, is operated in partnership with local boat operator Texas Connection Ferries and the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), said the ride-hailing firm.

[…]

Passengers will be charged a flat fare of 500 naira ($1.39) per trip, compared with about 300 naira by minibus for a similar journey in the commercial hub of the West African country where most people live on less than $2 a day.

Recently, Gokada, a motorbike e-hailing operator, went into the space with GBoat.

Gokada launches GBoat, a boat service in Lagos: “After raising USD 5.3  million from the Rise Capital, bike-hailing firm GoKada is launching a water-borne service, GBoat, to beat Lagos traffic”. Meanwhile Uber unveils Uber Copter in New York. Yes, you can take a helicopter from Manhattan heliport to JFK Airport for $200. Two poles – interesting moments in global transportation.

 

Blame Our Traders for The Increments in a Bag of Rice

By
Chinedu Junior Ihekwoaba
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0

I was at the market on Wednesday, the 9th of August, and I discovered that a bag of rice is now 24000 naira. I could see the dissatisfaction in the eyes of many Nigerians.

Everyone is blaming the president for closing down the border without an alternative. Many don’t see it as a smart move as everything has skyrocketed.

We all know that rice is widely consumed by every citizen. With the border closed indefinitely, and the limited supply from our own factory that can not meet up with the high demand of the citizens, an increase in price is inevitable.

This is a trying time for Nigerians. The masses are feeling the heat and I must admit, but I am not scared of what the future holds.

I commend the president’s effort on this. He has indeed taken a bold step. Of course, it won’t be easy. In fact, we need to go through this tough moment if we must enjoy the future. As much as this is tough on us, it can only get better in a few month’s time. There’s nothing to worry about.

There are lots of positives to take from this brilliant move by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Here are the positives to pick from the closure of the borders:

  • Any country that wants to grow must be a producer and not a consumer. Our country, Nigeria, is over-reliant on imported goods. We are consumers. Only a few are producers. No nation will grow that way. We can not continue to rely  on others for what we consume, it’s time we take responsibility for our future. We need to buy less and sell more. Something we are not ready to do. Nigerians want everything easy but it doesn’t work that way.
  • This will help boost the sales of homemade products. We need to start patronizing our own products. That will help foster the growth of our companies and also give birth to more infant companies. Most of them have gone into extinction because they don’t have the financial capacity to compete with imported goods. The closure of the border will provide an enabling environment for businesses to grow.
  • More jobs will be created. When homemade companies thrive, they’ll definitely grow. Therefore, they’ll be needing more hands in their companies. This will help in creating more jobs. Isn’t it something to rejoice about? With the rate of unemployment on the rise, we need to come up with a solution or else our graduates will be frustrated and keep roaming the streets without direction.
  • Revenue will be generated. The government needs to make more money to support the nation’s thin budget. Since the border has been closed, the Head of the Nigerian Customs Service reported that they’ve recorded over 5 billion naira per day. This is a very good figure. It makes me think about how much we’ve wasted in the past. If we want the Nigerian dream, we must be willing to pay the price.

This is a moment where everyone has to come together and join hands together to lift the nation high.

We often blame the president for this increment in the price of food and other non-perishable goods in the country. But the truth is, the president has played a little role in this. We should rather blame ourselves for whatsoever that’s happening in the country.

We are our own enemies. I am ashamed of our traders. Most of them had purposely inflated the price of these commodities. They have seen it as an opportunity to make more money. I am not surprised by that, filling stations also do that.

We all can sit in our homes or offices and blame the president forever, it won’t change the fact that we don’t have empathy for ourselves. We are the ones making life hard and unbearable yet we blame the leaders. Piling pressure and inflicting pains during the trying moment is what we call good business.

If we look further, we will see a clearer picture of what the president is trying to do. But our greedy act would not let us see the bright future ahead. You’ll be surprised that some people will produce substandard goods just to exploit the citizens. We all want to make a profit on ourselves.

I’m not against anyone making a profit in business. Of course, the purpose of every business is to make a profit but when this is done to exploit the masses, then it makes no sense at all.

Here’s one thing I will leave you with – the president is not feeling the heat, neither are the politicians. So when you think of making a profit at the expense of the masses, remember that we are in this together.

The Buhari’s Rice Experiment

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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3

Few weeks ago, the Nigerian government closed the nation’s borders with Niger  Republic and Benin Republic. From all angles, you can make noise that the border closure may be violating the spirit of AfCFTA, the trade agreement, designed to bring commerce and industry closer in Africa. But Nigeria has a game plan: check rice smuggling into Nigeria.

Do not blame me – I tend to pick unstructured data including paying attention to the price or rice and availability of rice. In Umuahia, Abia State, this week, the price of (foreign) rice is hitting N18,000 per bag if you can find one. 

But besides the price and the supply, these are things I pick from this policy:

  • Nigeria is not producing enough rice that can meet demand. This contradicts all the statements from Audu Ogbeh, the former minister of agriculture, who boasted last year that Nigeria has attained parity on internal supply and demand.
  • Smuggling of rice is massive. Official data shows that rice is not banned in Nigeria even though the central bank is not supporting its importation with special exchange rate. Yet, by closing the Niger and Benin Republic borders, scarcity has been created. The implication is that most of the rice consumed in Nigeria are smuggled. 
  • Benin Republic and Niger Republic do not eat a lot of rice. Apparently, the mind-blowing imports into these nations are destined for Nigerian family tables. With the borders closed, I expect drops on the volume of rice imports into these nations, in coming weeks.
  • This scarcity can equilibrate in 4-8 weeks (time it could take ships from Asia to Nigeria) as importers begin using Nigerian ports over Nigerien and Benin Republic ports.

Nigeria should sustain this policy but make sure there is a faster clearance for imported rice via the opened ports so that supply can get into the country. This is also the time banks should help their customers to ensure they are using ports which are opened in Nigeria for quick delivery so that supply-demand will normalize.

We need this type of experiment. My suggestion next time will be for government to educate importers and customs to ensure when supply-demand disequilibrium like this happens, immediate actions can be taken to normalize things. It is purely evident that local production cannot do that in the short-run, so a Plan B must be in existence.

The Mara’s Phone Manufacturing Playbook in Rwanda

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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2

Since my article in the Harvard Business Review where I postulated that African leaders should forget following China’s playbook, on industrialization, I have received an unusual level of feedback. My point remains that AI (artificial intelligence) will disintermediate the low level manufacturing jobs which made China attractive to North America and Europe, and Africa cannot count on those jobs as wages rise in China, because AI and robots will do those jobs in North America and Europe, removing any need for them to be outsourced.

Interestingly, whenever factories open in the continent, people send links, asking for my comments. Today, I received one from a business school dean in Kenya who wants my perspectives as Mara Group sets up a smartphone factory in Rwanda.

First, congratulations to Mara. The challenge though is that manufacturing electronics in Africa would be severely challenging since the supporting industries do not exist. And in a sector that rides on volume for better unit economics, Mara has to swim huge waters. Typically, people assemble to win tax benefits but here Mara is going into real “manufacturing” as it noted in the announcement. They are brave because as an electronics man, there is a drumbeat they are hearing which many of us are unable to pick the decibels.

Rwanda’s Mara Group launched two smartphones on Monday, describing them as the first “Made in Africa” models and giving a boost to the country’s ambitions to become a regional technology hub.

The Mara X and Mara Z will use Google’s Android operating system and cost 175,750 Rwandan francs ($190) and 120,250 Rwandan francs ($130) respectively.

They will compete with Samsung, whose cheapest smartphone costs 50,000 Rwandan francs ($54), and non-branded phones at 35,000 Rwandan francs ($37). Mara Group CEO Ashish Thakkar said it was targeting customers willing to pay more for quality.

“This is the first smartphone manufacturer in Africa,” Thakkar told Reuters after touring the company alongside Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame.

To execute this playbook, Mara will become a chemical company, a mechanical company, an electronics company, and so on. In other words, it has to do many things by itself since Rwanda does not have the feeder companies that can provide those services yet, unlike say in China, where some of those auxiliary could be outsourced. Of course, the presence of Mara could stimulate the arrival of those companies in the economy, creating a virtuous circle.

But it has to be super-lucky as no company in Africa (excluding South Africa) has ever executed that playbook yet, from Zinox to Omatek, using Nigerian companies as case studies. To import chemicals, parts and packaging materials separately will always cost more than importing finished products or semi-finished products.

Then, there are other players like TECNO, Oppo and Samsung which remain as competitors in Africa. To win, Mara needs to have huge volume because a firm that produces 5,000,000 units will have a natural advantage over another that could make say 500,000 due to economies of scale which work in electronics. As volume increases, costs of parts and production drop.

The Mara strategy is confusing, to me, because its products are already more expensive than some TECNO brands; the most affordable brand of TECNO goes for about $70 in some African markets but Mara is priced at $130 for the cheapest. Had Mara used the low cost strategy, I would have concluded it was moving with a double play strategy: give affordable phones to unlock a service business in future, and through the services make money. But that is not the playbook here.

To the dean’s question, AI and robots have not taken over making phones. So, nothing has changed therein. On Mara, we congratulate it and will be watching this playbook.

Unity is the KEY to Nigeria’s Development

By
Chinedu Junior Ihekwoaba
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0

You could live for 25 years in the northern part of the country and still be regarded as a stranger. Tribalism has eaten deep into our country and brainwashed all the citizens.

Everyone blames one tribe for any mishap. If there are bombing and killing of people, everyone accuses the Hausa. If Nigerians are caught overseas for smuggling of drugs or illegal papers, everyone accuses the Igbos. If a woman is caught in infidelity, she must be Yoruba.

That’s the sad state of the nation. Everyone is guilty of the blame game. I could remember when I was dating a Yoruba lady, the parents told her to leave me because I am Igbo. You’ll be surprised at the reason why she was advised to leave me. They had the belief that Igbo people use their wives for money rituals and they also eat human beings.

There was a point, I stopped telling people where I come from. Thank God, I have a Yoruba accent. For how long do we continue to live like this? A Yoruba man can’t live in the North or East. He’s scared of being killed during tribal conflicts. An Igbo man will decline to work in the North because he believes he would be the first target during conflicts.

I’ve never been to the North but what I hear from the people living in the South and East say about northerners is really discouraging. If I tend to believe it, I will never go there. They made it look like you’ll be killed immediately you step your feet into that place. Same with other tribes too.

No nation will develop with citizens of this mindset. Everyone needs to feel comfortable and welcomed for the growth and development of the nation.

“We may have different religions, different languages, different coloured skin, but we all belong to one human race.” Kofi Annan

I brainstormed with Lazarus Victoria and definitely agree that – only unity can see us through in this country.

Extracted from her thoughts, ”As I sat down to take my dinner this evening, I took some moments to consider the number of people around the world who had contributed to my evening meal. From the farmers who worked tirelessly on the field all day, cultivating and harvesting, down to the workers at the Rice Mill processing and packaging the food, to the truck drivers and distributors across the country who travel on the road every day and night to ensure the food gets to every citizen of the country. Without these people, my plate of rice would not have been filled with food.”

”Let’s take another quick glance at the shirts, skirts, wristwatches, bags and all, different people have worked together to make it happen. This shows that we are dependent on each other.

Our different phones and laptops are also another reminder. The various technology companies in charge of the production and the service providers trying to keep up with our demands, all revealed how some things we usually think are the product of our strengths are not.”

No wonder, a single forest could destroy thousands of other forests even though they are miles away from our destinations and which could affect the very air we breathe in.

We might be different in our way of life, languages, thoughts and beliefs, yet we are all a product of the same root. Unity brings us together as one.

Until we start seeing each other as one irrespective of the colour or tribe, we will always remain in a spot.

Unity makes everyone sees President Buhari as our President and not the Hausa President. I’m surprised people are only interested in voting for a candidate from their tribe.

But does it really matter?

A house divided cannot stand. From the small bundle of sticks tied together comes the power and strength of a united force.

The broom is something that usually piqued my interest. No matter how dirty the environment is, get a good broom and watch your compound becomes impeccably clean. Despite being a lifeless piece of sticks, the power of togetherness made it an effective tool for cleanliness.

The togetherness of this bundle also made it a very difficult task to sit and start snapping each stick one by one. This actually gave credence to the fact that it is easy to win a war against a lone man, but to defeat a force united in strength would require a second thought.
The unity of the broomsticks is a very special one. I see it as a kind that shifts focus from unity based on tolerance to one that is solidified in understanding that our differences paved the way for our uniqueness and strength.

Let’s assume the human race, country by country imbibed the power of this kind of unity and worked together as a whole, what do you think would be the result?

Nigeria must come together as one. Unity is the key to winning.

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