DD
MM
YYYY

PAGES

DD
MM
YYYY

spot_img

PAGES

Home Blog Page 6741

Nigeria to start Transport University, Daura – Rotimi Amaechi

1

Nigeria to start Transport University, Daura this September, according to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.  How I wish they would stop this escalating bureaucracy and put that money in the departments of Transport Management in FUT Minna, FUT Yola (MAUT), FUT Bauchi (ATBU), FUTO, and FUTA. These five universities have solid transportation management programs that can be expanded. A new university means new VC, bursar, etc and just colossal inefficiency.

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on Friday, said the groundbreaking of the Transport University, Daura, would take place in Septemeber.

Mr Amaechi disclosed this while inspecting Lagos -Ibadan rail line construction.

The minister said the ministry would also establish a factory in Kajola, Ogun, to produce materials for the rail project.

What is wrong with Nigeria?

Nigeria’s Pharmaceutical Firms Need to Leverage Kobo360 Platform to Fix Logistics Challenges

0

Nigeria has a vibrant and rapidly growing pharmaceutical market, and is the largest producer of formulation products among the Central and West African countries.

Nigeria is having the largest number of pharma manufacturing units among the entire West African region, and the industry is meeting the 13 per cent growth per annum. Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (PMG-MAN) is the apex body representing the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry. It presently has more than 120 local pharma manufacturing member companies amongst which nine are quoted in the Nigeria Stock Exchange. PMG-MAN contributes to the National Domestic Product, to the excess of N300 billion, paying taxes and other tariffs and employing directly and indirectly over two million Nigerians.

On August 28 and 29, 2019, the 5th Edition of Nigerian Pharma Manufacturers Expo 2019 holds at the Haven, Oba Akinjiobi Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.

The Exhibition theme for this edition is tagged “Strategic Collaboration for Medicine Security, Affordability and National Sufficiency”.

It promises to attract hundreds of both indigenous and foreign companies operating in the Nigeria’s pharma landscape.

One of the major challenges this forum should address is the distribution of pharmaceutical products from the manufacturing companies to the market. This is one of the factors hindering access to quality medicines and the continuous proliferation of fake drugs in the market.

While working as a Sales manager in Kano with one of the top pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria, I had a territorial coverage of Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Borno, Adamawa,Yobe, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi States to coordinate sales for the company. One of the major challenges we had as a company was logistics- getting our products  from the manufacturing plant in Lagos to our Kano depot. I remembered an incident when I had to wait for some customers orders for two weeks due to a failure from our transporter. You could imagine the pressure of assuaging the customers whose goods were in that truck.

The transporters will always come up with numerous excuses for delaying your goods:

  1. Break down of their truck on the road
  2. Problem with Police and other law enforcement agencies
  3. Traffic Congestion on the road
  4. Bad Road, etc

From my experiences in the field as a Sales Manager, I make a case here for the pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Nigeria under PMG-MAN to collaborate with the logistic aggregator category-king Kobo360 to address their logistics challenges.

Kobo360 aggregates trucks to meet the logistics challenges of their customers. Brands already with Kobo360 include: Honeywell, Sifax Group, Dangote, Olam, DHL, BUA Group, Emel, Sinoma, Lafarge, Chisco, UPS, FMN,etc. Kobo360 has been able to aggregate a fleet of over 10,000 drivers and trucks on its platform.

Kobo360 promises you Technology, Visibility, Transparency, Digital and Insurance.

On the Kobo360 platform, you can view real-time the location of trucks on the platform and receive regular updates via email or sms. Kobo360’s tracking incorporates GPS, Geo-Location via its transporter app and regular checkpoints.

You can see real-time market rate on your lanes up to two weeks in advance. If you find a rate you like, you can lock it by creating the shipment online.

All Kobo360 trips are insured to cover your goods from loading to unloading points.

Kobo360 has continued to reposition itself to meet the ever growing logistic challenges in Africa. Recently, it raised a $20 million Series A equity led by Goldman Sachs and an additional $10 million in local currency working capital from Nigerian commercial banks. It also plans to enter 10 new countries by the end of 2020 beyond its footprint in Nigeria, Togo, Ghana and Kenya.

Kobo Founders

Now that Nigeria has finally signed the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA), I enjoin the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria(PMG-MAN) and the West Africa Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (WAPMA) to leverage the Kobo360 platform to access the bigger Central and West African market while targeting the entire African market. Already, we have pharmaceutical traders within the Central and West African countries coming into open drug markets of Idumota (Lagos), Head-Bridge (Onitsha), Ariaria(Aba) and Sabon-Gari(Kano) to meet their pharmaceutical needs. This is a big untapped market for Nigerian pharmaceutical companies but they require an established logistic platform such as Kobo360 to easily convey their goods to such markets.

As the 5th Edition of the Nigerian Pharma Manufacturers Expo 2019 takes center stage in a few days here in Lagos, I wish all the participants a great event.

Agu Vincent is a Sales/Marketing Coordinator with Chelis Bookazine Limited, Nigeria’s leading educational supplier. He has over 12 years Sales experience selling pharmaceutical and educational products and services. He can be reached on 08037614960 or vinchyke2013@gmail.com.

Young People, Skills, and Jobs of the Future

1

Few months ago, I was searching YouTube to download some videos on how to speak in front of a camera, I wanted to begin to make live videos but I found it very difficult.

I was always stuttering, forgetting the script, hating how I looked in the video and also my voice sounded terrible. As usual, I visited YouTube to download a couple of videos on “How To Gain Confidence on Camera”.

I found the videos I was searching for and I found out something that also changed my perception towards a lot of statements we make generally as youths or even adults.

Guess what I discovered on YouTube, someone else made videos on how to set up a camera, someone else made a video on how to use proper lighting in a room.

Another person made videos on best cameras to use and how to get the cheapest with the best quality. I was awestruck. I mean just from one problem I had which was “How to be Confident in Front of a Camera”, I had seen different other jobs emerge.

Isn’t that amazing?

I never knew that after I gained confidence that I would as well need to consider the lighting position and how to go about it. But someone had already figured that I would face that problem so offered the assistance through the videos. That’s her profession already.

She has a job! She’s self employed! Did she wait for the government to give her a job?

NO!!!

Mind you, if we count the different professions already created, we’d have like four and all of them would definitely have their customers.

They identified a problem and offered a solution. They just used their common sense. Fine common sense isn’t common these days. Matter of fact, it is very scarce.

Firstly, if there is unemployment in a nation, we should face the government first. Especially when the numbers are high. The government deserves a good amount of the blame.

Now that we’re done blaming the government, should we all just crawl back to the corner of our rooms where we all hold our phones to throw blames.

NEVER!!! Not this time.

It is time to question every youth who at least is educated to an extent especially graduates (the lazy ones) who are fond of hiding behind the cloak of the government incapability to shield your lack of readiness to get yourself out of your problem.

I hear statements like “This country is hard, everything is built to make you fail”

Funny enough, some of those who make such statements haven’t started anything, they act on hearsay. Not that I am I saying all those are not true? They are!! But do I join the party of people who sit with arms akimbo? Never!!

From the example I gave, someone already has made a profession out of the problem of lack of confidence in front of a camera. She had identified the problem and discovered she could make money from it.

Immediately she started, another guy saw an opportunity. If people would make videos, wouldn’t they need to consider lighting and all?

Why don’t I fix that problem? And on like that. Should we all wait for the government to give us jobs? I don’t think we all should do.

How do you identify a need?

It’s not wrong to complain. However, as a youth, you could still do some things that would earn you money, make an impact and all.

I have spoken about my experience on how I wanted to watch videos on YouTube on how to be confident in front of a camera and stumbled upon several other videos. I saw videos on how to set up a camera, how to make proper lighting and all, the best cameras to use and all.

Now what happened was that a simple problem led to a lot of job opportunities for many because they all identified a need.

If someone would want to purchase a camera, he or she would definitely need to know how to be confident, he would definitely need to consider the type of camera to purchase, he would definitely need to know the proper angle for lighting.

Those are needs.

I told a friend a few weeks ago, he is a graphic designer and he complained about not getting jobs and also not even having a laptop to hone his skills.

I simply told him, when it is Saturday, wear a shirt and tuck it in your trouser. Wear a nice shoe, take your student I D card with you and head towards any estate around you.

There are wealthy and influential people in estates. Knock on each door, present yourself as a student. Ask them if they have small businesses or a church or a company.

Offer to make logos for them for free or at an affordable rate. Show them the works you’ve done on your phone.

That is identifying a need. Who knows if they have been seeking a graphic designer for that long, and not know whom to meet. Does your street have issues with a location to fill the gas?

Where is the nearest Gas Station? Do they all have gas in the street? How convenient is it for them? What if you provided a solution to that?

What about teaching the children in the street a particular subject? Do they suck at that subject? There are thousands of needs arising daily ghat could as well create jobs for thousands of youths.

What need have you identified?

What Can Nigeria Do?

0

Many years ago, I was qualified for a U.S. passport but I did not bother to apply. My wife applied for U.S. passport days she was qualified. I felt I could navigate the world with the green passport. Yes, the Nigerian passport.

Then, one day, I went to Moscow to give a speech. The Mayor of Moscow and the Economic Minister of Russian Federation had jointly invited me to keynote the Moscow Open Innovations (invitation below)- an event that attracts 6,000 leading visionaries. It was a minister in Brazil that recommended me to the Russians.

Everything went fine – they gave me red carpet in Moscow. Then, my handlers who were “guiding” me said bye at the Moscow airport; I had just passed the automated check-out to Customs.

At Customs, wahala began: Russians did not believe I was a Nigerian. Let me leave what happened out. But the simple story is this: upon arriving U.S., I went the next day and applied for a U.S. passport.  Since I began flying with U.S. passport, all the issues disappeared.

But not many can flip between passports. So, in the midst of this paralysis, what can Nigeria do?

Some are tribalizing the FBI arrests as Igbos messing Nigeria up. That is very unfortunate for a national shame. Perhaps, they forgot that Saudi Arabia executed 23 drug criminals who came mainly from southwest and north a few months ago. Nigeria has tribal criminal expertise: Yahoo Yahoo for southeast, corporate sleaze for southwest and government’s supervised corruption from the north [ask a friend in EFCC to share statistics with you]. Of course, each tribe has secondary participation across board! So, if you think your area is clean because your “tribe” is not in the recent FBI list, wake up – Nigeria is rotten.

Adeniyi Adebayo Zikri
Tunde Ibrahim
Jimoh Idhola Lawal
Lolo Babatunde
Sulaiman Tunde
Idris Adewuumi Adepoju
Abdul Raimi Awela Ajibola
Yusuf Makeen Ajiboye
Adam Idris Abubakar
Saka Zakaria
Biola Lawal
Isa Abubakar Adam
Ibrahim Chiroma
Hafis Amosu
Aliu Muhammad
Funmilayo Omoyemi Bishi
Mistura Yekini
Amina Ajoke Alobi
Kuburat Ibrahim
Alaja Olufunke Alalaoe Abdulqadir
Fawsat Balagun Alabi
Aisha Muhammad Amira
Adebayo Zakariya.

The question is thus: what can Nigeria do?

Image result for moscow russian tekedia

Western Union Responds

2

In this challenging week on Nigeria’s global image, Western Union has done something commendable. After Chinedu,  a content creator for companies around the world, was “banned” by WU because WU suspected that the small money his clients pay him may be illicit, he wrote a piece on my blog. In that piece, he explained that he creates contents for companies, and they pay him $100, $300, etc depending on the agreement. But because Paypal has terminated Nigerian node, his key option for payment has been WU.

Western Union Money Transfer has been a blessing to many Africans. Especially for those who have relatives or do businesses overseas. They have made it easier to send and receive money from many parts of the country. But the fact that they have been a blessing to many people and businesses doesn’t make me shy away from my awful experience with them.

Nothing is perfect but as a customer, I will voice my dissatisfaction with their policy. Perhaps it would be a good way to review their policies since customers feedback is essential.

Today, he just informed me that WU had reached out to him to resolve the issue. While we wait for WU to lift the ban in the coming hours, I use this opportunity to tell global entities to be fair on Nigerians as they deploy their sledge hammers. Sure, we have bad people but you cannot disconnect a nation from global commerce because of a few bad eggs. The disconnection of Nigeria by Fiverr, a freelance marketplace, remains evergreen.

Nigerian young people need help – and the world needs to support. I call on EFCC, Nigeria’s financial crime fighter, and the Nigerian Justice system to redouble efforts to clean the nation of fraudsters – the world is isolating us on basic digital commerce for a cause. The companies have reasons – and we need to demonstrate we are working to fix our demons to justify our pleas. If not, our young people will be spectators in the modern digital economy.