By Mutiu Iyanda

Is the privatisation the way to ensure sustainable power supply to households and businesses in Nigeria? It is obvious that this question was asked before Nigerian government considered privatisation of its national power agency in 2013, while private investors responded in affirmative, highlighting increased efficiency in electricity generation, transmission and distribution as a key benefit of the government’s action.

After the privatisation, expectation among the consumers is that increased efficiency will lead to stable electricity supply within a short period, but the narrative has been changed as the key actors in the power value chain continue trading blames over the corporate structure, government’s regulatory framework and capital impact on value delivery. There are no doubt people and businesses’ hope of throwing away their generating set has been dashed.  Power supply remains the main constraint of over 75% businesses operating in Nigeria. Despite the privatisation, experts and public analysts have not heaved a sigh of relief on the possible solutions to various problems in the sector.

The position of experts remains that Nigeria needs about $20 billion to revamp the power sector. To the civil society organisations, capital is not the problem of the sector, but the corruption which has been the main reason for having Nigerians and businesses in darkness while paying for the price. Is privatisation not supposed to reduce the corruption if total elimination is not possible? Like other private businesses, companies in the sector are expected to deploy their processes for sustainable value delivery and competitive differentiation, while assets and competencies should be used as drivers of profitability.

Actors and the Game

Instead of using processes and competencies for value delivery, analysis has established that players in the power sector engaged in a strategic blame game between January and June, 2019. From the Power Generating Companies to the Public Analysts, resource issues and value creation blame shots were traded during the period. Within the resource issues, generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure were bought and sold by the actors. Government interference, consumers’ debts, distribution and logistics problems were equally traded. As the actors engaged in the game, attack the accuser, denial, scapegoat, excuse, justification, apology and Victimage were employed as response strategies.

When an actor used attack the accuser, it actually attacked the actor(s) that accused it of wrongdoing towards generation, transmission or distribution instead of addressing the main issue preventing Nigerians and businesses from enjoying stable electricity. Denial, excuse and scapegoat response strategies were the centerpiece of reactions when an actor exonerated itself from the problem identified by another actor. As an alternative to clemency, analysis shows that an actor justified the issue raised by another actor leveraging internal and external information. Apology was used when actors discovered that they were actually wronged for not being proactive about the issues raised, while Victimage was adopted when it was obvious to the actors that wrongdoing that led to the issues did not emanate from them.

From the mined and analysed stories, infrastructure, distribution, capital and logistics blames were traded mostly during the period. Justification, excuse, scapegoat and Victimage were the dominant response strategies employed by the actors.  Out of 156 blame shots identified in the data, actors such as the Nigerian Society of Engineers, journalists, public analysts, consumers and other professionals traded over 39% of the blame shots. The Power Generating Companies (GENCOs) followed closely with 23.71% of the shots, while the Electricity Distribution Companies (14.74%) and Transmission Company of Nigeria (8.33%) occupied third and fourth positions respectively. In terms of response strategy, GENCOs overtook other actors (Nigerian Society of Engineers, journalists, public analysts, consumers and other professionals=23.66%) with 34.35% of the 131 response strategy actions found. DISCOs and the Federal Government followed by 12.97% and 9.16% of the response strategy actions respectively. While GENCOs preferred justification, excuse and scapegoat strategies, other actors (Nigerian Society of Engineers, journalists, public analysts, consumers and other professionals) prioritised justification and excuse.

Making Sense of Resources Issues

Consumers and the key actors need to make more sense of the insights generated from the issues that led to the blame game during the period. This is better understood within the Global Competitiveness Index. Since delivering and capturing value in the sector requires inputs from the supply-side and demand-side, strength of investor protection, intensity of local competition, government efficiency, the burden of government regulation, quality of overall infrastructure, quality of electricity and venture capital availability were chosen from the 2018 Index for supply-side. The demand-side had buyer sophistication, quality of demand conditions and degree of customer orientation.

Looking at these indicators, this piece hypothesized a significant variation in supply-side competitiveness indicators as a determinant of the blame shots. From the model, analysis reveals that SSC explained 94.80%, 70.80% and 55% variation in distribution, capital and infrastructure blame shots. The key lesson from the models is that the actors need to address the blame shots with the specific consideration of the indicators within the SSC. Holistic solutions to the blame shots depend on the proper diagnosis of the issues contributing to the country’s poor rankings within the indicators. Failure to address the issues would enhance the issues towards the continuous blame game in the sector in the next four months, analysis suggests.

Like the blame shots, issues in the supply-side competitiveness need to be resolved before ending excuse, scapegoat, justification and Victimage response strategies being used by the actors. Players need to break defensive attitude and behaviours. Instead, efforts should be on how to solve issues in the sector using collective approach. Government and regulators should have the courage to enforce the enabling laws and rules for the sector.

The Central Bank of Nigeria plans to hit 100 million registrations by 2024 for total Bank Verification Number (BVN) in the nation. The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele , made that announcement. Today, we have 38 million issued BVNs.

This is even as the apex bank revealed that it has successfully linked 38 million accounts with the Bank Verification Numbers. CBN noted that it foresees the increase largely to its partnership with the National Identity Management Commission will also enable integration between the two databases.

“We have set a target of 100 million registrations in five years. What this means is that, we will support an aggressive enrollment of prospective banking customers in the informal sector onto the BVN system,” said Godwin Emefiele as quoted by a national Newspaper.

For CBN to move from 38 million to 100 million, it will need to add 62 million people within five years into the formal banking sector. I have already noted that Nigeria has about 32 million people that earn decent income both from the private and public sectors. They are largely the people that truly care to have bank accounts. When you add students and those without jobs but need bank accounts to receive supports from friends and families, you get the extra 6 million that make up the 38 million BVNs.

So for CBN to hit 100 million BVNs, it will have to rapidly scale this economy to bring more into the fold to even need BVNs in their lives or it will make it a requirement to collect social benefits which means most adults will get one. It will be a huge achievement in Nigeria if we get closer to 70 million BVNs by 2025!

Why? Having a bank account is not really the big deal for many. With limited credit facilities in the nation, I am not sure anyone earning less than N30,000 will miss a bank account in Nigeria. Using one is simply funding bank fees.

By Nnamdi Odumody

SolarGaps is the world’s first smart solar blinds. It allows most households and commercial buildings to utilize their window areas for green energy generation, and reduces electricity bill and C02 emissions. As a smart product, SolarGaps blinds automatically adjust the angle for the most effective solar power generation and better shading performance. The blinds maintain the desired room temperature, control light, adjust to customer daily habits and changing weather conditions even as they integrate with various smart home and commercial building management systems.

The blind allows the utilization of windows for effective green energy generation thereby allowing users save up to 70 percent in electricity bills, decreasing average household yearly C02 emission by up to 10,000kg.

It allows any household or business to easily generate Solar PV electricity for further storage or sale up to 135w per m2 during sunny hours while the average household consumption during this period is 300W. Only 2.2 m2 of windows equipped with Solar Gaps will generate enough energy to cover energy demand. Solar Gaps tracks the sun using Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) which allows it to adjust its angle to the sun autonomously by calculating the maximum efficiency levels being produced.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1170840477/solargaps-smart-solar-blinds

SolarGaps blinds have plug and play design  and are easy to install and operate, offering a storm mode protecting the window from poor weather conditions and are built to suit all climatic conditions operating in the wide range of temperatures between -40 and +80 degrees Celsius. They automatically close when occupants leave the building for higher savings and energy generation and provide more shade when the room reaches the desired temperature, preventing up to 90 percent of the sun’s heat from entering the building.

We engineered SolarGaps with features designed for renters, homeowners and small businesses to affordably reduce energy usage, create renewable energy and transition to energy independence:

• DIY PLUG & PLAY – With apartment renters in mind, the interior wall brackets are designed as a non-permanent, plug & play solution with additional installation options for homeowners to maximize energy production.

• ENERGY GENERATING – Built-in solar panels can generate up to 100W-150W of renewable energy per 10 sq. ft. (? 1 m2) of a window, enough to power 30 LED light bulbs or three MacBooks.

• ENERGY REDUCING – In addition to generating solar energy, the window blinds also save energy by shading your home interior and reducing air condition cost by up to 80%.

• AFFORDABLE – Energy surplus can either be stored in the battery or can easily be sold to your electricity company as green energy through a two-way meter they provide.

• SMART FEATURES – Easily integrate with smart devices like Google Home, Echo, Nest Thermostat and more to control by voice, temperature and/or smartphone app

SolarGaps has the latest advanced smart shading features inbuilt and can easily be integrated directly with the most popular smart home systems like Amazon’s Alexa, etc.

By Ajayi Joel

For every skill that you have or business that you venture into, chances are there are about seven people already in such. Now, the big question is: how do you scale or succeed in spite of these? I have discovered overtime that some people just delve into businesses without having a sense of the fact that you have a competitor or a plethora of competitors. This article will give you deep insight into how you can play a game of chess with your competitors. And if you are very familiar with the game of chess, this is a step by step approach of how you can take the queen of your competitors and win the game. Yes, you have a new seasoning business and want to take up Maggi seasoning and gain market share. This is what to do:

Carefully Define Your Niche

The inability to have a niche for your business or skill will make you stuck in the sea of options, and this definitely will make you do so many things that might not directly or even indirectly affect your business or skill positively. If you are a writer – are you a poet, story writer or business writer?  It’s not wrong to focus on so many niches at the same time if only you can manage them; however, it is advisable to begin with a niche.

Let’s also take an example of a fish seller: do you sell cat fishes or all type of fishes? Or if you are a hairstylist, do you make for women or just everyone? And if you make for women, what class of women – the rich or the poor?

Travel Down to Your Niche

First thing first, it is advisable to begin with the smallest niche possible which will be the most profitable to you. The game of chess is one game that you don’t play anyhow without having full thinking and consideration. If your target market happens to be high-class women to make awesome hair styles for them, ask yourself if it is possible and easy to reach these set of people easily based on what you have? You need to consider you access and network to reach these target markets. You need to break it down to have your niche.

Consider trying to clone Facebook. That will be a definitely dumb move! Why not break down the niche to a social media for aged people? And if you discover that the niche is still hard to break into, you can break it further down to building a social media for the aged people who are within a certain age range or within a certain set of character. That makes it easy to travel down to.

Study Your Competitors

At this stage, you really do not have so much stress because your competitors will not be as much as those when you do not have a targeted niche. A friend of mine reached out to me last year that she wanted to start a business and that she already had a targeted location in which she was moving to. She needed me to help her strategize how she can scale and if you are reading this, I help both businesses and start-ups strategize on how to penetrate markets, gain mastery and scale. I simply asked some basic questions down to the question of “who are your competitors?”

Now pay attention, this friend wants to make bags and sell and wasn’t aware of the competitors in the target location. What if everyone in that city bought from just one person? What if they have been purchasing from that person for five years? I gave someone a business strategy last year who wanted to start a hair salon in a street. What if there are two major hair salons in that street and the both of them have been in the street for over 7 years? You definitely will not just open expecting that the customers will begin to flock towards your salon. It doesn’t just happen that way. By the way, studying your competitors isn’t terribly hard. Besides sources from the web, you can achieve this research by making inquiries from people around.

Be Strategic

You want to win this chess game. Either you want to force yourself into the market space or kick out your competitor, whichever will help you scale. Remember it applies to skills as well; it’s not just restricted to business. What price does the other hair stylist charge and what is your price?  This is a game of chess and every move counts. What if you go to meet the chairman of the street and offer to get his daughters hair plaited for free? Then you make a very nice hair. Trust me, once the wife is impressed, she begins to broadcast that you are the one who plaited the hair.

Perhaps you could give a one week free hair styling for young girls on the same street. If the parents agree to send their daughters there and you make like 15 girls hair for free, then tell them to tell their moms to patronize you. Through that, you could strike a win in the street without having to combat with your competitors.

Knight Takes Queen

This is about blocking all the channels through which your competitors are getting access to the target customers. I told my friend that if she realizes that her competitor has gained mastery of Instagram and your target customers are on Instagram following your competitor, it’s either she relies on the power of collaboration or spends extra money to “steal” those customers. What do I mean? I must first say that it is not as easy as it is but it’s very possible. You can decide to offer better values than your competitor and direct ads at the same target audience. There are high chances that if they spot your higher value, they might deviate towards you.

Luckily enough, if you are the first entering into the market, there are a couple of things you can do to have an edge. However, you must first understand the channels through which your customers come to you and then defend to protect your flanks.

This is how to play the game of chess with competitors and if you are strategic enough, you can keep conquering niches as you progress. And you can use this model to introduce a new food seasoning competitor to Maggi in Nigeria. Of course, it can work for any other business venture.

That seasoning may focus on a niche – maybe seasoning that is wholly organic. You must have a clear niche in the market. Then you also have to examine how to introduce this seasoning to market. Is there an opportunity to create something that looks like Blue Apron and then put your seasoning as the exclusive one for people to use? My point is this: irrespective of the product, these principles are the game plans.