About 1 billion people are affected by the water paralysis globally, and a vast majority of them live in coastal areas in developing countries. Sea water desalination is a common solution but it requires a connection to a strong and reliable electricity grid.  As a result of the fact that its target market typically lacks sufficient grid capacity, and cannot afford the capital or time required to build and deploy grid connected systems, Resolute Marine has devised a unique solution to this friction: Wave20. Wave20 is the world’s first wave driven desalination system that can be deployed quickly, operate completely off-grid, and supply’s large quantities of clean fresh water at competitive cost.

Our mission is to significantly improve access to water for coastal populations and industrial/agricultural operations in developing countries and small island developing states (SIDS) and to displace the diesel-electric desalination system that are currently in wide use worldwide.

Wave20 provides access to low carbon energy to millions of people living in rural and isolated communities. Each plant will produce 4,000m3 per day of fresh water enough to cover the needs of 40,000 people, and reduce C02 emissions by 4,346 ton per year ,which is equivalent to taking 436 cars off the road. Wave20 provides access to low carbon energy to millions of people living in rural and isolated communities. It won the MIT Solve Award in 2018.

Coastal states like Lagos, Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, and Cross River in Nigeria, and countries like the Gambia, and Cape Verde which are all located within the Western axis of the Atlantic Ocean in Africa can adopt this innovation to solve the clean water paralyses in their localities.

By Nnamdi Madichie

It has been a long ten years ago since I first reflected upon the development of African football. In my 2009 paper entitled “Management implications of foreign players in the English Premiership League football,” I pointed out how globalisation has affected and reconfigured professional sports using the influx of foreign players into the English football league.

Just today, 6 July 2019, the holders, Cameroon were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations by Nigeria in what the BBC described as a five-goal last-16 thriller.

This is how today’s BBC commentary summarised the clash between Nigeria and Cameroon

“Goals from Stephane Bahoken and Clinton Njie saw Cameroon lead 2-1 at half-time after Odion Ighalo had put Nigeria ahead in Alexandria, Egypt. But two goals in three minutes swung the game back in Nigeria’s favour and set up a quarter-final with either hosts Egypt or South Africa.”

Odion Ighalo (Julius Berger, Watford and Changchun Yatai Football Club) equalised before the forward set up Alex Iwobi (Arsenal) to hit the winner. We must not, however, forget the role of maestro, Ahmed Musa (CSKA Moscow and Leicester FC) in the build up to the winner.

I have also talked about AFCON2010 in a paper entitled “Giving the Beautiful Game a “Pretty” Bad Name: A viewpoint on African Football,” where I outlined the massacres in Cabinda.

This year’s hosts of AFCON are an interesting case considering that while the country is clearly “African” it is also defined as part of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. This speaks to my 2013 paper entitled “Ode to a ‘Million Dollar’ Question – Does the Future of Football Lie in the Middle East?

More recently in 2016, in a special issue of Marketing Intelligence & Planning which I co-guest edited, I highlighted the need for a league rebrand. This was articulated in an article entitled “Re-branding the Nigerian Professional Football League: open play or dead ball?” where I outlined he challenges of Nigerian Professional Football League teams at the club level, with a view to aligning this with developments at the country level, and especially so in the aftermath of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

I also pointed out that “in the long history of the FIFA Football World Cup, only three African teams have ever reached the quarter finals –notably Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010.”

The FIFA World rankings are bound to change as the AFCON gets into the quarter finals stages with Nigeria awaiting tonight’s winners from the clash between Egypt and South Africa currently on.

By BHL Solutions

In any organization, people management is profoundly a difficult task to handle, it seems easy but is hardly so. We are a different group of people with our baggage which we drag along  together with our skills. This is why there are so many strained relationships between coworkers.

What is a team?

Team is a group of people organized to work on project or together, interdependently and cooperatively, to meet the demands of their customers by accomplishing a common goal.

In team building, daily interaction between the employees while carrying out the requirements of their job is part of the process. This is a type of team building structure which comes naturally, to ensure that group members know how to communicate with each other. Another form of team building, can involve structured activities and exercises which are externally facilitated. It doesn’t matter how one wishes to build their team, as long as the group members get to bond.  A bonded team has a higher level of success in completing projects effectively than a non-bonded team.

Tips on How to Build/have  a successful Team 

Communicate: Communication is important, when you don’t leverage on that, a lot of people on the team would feel left out. For instance, when everyone has the information and other members have not been filled in on what is going on, leads to one part of the team questioning their value. So, fostering a certain level of transparency while communicating, whenever possible, keeps the energy in the team same. An open line of communication helps your team members share or create a more productive workflow. When you let the team members weigh in on feedback, and are allowed to evaluate decisions, which in turn would give them a feeling of ownership over their work, leading to better performance.

Get to Know Each Other: Work colleagues shouldn’t be mandated to be friends with each other, on a personal level. But it takes nothing, for team members to get to know each other, maybe engage with each other on a monthly basis, during social gatherings. This is a chance for team members to know each other outside work, understand what each person brings to the table, and how to have discussions with little or no disagreements. Situations like this foster conducive environment for team work to grow.

Value Each Other: No roles should be treated higher or lower than the other. Every member should feel that their input matters and is crucial. With this sense of importance among team members, efforts would be generated to enhance performance. When one feels undervalued, work becomes mechanical, and reduces the amount of the input each member puts in.

Set Goals Together: Whether it is a short or long term goal for a project, your team members should be actively involved in the process. If this becomes the base of every project worked on, knowing the outcome and the task necessary for each member to pursue puts everything in better perspective. When everyone knows his/her deadlines, the task would easily be accomplished. Also, it allows the team members the opportunity to help one another in order to achieve the bigger picture.

Perspectives from BHL Solutions.