As the week begins, go around Nigeria and find “dumb ideas” and build businesses around them. A stranger sleeping in your house (Airbnb) is totally dumb. Posting your CV online (LinkedIn) is immodest. Giving a ride to a stranger (Uber) is terrible. But those are gone dumb ideas! Providing affordable wheelchairs in Africa is a dumb idea; but make good ones – glory awaits. Many dumb ideas abound in Nigeria; execute them, and you will be surprised!

Please visit this thread for a deeper insights on this.

In a new report titled Future of work (PDF), Passion Incubator, an Abuja-based technology accelerator, came to the same severe trajectory as the one I had reported few days ago from Bloomberg and National Bureau of Statistics: in Nigeria, “only 25% of the workforce is engaged in paid employment”. The Bloomberg/NBS focused only on youth – this one focuses on all segments of the workforce.

(Read with low voice – if you do not have post-secondary education in Nigeria, you may not make the unemployment database even though you have no job. Yes, people do not really see a guy with only primary school education but without a job as being unemployed. He has not done enough to qualify for job.)

Simply, if Nigeria does not deal with our unemployment paralysis, we may not even have a nation to talk of future work!

With a workforce of 85 million, Nigeria is home to an enormous labour market. However, this resource is characterized by low levels of skill and educational attainment – just 15% of the labour force has a postsecondary education.

About 11.1 million out of the unemployed 20.9 million are involved in one form of work or the other with most of them involved in small and medium scale enterprises in the agriculture and small scale retail businesses. Overall, only 25% of the workforce is engaged in paid employment while half of the workforce has either just primary education or no formal education.

As China-America trade battle rages, we will see new moves like a chess game. The U.S. has largely cut-out Huawei from the supplies of critical components. China will surely respond. I expect Apple to be the main target if that Huawei ban is not reversed or softened: “But China does have a game move available: if you restrict it from component supplies because of the “entity list”, companies like Apple, maker of iPhone, may pay the penalties”. Fortune Newsletter chronicles the possible scenarios through which China can harm Apple as follows:

1. And yet this month’s sharp deterioration in US-China trade relations should give pause to even the most die-hard Apple bulls. Analysts are waking up to the fact that Apple can’t escape consequences of the next round of US tariffs. Morgan Stanley estimates those duties will increase the cost of an iPhone by $160.
2. The Huawei ban takes trade hostilities to def-con 4; Fareed Zakaria calls it China’s Sputnik Moment. If fully implemented, the ban would cripple China’s leading tech manufacturer. Chinese officials have decried the measure as a “cynical” act of “bullyism,” and charged Trump with mobilizing the full force of the state to crush a Chinese firm. If Beijing sticks with its current policy of “tit-for-tat” retaliation, Apple would seem an obvious target for reprisal
3. On Wednesday, analysts at Goldman Sachs, while stressing that “we are not assuming restrictions on iPhone production in mainland China at this point,” nevertheless estimated such a ban or “some other restriction on Apple products” could drag Apple’s earnings down 29%.
4. Even if Beijing doesn’t go after Apple directly, it can inflict pain in other ways. The Street.com suggests a Chinese ban on rare earths would be a huge headache for Apple.
5. Beijing could also encourage a nationalist backlash against Apple products among Chinese consumers; there’s some evidence that’s already happening.

As I have said, this is not an asymmetric warfare – yes, both China and America are largely evenly matched even though U.S. has a light upper hand, in this trade war. You may win but you might have been better off not fighting!

Yes, do not count out the possibilities that some Chinese firms which are traded in the New York Stock Exchange will start delisting, joining the nation’s leading chip maker.

Small shops which are using TAP (Touch and Pay Technologies) technology to collect payments, removing the paralysis of revenue leakage from unscrupulous workers are getting all supports from their fellow citizens. TAP, among others, makes it possible to provide electronically generated receipts on cash transactions. It turns out that Nigerian shoppers are extremely committed to see that shops thrive and do well.

So, all your comments on the videos like “What if your salesperson chooses not to use the device?”, “What if the salesgirl refuses to issue receipts”, etc are well taken care of.  Our recommendation remains: put this note [many variants] on the wall of your store so that customers can see it as they pay:

“Insist on a receipt; otherwise ask for your money back”.

‘If you do not get a receipt, it means this service is free”

“If the associate does not give receipt, demand one”

“Where no receipt is given, this service is unpaid”

As customers see these notes, many do ask for receipts. We see Nigerians demanding for receipts knowing that is how they support the shop owners. We estimate more than 95% compliance especially when the customers can read.

If you do not have TAP solution, it is time to stop revenue leakage and get one. Yes, that your auntie’s restaurant or salon may be leaking revenue, get TAP device as your support to her!

By Nnamdi Odumody

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a strategic initiative by an organization to invest a certain amount of capital gained in its host community or society to improve the lives of the citizens. Various organizations across the globe engage in CSR projects, spanning education, entrepreneurship, healthcare, entertainment, environmental sustainability, and food security. The Nigeria banks, oil companies, real estate, manufacturing companies are not left out of this element of capitalism as well.

Access Bank which is one of the top tier financial services providers in Nigeria has embarked on several strategic CSR initiatives which have made tremendous impacts in the lives of the average Nigerians and Africans as well.

In promoting a healthy and fit society which is essential for wealth creation, it partnered with the Lagos State Government in 2015 to launch the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, a bronze level race across Lagos which has grown to become the largest and number one annual sports tourism project, featuring about 100,000 participants not only from Nigeria but several other nationalities across Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. Access Bank Lagos City Marathon has made people see the essence of sports as a recreational exercise which is important for health.  The four editions of this event have been filled with fun and excitement.

To promote the Nigerian Entertainment and Creative Arts Industry, it sponsored the Made In Lagos which showcased the best of Afrobeats and other creative talents which have projected the positive image of Nigeria to the global audience. Also its Accelerate TV is trying to promote upcoming filmmakers to become the next Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Hype Williams. It hopes for the talents to become legends as a result of the movies and videos they will produce

Recognizing the importance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the need for Africa to participate in it as the next gold rush, it launched The Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF), an accelerator for disruptive innovations from this part of the world. These innovations are expected to redesign the financial services industry just like Kenya’s Safaricom did with mobile money. The AFF has not only supported financial tech innovators in Nigeria but has also become a must attend converge point through its annual Disrupt program for those looking forward to the next disruption, not just in financial services, but several other industries as well.

Access Bank is serving.