It is very evident that Jumia will like to list in U.S. as early as possible. How? It has brought Andre Iguodala into its Board. Andre plays for Golden State Warriors, an NBA team. I do think with Andre, Jumia will lift its brand in U.S. as it pushes for the journey to IPO, possibly in U.S. I do not think it makes sense to list Jumia in Germany since Rocket Internet, a part-owner of Jumia, is also trading in Germany.

Andre has a Nigerian root; his father is a Nigerian. He has invested in more than 40 technology companies. I do believe he might have invested in Jumia.

The Jumia Press Statement below.

Andre Iguodala, a member of the three-time reigning NBA champion, Golden State Warriors, has joined the Board of Directors of Jumia, the leading e-commerce platform in Africa. As Jumia’s ambassador charged with promoting business development and technology in Africa, Iguodala will bring his network in the technology industry, interest in Africa and vast experience as an athlete on one of the most successful teams in NBA basketball history.

“Because of my Nigerian heritage, Jumia’s use of technology to deliver innovative online services to consumers and improve the quality of everyday life in Africa is very important to me,” says Andre Iguodala. “I’m thrilled to be a part of this unique enterprise that is shaping the future of digital Africa”

In addition to his numerous basketball achievements, Iguodala is widely recognized for his interest and knowledge in technology and e-commerce. He has invested in over 40 companies through F9 Strategies, including GOAT, Zoom, HIMS, Lime, Walker & Co., Thrive Global, AllBirds, Casper, STANCE and Carta, to name a few. Iguodala has also partnered with Bloomberg to create the annual Players Technology Summit, which convenes top executives and leaders in the technology, venture capital and sports communities.

Noting the influence and appeal that the NBA star brings to the board, Jumia Co-Founders Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara said: “Andre is a role model to many of us, and we are very proud to have him join Jumia and help us drive the company forward. We appreciate his commitment and passion for the tech industry and for Africa, and we can’t wait to collaborate and accelerate our impact on the continent. Finally, having Andre join our board sends the world the message that Africa has successful companies and great entrepreneurs, and that athletes can play a key role in contributing to their success.”

By Nnamdi Odumody

The Northern Eastern Savannah region of Nigeria is a region which spans 30.8 percent of Nigeria’s landmass, with Chad Republic to the East, Niger Republic to the North and shares boundaries with Jigawa, Kano and Kaduna States to its NorthWest, and Plateau and Benue States to its SouthWest. With 15.3 percent of Nigeria’s total population, it has a density of 96 people per square kilometer compared to the national average of 219 people per square kilometer which has made it the most sparsely populated region in the country. Its life expectancy is 46 years which is the least in the country and GDP per capita of 171,000 naira is also the least in the country.

These factors coupled with a shrinking Lake Chad has forced herdsmen who depend on it for survival of their cattle to migrate down to other regions, and the Boko Haram menace which has plagued the region, for over 10 years, has compounded its woes, making it to contribute less to national productivity as investors will not invest in a place where insecurity is the order of the day.

But in this troubled zone, Gombe State under the visionary leadership of Dr Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, a former Accountant General of the Federation, has been transformed to the beautiful bride of the region despite receiving the second least federal allocation of all the states.

On resumption of office on May 29 2011, he declared Education as one of his cardinal objectives. He constructed over 502 classrooms across the state and recruited over 1,000 degree and NCE graduates into the state’s educations sector and then trained over 5,000 teachers to increase their productivity. To boost access to tertiary education for the citizens of his state, he established Gombe State University of Science and Technology (Kumo), College of Education (Billiri), Gombe State Polytechnic Bajoja which will provide manpower to the Lafarge Cement owned Ashaka Cement manufacturing company, and College of Legal and Islamic Studies Nafada. These institutions are equipped with modern facilities such as e-libraries, e-learning centres, ICT Centres, laboratories, expansive and conducive classes, etc. Also 25 indigenes of the state were sponsored by him to India and the United Kingdom for Maritime Studies.

In Healthcare he upgraded the Urban Maternity in Idi to a Children and Women Hospital, completed a newly constructed Dialysis Centre within the Gombe Specialist Hospital, constructed College of Nursing and Midwifery at Dukku, Snake Bite Treatment and Research Centre, Kaltungo to tackle the prevalent scourge of snake bites in his state, and other parts of the region. Patients from Cameroon even come down to Gombe to receive treatment at the centre.

To make his state a destination for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions, he constructed a 3,500 capacity Gombe International Conference Centre. This conference centre is currently ranked among the top three in the country with state of the art facilities and a parking space for 2,000 vehicles at a go to make your event memorable. Also, he built a state of the art tankers parking bay to prevent accidents caused by indiscriminate parking of petroleum trucks which Lagos can learn from. Lagos continues to experience paralyses petroleum tankers perpetuated on its roads especially in Apapa axis and environs.

To tackle the scourge of youth restiveness which was prevalent in his state with the Kalare Boys, he established Talba Youths Reorientation and Rehabilitation Programme which saw over 1200 of them being turned to become useful citizens in the society. Also repentant Boko Haram members are de-radicalized and trained in different skills in Gombe. Over 3200 youths have been trained by his administration in six different professions at the four skills acquisition centres located across the state. A total of 330 supervisors were trained at the Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre in Jos, and over 1500 youths were recruited to serve as traffic, environmental and security marshals in Gombe.

In Social Security he empowered 1500 poorest of the poor through the Conditional Cash Transfer and also for the physically challenged beggars in the state with cash, and making sure they send their dependants who assist them to school.

To also boost Job creation in his state, he established in conjunction with private investors, the first tricycle assembly plant in Nigeria while Gombe has been earmarked as one of states that will have a Special Economic Zone for the North Eastern Region due to its peaceful environment as part of the Federal Government’s plan to diversify the economy through industrialization.

The crisis-ridden states of Northern Nigeria and some in the South should learn from the Jewel Of The Savannah why peace is the foundation for sustainable development.

By Nnamdi  Odumody

Recently, Nigeria has turned into a theatre of bloodshed, as the survival of cattle reared by Fulani herdsmen in the predominantly Northern region has led to loss of lives. This paralysis is partly a result of the shrinking Lake Chad, in the Chad Basin Sahel Region, leading to herders migrating down to the fertile plateau of the Middle Belt and the coastal Southern Region. Also, rapid urbanization has led to the loss of previous grazing reserves that were mapped out by colonial administration for cattle farmers.

All over the world, countries that are economically dependent on cattle to an extent like Botswana, Uruguay and Argentina have adopted advanced technologies to boost cattle rearing. But in Nigeria, the reverse is the case here due to the fact that Fulani cattle farmers are not educated to utilize and adopt these methods which have transformed the  sector around the world.

But while we in Nigeria are still dependent on cattle, as our primary source of protein, the future of cattle is bleak, as environmentalists and food technologists concerned about climate change have created a paradigm shift, because if cattle were their own nation, they would be the world’s third largest greenhouse gas emitter. Beef uses 33 percent of all water for farm animal production which is not sustainable in a region threatened by desertification that has led to loss of arable land. Twenty five  percent of earth’s land area is pastureland while the demand for beef is projected to grow by 95 percent in 2050.

A company known as Memphis Meats develops technology to engineer real meat, without animals, by farming animal cells in a lab without the need to feed, breed and slaughter livestock. Its technology requires up to 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions, land and water than conventionally produced meat.

Also in replacing cattle leather, Modern Meadow applies advances in tissue engineering to produce cultured leather that requires no animal slaughter and much lower inputs of land, water and chemicals than conventional methods. The process is called biofabrication. It uses living cells to grow collagen, the same natural protein found in animal skin, assemble it into a sheet of synthetic leather and finish the aesthetics with a tanning process.

With the two examples above, it is evident that the demand for cattle, globally, will shrink in coming years due to environmental concerns as people are becoming more conscious of practices which are harmful to the environment causing carbon emissions.

The Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore group which is the umbrella body of all the Fulani herdsmen needs to study global developments which are aiding smart cattle rearing using advanced technologies like the Internet Of Things and Blockchain. They technologies help to notify farmers of changes in weather patterns which could affect their cattle from getting access to food and water as they move from one location to the other while tracking their cattle in real time, and responding to threats like cattle rustlers, etc. Government has a role to help these farmers to redesign their processes to ensure the endless killings stop in Nigeria.

By Emmanuel Udeh

Digital transformation is a predominant trend impacting today’s global business. Historically, the Oil and Gas Industry has always been a leader in the application of technology to achieve business value. However, the implementation of digital solutions has been slow in the oil sector even though it has transformed other sectors like Banking, Healthcare and Sports.

With the decline in oil prices since 2014, the oil industry has aggressively pursued several measures to help the industry return to profitability. Oil and gas companies have started adopting digital solutions to gain operational efficiencies through improved use of technology. This is evident in the increased innovation and collaboration throughout the industry, which has created new revenue opportunities for both operators and service providers alike.

Digitalization has the potential to transform the upstream industry’s fortunes by substantially improving capital efficiency, lowering production costs, and reducing the time it takes to deliver new oil. To effectively capture the value of digitalization, the oil industry needs to look beyond embracing specific digital capabilities but implement a comprehensive roadmap towards digital transformation centered around people, processes, technology and of course data!

Digitalization and Digital Transformation

Digitalization, according to Gartner, Inc., is the process of employing digital technologies and information to transform business operations. Whether by optimizing production rates to improving ultimate recovery factors or by reducing equipment downtown through predictive analytics of data, the industry is already seeing examples of companies that are applying digital solutions in smart, innovative ways to transform and generate tremendous opportunities for their business.

One of this is Chevron’s seven-year strategic partnership with Microsoft. This digitalization initiative aims to leverage Microsoft’s powerful cloud computing and analytics to drive efficiency and streamline production operations.  Another  good example is Equinor’s use of a digital twin to  maximize production, cut costs and ensure safety on its massive Johan Sverdrup field which will account for 20 to 25 % of Equinor’s total offshore production in the plateau period.

To tap transformational benefits, upstream companies need to understand the current challenges they face, decide the potential impact of digitalization on their business and how best to benefit from it. Of course, digital technologies are nothing new to the oil industry. Technology has been used for several decades in our industry in automating and simplifying processes. Sophisticated sensors on drilling and facilities equipment are already standard tools, reservoir modeling and simulation software are used to analyze current and historical data to select the most economic method of developing a field.

Effective implementation of a strategic digital transformation program will help Oil and gas businesses re-align core business processes, which will integrate operations and analytics in a smart and simple approach to accelerate innovation, harness assets and drive real-time insights. This will, in turn, lead to lower costs, greater efficiency and increased collaboration between their partners, suppliers and customers.

A recent study by market research and analytics firm Kimberlite found that offshore oil and gas operators experience, on average, $49 million annually in financial impacts due to unplanned downtime. For the worst performers, the negative financial impact can be upwards of $88 million. The effective use of digital technologies in the oil and gas sector could reduce capital expenditures by up to 20% and cut upstream operating costs by 3-5%, according to a report by consulting group McKinsey

Impact of Data

Data is not just a key part of digital transformation. It remains a constant denominator across the entire process of achieving both specific and enterprise-wide digital transformation goals such as improving operations, innovating or realizing competitive advantages. Whether it’s used to optimize performance forecasts, enhance oil recovery, or implement predictive maintenance, data is required to make critical decisions which can help oil and gas businesses gain a competitive edge over their industry peers.

Just as organizational decision-making requires data, digital transformation needs digital and digitized data. However, Forbes estimates that 7 out of 8 digital transformation programs fail and that may be because they do not start with data. Most organizations begin their digital transformation journey without thinking about the data which is the lifeblood that connects systems, processes and technology. Whether it is workflows improvement, predictive analytics, asset integration and optimization, high-quality data is the critical defining factor for any successful digital transformation.

The oil industry generates and analyses data for numerous specific purposes, most times applications of digital technology on data have been directed in solving specific challenges or optimizing identified opportunities in specific parts of the business. A data centric approach towards digital transformation, which seeks to collect, integrate and utilize vast amount of data in a holistic manner is critical for oil companies to remain profitable and gain operational efficiencies through improved use of technology.

For the oil and gas industry to succeed in its digital transformation journey, it needs to start off by comprehensively defining a data driven roadmap towards digital transformation. This usually requires an in-depth understanding of their current position in the digital value chain, the associated technology critical in this journey and from there, map the data requirements that will potentially impact both internally and externally this organizational change process.

A revised approach that starts with data will ensure that digitization and digital transformation deliver the expected results and help companies streamline, automate and optimize business processes to become smarter, faster, and simpler!

It happened: Amazon cancelled its plan to have HQ2 in New York. The politicians went out on Twitter, public statements, etc lambasting Amazon for its “greed”. Yes, how can you give tax breaks to one of the largest corporations in the world? How can you send dollars from working New Yorkers to ask a company managed by the richest man in the world to come? Why can’t Amazon just make New York home without the “additionals”?

Simple answer: Amazon is a conglomerate and conglomerates tax cities and nations. Yes, because of their accumulated capabilities and the fact they pursue business frictions at the upstream level, doing things few can do, they run the world and no one can write them off via tweets.

New York made a mistake by wasting Amazon time: 100 new startups cannot handle the problems Amazon can fix in New York, just as 1,000 startups, in Nigeria, cannot fix problems Dangote Group (think refinery) can fix in Nigeria. And because of that positioning, enabled by accumulated capabilities, conglomerates tax where they operate: yes, the Conglomerate Tax.

The good news is that New York leaders now want Amazon back and have gone public begging Jeff Bezos to come to New York, and “tax” the city, for the hope of transforming it. Here’s the open full letter, reproduced from The Times:

Dear Mr. Bezos:

New Yorkers do not want to give up on the 25,000 permanent jobs, 11,000 union construction and maintenance jobs, and $28 billion in new tax revenues that Amazon was prepared to bring to our state. A clear majority of New Yorkers support this project and were disappointed by your decision not to proceed. We understand that becoming home to the world’s industry leader in e-commerce, logistics and web services would be a tremendous boost for our state’s technology industry, which is our fastest growing generator of new jobs. As representatives of a wide range of government, business, labor and community interests, we urge you to reconsider, so that we can move forward together.

We know the public debate that followed the announcement of the Long Island City project was rough and not very welcoming. Opinions are strong in New York—sometimes strident. We consider it part of the New York charm! But when we commit to a project as important as this, we figure out how to get it done in a way that works for everyone.

Governor Cuomo will take personal responsibility for the project’s state approval and Mayor de Blasio will work together with the governor to manage the community development process, including the workforce development, public education and infrastructure investments that are necessary to ensure that the Amazon campus will be a tremendous benefit to residents and small businesses in the surrounding communities.

New York attracts the best, most diverse talent from across the globe. We are a dynamic new center of the country’s most inclusive tech economy. We all hope you reconsider and join us in building the exciting future of New York.

Dangote Conglomerate Taxes

The letter was signed by dozens of New York civic and business figures, including religious, education, union, political, and tech leaders.

Cuomo [the NY Governor] has directly spoken with Amazon executives, including Bezos, on multiple occasions over the past two weeks to try to get the company to reconsider, according to The Times.

Amazon has given no indication that it is reconsidering its New York HQ2 decision. Last month, Amazon’s head of policy communications, Jodi Seth, told NBC News that the decision was “pretty firm” and not open to renegotiation.