In JS2, I read my first Igbo novel –  “Omenuko” by Pita Nwana. Then “Ukwa ruo oge ya” and “Isi akwu dara na ala” both by Tony Ubesie. Though “Isi akwu dara na ala” remains my all-time-best with the trappings of Ada and Chike staged during the Biafran war, “Omenuko” had a deeper meaning after I read the Richest Man in Babylon.

Omenuko  is recorded as the first novel in Igbo. How can you do more even in the time of scarcity? Like the ageless zen-insights from the Richest Man in Babylon, Omenuko offered insights on trading systems which many ancestral Igbo traders dominated in most parts of West Africa. In the novel, the Aros were noted through the main actor (Igwegbe Odum) who was an Aro. The Aros were legendary traders (the Nnewis of their eras) who went into new villages and within years would become the wealthiest, controlling commerce and industry.

The Aro people or Aros are an Igbo subgroup^[1] mixed with Akpa and Ibibio ancestry that originated from the Arochukwu kingdom in present-day Abia state, Nigeria. The Aros can also be found in about 250 other settlements mostly in the Southeastern Nigeria and adjacent areas. The Aros today are classified as Eastern or Cross River Igbos because of their location, mixed origins, culture, and dialect. Their god, Ibini Ukpabi, was a key factor in establishing the Aro Confederacy as a regional power in the Niger Delta and Southeastern Nigeria during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Reading Omenuko you would extrapolate a framework for success: Arochukwu people hedge risks by typically doing deals in teams with the shared interests that everyone destiny is aligned with all. So, if you go into textile business as one man from Mbaise, Arochukwu people would go as ten people in one team. With the scale, they would get discounts and suddenly within years, only they would dominate the markets. Add the Igbo apprenticeship system which they practice efficiently and religiously, you have no chance to compete against them. There is no part of eastern Nigeria you would not see the Aro people: they won territories through excellence in trade.

Today, that framework remains as valid: strength comes by finding partners to scale missions. You can achieve more if you find a partner to team together. The Aros have relatively diminished, economically, (compared with Catholic-serving Nnewis) because of unbridled polygamy which mutated their wealths upon deaths, but the business framework that made them trading legends remains.

Partnership wins business battles; do it more.

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This is amazing – scaling medical services, unbounded and unconstrained, through the power of 1s and 0s. China has shown the template of how medical service delivery would be anchored in the world in the near future.

Ping An Good Doctor, China’s largest online healthcare services provider, has now expanded its AI-geared “one-minute clinics” across eight major Chinese provinces and cities. With signed service contracts for almost 1,000 units and a growing user reach of over 3 million patients, the company has stocked its 24/7 compact booths with more than 100 categories of cryogenically refrigerated common drugs, purchasable through smart vending machines. Each clinic houses an ‘AI Doctor,’ trained to collect data on patient symptoms and medical history through voice and text input, after which one of Ping An’s human doctors provides remote diagnoses, medical advising, and immediate online prescriptions.

As the Chinese government drives forward a comprehensive “Healthy China” strategy, the nation’s online healthcare market continues to boom. Predicted to surpass US$14.4 billion in value by 2025, the domestic market has seen countless new players, with Ping An Good Doctor at the helm. Offering everything from online consultations for over 2,000 common diseases to one-hour drug delivery services, Ping An’s platform serves as a groundbreaking example of digitized and democratized healthcare: a glimpse of the future in which any patient can access transparent health information, expert advising and medical care anytime, anywhere.

Source: Diamandis newsletter:

Africa’s leading digital logistics company, Kobo360, which raised $6 million from World Bank IFC in December 2018, is expanding operations into Togo. The team will be in Lomé from the 23^rd to 26^th of January, 2019. Many roles would be filled – operations, business development, customer development, technology, etc.

Kobo360 is a tech-enabled digital logistics platform that aggregates end-to-end haulage operations to help cargo owners, truck owners and drivers, and cargo recipients to achieve an efficient supply chain framework. Through an all-in-one robust logistics ecosystem, Kobo uses big data and technology to reduce logistics frictions, empowering rural farmers to earn more by reducing farm wastages and helping manufacturers of all sizes to find new markets. Kobo enables unprecedented efficiency and cost reduction in the supply chain, providing 360-visibility while delivering products of all sizes safely, on time and in full. The Kobo mission is to build the Global Logistics Operating System that will power trade and commerce across Africa and Emerging Markets.

To apply, send your resume/CV to careers@kobo360.com

We would like to have you as a colleague in Kobo360.