Yesterday, the World Bank private investing arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC), announced the winners of the Next 100 African Startup initiative. The entities were also invited to Africa 2018 Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Find below the West African reps (for other regions, click here).
I just finished an interview with the United Nations Environment Programme, the division of the United Nations which focuses on protecting our environment. The interview would appear in coming days on UN-managed #SolveDifferent website.
To provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
Largely, even as the world unleashes technologies in agriculture, it is very important that our environment and biodiversity are protected. Simply, technologists must consider nature as they innovate. Interestingly, there is no solution including the status quo (do nothing) that offers a better vista than precision farming on protecting the environment.
In Africa, specifically, we have seen two major challenges: reduction in land fallow periods and climate change as generation-shaping challenges. As population accelerates, fallow period has dropped from seven years to about three years making it harder for soil to replenish effectively, naturally. Combine that with paralysis from climate change, you get a double whammy for rural farmers.
But these issues can only be managed if they are measured: that is where precision farming comes in. As a pioneer of this sub-sector in Africa, Zenvus is making sure that our technologies and processes are designed with the best of nature in mind.
Zenvus is an intelligent solution for farms which uses proprietary electronic sensors to collect soil data like moisture, nutrients, pH, etc. It then sends the data to a cloud server via GSM, satellite or Wifi. Algorithms in the server analyze the data and advice farmers on farming processes. As the crops grow, the system deploys special cameras to build crop vegetative health index for detection of drought stress, pest and diseases. Our system has the capability to tell a farmer what, how, and when to farm. It has in-built GPS, compass and XL making it possible to map farm boundaries which could be useful during loan and insurance applications.
Business is not a competition of the smartest guy in class. Yes, that you were academically talented means largely nothing. Business is simply figuring out what markets want and then offering those things at the most optimal points across value, pricing, timing, and service.
Interestingly, it takes the support of people who had experienced what you want to do to provide guidance to unlock great moments. This is where mentorship comes into play. No matter how brilliant you are, to thrive in business, you need a mentor. Without one, you would make mistakes which might have been avoided.
Think about it: Mark Zuckerberg dropped out; Bill Gates dropped out. Nonsense – they did not drop out. They dropped out from academic mentors (professors) into the hands of business mentors (venture capitalists).
No matter how you see those two – I would vote for the man that would give me $1 million, and still answers my phone calls, because he wants to help me ensure that everyone is richer. That is the venture capital industry! A critical part of that industry is mentorship: the best founders accept investing capital based on deals the investors would catalyze. Simply, sending money is not enough – you need to bring growth by introducing and linking the startups to new opportunities.
The other mentor – the professor – wants me to pay him to teach me. Both are valuable in the society but context is important: no American kid that has raised $500,000 has ever dropped out of college. Those kids simply left university halls and academic professors behind to start new “education” under the tutelage of legendary business professors called venture capitalists. The best among them are the finest professors in the world if you believe that education can come outside of people who might have been teaching the same thing for 20 years. The venture capitalists now pay those kids, give them money, and technically serve them as they pilot missions to make everyone richer!
I have my own business mentor – he has been kind to offer insights and perspectives whenever I need them. Yes, Mr. Tony Elumelu has supported in many ways. Without him, there would not be Zenvus.
Find your own mentor – he does not need to be your university professor unless the professor knows and understands business. It is always good to use active practicing professionals who are facing the challenges you are encountering at higher levels.
If you run a business, it does not make sense to pick a big corporation uncle (unless he founded a firm) as a mentor – he is guaranteed income at month end and may have never felt the stress of paying workers, and growing margins. There is urgency that comes when you meet people running their shops, a civil servant would not give you that.
Invest in finding a mentor in 2019 –it would help you a lot!
by Olayinka Oduwole
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) recently reported that Nigeria would be ready to roll out 5G networks in 2020 by making spectrum within the 26GHz, 38GHz and 42 GHz available. The EVC also noted that the Commission was working to address issues related to spectrum, infrastructural deficit and regulation to facilitate the roll out of 5G. In this piece, I would address these three issues raised by the Commission in preparing the country for the release of 5G.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said Nigeria would be ready to roll out 5G networks with the 26GHz, 38GHz and 42GHz spectrum bands by 2020.
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said this in Abuja Thursday during a collaborative meeting with GSMA for 5G rollout in Nigeria.
According to him, trial testing of the rollout plan has commenced in the country beginning with the Eko Atlantic Project, where broadband data will drive connectivity and allow humans to interact with connected devices to check their health status and remotely control home appliances without physical contact.
In my previous piece on 5G, I noted the vital role of spectrum availability in driving 5G penetration within any country. Whilst this is a positive step in the right direction, it’s equally important for the Commission to ensure that the new spectrum within the various bands are not offered at exorbitant prices. As noted by GSMA, spectrum pricing in developing countries, are on average more than three times higher than in developed countries, after taken into considering the income levels within the country. Making spectrum available at reasonable prices would encourage competition which would enable new market players as well as telcos to afford the new spectrum. Besides, 5G is expected to usher in new market players due to the various use cases within other industries. And the timely release of affordable spectrum would also help drive down the costs of data and other telecommunication services which would no doubt greatly benefit consumers within the country.
As I have noted, 5G requires huge investment to strengthen the capacity of the physical layer, virtualization of the core and for the high capacity backhaul networks needed to provide low latency, high speed connectivity and ubiquitous coverage promised for the various use cases. Besides, 5G may rely on the use of heterogeneous networks which would require network of different layers and of different technologies to work together in a seamless manner. Whilst the Commission has done right in pointing out the need to address infrastructural deficit, it also needs to understand that different players would need to work together to address this infrastructural challenge, hence facillating interoperability among players would be vital here.
I cannot over emphasize the importance of regulations in facillating the release and deployment of 5G. This is because regulations can either accelerate or hinder development within this ecosystem. The Commission mentioned that it would rely on existing policies and then develop new policies to address hiccups. I think this is a good strategy but it is important for the commission to begin to prepare to tear its existing rule book. This is because there are disruptions happening in every part of the 5G landscape that it would be hard to apply the previous rules. For example, in previous generations, it is very typical for a single Mobile Network Operator (MNO) to own and operate the entire network. With the advent of 5G, it is possible to have different operators (MNO or Mobile Virtual Network Operator MVNO) owning and operating different slices within the same network.
The commission also highlighted that trials will be performed using the Eko Atlantic project to demonstrate interaction between humans and machines for applications in smart home, health care etc., I think the Commission can achieve even greater results by partnering with local institutions within the country to develop innovation/research hubs as is the case in developed countries. Such hubs can allow startups within the country working on internet of things (iot) projects or machine to machine (m2m) applications etc. to test their projects. This would also drive entrepreneurial activity within this space, contribute greatly to the economic development of the country and foster collaboration between the academic community and industries.
Whilst I eagerly anticipate the release of 5G spectrum in Nigeria, I am of the opinion that deployment may take longer and predict around 2025 before it matures in Nigeria. I however may be wrong but will wait to find out.
As a former banker, one thing has puzzled me in Nigeria: lack of Continuity Management (yes succession) in Nigerian business scene; empires come and most disappear. Many empires of 1960s went under, the ones of 1970s followed, and 1980s are history. We are hoping that the legends of 1990s – Nigeria’s finest decade of entrepreneurial capitalism will be different. How can Nigeria build durable companies like the Americans and Europeans?
In a cocktail few years ago, I had the privilege of speaking before global business leaders. My business mentor, Tony Elumelu, who continues to support, gave me that opportunity. After I finished my oration that evening, a lady came to me. She was Lady de Rothschild, the chief executive officer of E.L. Rothschild, a leading independent wealth management firm in the United States with real estate, agricultural and food interests. She gave me her card and asked me to write her. But while we were talking, she dropped a sentence: her family business had celebrated its 200th year of operation! Yes, the company was founded in 1811 and is still operating in many incarnations today.
The question: why do we struggle to have companies (in Nigeria) that DO NOT collapse shortly after the founders exit the scenes? Besides the call for new startups, there is also a need to examine while the ramped-up rarely thrive for decades.