It is official – Data Science Nigeria has released the free AI ebook. Yours truly wrote the foreword. I recommend this book to all lovers of AI and the exciting future it promises.
Data Science Nigeria releases free Artificial Intelligence eBook for starters and enthusiasts Download our Free eBook on Artificial Intelligence Simplified for starters, non-techies and enthusiasts to appreciate AI possibilities from world’s leading AI experts and users. This is our 1st in the series of many books & videos coming from Data Science Nigeria to demystify and popularise AI and drive for large scale multidisciplinary application across all domain of use. Please click https://goo.gl/QJio3W
The 167-page eBook, titled, Artificial Intelligence Simplified: 99 Use Cases and Expert Thoughts has contributions from global community of AI experts and industry users, local and international, including some of the Artificial Intelligence pioneers like Professor Yoshua Bengio, Professor Emeritus Tom Dietterich and Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, inventor of Zenvus AI Agriculture product and Chairman Famiscro Group wrote the Foreword
Nigerian ISP start-up Tizeti and its consumer facing brand, Wifi.com.ng has closed a Series A round of $3M, led by 4DX Ventures with participation from existing investors Y Combinator Continuity, Lynett Capital, Social Capital, Western Technology Investment, Friále and Golden Palm Investments. This follows on from the company’s Seed investment of $2.1M in 2017.
One of the pioneers of this business model is Don Jazzy, the CEO of Mavin Records. With his partners, they unveiled Flobyt Wifi – a free, fast, reliable and easy to use wifi service across partner locations including; eateries, parks, taxis, buses, restaurants, cafés, etc.
Tizeti will use this investment to expand operations outside of Nigeria, and will launch a new consumer-facing brand Wifi.Africa later this year, starting with neighbouring West African country, Ghana.
The company will also make additional investments in operations, product development and overall customer experience, with a view toward growing profitability exponentially.
The company which operates widely as a “Comcast for Africa”, builds and operates solar-powered towers in Nigeria, while also providing residences, businesses, events and conferences with unlimited high speed broadband internet access, covering over 70% of Lagos. Since graduating from Y Combinator’s Winter 2017 batch, Tizeti has installed over 7,000 public Wifi hotspots within Nigeria with 150,000 users and in November 2017, announced a partnership with Facebook to offer Express Wi-Fi in the country, to roll out hundreds of internet hotspots across Nigeria’s capital.
Kendall Ananyi, CEO and Co-Founder of Tizeti says, “Tizeti was built to tackle poor internet connectivity not only in Nigeria, but on the continent as a whole, by developing a cost-effective solution from inception to delivery, for reliable and uncapped internet access for potentially millions of Africans. We have grown rapidly in the Nigerian market in the last 12 months and expect to continue on this trajectory, as millions more Africans come online. This Series A investment allows us to continue providing a peerless service in Nigeria, building out our customer base there, as well as scale across Africa, starting with Ghana”.
Through it’s innovative use of solar-powered base stations, Tizeti is able to significantly reduce operating costs which allow the company to be hyper-competitive when it comes to subscription packages; a Wifi.com.ng unlimited plan in Nigeria currently costs $30/mth [NGN9, 500]. This, alongside the company’s extensive coverage reach, has given Tizeti a competitive edge in the ISP sector, establishing the young company as an ICT and tech infrastructure leader.
As part this financing round, Walter Baddoo Co-Founder & Managing Partner of 4DX Ventures joins Tizeti’s Board of Directors. Baddoo says “Reducing the cost of data in Africa is a critical step in accelerating the pace of internet adoption across the continent. Tizeti, driven by a stellar company culture, has built a world-class network that delivers data to users at a fraction of the current cost. Tizeti makes it easier and cheaper to connect Africa to the global digital economy and we are excited to partner with Kendall and his team on this mission.”
In this table, I have summarized all the possible ways you can earn revenue in your business. Largely, if you are in business to make money, you would fall into one of these revenue models. But there is an opportunity cost involved: the path you choose could affect your success, not just in the short term, but also in the long term.
For software-enabled companies, we have this specific table.
The land where I am simply Ndubuisi, unconscious of my color.
The land where man is just man – never black or white.
The land where policemen use guns to frighten but rarely to shoot.
Yes that beautiful land where policemen go to break fights without holding guns.
It is a home, not perfect, but the liberation on Nigerian soil is matchless.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) may rank Lagos low as a livable city on culture because we have limited museums. People, in Switzerland, you need invitation to join a party. In Lagos, the taxi that drove me has a sticker: “This Car Stops in All Parties, Uninvited”.
There are things which no human can measure unless you live them. Those WEF people know nothing of Lagos because they are not of Lagos!
I can hear the sound of owambe as the African chrysanthemum withdraws, and crickets beckon with a fading energy of the rainy season which will usher the dry season. The cry of lullaby breaks through and finds itself into the thick of the beats, bringing the pitch that tomorrow holds a promise. The heavens open with gentle rain, in perfect melody for aluminum roofs, after the prayers have broken through before the face of God. Then light goes off, asking everyone to sleep for tomorrow. But I could hear deep faraway: Oshodi, Oshodi.
As Internet access continues to grow in Africa, with over 450 million people now connected to the Internet, more than 60 percent of the population still remains offline. Community Networks are a key way to address this connectivity gap, says the Internet Society, a global non-profit dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet.
Community Networks are communications infrastructure built, managed and used by local communities. They provide a sustainable solution to address the connectivity gaps that exist in underserved urban, remote, and rural areas around the world. In Africa, where these gaps are more prevalent, a recent survey was able to identify 37 community networks initiatives in 12 African countries, of which 25 are considered active.
The Internet Society in partnership with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Zenzeleni Networks (http://Zenzeleni.net) will hold the third Africa Community Networks Summit in the Eastern Cape, South Africa from 3-7 September, 2018.
Access to spectrum is critical for Community Networks. Policy makers and regulators can play a key role in ensuring innovative approaches to making spectrum available by working with Community Networks. An Internet Society report examines the various ways that Community Networks can gain access to spectrum, including the use of unlicensed spectrum, sharing licensed spectrum, and innovative licensing.
“Enabling communities to actually connect themselves is a new way of thinking,” explains Michuki Mwangi, Senior Development Manager for Africa at the Internet Society. “Policy makers and regulators should recognize that connectivity can be instigated from a village or a town and that they can help communities to connect themselves by providing an enabling environment with innovative licensing and access to spectrum.”
The Africa Community Networks Summit will conclude with a visit to communities served by Zenzeleni Networks, South Africa’s first telecommunications organization that is owned and run by a rural cooperative. Zenzeleni Networks installs and maintains its own telecommunications infrastructure to deliver affordable voice and data services. All revenues stay in the community and the residents together decide what is done with the proceeds.
The cost to deploy Community Networks can be low. Often, the technology required to build and maintain the network is as simple as a (inexpensive, locally available) wireless router. The networks can range from WiFi-only to mesh networks and mobile networks that provide voice and SMS services. While they usually serve communities under 3,000 people, some serve more than 50,000 users.
“These networks not only provide affordable access in areas where operators don’t find it commercially viable to provide similar services, but, by being built and operated by people from within the community, they bring many other benefits to the areas where they operate. They are key to enabling the unconnected connect themselves in Africa,” explains Carlos-Rey Moreno, Community Access Project Coordinator for APC.
