FUTO Students Visit My Design Center in Nigeria (Photos)

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March 21, 2018

Students of Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) Nigeria visited one of our design centers in Eastern Nigeria yesterday to learn about microelectronics, embedded electronics, FPGA and AIs. I graduated from this university and we have had a solid partnership for years. In short, most of our engineers are FUTO graduates. We work with the university to train the students on what we need. I have also taught courses in my former department. Our Intel FPGA partnership, one of the two in continental Africa, continues to be strengthened because of our FUTO partnership.

The Business Lessons from Ants

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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March 20, 2018

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In this Harvard Business Review piece, I wrote on how we could learn from ants to become better leaders. I was on a trip to a leadership workshop of IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers). As the then-GOLD Chair of IEEE Boston Section, the largest section in U.S., I was responsible for managing MIT, Harvard and other universities in New England. Here are the key attributes of ants: teamwork, trust, openness, diligence, and tenacity.

As I watched them, the theses project flashed to my mind. Wouldn’t it be good to trust others to help you? Right there, I made the following decisions on the project:

The ants worked as a team: I will form a team, bringing professionals together.

The ants trusted one another: I must do away with the notion that only by working alone can I ensure quality.

The ants were open: I will share the idea with like-minded people. I later got a Boston area professor to lead the design. When ants discovered food, they informed others, who came along and helped.

The ants were partners and of different sizes: I will bring help and make the task our project, not mine. As much as possible, each team member will get assignment based on his capability.

The ants were diligent and focused: The team must keep working, even slowly. Deadlines will give us focus.

The ants regrouped: I will be open to try new ideas if present ones are not working.

Few days later, the Catholic Church picked the piece and integrated it into a leadership manual. Mumbai’s DON BOSCO’S MADONNA, a publication of the Catholic Church, still has a link online. There Fr. Erasto Fernandez deepened the piece. It made one of the best articles of the year from the Harvard Business Review with the founding partner of Clayton M. Christensen investment firm using it to explain delegation.

If you can, read that piece. You would become a better Founder. Unless you are Open, you cannot delegate. And until you begin to Trust, you cannot expand the business. When only you is smart [you think], you cannot build a functioning Team. The point is this: that business has not grown because you cannot find someone that can manage an extra branch or responsibility. So, it remains a small shop. Unless you become like an Ant [trusting people, opening up, learning to delegate, forming team spirit, etc], you would remain a shop, small and irrelevant.

Why Nigerians are Closing their Bank Accounts

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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March 19, 2018

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We all know that Nigerian banks are declaring tons of money as profits. If you check very well, the transaction-based fees are growing faster than the interest-based fees. In other words, banks make money by charging fees. Lending is an after-thought. (This is not necessarily the fault of banks; topic for another day.)

One of my banks charges monthly debit card maintenance fees. Yet, if you want to avoid debit card to use paper mandates, they impose fees. Largely, there is no way you can put money in the bank without paying to get it out. The bank management few years go stopped automatic rollover of Treasury Bill investment to make sure you initiate the contract monthly so that all the fees are repeated, monthly. It is unfortunate.

But I can absorb the fees. Not many of my fellow citizens can. As I have noted before, unless the Central Bank of Nigeria can get ahead of these fees, its financial inclusion crusade would be muted.

To accelerate financial inclusion, the Central Bank of Nigeria should reform the varying levels of fees in the banking sector. Those fees could be discouraging the very people it wants to attract into the banking sector. For someone making N18,000 monthly and having to part with N300-N500 on fees and associated SMS charges, it could be a disincentive to bank. People are smart and when there is a burden via fees for extremely cost-sensitive people, any policy will collapse. CBN needs to revisit bank fees and work with our banks to find better ways to offer products that can reduce cost burdens on poor citizens. This is not a problem that technology can fix because the fintech companies do not take customer deposits. So, it is only policy that can solve this, and only the central bank has the capacity to make that happen. Yes, banks are not charities and are there to make money. So CBN needs to balance its policy.

Banks lost 2 million customers in 2017, dropping from 61 million to 59 million. Active bank accounts also shrank, from 65 million to 63.5 million in 2017.

Despite Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) effort to promote financial inclusion, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) banking industry statistics shows that the number of customers using financial services reduced in 2017.

The statistics obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from the NIBSS website on Sunday, showed that the total number of bank customers dropped from 61 million in 2016 to 59 million in 2017.

Similarly, active bank accounts reduced from 65 million in 2016 to 63.5 million accounts in 2017.

Why Nigerians are closing bank accounts

According to News Agency of Nigeria, banks think people are closing accounts because of Buhari anti-corruption efforts. That is partly the reason, but relying on that is laughable. The total number of civil servants in Nigeria at positions to do corruption is not in the region of 2 million people. So, there is no way we would lose two million customers purely because of anti-corruption crusade in the 3^rd year of Buhari presidency.

“When Buhari assumed office, many people abandoned their accounts, especially civil servants because of fear of investigation.

“While some out rightly closed down their accounts, others opted for gradual withdrawal so as not to raise alarm,’’ the source.

Here are the main reasons:

Fees: But when you speak with people, the answer is clear: “A bank customer, Olaitan Alagbe told NAN that she closed some of her accounts due to unnecessary and illegal charges by banks”. Yes, customers do not like the fees. So, the easiest way to manage that is to close the account. As I have noted someone earning N18,000 monthly could lose N500 on bank charges monthly. That is very significant.

Interest Rate: Another reason is the low saving rate. From a bank customer according to NAN: “First of all, the interest rate is next to nothing, so there is little reason to keep your money at the bank when you can turn it over doing other businesses”.

All Together

When you combine high fees and low savings rate, CBN would begin to see why people are losing interest in the bank sector. Of course, the people who can afford the bank fees would not close an account because of N500 charges. But the citizens, usually the poor, who the bank wants to join the sector would struggle.

The Call to Mission

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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March 18, 2018

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I was in Kos Island, Greece. It is about an hour flight from Athens. On the road, it is about 16 hours. Driving out of Athens, there is a signpost pointing to Thessaloniki. The first time I saw that was magical. That was a city Apostle Paul had written in the Bible.

In Kos, the hotel I stayed in was practically built on the Mediterranean Sea. I touched the waters and constructed in my mind the path of the Missionary Journey (I and II) by Paul. The more I look at reality, the more I think about a Call to Mission.

Jesus hired 12 men for a mission. He trained them. He equipped them. Then, he left. Later, on the Day of Pentecost, He equipped them further. Largely, none of the disciples had a clear template for the call. It was in AD 69 when Roman General Titus was putting Jerusalem in ruins that the action began. Titus and Emperor Vespasian have the rebuilt Temple destroyed (the Temple was originally built by King Solomon but was successively destroyed).

With Jerusalem desolate, the work of the men began. They had to leave Jerusalem to live. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 16:16) had prophesied this destruction many centuries ago.

“Behold, I am sending for many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. (Jeremiah 16:16)

God later raised Theodor Herzl (the Father of Zionism) as the fisherman (he used the “bait” of giving Jews money to motivate them to return to Jerusalem). But he did not get the full mission accomplished. God sent Hitler who hunted Jews with guns. The state of Israel was born in 1948 as many returned home just as Jeremiah had prophesied.

Executing the Mission

As the disciples escaped Titus and Vespasian, some made it to Africa. Mathew was killed in Ethiopia with a sword. Mark was tied to horses, dragged until he died in Alexandria, Egypt.

Luke was hanged in Greece. John was boiled in boiling oil which he survived. He was later sent to prison in the Island of Patmos. It was there, he wrote the book of Revelation. They later freed him. He served as the Bishop of Edessa (in modern Turkey). He died of natural causes – the only of all the disciples.

Peter was crucified upside down, in an x-shaped cross. The St. Peter’s Basilica is largely memorizing the tomb of Peter. For James, they threw him from the Pinnacle of the Temple (the same place where Satan had tempted Jesus). James survived the fall but they later beat him to death. James, the son of Zebedee, was beheaded in Jerusalem by Rome.

Bartholomew (Nathaniel) was flayed to death by a whip. He had preached in Asia but died in Armenia. Andrew died in Patras, Greece, crucified in an x-shaped cross. In India, Thomas was stabbed with a spear. Jude died on arrows. Mathias who replaced Judas was stoned and beheaded.

Let me add Paul who though not a disciple was cardinal in the early decades of Christianity. He was beheaded by Emperor Nero in AD 67.

All Together

The disciples and indeed the Apostles practically executed the mission they were called. But I can assume that at the beginning none might have expected it the way it happened. From companies to nations, those that answer great missions typically shape everything. But sometimes they do pay severe personal penalties. At different levels, a Call to Mission requires extremely committed people. Even in your business, you must have that capacity to find and recruit people that can help you execute a great mission. You must prepare them. Equip them. And push them to come and get glory. Our Jesus has a great template on how to accomplish missions: build and prepare an extremely committed team.

Comment from LinedIn Feed

The mistake most times is that a lot of people see the Bible as just a religious book or holy book; actually, no single book comes close to covering all facets of human endeavours as it did. From commerce to economics, government, governance, social justice, business ethics, customer service, national defence, art, finance, international diplomacy, education, health, engineering; just name them, you can get valuable insights in all these areas from the Bible.

It’s a life manual, not just for heavenly candidates, but for everyone who also wishes to be a great citizen of the world. To do well in business, it begins by assembling a great team, who is passionate and committed, and willing to take all the risks, to ensure that the company’s vision is brought to fruition. Obviously it’s not for small minded individuals, but men and women who have their eyes firmly fixed on the glory, and never on the immediate sufferings.

Ndubuisi, you just put your Sunday School knowledge to full display, it shows that you didn’t doze off when important classes were going on; fantastic! Nice insights, a great Sunday Tonic.

Zenvus Imaging System [Photos]

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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March 17, 2018

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We just finished an imaging system design [call it an industrial camera] – Zenvus Imaging System. Product moves to production for a client next week. Every aspect of this product is modeled, from the pin to the screw, and there are no surprises. The modeling makes it easier to integrate our work into other systems. In the RHD image is the see-through on what we have inside. We have electronics, MEMS, lens, etc. It is beautiful engineering with the fusion of computational vision, mechanical engineering, on-chip image processing [AI], electronics and ergonomics. We engineered this system from scratch [sure, we did not make the resistors, capacitors etc ourselves] and it is intelligently smart having tested the prototypes.

FUTO Students Visit My Design Center in Nigeria (Photos)

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The Business Lessons from Ants

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