Would Speak in Lagos Business School Next Month

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February 1, 2018

Good people, I just accepted an invitation from the Lagos Business School, made through the Director of Programmes, Dr Uchenna Uzo, to speak in the School as follows:

Date: March 10, 2018

Venue: LBS, Ajah, Lagos

Time: TBD

As always, it has to do with technology, business and innovation. I will share more details as they become available.

Partner for Roll-out of Medcera Healthcare Solution

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Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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January 31, 2018

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We are looking for partners across Africa for roll-outs of our Medcera solutions. We offer solutions that would reduce medical errors, and improve overall healthcare delivery. Please reach out to us if you want us to work together.

Introduction

Medcera is a web-based EMR (electronic medical record) and EHR (electronic health record) system with patient portal. It provides physicians and medical professionals with EMR/EHR and medical practice management technology that includes charting, scheduling, e-prescribing, medical billing, lab and imaging center integrations, referral letters, training, support and a personal health record for patients.

It supports large and small clinics, dentists, labs, pharmacists, and imaging centers to move their operations into the digital ecosystems where they can increase productivity, lower costs on medical information management, improve quality of care and employee/patient safety. Also, Medcera offers health insurance solution enabling integration of physician, billing, insurance, government receipts and other components of health insurance delivery in one system, at private and public levels. All Medcera systems run on the cloud with no requirement for any installation. It is supported with bank-level security.

Our motivation is anchored on the fact that once a patient has a record with Medcera, every approved health professional will have access to that record irrespective of time and location. So, anywhere you are in the country, provided the entity and you are in the Medcera Network, your records would be accessible. We think this will save lives.

Key Features

Medcera Fusion: Free, web-based electronic health record (EHR) software for physicians and medical professionals. The EHR system includes medical charting, e-prescribing, clinical decision support advisories, online booking and scheduling, online referrals and messaging. Its lab, imaging, and billing modules integrate with a network of third-party laboratories, medical imaging centers and medical billing service.

Medcera Patient: Personal health record (PHR) system that gives patients access to their prescriptions, diagnoses and test results (as needed). Records update as physicians add information to their
patients’ charts. Consumers can search physicians by location and specialty, request an appointment and also pay hospital bills online.

Medcera Insights: An analytic product based on Medcera Fusion dataset of patient records at population level which is anonymized and aggregated. Real-time data provides perspective on clinical trends and helps with population health management and clinical decision support. Helps governments see disease outbreak as quickly as it happens. It is built with top-grade AI engine that improves population health.

Medcera Connect: A non-EHR designed for non-physicians structured for imaging centers, pharmacies, dentist practices etc making it possible for these entities to connect with Medcera Fusion. The goal is to provide full electronic interface with the EHR for any approved organization in the healthcare sector.

Medcera Premium: This is a paid version of Medcera Fusion which makes it possible to customize Medcera Fusion for a clinic or client. For example, we could have AbaHospital.Medcera.com where the branding will make it possible for Aba Hospital doctors and medical professionals to use that sub-domain to enjoy the services offered by Medcera. With this, the hospital can provide descriptions, logo etc and create a presence unlike the Medcera Fusion which does not allow that. This is optional but could appeal to large organizations.

Contact: medcera@fasmicro.com

Rodrigue Fouafou Is An Important Man in Africa’s Startup Sector

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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January 31, 2018

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He is a brilliant young man. He has energy and he understands the technology space in Africa. He is one of those guys that would do everything to help. He has invested tons of money in African startups. He continues to mentor many. He is Rodrigue Fouafou. He was born in Cameroon but today he shuttles around the world, out of Toronto. My first encounter with his kindness was the day he asked me to meet him in California that he would introduce me to somebody. He came with his business partner, and we met in San Francisco. Just like that, Rod (as we call him) introduced me to a money man – a onetime highest ranked Chinese in Morgan Stanley and UBS. Without him, we would not have our public sector investment business in Africa.

Today, I want to introduce this hardworking African immigrant to the world. He may be in the plane as you read. But one thing is clear: he made some of the first investments in the (then) nascent Cameroonian startup sector. He is the ultimate African: someone who found favor before men and women in North America and continues to remember his root.

I do not like the phrase serial entrepreneur because it creates a connotation that nothing has worked. But Rod is the real one who has actually built things that have worked. A former IBMer; you can call him a nerd and a geek.

Good people, read this interview with Rodrigue Fouafou in a new series here on Tekedia called the Building Africa Series. I do hope to interview people who are making things happen. Yes, people from the do tanks and not the think tank.

Let us know about you and your background:

My name is Rodrigue Fouafou; people call me Rod. Betty Liu, Founder of Radiate, and Famous Bloomberg TV Anchor prefers “Africa Potential Unlocker”. I am originally from Cameroon. Currently, I live in Downtown Toronto. I have lived in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, and Palo Alto, California.

I grew up in a poor but large family. I was lucky enough to have gone to school. I graduated with honours from the University of Ottawa with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering. I’d had a few successful years working at IBM, Nortel and Mobile Knowledge Inc. Afterwards, I took my first leap as an entrepreneur.

Then I met my first business partner. What came from the commingling of our minds, with extremely long hours of hard work, were Gourmandia. For more than 5+ years we programmed, wrote, built, ate, and breathed Gourmandia. To give an idea of our success, in less than 4 years we became, according to The New Yorker, #4 worldwide in the food vertical after FoodNetwork.com, and AllRecipes.com.

I moved to Palo Alto (Silicon Valley, California) after I exited my first venture back in 2012, and wanted to start a start-up venture over there. During that period, I learned a lot on why Silicon Valley culture remains the most innovative one in the world.

Introduce us to your business:

I co-founded HartNamtemah. The name is partly derived from the name of my co-founder, Marc-Andre Hart. Namtemah means lion in the Bafoussam language, which is spoken in Cameroon, my country. The company is an investment and consulting firm. We specialize in Investing/Funding/Mentoring/Advising/Connecting in African startups. We also work with investors interested in funding business ventures in other emerging markets around the world.

Besides Marc-Andre Hart, my business partner, I had a privilege back in 2012 to meet one of the most active African innovators, Ndubuisi Ekekwe. I had met Nd after reading a piece he wrote in the Harvard business Review on innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa. We later connected for a business trip to California.

Over the last few years, this is what we have accomplished in HartNamtemah. Today, we have more than 70% of our ventures generating revenue.

How do you find the startups?

We have been using Vc4Africa platform which is co-founded and lead by a good friend of mine, Ben White, to select our startups. We rely on our network also. And of course, people connect with us directly online.

Where do you see technology and innovation moving in Africa?

Nigeria for West Africa, South Africa for southern Africa, Kenya for East Africa and Cameroon for CEMAC region in central Africa.

The opportunities are enormous and there is enough room for innovation for everyone. However, the opportunities come with challenges. New entrepreneurs must understand that Africa is a new market and you have to do better than in any other continent to succeed.

Our main goal is to show Africa differently to the world. Develop new talent and connect Africa to the rest of the world. The continent has so much potentials. We wanted to re-position Africa on the global opportunities map. Personally, I am excited by the future.

How would you pass your passion to upcoming African entrepreneurs?

When I look back, I have been blessed with well-rounded success; consequently, it is an honor to help others attain their goals in business. I tutor those who are less fortunate, offer seminars, and mentor all whom I am able to. I am a mentor at Enablis (East Africa Region) – a stellar training and development tool for African entrepreneurs aiming at transforming their excellent business ideas into successful business ventures and therefore reducing poverty. Also, I am a mentor at a new World Bank initiative called XL Africa which helps in bridging the gap between African entrepreneurs and global investors by providing services including training, advice and access to capital. I had an opportunity to meet the first batch of 20 startups founders during my trip to Cape Town last November.

Occasionally, I am asked to speak about African tech startup. In 2017, I was a Guest Speaker to World Angel Investor Summit in Montreal and Africa Angel Investor Summit in Cape Town, South Africa. The next event I will attend is the African diaspora investment symposium in San Jose, California.

Mentoring African Youth Summit in Ottawa

As a mentor to African entrepreneurs, how do you assess the development of our entrepreneurs?

Nowadays, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and to be the next Steve Jobs. I’ve seen young passionate men and women starting their own projects. I think it’s exciting to see them go with all the tools and skills they have. Decades ago, the system wouldn’t allow anyone to be an entrepreneur. You had to get a sort of a diploma and a lot of money. Now, the world has changed. The new technology is booming. Everyone is connected more than ever. Everyone travels, meets and shares vision.

However, the only thing that can last is your vision about your business. A clear vision of where you want to go. One time, I’ve read “Don’t work harder, just smarter”. With your vision, you will able to guide and lead your team. In business, we say 15 years from now is short term. That’s how the investors can take you seriously on the long run. In Africa, we are developing our entrepreneurial base.

Any specific sectors of immediate focus at the moment in your investment business?:

We have invested in Kiro’o Games in Cameroon, in the video game industry. They see video games as a creative way to further the development of the African continent. We have invested in Fitech ventures. We have tons of project in big data (Njorku.com), cultural, financial and more.

Our next targets are fashion, agribusiness, cryptocurrencies, 3D printing and the sharing economy. At the moment, we are currently closing our first investment deal in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire for a rideshare app.

What do you on your free time?

Outside of work and businesses, I have hobbies. I do run for Nike Toronto, I ran Scotia Race back in October here in Toronto ( see my Blog) and also I ran 10K during my trip in Cape Town in November 2017. I discover my passion of Running. And I’m lunching Africa Running Club Initiative. A way of Combining Healthy Bodies with Creative Minds.

Your message to African founders and entrepreneurs:

Think Small, Do Big.

How can people reach you?

Just GOOGLE “AfricaConnects”.

Lesson from Ingenious Marketing of Distributed Sports Betting in Nigeria

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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January 31, 2018

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This is a very tough one. I do not know how to tell people to take time and learn something from the online sports betting sector in Nigeria. I do not gamble and certainly betting on sports is not something I would recommend to anyone. Yet, there is something working in that sector which you can use in your business: they have found a way to grow by spending ad efforts right where the paying customers are. Note that I wrote “paying customers”; they are not going for clicking customers. So, instead of focusing on campuses, they focus on markets. As I travel around the country, I have noticed the following:

Offline Marketing: The online betting sector has an extremely huge offline marketing and promotion component. Yes, you do see those ubiquitous display boards in many market areas with nairabet.com, bet9ja.com, etc. That is a strategy: the paying customers are offline, and you have to reach them where they are.
Most marketing happens near market areas: I do think this has to do with demographics and market segmentation of potential people who could be believers. Also, it could be a very cheaper way to reach customers. Why pay for billboards when a huge sign in front of your store can do? With this simple strategy, they have kept cost very low despite enjoying high client conversion rate.
Simplicity of the adverts: In nearly all the ads, you see only the domain name or in some cases, the site slogan. Nothing more. That is unusual. They do not add anything else. If you look at their adverts alongside other ads in an area, you would go home remembering the betting ads. The tailors, boutiques, etc would pad their displays with everything including phone number, email, address, etc. For the betting believers, they do only one thing: the website name.

So, the sports betting ecosystems do all necessary to move you from the physical space to online where they use internet to massively enjoy a huge scalable advantage through near-zero marginal cost. Yes, the distribution cost of their product is very low since it costs them largely nothing to onboard an extra user in a portal. Unlike the old-age pool, they do most things online, enjoying the scalability Internet provides.

What drives DSB [Distributed Sports Betting] is the same thing that is driving digital business: near-zero marginal cost which anchors huge scalable advantage. With that low marginal cost made possible by Internet, this sector would continue to grow. In short, the unbounded and unconstrained distribution nature of the web is the very reason why government should invest resources now to track the sector

Contrast that with what many of us do: we build for the web, and we just focus on advertising within the web, even when those with money are not online yet. Learning from the sports betting sector, we could still keep our products online but then invest offline to get the real paying customers to come online.

9.4 – Malware Setup, FUD and Avoidance (Part 2)

By

Ndubuisi Ekekwe

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January 31, 2018

0

Setup Port forwarding (on Attacker’s system) After delivering Trojan to your victim, you only need to do one more thing on your system – enable port forwarding on your router. This is necessary and the most important part of the process. Now, how can you enable port forwarding on your system? Well, you only […]

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Would Speak in Lagos Business School Next Month

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