Travelling is all about fun and fresh experiences. What isn’t fun is getting lost on a trip without a clue of the local language or how to get yourself understood. Imagine being stranded at a train station in Japan with over a hundred persons walking past you, and you can’t even get a direction from one person of the lot on how to return to your hotel, and this is after you’ve probably walked in circles like seven times! For most travellers, travelling out of one’s comfort zone means everything, even typical routines like: finding where to eat and drink, finding a place to sleep and places to visit could become rather awkward if you have travelled without a plan. In today’s world, there is no better way to explain why investing in a good travel guide and making sure your smartphone works, is a wise investment for any traveller—regular or first-timers.

Planning your trip: Tickets, Packing tips and all that prep stuff
Whether you’re travelling alone or going with family or friends, you will have to prepare. Travelling is like managing a project—actually, travelling is a project. So if you’re keen on a hassle-free, smooth trip, you will need to research your destination and even plan your finances by making careful choices. From dealing with airfares, hotels and rental cars to finding entertainment stops for you and your family.

While employing the services of top travel agencies like Wakanow.com and Travelstart.com is not a bad idea, you can also consider planning your trip on your own using the Internet. Using Google Search for example, you can research your options of flights, duration and the best ticket deals. For example, searching for “Lagos Amsterdam” on Google Search presents you with a complete list of airlines flying that route, how long they take and the number of stopovers per flight.

Once this is set, the next step will be to get a hotel that will suit mood and your pocket. Again, you can do this yourself without breaking a sweat. On Google you can find an exhaustive list of hotels close to your area of interest. For example, typing “hotels hotels in Amsterdam city centre” in Google presents you with a list of over 50 hotels, as well as their prices. And to help you decide on your ideal hotel, you can look through photos, and reviews from other travellers who have stayed at those hotels.

As for packing into that small suitcase—it’s all right, everyone gets flustered about packing their bags so that they can travel and feel comfortable. This however needs skill. Thanks to the internet, one can now go on YouTube for expert advice from butlers who have turned packing into an art form, teaching many how to roll and fold their clothes without wrinkles.

Now you’ve arrive at your destination… what next?
You probably are feeling jetlagged and peckish, so you need a nightcap? Exploring the places mentioned in your guide book or simply clicking on the Google App on your smartphone, and you’ll get a larger display of nearby hostelries, complete with ratings and helpful reviews.

What this means is that being a wise traveller today means having a travel guide along with a smartphone—as even Lonely Planet, the largest travel guide in the world has a YouTube channel. So whether you’re logging around your tourist guide map or simply punching letters for a description on Google Maps, which you have the option of using offline or online, you can explore Street View imagery of where you want to visit, look at local transport connections to all major attractions/airports and Compass Mode will make it feel like you’re standing right in that location, get a glimpse of the cultural nuances and etiquette primer of the place.

So even when you’re squeezed on a bus in a bustling city, and your fingers can’t punch in the words correctly, using the Google Voice search for enquiries that range from where to hire a car, top up on petrol or even find out know where you are.

On the trip to your fun location, there could be instances of short boredom, and you can tap into the enormous content on Google Play, to watch movies, play games, read books and even listen to music.

Emergency Checklist
A good travel plan is one that has a checklist of quick reference to things you may need in your travel location. From Medical to transportation, and a small index on smart phrases so you don’t go about in circles when lost or in need of something. There would however be instances where the needed phrase is not in your travel guide, all you need to do is open your smartphone and take advantage of Google translate, which has over 64 different languages to understand better.

Moments are Forever
Selfies, family poses and those special moments on the trip deserve a place, and this is one thing your travel guides can’t offer. If you’re taking a lot of photos you won’t want to lose them at all. Thankfully, apps like Google Photos brings all your videos and photos in one place, offering you an opportunity to repeatedly enjoy the great moments and those they’ve enjoyed them with. Backed up and safe.

In all, as you travel this holiday, remember if you plan your travel, you’ll most likely return home after exploring new destinations, feeling like a newly cased book with fresh ideas.

Companies and group of individuals’ ambitious targets to raise funds through Crowdfunding the Nigerian financial markets are being inhibited by the restrictive provisions in the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 1990 and Investment and Securities Act, 2007 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has disclosed.

Crowdfunding is the use of small amounts of capital from a large number of individuals to finance a new business venture using easy accessibility of vast networks of people through social media and crowdfunding websites to bring investors and entrepreneurs together.

Crowdfunding is very popularly in use in the United States (US), Europe and Asia to raise capital for various financial and non-financial projects. There are more than 1000 Crowdfunding portals worldwide supporting a multi-billion dollar industry. For instance global Crowdfunding hit $16.2 billion in the US in 2014. And given the tremendous growth in online platforms that has led to the success of online shopping portals in Nigeria, many fund seeking corporates and groups have shown interest to source for funds through Crowdfunding in the country.

However, the Director General of SEC, Mounir Gwarzo said crowdfunding cannot be effective in Nigeria for now because of lack of rules and inhibitions in the provisions of CAMA and ISA.

Speaking in Lagos last week the SEC boss said while the commission is committed to deepening the nation’s capital market to meet the funding needs of corporates and grow the economy, the legal provisions are a big challenge.

“We are aware of the growing interests among Nigerians to use Crowdfunding to raise funds. However, that cannot materialise now given the legal challenges as a result of the provisions in CAMA and ISA. But we are looking for ways to go about it so that companies will enjoy the benefits of Crowdfunding in the country as well,” Gwarzo said.

According to him, SEC is looking at the Crowdfunding rules in US and Canada in order to ensure an enabling legal and regulatory framework that will support this massive global innovation.

SunTrust Bank will formally open for business today as it seeks to reshape the Nigerian banking space and the way consumers interface with their banks.

At its headquarters on Oladele Olashore street in Victoria Island Lagos, there is minimal security presence, no generator noise, bank customers who come in there will find a banking hall equipped with computer terminals for customers seeking a well secured computing link.

The banking hall is completely different, no kiosks or cashiers and it looks more like an airport lounge, signaling a total dependence on technology in its service offerings to the public.

According to Muhammed Jubrin, SunTrust Bank’s CEO, “our vision is to offer high quality retail and commercial banking services in a modern and innovative manner. We will use technology and a new way of thinking to provide banking services to many people and businesses in Nigeria for whom access to a bank account has previously been impossible.

“We will offer telephone, mobile and Internet banking underpinned by the traditional banking ethics of probity and integrity.”
The bank’s competitive edge will be the strong reliance on technology and the bank will be encouraging customers to access its services from the comfort of their homes and offices and as such the bank will not be engaging in a proliferation of branches.

“Our services will be available to our customers 24 hours daily, seven days a week and from anywhere in the world where there is a good Internet service.

“Even our data centre is outsourced, this way we will not have the overbearing requirement to put on the generator at our locations,” he explained.

By adopting a branchless strategy, SunTrust will save the N100m-N120M required to build a modern branch and the about N2.5m it costs to run the generators at a typical bank branch.

Customers of SunTrust will be encouraged to use any bank ATM because the bank will not be charging them the fee charged by other banks for using ATM machines belonging to other banks.

According to the CEO, “we will not be emphasising physical security as we are making serious investment in cyber security instead.”

SunTrust was licensed on September 15, 2015 as the first new commercial bank license given by the Central Bank in 15 years and its journey as a bank began in 2009. It commenced business on August 1, 2016.
“In the years to come, the developments at SunTrust should have far-reaching influence in the banking sector specifically and our nation generally,” says Jubrin.

Kangpe is the winner of Seedstars Lagos which held yesterday. It came on top of Davtonlearn, Tuteria, Legal Form, Piggybank.ng, Quickgas,  GRIT Systems, and Social Lender.

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Kangpe can also help you find and book an appointment with any Doctor/Specialist (i.e Gynaecologist, Cardiologist, Pediatrician, Dermatologist) across Nigeria in less than 5 working days.

South Africa’s economy has leapfrogged Nigeria’s as Africa’s largest in dollar terms, reclaiming the top spot it lost two years ago.

Both economies face recession after contracting this year. But while the South African rand has gained more than 16 per cent since the beginning of 2016, Nigeria’s naira has plunged by more than a third of its value.

At their respective exchange rates, Nigeria’s gross domestic product is $296 billion, while the size of South Africa’s economy is $301 billion, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, quoting the International Monetary Fund figures at the end of 2015.

Nigeria’s GDP was in excess of $500 billion when the nation’s economy surpassed South Africa’s in April 2014.

That followed the recalculation of the GDP data by the former government of Goodluck Jonathan – the first time that happened in two decades.

Nigeria is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, and the economy has shrunk by 0.4% since 2015 amid low oil prices and output and acute shortage of foreign currency.