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This Company Funds Startups – Amoo Is Coming With Cash This October in Nigeria

By
Tekedia Editors
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0

Thanks to the tipster who sent this link to us about the coverage of G-Nigeria. VC  Advisory (Amoo) participated in the recent tech events in Nigeria:

The talks I delivered were on Scaling For Growth and Gearing Up For Venture Capital. This was a quick run-through investment readiness from the investors’ and entrepreneurs’ viewpoints. Watch this space for announcements regarding Amoo’s October 2011 investment readiness programmes in Lagos and Abuja.

You better read that writeup because when the pros pen things down, they share wisdom. Read it. But the biggest news is that they are coming into town to invest, this October. This makes this very interesting.

But did you notice the person that is coming? He was an associate at PIMCO – one of the worlds best bond powerhouses.  If this guy invests in your company, you are getting more than cash, but mentoring and visioning. So, now is the time to spend time on this website and master what they want so that your chances will be improved. Read about their investment strategy and some of the portfolios they hold and see how that align with your startup or company. Cash can rain in Abuja and Lagos this October – you better prepare!

Amoo: Nurture Your Business

Welcome to Amoo Venture Capital Advisory. Amoo is a trailblazing boutique firm focused on Venture Capital (VC). VC is a niche source of funding and one of the few with an appetite for risk that matches the uncertainty that comes with pioneering innovative ventures. In a nutshell, it is a catalyst for new industries and ground-breaking global companies such as Facebook and Google. We provide the best in class service to maximise your business potential and grow your business project to maturity i.e. from initial proof of concept to mass market growth. Our specialists are focused on offering the best solutions to bring your venture to fruition. We are attentive to your needs, get into the trenches with you and help you through each stage of your business proposition.

Etisalat Nigeria Gets New Brands and Communications Director

By
Ejiofor Agada
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0

Etisalat Nigeria has announced the appointment of Enitan Denloye as Director, Brands and Communications. The announcement made by the company Chief Executive Officer, Steven Evans takes effect from 1st March 2011 and will see the new Director articulate the strategic direction and implementation of the Etisalat brand in Nigeria.

 

Prior to his appointment, Enitan has garnered extensive experience at home and abroad in Sales, Brand Management, Marketing Communications and Management Consultancy, having worked at Procter & Gamble, the Coca-Cola Company, McKinsey & Co, and British American Tobacco (BAT), South Africa. He also has an MBA from the prestigious Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Illinois, U.S.A.

Etisalat Nigeria Renews Alcatel-Lucent Contract

By
Ejiofor Agada
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1

Alcatel-Lucent has been selected by Etisalat Nigeria (EMTS, Emerging Market Telecommunication Services), one of the mobile service operators in Nigeria, to continue providing managed services for their expanding mobile network. The operator’s subscriber base has dramatically grown 120 percent year-over-year to over seven million subscribers in just two years.  Alcatel-Lucent will continue supporting Etisalat Nigeria’s network transformation by developing and delivering new end-user services as required to meet its customers’ growing demands.

 

 

The renewed two-year multivendor managed services agreement will significantly reduce operational expenses, while improving service quality for Etisalat Nigeria’s subscribers. Alcatel-Lucent will be responsible for ensuring the high-quality and reliable performance of the network in the South-west of the country including Lagos by providing world class services which include network operations, consulting, design, network optimization, spare parts management, maintenance services, and project management.

 

By outsourcing the day-to-day operations and maintenance to Alcatel-Lucent, Etisalat Nigeria will be able to focus on their core business issues such as increasing average revenue per user (ARPU) and ensuring increased network quality and affordability while avoiding the complexity of network operations and management.

 

“This new contract further strengthens our long-standing cooperation with Etisalat and highlights their confidence in our ability to create, deliver and manage complex next-generation networks with strong local support capabilities,” said Adolfo Hernandez, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in Europe, Middle East and Africa. “With our professional and managed services and advanced technologies, Alcatel-Lucent is committed to helping Etisalat’s sustainable development in Nigeria and to ensure the highest level of service to its customers located throughout the country.”

 

 

“Since it began operations in Nigeria, Etisalat has been committed to providing Nigerians with world-class service for which Etisalat is known for in all the countries where it operates.  That is why we have selected Alcatel-Lucent, a competent partner with global experience and we look forward to them meeting our high standards of network performance to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of our subscribers” said Steven Evans, CEO of Etisalat Nigeria.
Alcatel-Lucent has over 20 years of experience in managed services, and currently supports 250 million subscribers across 100 customer networks.  Etisalat Nigeria is one of many partners and major service providers around the world which rely on Alcatel-Lucent for network operations, network integration, multi-vendor maintenance, network outsourcing, applications integration and IP network transformation.

When TechCrunch Sarah Lacy Goes ‘Blind’ in Lagos – She Gets The Myopic Syndrome Bug (Part 2)

By
Tekedia Editors
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2

continued from here.

So it is the pattern, they come and go home with usually the bad perspective.  She has become an expert by telling TechCrunch world that Computer Village “is Nigerian answer to Shenzhen’s SEG Electronics Market”. Her good post will not mention what Pagatech, Precurio, Jobberman, Microscale Embedded, Fasmicro and the hosts of other Nigerian startups are doing. These were supposed to be the focus of her coming – to access these firms and possibly promote them in TechCrunch or her circle and then help move them to the global scale. She left her call and chose the usual way – finding guys with machetes.

In Lagos, we could tell we were getting close to Computer Village because of the rows of parked trucks of busted out boom-boxes, televisions and other has-been electronics being fixed and rehabed for parts. Hawkers try to get your attention with a sound that’s a combination of a kissing-noise and a hissing noise. It surrounds you as you walk through Computer Village, making you feel like you’re either walking past a rowdy construction site or a den of snake charmers. That’s a good way to describe the sales tactics too.

Of course if this post is good, one does not need a soothsayer to know the bad one will be really bad. Sarah did not visit Victoria Island. She failed to spend time in Ikoyi. She might have, but those areas are not too bad for the usual story people should read about Africa.

Victoria Island is as good as any decent city in America. Victoria Garden City   can compete with any nice spot in America. All those ExxomMobil, Shell, Agip, ChevronTexaco and more executives live in Lagos – and they never like to go. If she had wanted to know Lagos – the good and bad – someone should have taken her to our Island. She might have asked the usual question: “is this part of Nigeria?”

Our governments are working hard to project a positive image about our nation and we cannot just have an honest discussion of Nigeria. Someone sends $200 on a promise of $20m and the person will say Nigerians are fraudulent. Pure Chemistry – you too is also fraudulent. Evidence – action and reaction are equal and opposite!  The man that thinks he can make $20m with investment of $200 is Fraud, personified.

People visit Nigeria and they spend time in the worst area without mentioning the good ones.  That distorts the world’s view about Nigeria and deprives us of opportunities.

How can someone support a tech company if what Sarah has written about computer village is the engine of innovation for Nigeria?  The world thinks of clusters and fertilization of ideas and ecosystems of innovation. If all the investors imagine is computer village, they will be discouraged to invest as that environment cannot sustain any great innovation.

Many refuse to understand that Computer Village is largely a market for sale and distribution of computers and parts. No innovation or creativity takes place there. There is no value added there. No differentiation. More than 50% of the players there are not even high school educated. Many never even graduated from primary school. Less than 5% graduates work there. That is not what Nigeria has in mind to launch itself to the world of technology. Computer Village is a market in Lagos and not a tech cluster.

We have Obasanjo Space Center and that is our plan to challenge the world. She met talented young graduates and they must have told her about that. Technology is alive and in places like NigComSat R&D, NASENI, etc. Computer Village is the place where people come and buy things.

Of course, that those boys in Computer Village can function must be commended – some have never entered school a single day. Yet, they can figure out most things to survive. Again, they are not innovating and we do not really expect them to.

We hope next time she visits Africa, Sarah will not be blindfolded to reality and suffer what we have termed myopic syndrome bug. They never see any progress in Africa. Otherwise, she would have asked why SystemSpecs is selling software in U.S and not be obsessed with artisans that never finished primary school even as prepares to write about guys with machetes.

Now, let the bad posts come!

Concluded

When TechCrunch Sarah Lacy Goes ‘Blind’ in Lagos – She Gets The Myopic Syndrome Bug (Part 1)

By
Tekedia Editors
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4

First, thank you Sarah Lacy for visiting Lagos. At least, TechCrunch readers will know that humans still visit Lagos and return alive. With the onslaught CNN unleashes in its negative coverage of Nigeria, only those whom the gods love can make it alive from Nigeria. So we are excited that you are back, safely.

Sarah is an eminently talented professional and has achieved many things. We know her largely on her contents in the very popular TechCrunch. A little about her, courtesy of her site:

Sarah Lacy knows great entrepreneurs. After more than a decade covering business in Silicon Valley, Lacy decided to follow the flow of capital into the developing world. She bootstrapped a two-year, 40 week journey through the Middle East, South America, Africa, India, China and Southeast Asia looking for the best entrepreneurs Silicon Valley had never heard of. The result is her second book Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit from Global Chaos, which is being published by John Wiley & Sons in January 2011.

She was recently in Nigeria in a program called Tech Open Day with Sarah Lacy. She drew young minds because we all love her writings and perspectives.  Tekedia covered this gathering and participated. She delivered and it was very successful. The energy was intense, the insight was deep and many of us went home with deeper commitments to salvage destines through entrepreneurship, hard work and innovation. Thank you Sarah for coming!

Yet, her very first post, she did not even find it worthwhile to mention or even link the very program she attended. In her first post, in TechCrunch, after the trip, titled Strolling through “Nigeria’s Best Buy” (A Photo Essay), she began thus

I’m in Lagos to speak at an event and decided to come a week early to check out the country’s tech and entrepreneurship scene.

Of course, she must have been aware of the link to the event. The guys would have appreciated that little publicity. Anyway, that is her decision to give a little credit to the organizers. Did you notice, ‘an event’? She forgot the name of the event!

Apparently, we have read the good post as she has noted and the bad ones will be coming.

More on the good and the bad in a future post. A lot more. One story includes guys with machetes. But let’s talk about Nigeria’s tech appetite first. Like anyone else they lust for that new, new thing, and many of them go to a place called “Computer Village” to find it.

Of course what do you expect from these foreign experts? They come into Africa, spend a week, and immediately they become African experts. She will write a story of “guys with machetes” as though she has exhausted her ink on the tech firms that invited her. We cannot wait for that one – it could be a history lesson of elite tech blogger writing about machetes.

Why not? It is common to see US professors who spend less than one week in Africa yearly to become experts on African agriculture or economics or whatever. They write the books everyone uses because the African professors are very lazy. In our tradition of talking and not writing, we never exist in the horizon.

You will see a Kenyan professor of agricultural economics with 30 years experience collaborating with a young assistant professor in a US school and because the funding is coming from US, the real expert is the two year assistant professor. He shapes the discussion and the intervention strategy. And the World Bank will try all the ideas and for decades, nothing positive has happened. No one will even hear the local professor! Never.  The most difficult thing in life is to ask any African professor to write. But he will be ready to talk all-day. Oh yes, for people that existed for centuries without developing indigenous way of writing, you cannot force them to write because there are universities now. It is in the gene – talking, but it must change.

to be continued….here

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