[img]https://qzprod.files./2017/11/ap_371226291045-e1510588861972.jpg[/img] Some Uber drivers in Lagos have been using a fake GPS itinerary app to illicitly bump up fares for local riders. Initially created for developers to “test geofencing-based apps,” Lockito, an Android app that lets your phone follow a fake GPS itinerary, is being used by Uber drivers in Lagos to inflate the cost of their trips.
In some cases, inflated trips can cost riders more than double the rate they should be paying. “It’s more like a parasite,” says Mohammed, a driver for both Uber and Taxify in Lagos. “It sets the false GPS movement while allowing the phone also to keep track of its actual movement. The Uber app can’t tell the difference between both so it just calculates both.”
When a driver uses Lockito for an Uber trip he or she can have the fake GPS running (and calculating a fake fare) from the pickup point to the drop off location, before the passenger has even got into the car. When the real trip starts, the real GPS starts running and calculating the actual fare. But at the end of the journey the fares from both trips (real and fake) are tallied up as one fare which the unsuspecting rider pays. Uber Nigeria is aware of the abuse of Lockito by certain drivers. Spokeswoman Francesca Uriri, said it is in violation of Uber’s guidelines and the company is “constantly on the lookout for fraud by drivers and riders who are gaming our systems.” The drivers Quartz spoke with said Lockito or “Locki”, is simply a reaction to Uber’s 40% slash of its base fare implemented in May. Many drivers were unhappy about the price drop and there were a series of protests which had little impact.
Williams*, an Uber driver who asked his real name not to be used, says he heard about Lockito a while ago but initially had no interest in using it. “Uber was sweet, until they slashed the price,” he says. “They did not bring back their price up, so the work started getting tough and tougher.” “When the thing was just getting tougher, I had no choice but to go on Lockito.” He claims he uses the app four to five times a week, but has specific targets and does not use it on just anyone. Williams says the main reason he uses the app is to ensure he can meet his weekly payments to his Uber partner [the owner of the car], a situation he says many other drivers are in. Most ridesharing drivers in Nigeria do not own their cars, instead they partner with car owners and pay them a weekly fee, which according to Williams has become harder to meet as a result of the base fare slash.
Despite coming out of recession in September, the economic situation is still tough in Nigeria, which is still struggling to bounce back from the global drop in oil prices. A recent report from the World Poverty Clock predicts that by February 2018 Nigeria will overtake India and become the country with the most people living in extreme poverty. Food prices are still high although inflation has dropped and many Nigerians still lack access to basic amenities. Unemployment and underemployment are rife, leading some Nigerians to cut corners to make things work. In recent weeks, two Uber drivers representing other drivers on the platform have started a class action suit in Nigeria’s economic hub arguing that they should receive employee benefits from Uber. “There are a lot of drivers on Locki, every driver on Uber is on Locki,” Williams says. “The only ones that are different is the new drivers…and they’re still coming to us to teach them Locki.” Some drivers use Lockito to inflate fares by adding 1000 naira to 2000 naira extra (roughly $3 to $6) but some drivers are believed to inflate fares to exorbitant levels. A trip from Lekki, a neighbourhood in Lagos, to Murtala Muhammad International airport is roughly 32 kilometers and would normally cost just under 3,000 naira ($. Williams says he recently heard of a Lockito trip that cost more than 5 times that amount. Williams’ highest Lockito ride so far is 10,000 naira, (the trip normally would have cost the rider N3,000), and although he has expressed guilt over using the app he remains adamant that an increase of the base fare is the only way to stop it being used, a sentiment shared by other drivers.
“If you block that same Lockito today, another one will come out,” says Uchenna*, a partner and driver on Uber who claims not to use Lockito. “If that base fare is normal [and] everybody’s receiving their incentive on a normal level, that thing [Lockito] will go off. They want to get the normal, accurate price that Uber were before.” “Lockito or no Lockito,” adds another driver who asked not to be named, “if Uber want the Lockito not to exist, that means they have to come back to the base fare.” Perhaps most surprisingly, drivers accuse Uber of not only knowing about app, but purposely not doing anything about it because they still want to maximize their profits.
“If you’re using Lockito [with] Uber [it] will tell you “fake location detected”…they will tell you [the driver],” says Williams. “Sometimes when I run it [Lockito], Uber will tell me, “your map of your location…is fake,” you’ll now click OK…and still yet, I take my money…” Uber denies these allegations. “Uber has automated rules in place that warns and permanently deactivates any account or accounts associated with fraudulent activity,” Uriri says. “Uber encourages both riders and driver-partners to rate their journey at the end of the trip. Honest feedback helps ensure that everyone is accountable for their behavior.” Uber says all riders that report fraudulent activity will be refunded. But Uriri adds that the use of the Lockito will not impact Uber’s pricing policy.
Taxify, one of Uber’s biggest rivals in Nigeria, has been blocking drivers that try to use Lockito. “You can’t do that anymore on Taxify, they were doing it before on Taxify but then Taxify made drivers update the app, once you update your app, you can’t use Lockito anymore,” says Williams. Despite issues with the base fare, Uber’s brand stays strong in Nigeria and drivers want the company to remain, but only if the system changes. This is important as competition increases from newcomers including local e-hailing apps like Motionplus and Alpha One, some of which are offering to pay fuel for drivers. “I pray Uber should learn from now,” says Williams. “This is Nigeria, not abroad, the more things are getting worse, the more drivers are planning things.”
Rave enables African businesses to accept any kind of payment, anywhere, across Africa and around the world. Alongside millions of customers using Mastercard, Visa, Verve, Bank Account and USSD payments to pay Rave businesses, we are now enabling over 200 million paypal users from around the world to pay businesses using Rave.
This new feature is huge for businesses using Rave to accept payments from a global customer base. Today, although many African businesses want to accept payments from around the world, international card payments are fraught with risks of chargebacks. On one hand, customers may not trust local businesses enough to put their card details on their website; on the other hand, Paypal is trusted by millions of customers and merchants around the world. And this is why we think this feature is a game changer for any business accepting payments with Rave.
As with everything Flutterwave, we have made the payments experience super simple, and secure for both business and customer.
Most importantly this feature doesn’t come at any extra cost to your business. You can start accepting payments on rave from Paypal customers for 1.4% + N50 per transaction. We also offer volume pricing for enterprise clients. If you are interested, simply email us at customersuccess@flutterwavego.com
Andela, the company that builds high-performing engineering teams with Africa’s most talented software developers, today announced that the company has secured $40m in Series C funding. The investment was led by pan-African venture firm CRE Venture Capital with participation from DBL Partners, Amplo, Salesforce Ventures, and Africa-focused TLcom Capital. Existing investors including Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, GV, and Spark Capital also participated.
The round, which marks one of the largest investments ever led by an African venture firm into an Africa-based company, brings Andela’s total venture funding to just over $80m.
Andela was launched in 2014 to combat the global technical talent shortage by investing in Africa’s most talented software developers. With an estimated 1.3m software jobs unfilled in 2016 in the U.S. alone, it’s clear that the growth of today’s major technology ecosystems is inhibited by a severe lack of talent. To solve this, Andela invests in high potential pools of brainpower across the African continent to help more than 100 partner companies build distributed engineering teams. These partners range from industry leaders like Viacom and Mastercard Labs to high-growth technology companies such as Gusto and GitHub.
With offices in Lagos, Nigeria, Nairobi, Kenya, and Kampala, Uganda, Andela has hired 500 developers to date — the top 0.7% of more than 70,000 applicants from across the continent. Selected developers spend six months in a rigorous on-boarding programme before being matched with one of Andela’s partner companies as full-time engineering team members.
Beyond recruiting elite development talent, Andela is catalysing the growth of tech ecosystems across the continent by open-sourcing its content and partnering with organisations including Google, Pluralsight and Udacity to provide resources and mentorship to developers.
“Andela is investing in our continent’s future technology leaders, who are already playing a much-needed role in solving both African and global problems,” says Seni Sulyman, Country Director of Andela Nigeria. “With each new partnership, we are simultaneously proving to the global tech industry that brilliance is evenly distributed irrespective of gender, culture or nationality. As we unleash an entire generation of technologists, we will secure Africa’s role as an equal partner working alongside the rest of the world to advance human potential.”
Pule Taukobong (one-time angel investor in Andela and) founding Partner of CRE Venture Capital, adds: “At present, there is more capital to fund ideas globally than there are people to build them. Andela is providing a solution to this global talent dilemma while building a business case for one of Africa’s greatest assets: our people.”
Andela will use the capital to fuel its aggressive expansion plans: The company aims to launch offices in two additional African countries over the next year, doubling its developer base from 500 to 1,000.
Alongside this round, Pule Taukobong of CRE, Julia Gillard, former Australian Prime Minister and Amplo Board Partner, and Omobola Johnson, Senior Partner at TLcom and former Minister of Communication Technology in Nigeria, will be joining Andela’s board.
Komotion Studios with a $400 dollar budget and two weeks of work has helped move Yoruba culture forward for the digital age.
Following the successes of American Gods on television and the countless super hero films from the likes of Marvel and DC, a serious case could be made for African folklore getting similar treatment.
While subjects like religion – no thanks to the ‘destructive’ work of Ajayi Crowther in helping vilify the native beliefs of Yoruba people while introducing them to the native beliefs of the Jewish people at the same time, are considered ground zero for the modern conscious Nigerian that identifies as Christian or Muslim, Nigerian deities such as Sango, Oya and Amadioha should be given pride of place in the culture.
With hopes that the project could eventually turn into a web series or a feature length movie, Dawn Of Thunder explores Sango’s childhood – where it all started, the questions he asked, the answers he was given, visions about his path and how these experiences eventually shaped his future.
Komotion Studios had this to say about the project
“[It] will look at his life from birth to his mysterious disappearance. We will explore the functionality of the civilisation that existed during his time, bringing out different key lessons. Our goal is to educate and align with the sustainable development goals while also entertaining our audience.”
Why Sango and why is it in Yoruba? Sango is one of the most recognizable and relatable deities in Africa. His first notable appearance and global debute as "Shango" was in a Marvel Thor comic in 1982, one of the Orishas, a race of extra-dimensional beings after which he was seen in a DC Firestorm Comic in 1990.
We feel that in order to feel the authenticity of the story, it needed to be told in the actual language being used at the time
How much did it cost to produce "Dawn of Thunder" A project like DAWN OF THUNDER would usually be expensive, specifically ranging in 10s of thousands of dollars. But since it was an internal passion project, we had the talent and resources to pull it off at no cost to us except for power generation. Software licences and tech support also came free from companies that believed in what we were trying to do. So DAWN OF THUNDER which would usually have costed several thousands of dollars to produce ended up costing us just $400.
You may want to consider a business in selling brooms to the western world as hand made African brooms now sell for as much as N12,600 on ebay, one of the leading online stores in the world.
A fairly-used broom, which typically sells at less than $1 in Nigeria was put up on ebay for $34.95 by a seller in the US — an equivalent of N12,600 at parallel market rate.
Describing the broom, the seller said “what we have is a Wonderful Genuine Vintage Handmade African Broom in Excellent Condition”.
“We got this from a Ol’ Gal that lived in Africa for 10 years and this was made for Her back in the early 70’s and she used it for years to sweep out her Hut. And the Brought it Back with Her when she moved back to the States. It is still in Excellent Usable and Very Collectible Condition.
“This is a Vintage / Used item, and is sold AS-IS. It may show signs of wear and use including, but not limited to: stains, scratches, marks, fuzz, piling, abrasion, etc.
“Please refer to pictures and description for complete details. We have done our best to accurately describe the item in detail. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like to see additional pictures. As this is is a USED/ Vintage item, we can only accept returns in the event of complete misrepresentation.”
Another seller in the UK, who has 100 percent positive feedback, also put up a brand new broom for $26.43 in the country.
Typical African brooms are made from palm fronds and tightly held by either a black rubber material or softer portions of the palm front.
Brooms are used for cleaning, but also seen as a political symbol in Nigeria and India.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) of Nigeria and the Aam Aadmi Party of India both use brooms as their political symbol.
26-year-old Nigerian entrepreneur Iyinoluwa Aboyeji wants Silicon Valley to fund a future where Africa is included. Aboyeji is the cofounder of Flutterwave, a payments API that makes it easier for banks and businesses to process payments across Africa. The service allows consumers to pay for things in their local currency; Flutterwave takes care of integrating banks and payment-service providers into its platform so businesses don't have to take on the expense and burden.
U.S. investors just poured $10 million of fresh funding into it. This sizable round comes one year after Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan led a $24 million funding round into another Africa-focused startup, Andela. Andela, also cofounded by Aboyeji, trains and connects African developers to global companies for work. "It is critical that Africans are able to participate in the digital economy," Aboyeji told CNN Tech. More than half of global population growth over the next 30 years is expected to occur in Africa, according to a report from the United Nations. By 2035, the number of Africans joining the working age population is expected to exceed those entering it worldwide, the International Monetary Fund projects. There's no universal payment method in Africa, and only 3% of Africans reportedly own own having a credit card. Other forms of payments include bank transfers and digital wallets.
It means that African businesses have a hard time accepting payments from visitors. It also makes it difficult for companies like Google (GOOG), Netflix (NFLX, Tech30), Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) and Facebook (FB, Tech30) to accept local payments from African customers. It hinders the ease with which Africans connect with some of tech's most beloved services. These are factors that Aboyeji says Silicon Valley needs to start preparing for -- now.
"The reality is that it's not about flying to the moon and moonshots missions," he said. "It's about whether the majority of people in 30 years can lead good lives because of technology." Aboyeji attributes this to why he decided to leave Andela. Aboyeji, the only African of Andela's four cofounders, announced in August he'd left to start Flutterwave with a team of African ex-bankers, engineers and entrepreneurs. "We're peering 15-20 years into the future and saying, 'What do we have to do to save the world?'" he said. "When you have a situation where a majority of people who live in the world are excluded from the new prosperity of software, that's not good for the future of the world."
Aboyeji, who spent much of last year traveling between the company's headquarters in San Francisco and its Nigeria office, is doing his part to make a dent. (Flutterwave also has offices in Kenya, and South Africa.) To date, the company is processing more than $1.2 billion in payments across 10 million transactions. It accepts 350 currencies across 30 African countries, charging merchants a small service charge, which it shares with banks. Investor Ian Sigelow -- a partner and cofounder at Greycroft Partners, which co-led the new round in Flutterwave with Green Visor Capital -- said his firm has invested in two Africa-focused startups over the past year.
"We spent the first 10 years at Greycroft, from 2006 to 2016, looking for investments in Africa because we've always believed in the potential of the market," Sigelow said. "I expect we make more investments in Africa over the next five years than the last 10." He said Flutterwave's decision to set up a shop in San Francisco was important in its early days. "[It] helped the company raise seed funding," he added. "Many investors would be skeptical about funding an unknown group out of Nigeria." Flutterwave, which graduated from Silicon Valley elite accelerator program Y Combinator last summer, also counts Y Combinator, Social Capital and Omidyar Network among some of its investors. Aboyeji said the decision to keep the startup in San Francisco made sense. "We're trying to connect Africa to the digital economy -- there's no other place that exemplifies the digital economy than San Francisco," said Aboyeji adding he doesn't feel like a local yet. "We're slowly embedding ourselves in the community."
December 2013. Mrs Njoku was worried. A few months earlier we had just became parents with our first born and she needed some security. As a Nigerian Nigerian, she looked upon startup equity with a measure of scepticism. It was all too casino-like, negotiation-heavy and emotion driven for her. She needed something solid. Mrs Njoku was concerned that we were living in rented accommodation and rather than me trying to remedy that, I was busy trying to buy Rolexes, Hublots and such things. Very immature of me. Rightly so, she was very worried.
So I relented. I’m a grown up, a father in fact. I have to do the right thing. So I told her to find a house in Lagos. Let me go find the financing. Contrary to what most people think, the Njoku’s are absolutely not rolling around in dollars. That $40m raised was for Iroko. Iroko does not = Njoku. I am a founder, CEO and shareholder, and still have to negotiate my salary with my board etc. If they see fit to not increase it, they can 100% refuse to. But granted, I am not complaining. I’m pretty well paid and would sit in the top 3% of salaried earners anywhere in the world. If I lived in London or NY or Paris, I could pretty easily get a $1m mortgage without too much effort. (this isn’t me bragging, it will be apparent shortly).
So she looked in Lekki/Ikeja etc. This is 2014 so ~N167 = $1. We found a few places we liked. N130–150m. ($778-898k). We had some savings so we ‘only’ needed N100m. Again. Globally, I earn in the top 3%. In Nigeria I am pretty certain I am in the 0.01% of salaried earners. So I went to my friends at Zenith Bank and asked for a mortgage. Below is what they sent me.
Reminder. This is early 2014. Today that 22% would be more like 28–30%. Below is the equivalent in a normal world from Rightmove (UK) and Streeteasy (NY). But Nigeria is not normal, so in principal I’m fine with a ‘risk factor’.
So to fully grasp this, in order to borrow N100m ($600k), I would need to pay back in interest over 60 months/5 years ($389k) at N2,761,891 per month. Now considering this was my primary house of residence and not some crazy investment thingy I was pitching, I was a little disappointed. That’s an understatement. I obviously couldn’t afford this type of thing and simply wasn’t prepared to take a mortgage at such rates. Mama didn’t raise no fool. Was I annoyed? You betcha. Both mine and Mrs. Njoku’s salaries sat in Zenith. We had never asked them for anything. Their general attitude was very much take it or leave it. With a respectful smile. They were, at the time, Iroko’s primary bank in Nigeria and I knew they were earning fat fees from us importing USD to pay Naira expenses here (Lagos office is still very much a cost centre). But they refused to budge. It appeared they didn’t need to.
So I went to my board and asked if I could borrow the money from Iroko. Inasmuch as they wanted to be supportive, CEOs borrowing money from companies is usually a big fat red flag for corporate governance. So they suggested I do a small secondary and sell some Iroko shares to fund the new house. With much regret, I did just that. In the end, I didn’t buy a house. I bought some land and am plotting how to construct my glass house upon it. Those shares have obviously gone up in dollar value since then. The hope is they will go up significantly more over the coming decades. I hate selling equity. Opportunities in value creation, gone.
For me it was simple. My wife and I ceased operating our personal accounts at Zenith Bank in April 2014. There was literally zero upside to it. We got zero interest in holding our money there and using an ATM? Well, anyone can give us that. We ended up moving to Standard Chartered Nigeria. If we wanted to, at the time SC were offering mortgages at 18% or thereabouts. And that was from their website.
Above is the humiliating moment a Zenith Bank Plc member of staff was made to kneel down to beg Ekiti State Governor Mr Ayo Fayose. As mere civilians, we obviously didn’t get this treatment. But we might as well have. Reminder. The Njoku’s and Iroko are not the same thing.
So, as they had not really done anything to Iroko, they maintained the accounts, payroll and balance there and for a further 3 years, Zenith Bank was Iroko’s primary bank in Nigeria. Until a few months ago. We needed nothing from them. So, we were a great customer. In 2016, Iroko passed $2.25m and N645m through their accounts. We were great customers, I guess. That was until we asked them for a couple of facilities. You know. Beyond ATM and Internet banking. We were great customers. Until we required them to add value. N10m overdraft - sometimes it takes time to import and exchange dollars. If I remember rightly, they asked for an equivalent of $100,000 cash collateral to cover the facility. Which is kinda besides the point. So we never even progressed with that* We had secured a 5-year low interest N500m (at N10.4m/month) loan for content, but needed a bank guarantee (we are long Naira debt) in order to access it. Remember, we passed through N645m and $2.25m through their accounts last year. Zenith Bank refused. They needed collateral. Cash or assets. They needed N600m equivalent in cash or land. My account officer literally told me he needed ‘Something tangible’ Tangible — ˈtan(d)ʒɪb(ə)l/ noun a thing that is perceptible by touch. “these are the only tangibles upon which an assessment can be made” Zenith Bank made us jump through hoops during due diligence, we tried to use our cashflow and content contracts and offered to pay N30m/month rather than the NN10.4m/month as we didn’t need 5 years to repay. They refused. Reason? Everything we had done in the past was kinda irrelevant. It was the past. In very simple terms, from a credit risk perspective, ‘anything can happen tomorrow’. The guy from Zenith actually told me that. Upon N5m/month repayment, forget we had raised $40m from international investors and had a business that had y-o-y revenue growth of 90%. Not only was I shocked, I was actually saddened. Six years of enjoying juicy inflow fees, transactions (and we make many), every Iroko member of staff was encouraged to open a Zenith account and most did. But that all meant nothing. Because, you know, anything can happen tomorrow. Yes. It can. I can close my account with Zenith Bank Nigeria. This happened on Monday, I think. By week’s end I have cleared 99% of Iroko money from Zenith. Since then, they can’t have seen more than N1m from us. If they are, we are simply in the process of shifting it elsewhere.
Really and truly. What is the point of a bank? ATM/Internet Banking. Bleep that. In normal markets it’s to extend credit (mortgages / business loans), support investments and pay interest on your deposits.
The Nigerian banking system for me is like Nigeria. It has basically failed. If I could, I would keep my money under the bed. I would get the exact same return on interest. I would probably be able to access it more readily. And finally, I wouldn’t have to put up with the BS marketing campaigns about supporting Nigerians in fulfilling their dreams. Rather than marketing about how supportive they are, they should go ahead and be supportive. If you are a top 100 company, they kneel at your feet. If you are one of the hundreds of thousands of regular SMEs (irokotv.com Nigeria is an SME) then you’re on your own.
I actually don’t need the Nigerian banks. But many, many others do. They don’t have the opportunity to tap international capital. They are stuck with the Nigerian banks.
Nigerian banks don’t support. They suffocate.
Why would I bother bringing this up? With the failure of Etisalat, once again the Nigerian banks are out of pocket hundreds of billions of Naira. That’s our money. That’s depositors’ money. They are playing casino with our money and giving us nothing back in return. They get rich. The tycoons get rich. And we, the depositors, lose.
AMCON top100 chronic debtors owe 953.43billion. And this was before the N541Bn recent default of Etisalat. That Etisalat deal. Apparently banks involved in the loan deal include: Zenith Bank, GTBank, FirstBank, UBA, Fidelity Bank, Access Bank, Ecobank, FCMB, Stanbic IBTC Bank and Union Bank.
THISDAY had exclusively reported that a breakdown of the amounts owed to the banks showed that ‘my friends’ Zenith Bank has the highest exposure to Etisalat amounting to $262 million and N80 billion. GTBank has the second highest exposure of $138 million and N42 billion, Access Bank follows with $131 million and N40 billion. Etisalat also owes UBA $125 million and N38 billion; FirstBank — $79 million and N24 billion; Fidelity Bank — $56 million and N17 billion; Stanbic IBTC — $25 million and N7.5 billion; FCMB — $15 million and N4.5 billion; and Ecobank — $10 million and N3.1 billion.
To one company. Which was 4th out of 4th position in its market and didn’t really employ that many people. Rumour has it that Etisalat had negative cashflow when this deal was structured. Please, where is the security the bank used to secure this facility? Everyone has walked away. Chairman, CEO, CFO, board. But our money is still owed. Depositors’ money. What model or formula did they use to calculate this one? I am genuinely interested in what landed property? What collateral? What tangible assets they used to collect this $1.2Bn or N541,000,000,000. Did they use the entire Lekki Axis or was it the whole of Lagos used to secure this money?
An investor once told me that Nigeria is basically owned by 200 families. And maybe every 25 years, 5–10 join their ranks. It appears the Nigerian banking sector is for them. The rest of us are just here to spectate and fund their party. Then wallow in the mess they create. For me. Fv3k Zenith Bank PLC and their like.
With the recent fund raising activities, I think it’s amazing that internet startups no longer have to be suffocated under the burden of having to deal with these idiots. Let them embrace their old industry giants who, per clockwork, build up big debts and default over and over again. When will they learn? Never.
They should stop advertising all over the place and actually provide a service which creates jobs, supports SMEs and helps Nigeria grow. Economies are built on normal credit markets. What we have is 100% not that. Thank God I don’t actually need them. This is for the many who actually do.
The Lagos State Government has secured a whopping sum of $100 million from a French financial institution, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), to implement its strategic integrated urban development projects tagged Eko Urban Project (EKO-UP).
Consistent with its urban renewal programmes specifically designed to provide strategic infrastructure projects and unlock traffic congestion in the metropolis, the state government has secured right of way for the expansion of Alapere- Agboyi- Ketu road.
The Commissioner for Economic Planning & Budget, Mr. Akinyemi Ashade disclosed the N100 million credit facility in the text of a recent news conference he held at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Alausa, Ikeja, noting that the urban projects “are already on-going.”
Ashade noted that the Federal Executive Council approved a credit facility of $100 million for integrated urban development projects referred to as Eko Urban Project from the AFD.
In February 2015, the commissioner added that the facility agreement was signed by the AFD and the Federal Ministry of Finance on behalf of the state government.
He said the slum upgrading programme “is being coordinated by the Lagos State Urban Renewal Authority in Ifelodun and Bariga LCDAs. Proposed investments include the construction of drainage infrastructure, roads, street lighting, schools and public health care centres.”
In Ifelodun LCDA, the commissioner said the state government proposed to construct a detention basin, implying the resettlement and compensation of 2,260 persons in the area.
He said part of the credit facility would be used “to enhance the management and treatment of solid waste in Lagos State. A sum of $53 million has been earmarked for the construction of new waste management infrastructure that will be managed by the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA).”
He said proposed investments included the reclamation of an open dump in a suitable location within the state and construction of a new sanitary land fill company with international sanitary and environmental standards including a biogas collection system.
On the road expansion, the Commissioner and Urban Development, Mr. Abiola Anifowoshe said the state government had already secure right of way of Alapere-Agboyi-Ketu road in line with its policy to provide more infrastructure to free traffic along the axis.
He explained that the project “is a four-lane road with 18.6m width inclusive of a carriageway. It will see to the development of Oluwakemi and Ajiboye Streets with ingress into streets from Alapere to Agboyi. It will channel traffic from Alapere to Agboyi and Ikorodu area.”
He said the owners of affected structures had been engaged and notified and offered opportunity “to remove their wares and salvage their property before demolition would take off.
“We run an inclusive government. We cannot embark on any removal of structures without convening a stakeholders’ meeting with the affected people and communities. We met stakeholders recently. Interestingly, they embraced the idea which led to this development.
“We know what it takes to put up a structure so we have planned this project and pledged minimal removal. It is all in the overriding public interest and the economic growth and development of the community and Lagos State as a whole,” he explained.
China's latest mode of public transportation is a bus, tram and train rolled into one.
Its maker, Chinese rail transit firm CRRC, is calling it a "smart bus," but it's a lot more than that. Like a train, it's modular and carriages can be added on; but like a bus, it runs on the road.
Amazingly, the carriage will follow a preset path and won't need a driver — but it won't need tracks to be laid, either. The train is equipped with sensors that'll allow it to follow white-dotted lines on the road.
"It is like having a virtual rail for the bus," said Feng Jianghua, chief engineer of CRRC.
The 30 metre long bus is able to fit 300 passengers across three carriages. More carriages can be added or removed if needed.
The smart bus, or Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit (ART), is touted to be much cheaper than subway or tram systems, since it doesn't require infrastructure to be laid down. This could prove to be the solution for many medium or small cities in China that can't afford to build train lines.
It costs up to $102 million to build a kilometre of a subway track, as compared to about $2 million for a standard length ART bus, according to a report by Chinese state media Xinhua.
A 6.5km ART line will be built in the Chinese city of Zhuzhou, with operations starting in 2018
The Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has granted permission to the Lagos State Government to embark upon a total reconstruction of the International Airport Road from Oshodi.
The construction of the road few months ago led to a friction between Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and his predecessor, Babatunde Fashola.
In a Press Statement signed on Wednesday by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Tunji Bello, the State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode who made the disclosure, commended the Acting President for his statesman like approach and for fast tracking the process.
“We are very appreciative of the good gesture of His Excellency, the Acting President for acceding to our request which is not only very timely but a very heartwarming one. Posterity will never forget this genuine developmental action”, Ambode said.
He also described the approval as a 50th birthday gift to the people of Lagos State, describing it a further demonstration of the determination of the present administration to ensure the effectiveness of the Executive Order on improving the Ease of Doing Business recently signed by the Acting President.
Ambode also gave kudos to President Muhammadu Buhari for providing the enabling environment to attract Foreign Direct Investment into the nation, adding that with the upgrading of the International Airport Road which is the gateway to the nation’s commercial nerve centre, the country will attract new investments.
The governor had in early March this year, raised concern about the present state of the Muritala Muhammed International Airport Road, describing it as a national disgrace that required immediate attention to salvage the nation’s image.
He stated then that the State presently has a design for the reconstruction of the road as well as the funds to embark on the project but was yet to get the go ahead from the Federal Government.
In his words: “The road linking Oshodi to the International Airport, you would all agree with me is a national embarrassment. In the spirit of the regeneration and urbanisation that this administration has set out to achieve, we believe strongly that the image that is exhumed by the decadence of that road must be repaired and we took it upon ourselves to appropriate the 2017 budget that the House of Assembly should approve the total reconstruction of the Airport Road from Oshodi to the International Airport.
“The State currently has a design of 10 lanes to come from Oshodi to the International Airport with interchange and flyover that would drop you towards the Local Airport. The contractor is already set to go and everything as I said has been completed and we already have the cash, but alas we are having challenges with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. This is a Federal and not a State road. The Federal Ministry of Works believes that they should do the road, but they have not been able to do it all these years past.”
“I just want to appeal to the Federal Ministry of Works, to let go or reimburse us with whatever it is that they are owing us and even if they are not willing to pay us now, we have the money to do it. It is a national disgrace and we would not be part of it. We would like to do it as part of the celebration of Lagos at 50,” Governor Ambode had said then.
It would be recalled that the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in its reaction said the delay in granting the request of Lagos State was because the Memorandum conveying the request of Lagos State which was already before the Federal Executive Council has not reached completion stage.
“The Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing Ministry has presented the Memorandum conveying the request of the Lagos State Government to the Federal Executive Council as was done with a similar request by the Kaduna State Government in 2016”.
“Due to the fact that two of the roads also connect Ogun State, the Federal Executive Council could not reach an immediate decision on them because it requested the input of the other State Government affected”, the Federal Ministry explained.
Osinbajo, Ambode, Tinubu, Fayose and other dignitaries were present at the Lagos at 50 Gala night which was held this evening at the Lagos House, Ikeja.
Also in attendance were Aliko Dangote, Gov Amosun, Gov Ajimobi, Gov Okorocha and many others.
The trio of Master Honour Olatunji, Master Daniel-Aguebor Emmanuel Jesutobiloba and Master Olatunde Oluwasemilore Olaposi have emerged top in the world in Mathematics at the Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education IGCSE, the British Council has said. They were honoured Friday night at the Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos, along side other 63 awardees in a ceremony well attended by many stakeholders in the sector. Leading universities and employers worldwide accept Cambridge IGCSE as evidence of academic ability.
Master Honour Olatunji, student of Greensprings School, Lagos emerged top in the world at the 2016 Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics. In his response to the award, Olatunji said: “I love mathematics.” “Finding out about my award did not just make me joyful, but also increased my love and passion for mathematics! “I found the Cambridge IGCSE curriculum very interesting because it is skills-based and makes you think critically. “It was really helpful in exposing and preparing me to do well in international schools and universities in future. Also, I enjoyed the privileged of highly competent and committed teachers.”
Olatunji who urged learners to start exams preparations early, noted that early preparation makes your exams stress free. “My first advice to other learners is to start preparing early; I started preparing for my Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics four months early. “This makes your preparation stress-free. Also, practise a lot of past questions and learn from your mistakes. Finding a study partner would be very helpful too,” he said. In his future plan, he said: “I plan on applying to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Stanford University to study Electrical/Electronic Engineering. Similarly, in 2015 categories, Master Daniel-Aguebor Emmanuel Jesutobiloba, a student from The Ambassador College, Ota also emerged top in the World at the Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics. In his remark, he said: “I gave the exams a 100% focus and made sure I covered my textbooks and schemes. Also, my teachers taught me in easy-to-understand and interesting ways. “I find Cambridge interesting because I got to see learning in a more practical and exciting way, which taught me to think more critically, to solve real life problems more effectively, and to be passionate about learning. It was also challenging, because it was different from the normal curriculum I had been exposed to for years.” He urged students to acquire knowledge through in-depth learning, and not just reading to pass tests. “I have been accepted to study Electrical Engineering at university,” he disclosed.
Besides, Master Olatunde Oluwasemilore Olaposi, student of The Ambassador College, Ota also came top in the World, Cambridge IGCSE in Mathematics in the Nov 2015. He said: “The Cambridge IGCSE programme was quite demanding and yet interesting. It made me realise that education was more than just gathering information – it was about being able to apply it to challenges in the real world. I had teachers who were always there to help me through aspects I did not understand well and provide enough past questions to work on.
“I advice learners to put in their very best as they prepare for the exams, realising that the knowledge gained will go beyond receiving a certificate from Cambridge.” Top in the world were 8, top in Nigeria, 55 and the best across were 3. On the whole, a total of 66 were honored by the British Council at the Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards for the November 2015 and June 2016 examination series. The award night was grace by Country Director, British Council Nigeria, Connie Price, British High Commissioner, represented by Andrew Davidson, Deputy Head of Nigeria, Janet Morris, Director, International Network Cambridge and former Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, among others.
Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday disclosed plans to commence construction of three new ultra modern general hospitals this year to improve healthcare delivery in the state.
Ambode, who spoke at the second quarterly Town Hall meeting for the year and seventh in the series held at Shibiri/Ekunpa Area Office in Oto-Awori Local Council Development Area (LCDA), said government had already concluded the necessary paperwork before the contractors would move to site.
The governor, who took time to take questions from community leaders, traditional rulers, market women, youth leaders and party leaders in the area, said the decision to bring the meeting to Oto-Awori was in continuation of his commitment to leave no community behind in the development of the state.
He said he was also in the area to listen to the requests of the people in the axis and see how his administration could respond accordingly. Responding to the request for a general hospital in the area, Ambode said three new facilities have been catered for in this year’s budget and Ojo Council is one of them, adding: “It is in the pipeline, its just a matter of time. We are already closing in on it.” Ambode also assured that efforts would be made to improve healthcare service delivery in the riverine area in Oto Awori, saying residents in such areas have remained relevant in the government’s achievements over the years.
He acceded to the request of the residents for the rehabilitation of the access roads linking the area to the Alimosho General Hospital, which they currently use, pending the construction of a nearby general hospital, and directed the Public Works Corporation to immediately fix the roads to improve accessibility to the facility.
Besides, the governor directed contractors handling several ongoing road projects across the state to return to their various sites or risks their contracts being terminated, saying his administration would not tolerate any form of laxity in project delivery.
He listed some of the projects to include Mile 10 Road, Mowo Road, Tedi Road, Ilaje Road, Goriola Oseni Road, Sabo Mosafejo Road and Imude Orisa Road, where the contractor covered only 1.5km of the road.
He also said that he had approved all the mini waterworks across the state, numbering about 41, to function optimally within the next 12 weeks to ensure that residents have access to clean and portable water.
Ambode directed that the Civil Service Commission and the Local Government Civil Service Commission to put modalities in place to employ at least 250 of them into the state civil service and ordered the chairman of the Sports Commission to offset all arrears of allowances owed physically challenged athletes next week.
For the next quarter, he said government would kick-start the implementation of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, implement the construction of 181 roads across the 57 LGs/LCDAs, complete the Abule-Egba and Ajah flyover bridges, further signalisation of Lekki-Ajah express road and continuation of road network upgrade across the three senatorial zones.
Speaking to The Nation, the Ayangbure of Ikorodu, Oba Kabiru Shotobi, commended Ambode for taking the initiative to celebrate the anniversary in all the five divisions of the state. “We are happy. I am personally proud of the Governor. He has shown that he cares for all the people of Lagos. He is interested in the development of all the divisions.
This is why he has ensured that the ongoing 50th anniversary of the state is not only being celebrated in Alausa. With the Boat regatta and other activities taking place all over the state, Ambode has ensured an all encompassing celebration,” the Ayangbure said.
Speaking in the same vein, the Majority Leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Sanai Agunbiade, said the people of Ikorodu division are elated that the Governor did not exclude them from the celebration. He added that beyond the good news of boat regatta and other activities holding in Ikorodu, the Governor has also reassured the people of his readiness to develop the division.
“The Government of Lagos State has put machineries in place to commence the construction of Owutu/Ishawo/Arepo road as well as Igbe/Ginti road soon and a stakeholders forum regarding that will hold later this month. The governor has given approval for a Government Chalet to be built in a lagoon front site in Ikorodu division.
“Construction of a City mall has been approved to be built in Ikorodu division and the site is already approved by the governor. Ikorodu Local Government is positioned to get a new secretariat very soon. The government is committed to the eight lane road from Sabo- Ikorodu to Itokin, to align with the road construction on Epe itokin axis.
Construction of Divisional stadium for Ikorodu within the vast parcel of land at Lagos State Polytechnic is to commence very soon. Industrial park is now approved for Imota, in addition to the Regional Commodity market already approved for location and construction in the area. Kudos to Hon. N.S Solaja and Prince Rotimi Ogunleye,” he said.
The Lagos @ 50 Planning Committee on Monday unveiled range of activities for the final celebration of the State’s Golden Jubilee anniversary.
Addressing a world press conference at the Banquet Hall in Lagos House, Ikeja, Co-chair of the Lagos @ 50 Planning Committee, Mr Habeeb Fasinro said the final lap of the celebration would kick off on Saturday, April 8 and culminate on Saturday, May 27, 2017.
Fasinro, who was joined at the conference by other members of the Committee including Professor Ademola Abass, Hon. Adebimpe Akinsola, Mrs. Sarah Boulos, Mrs. Chika Balogun, said the events lined up for the celebration has been carefully selected to tell the story and journey from 1967 when the State was created till date.
He said the event would kick off on April 8, with a special Musical Play tagged “Wakaa” produced and directed by ace producer and director, Bolanle Austen-Peters at the Muson Centre, Onikan Lagos.
He said the celebration would continue on April 13 with a three-day Broadway Musical Concert tagged “FELA” that would feature the life and times and the Afrobeat creator, Fela Anikulapo Kuti and celebrate his pioneering music to be performed by a combined cast of the original Broadway production and the Royal National Theatre production under Bill T. Jones.
The Co-chair said a Boat Regatta parade would also hold on April 15 in Epe, Badagry and Lagos Island to showcase the State’s aquatic asset to residents and visitors alike, while a Jazz Meets Fashion event would take place on April 30 and would see Grammy award winning Jazz artistes share the stage with Nigerian musicians while the evolution of fashion in Lagos State over the past 50 years will also dominate the runway.
Fasinro said the celebration would continue on May 1 with a Special Workers’ Day celebration by both active and retired civil servants with a special parade in the morning at the Agege Stadium and a dinner in the evening, adding that on May 5, five of the highest box office films and five evergreen films would be screened to local audience in the five divisions of the State including Ikeja, Badagry, Ikorodu, Lagos Island and Epe.
He said a Lagos Carnival would also hold on May 13 in both the Island and Mainland zones of the State and extend to the different communities and ethnic groups in Lagos, while the Eyo Festival, last staged five years ago, would make a grand return on May 20 at the Tafawa Balewa Square.
He also said on May 24, all former Governors of the State will join Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in council for a Special State Executive Council Session, while the Judiciary and House of Assembly would hold same on May 18 and May 22 respectively.
He said among other events, the grand finale slated for May 27, which coincides with Children’s Day Celebration would feature a historic gala night that would have a rich blend of good music and the best of Lagos cuisine, photo exhibition and the unveiling of a special coffee table book that captures the essence of Lagos through the lens of 50 accomplished photographers.
He said though the 50-day celebration ends on May 27, the celebration of the State’s Golden Jubilee would continue beyond throughout the year with series of festivals and events to celebrate the State’s rich cultural heritage.
Fasinro also enjoined residents to key into the various events, adding that the anniversary is “a celebration of Lagosians, by Lagosians, for Lagosians”.
Earlier, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, said May 27, 2016 when the events flagged off, there had been series of events that had held on the 27th of every month to mark Lagos @ 50.
Four boys, and many, many acceptance letters. As parents across the country work on college applications, this family had four to conquer in one year.
Quadruplets in Ohio have all been accepted to Harvard, Yale and Duke and other top national universities. Some of the boys were also accepted to Stanford, University of Chicago, and Princeton. The boys each applied to a few individual schools, but where all four applied, they were accepted. "It's a wow factor. They weren't expecting it, but we always tell them shoot for the stars," said their mother, Kim Wade. Teen accepted by 8 Ivy League schools Nigel, Zachary, Aaron and Nick Wade are seniors at Lakota East High School in Butler County, Ohio. Principal Suzanna Davis has watched the boys grow up, and she said she is impressed with their ability to be so close, but also forge four independent paths. "They have thrived academically, but they have found their own interests."
When asked if the boys will chose the same school, Davis said, "I might have thought before this week they might separate, but now sticking together might present a lot of opportunities. This attention may have flipped the script." No matter what they choose, she knows they will succeed, "The mark that these four brothers leave on our school will be felt for years to come. I can't wait to see what comes next with their story."
Their father works for General Electric and their mother is a principal of a middle school in Ohio. Kim Wade said the boys haven't decided where to go yet, but they are thrilled with the results of their application process. "The worst anyone can say is 'no.' We told them If you want to apply, apply. When (the schools) said yes, they felt elated and blessed." Wade says the community, family and school district have all offered great support for her four boys. "We have a good base. We have good role models all around with our family and friends. We always tell them you have too many God-given talents to not be successful." She added her advice as teacher and mom, "I tell my sons, but I would tell anyone, we have to find a way for our kids to have ownership for their learning. You are here for a reason, you have to work hard for your dreams." "Figure out where you want to be in 18 to 20 years. Once you have that idea, and it will change along the way for sure, but it will take hard work for you to get there, you have to have ownership." Davis added, "I want them to go out and follow their passion, I want them to change the world. I know this sounds so cliché, but I have no doubt this is what they are going to do."
The All Progressives Congress, APC, has lauded the initiative of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State to construct a 50-kilometre road to link coastal communities in the state with Lagos State. According to a statement signed by Abayomi Adesanya, the state APC Publicity Secretary, on Thursday in Lagos, the party described the project as “laudable and remarkable’’. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Mr. Akeredolu had on April 5 signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, to construct the road. The road is expected to connect Araromi Seaside in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State with Akodo in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area of Lagos State. The road is expected to be completed within two and half years. Mr. Adesanya said, “This is laudable and remarkable, because in less than 100 days of the APC-led administration in the state, the governor has attracted such a monumental project to the state. “The first and only MoU ever signed by NDDC with any state government within its mandate area (the Niger-Delta region). “The people of Ilaje and the Niger-Delta areas of the state have rolled out drums to thank Akeredolu and NDDC for this laudable stride.”
He said that when completed the road would help to decongest the Benin-Ore-Lagos Expressway. “Once this project is completed, the people can now travel to Lagos by road in less than an hour, as against the usual four to five hours being spent through other roads to Lagos,” he said. Mr. Adesanya assured the people of the state that more of such laudable projects would be executed by the Akeredolu-led government in the state. (NAN)
Remember the trending KeepTheChangeBro story last week? Well, there is a web app for that, it calculates how much change you are likely to get from a date.
-You need to select if you're a guy or girl -Select your bank -Enter the amount you spent on the date. -Your change is calculated and displayed!
Tertiary institutions remain key players to the growth and development of any functional ecosystem as far as technology innovation is concerned. This is evident in their ability to feed the ecosystem with the requisite skilled manpower to scale its growth.
In Nigeria, most tertiary institutions have been widely criticized for their unusual penchant for theories and abstract knowledge as opposed to adhering to practical and real life situations.
However, in recent times, a few have begun implementing strong practical technology curricula — the kind that allow students take up a career in tech or easily blend into careers outside of tech.
However, a living technology incubation hub within the premises of a Nigerian university is what many wouldn’t have envisaged at this point.
Interestingly, ever since Stephen Oluwatobi (Director at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development Studies, Covenant University) took to his private Facebook account to post pictures of what appears to be a technology incubation hub situated within the premises of covenant university Otta, he has received outpouring of interest as well as commendation from members of the public for his role in birthing the Hebron Startup Labs.
The Hebron Startup Labs is a living technology hub wholly funded and run by the management of Covenant University.
The core drive and motivation for setting up the hub was to help produce more entrepreneurs (regardless of their academic level) from within the institution rather than just having a certificate upon graduation and contributing in part to unemployment in the country. So by this standard and many more, the Hebron Startup Labs could possibly pass as the first to be launched in any Nigerian university.
History
Having run in different experimental phases for over 4 years, the management of the hub decided to give it a more serious approach in 2015. It wasn’t until early in 2017 that they finally secured a work space approved by the school authority to carry out full operations.
Coming a long way from the era its pioneer students lacked a space to work from, the facility now looks ready; occupying an entire floor at the university’s innovation building. Of course, it’s a laudable feat, but it doesn’t go without wondering how the program will run in pari-pasu with regular academic classes.
Ordinarily, regular academic activities at Covenant University could prove a little exhaustive due to extra curricular activities and religious commitment in-between lectures. This surely accounts for why the incubation program is allowed to span for a year, covering a full academic session, to allow the students ample time to go through the program.
Inclusion for the outside community
While most private universities in Nigeria have strong practical technology curricula, they remain pretty expensive. This raises some concern for non-Covenant University students. Will the program be exclusive or will its impact extend beyond the four walls of the school?
“The original intention was to see what we can do with our students,” but since photos of the hub surfaced online,“a lot of persons have been asking how the external community can enroll,” Stephen affirms.
This has led the management of the Hebron Startup Labs to consider opening up the program for members of the outside community. But in doing so, pricing and the absence of bottleneck processes within the system is what would probably make a difference. Stephen however weighed in on a few expectations from students if they are to be incubated into the program. According to him, “what we are looking out is someone who is passionate about what they are doing, has a solid team and a solution that addresses key problems in the society.”
A major civil engineering project has been taking place since last November while most of Scotland was asleep. The runway at Glasgow airport has been resurfaced using the latest asphalt technology. But there's been minimal disruption because they've been doing it piece by piece in the middle of the night. The airport must be ready to reopen at 06:00. So at just after 23:00 a convoy drives onto the darkened runway. First comes traffic management with 600 traffic cones to enforce a strict one way system. Then the specialist vehicles: planers, pavers, rollers, sweepers and a gaggle of repurposed fire engines whose high platforms now carry huge floodlights. Night becomes day again. Almost 200 workers have to be able to see what they're doing.
This is the only runway at one of Scotland's busiest airports but within a few minutes it looks like a motorway construction project. Glasgow handles almost 100,000 aircraft movements a year. With the trend in the airline industry towards higher capacity, heavier aircraft, that means the runway takes a pounding every day. This project is making it fit for the next decade. If it looks like a meticulously organised operation that is because it has been well over three years in the planning. Since last November, night by night, 120m at a time, this small army has been lifting off the runway's surface and laying a new, hi-tech one. Other work has also been taking place overnight, including replacing more than 200 runway and taxiway lights. Most of it has been done with minimal disruption, indeed without passengers noticing.
The occasional delayed flight has missed the night time deadline and been diverted to an alternative airport. But the airport's operations director is Mark Johnston says the plan has been to do the work at a time when it would least affect traffic. That's why it has been taking place through the winter: "We have to notify the airlines far in advance of doing the works," he says. "We effectively take the runway at eleven o'clock at night and hand it back at five in the morning." It has meant hundreds of variables have been taken into consideration. One example: the air ambulance normally based here has to decamp to Prestwick when the diggers move in.
It's taken place night by night, but not every night. Before the new surface can be laid, the key science is meteorology. If it's too cold or too wet, everything has to be postponed. On the night I join them, the forecast is good and the first asphalt has been laid before midnight. Kevin Berry, the airfields operation director of the principal contractor VolkerFitzpatrick, has been checking the weather forecast since lunchtime. "We're checking the weather at twelve o'clock, we're checking the weather at four o'clock, half past six, half past nine," he explains, "And then we go. "And we don't go until we've got the material batched and ready to come."
It is no ordinary material. It's called Marshall asphalt, the surface of choice for civil and military runways. Mixed with the bitumen are stones that have been ground down almost to the size of grains of sand. Anything larger would not make the grade. Pebbles and high speed aircraft do not mix. Marshall asphalt was first created before WW2 but project manager Roy Thomson says the particular mix they are using at Glasgow has a 21st Century edge. "We've tried to develop an asphalt that's capable of modern day fatigues and runway loadings, looking forward to the future. "Glasgow Airport will have a polymer modified asphalt which will be the first runway in Scotland to adopt that material." Polymers are long chain molecules of the kind found in plastics and our own DNA. Their use here will result in a runway that will perform better at extreme temperatures. It will resist rutting, cracking and fatigue and will last longer.
The clock ticks relentlessly towards 05:00. Some of the machines have an otherworldly look to them as they lay the new surface in a carefully coordinated ballet. In a way it's comforting when I spot some workers with spades ready to do the detailed stuff. While the work has been taking place here a laboratory in Airdrie has been testing a sample of the mortar used to seat the new runway lights. The mortar must not only have set, but have hardened enough to withstand aircraft landing on it as soon as the runway reopens. Word comes back that it meets the standard. Elsewhere things are getting groovy. The new asphalt is a smooth as it is high tech. But a specialist team must cut grooves in the pristine surface to let rain drain off and allow planes to catch a grip.
In another couple of nights the whole project will be complete. About 52,000 sq m of new surface will have been put in place. By 05:00 on this particular morning everything was on schedule. The new surface swept, the entire runway minutely inspected. At 06:00 the first flight - to Amsterdam - took off. No-one on board - and few in the whole of Scotland - could have had any idea about what had been going on overnight.
MIT has created an award for rule-breakers. The university's Media Lab announced this week it will award $250,000 to a group or individual for disobedience.
"You don't change the world by doing what you're told," according to Joi Ito, the director of MIT's Media Lab. "This idea came after a realization that there's a widespread frustration from people trying to figure out how can we effectively harness responsible, ethical disobedience aimed at challenging our norms, rules or laws to benefit society." the department's website says. Protesters have taken to the streets often in the last few months -- from the Women's March to Standing Rock -- but Ito is quick to explain the award is not a response to the the current political administration. The award was conceived last July, he said.
"You don't get a Nobel Prize for doing what you're told, you get it for questioning authority," Ito said. He mentioned the values embodied by people like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Galileo, the people who created the Environmental Protection Agency mirror website and activists in Bangladesh fighting for LGBTQ rights.
The eligibility requirements are simple: "The recipient must have taken a personal risk in order to affect positive change for greater society."
Here are 6 exceptional Nigerians who work at Apple.
Tope Bello
With a background in urban and regional planning, from the University of Lagos, and a master’s in geospatial information sciences from the University of Texas, Tope is a seasoned geospatial software designer. His career kicked off at ESRI, a US-based GIS software company, where he spent almost a decade honing his skills.
Tope joined Apple in November 2016 to work on the Apple Maps team in California. In his free time, Tope loves to play football and is also an ardent follower of basketball.
Debola Olufon
Debola Olufon has a history with Apple, dating as far back as 2010. In his humble beginnings, he started off as a floor worker for Apple Retail in London. As a workshop facilitator, he provided training for members of the public and press on new Apple products. He took on a couple other roles after then, including ‘mentor & recruitment coordinator’ and ‘Apple Expert’.
Not satisfied with his position, he proceeded to the London Metropolitan University to obtain a post-grad diploma in HR management (CIPD). He has since returned to take on the role of HR Admin at Apple in London.
Sefunmi Osinaike
Sefunmi Osinaike describes himself as an “advocate for entrepreneurship as a means for solving distinctive problems”. True to his claim, he co-founded Pave, a time management tool for students, while still studying electrical and computer engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Looking for a challenge to expand his horizon, Sefunmi decided to take on the corporate world, cutting his first teeth as a Program Manager at Microsoft’s Redmond HQ.
By August of 2016, he had moved on to join Apple at the company’s Cupertino HQ, where he works in product operations which puts him at the heart of iPhone production. But don’t expect him to leak any details about the upcoming iPhone 8; you’ll have to wait until launch day in September/October.
Tobi Ayanleke
Tobi Ayanleke is an alumnus of Airforce Comprehensive School, Ibadan, Nigeria. Before joining Apple in November 2016, he was the country support manager for HP in Nigeria and Ghana, a position which he held for 2 years.
With a wealth of experience in supply chain, IT service delivery and operations management, and an MBA in global management to boot, Tobi had little trouble sealing a sales management position at Apple in Canada.
Adejoh Ogbe
2 years after he graduated with a degree in geography and town planning from the Kogi State University, Adejoh Ogbe proceeded to the University of Northern Iowa to obtain a master’s in Geography. There he worked on a “spacial analysis of foreclosure and neighbourhood characteristics in Miami metropolitan area, Florida” for his dissertation.
Adejoh joined Apple, as a GIS technician consultant from Apex, in January 2016.
Emmanuel Chukwuezi
Emmanuel Chukwuezi is a senior iOS and Mac support specialist at Apple’s European Headquarters in Ireland. Before then, he worked as an enterprise account manager at eir Business, a Dublin-based telecommunications company, for 5 years.
Emmaneul is an alumnus of the University of Calabar, in Nigeria, and the University of Portsmouth, UK.
The one thing every serious undergraduate looks forward to is the end of their stay in school when they are finally rewarded with a certificate (or a statement of result in schools that are resistant to development). However, they will soon realise that as a typical university graduate in Nigeria, the pursuit of certificates is far from over. The next one in line is the passport to enter the corporate labour market in Nigeria; the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate.
If you are lucky you will probably spend only a few months waiting for your NYSC posting. However a large pool of graduates spend a significant amount of time waiting to be posted. Typically, this time is spent doing nothing particularly useful which is sad because time lost can never be regained.
As a recent graduate, you can work and earn real money while at it during this period of waiting. We have compiled a list of some jobs you can engage in while you await your NYSC posting. You can also fall back on some of these jobs if you happen to find yourself back to the waiting line even after your service year
Freelance Writing
If you have a good command of English and you don’t suck at putting your thoughts on paper, you should consider becoming an online freelance writer. Even without any real writing experience, there are many jobs available for amateur writers online and you can make reasonable income from your home while on them too.
However these jobs won’t come knocking on your door, for a chance to nail a freelance writing gig, you should;
Research about online writing or talk to people that are already involved in the business. Looking up job offers on freelancing sites will help Determine the kind of content you are interested in working on, you may opt for rewriting articles or writing new content about a particular subject such as science or fashion. Advertise your business; you can start by advertising on Nairaland. You should also register on free platforms like Asuqu or Fiverr that facilitate online buying and selling of services Be good at what you do Web development/ web designing
Regardless of your course of study as an undergraduate, you can venture into web design or development if you haven’t already.
You can utilise the free time before your NYSC posting to take free courses in coding. W3schools, Codecademy and freeCodeCamp are great online resources to help you get acquainted with codes. If you have at least 3 months of waiting to do, then you should consider joining the Switch Fellowship
Do your research, start from the basics and you can go on to choose a programming language to start with. With a little bit of coding skill, you may find a team of developers that will be willing to allow you, work, learn and earn at the same time. Even if you don’t, coding is an interesting way to keep yourself engaged and it is one skill you can always fall back on in the future. If you have sufficient skills in coding, you should register on platforms like Fiverr or Asuqu to source for jobs.
Online tutoring
You have probably never considered lecturing online. Well if you are going to be stuck in the house for months waiting for your NYSC posting and you are a guru in any academic area, you should probably give this a thought.
There are people online who are ready to share your knowledge for a price and online platforms like TotalPrep are on ground to connect you to them. You can also source for jobs on free freelance websites. So you can start a science class or an algebra class or even move away from academics and do something more creative like giving lessons on a skill.
You can also register on ProTeach or PrepClass if you prefer to give physical lessons instead. Don’t forget to advertise your business; talk to family, friends and use social media too.
Translation
If you are bilingual or fluent in more than one foreign language then working as an online translator may be the best way to pass time and earn cash too as you wait for your NYSC posting. With increasing number of businesses trying to reach more customers around the world, translation services are increasingly being sought after too
Getting started is easy especially with freelancing sites like Upwork and Fiverr at your disposal. Alternatively, you can sign up with a website that employs online translators like Gengo.
Take advantage of other platforms too; advertise your new business on social media, Nairaland etc. You never know where your potential customers are hiding.
Digital marketing
As a digital marketer you can market services on the internet from the comfort of your home and get paid , this makes it another interesting job you can do while you are chilling for the clarion call.
If you have no experience in digital marketing, Google’s free digital skill training is a good place to start. You can become a good digital marketer if you are willing to spend time learning the required skills and you have the resources to help you. Upwork, Fiverr and Asuqu are platforms where you can source for jobs. There are different areas of digital marketing;
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of optimising a client’s website to rank as highly as possible in Google and other search engines for keywords that are related to the content on the website. Discover useful tips on how to get started with SEO.
Social media marketing involves advertising and promoting brands on social media platforms usually with a clear target. You can choose a particular social media platform to focus on. For example, you can decide to promote a YouTube video or promote a brand on Instagram. Catch a grasp of what social media marketing entails
Transcription
Have you considered making money from typing out audio files? If you have good typing skills and you are stuck at home waiting for the NYSC posting, you should give this a thought. Starting a transcription business is not so hard and you can make good money from it too.
Before you start, do your research, practice and decide if you want to provide general transcription services or focus on a particular area e.g medical or legal. Go on to advertise your business and source for jobs, Upwork and social media are good places to source for freelance transcription jobs
Graphic design
You can make money from designing logos, flyers, book covers, business cards e.t.c. If you have sufficient skills in graphics design, head on to freelancing platforms to source for jobs, you should also market your skills offline too.
If you know nothing about it, you don’t need any formal education to be a good graphic designer. You can learn on your own and this is a good way to invest the time you will spend waiting for your NYSC posting. You can start by taking free online graphic design courses and reading relevant books. Check out Shaw Academy, Alison and other online resources for free courses
Singer and songwriter
If you have a good voice and can gain access to a music studio, then you may have customers waiting. Online platforms like Fiverr and Asuqu can connect you to people in need of your vocal powers.
You don’t have to do the singing if you can’t, you can simply stick to songwriting instead if you can handle it. You can also specialise in providing DJ drops, or commercial jingles. Just head on to freelancing sites like Fiverr to source for jobs.
Sales consultant for an online store
If you have good negotiation and persuasion skills, then this one is for you. Large online stores like Jumia and Konga sell through sales consultants.
Jumia runs a sales consultant scheme that pays consultants commissions when they sell items supplied by the store. There are no special qualifications for this role and all you will need to get started is a phone or laptop connected to the internet.
Donald Trump's presidency has cast a pall over the nation, so now witches are casting a spell against him.
The key ingredient to the ritual: An unflattering photo of the president.
A document making its rounds among the witch community is asking people who practice the craft to perform a monthly binding ritual until the president is removed from office.
In order to work, the mass spell must be performed at midnight EST on every waning crescent moon.
The first one is happening on Friday and will be followed by similar spell cast events on March 26, April 24 and May 23 and beyond.
Unless, of course, Trump is cast out of office before then.
Michael M. Hughes, who writes about the paranormal, posted the spell at ExtraNewsFeed last week.
He stressed that a binding spell is different than a curse or hex.
“It’s a restraint, not harm,” Hughes told The Huffington Post. “I see it as self-defense.”
Hughes said he heard that two separate witch groups were planning the spells and asked if he could take it to a wider audience.
The spell instructions have gone viral, and there is a group on Facebook dedicated to answering all the questions people may have.
Performing the spell takes a good deal of dedication, including amassing the following:
Unflattering photo of Trump Tower tarot card Tiny stub of an orange candle or orange carrot A pin or small nail (to inscribe candle) White candle (any size), representing the element of Fire Small bowl of water, representing elemental Water Small bowl of salt, representing elemental Earth Feather (any), representing the element of Air Matches or lighter Ashtray or dish of sand
Practitioners are supposed to prepare for by writing “Donald J. Trump” on the orange candle stub with a pin or nail. They then arrange the other items in a circle and lean the Tower card against something so that it’s standing up.
Hughes suggests reading the 23rd Psalm aloud before beginning the spell by lighting a white candle.
The complete spell can be read here, but some of the lines include:
“Hear me, oh spirits Of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air Heavenly hosts Demons of the infernal realms And spirits of the ancestors (Light inscribed orange candle stub) I call upon you To bind Donald J. Trump So that he may fail utterly That he may do no harm To any human soul Nor any tree Animal Rock Stream or Sea”
Next, practitioners are supposed to burn the photo with the orange candle, chanting “So mote it be.” But if that sounds a little too “witchy,” Hughes says a simple “You’re fired!” will also work. The spell is completed by burying the candle stub or carrot, or discarding it in running water.
When the ceremony is over, Hughes says it’s crucial to ground yourself by laughing loud and hearty since, “Trump hates people laughing at him.”
He admits the spell has a satirical element, but insists that “doesn’t invalidate it.”
“I’m OK with people calling it a stunt,” he said. “The spell can still be effective. I think it’s already working. Some Christian groups are calling for a day of prayer to counteract the spell. That’s magic, right there. When people do a ritual, that’s changing consciousness.”
Kevin Ambrose, a writer at Christian Nationalism, suggests people protesting the spell recite the 23rd Psalm, coincidentally the same biblical passage recommended by Hughes.
As satisfying as a mass spell might seem for Trump detractors, proving it has an effect is another thing altogether.
After all, any bad luck Trump experiences after the spell can be attributed to the spell without being disproven.
Hughes concedes that but think the actual ritual is therapeutic in and of itself.
“If people feel more empowered and less beaten down, that’s valid,” he said
The Lagos State Government has said that the construction of Fourth Mainland Bridge would still begin this year.
The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Steve Ayorinde, gave the assurance in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
The commissioner, however, did not mention any specific time of the year for the commencement of the project.
He told NAN that the state government was committed to the proposed project. The construction of the bridge is accommodated in the state’s 2017 Budget and about N844 billion has been earmarked for it. About 800 structures and shanties will be affected by the construction of the bridge to be carried out under a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) arrangement.
The construction of the bridge will be coming 50 years after the state’s existence and 26 years after the delivery of the Third Mainland Bridge by the ex-military President Ibrahim Babangida.
NAN reports that the idea of the 4th mainland bridge first came up during the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, about 14 years ago.
In May 2015, Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a consortium of firms and finance houses for the construction of the bridge.
During its conception, the government had to stop several times, when it realised that about 3,000 structures could be affected by the bridge’s right of way. To continue the construction, a new alignment design concept was produced to save about 2,200 houses from being destroyed.
The project, when completed, will give birth to the longest of all the bridges connecting Lagos Island to the Mainland.
NAN reports that the bridge will pass through Lekki, Langbasa, and Baiyeku towns – on the Lagoon estuaries – to Itamaga, in Ikorodu.
The bridge will serve as a complement to the Eko, Carter and Third Mainland Bridges and help to reduce traffic. The bridge is expected to have a four-lane dual carriage way.
Eighty-one year-old woman has been rushed to the hospital following her abduction and subsequent rape by some hoodlums.
The police believe she was followed off a bus, attacked, and pulled from the main road. The elderly woman was rushed to hospital following the incident. 41-year-old man was arrested after the attack around 8.30pm on Friday, and was charged with two counts of rape and one count of falsely imprisoning a person with intent to commit a sexual offence.
The incident happened in an affluent area of London.
The Express reports that officers from the Met’s Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Command continue to investigate and are appealing for information.
Detective Inspector Melissa Laremore said: “My team are keen to trace a male witness seen on Rinaldo Road, Balham on the evening of the incident.
“He was wearing a jacket with a distinctive American flag design on the back.
“I would urge him to come forward and contact police.
“In addition to this, the victim’s distinctive red Marks and Spencer’s jacket went missing after the attack.
“My investigators are working to trace it in and around the local area as it is of important evidential value.
“If you have any knowledge of its whereabouts, please get in touch.”