₦airaland Forum

i was in China with work in December 2007 for a few weeks on a business Visa, did not encounter any issues with the police or anyone, i was amongst swedish people as i work for a swedish company, never once did i get stopped for anything, i mean i was out on my own a few occasions

i did not even take my passport with me, mean why should i?? it was in the safe in the hotel where it should be

well not saying these things dont happen as they do but you should be able to show some form of ID when asked

Kiwi-exactly my point!! they are all over my building like a rash, over 15-30 of them with skill set in FI CO SD MM HR SRM, Portal, ABAP, TECH,CRM, BW, solution managers, portal, HPDD, we use the entire SAP functionality over here, these are qualified consultants from India, this thread is not meant to sound racist in any terms and dont want to be seen as spiteful, its just reality on ground, they have cornered the market, i am 100% sure all top SAP consulting jobs are controlled by them in Nigeria

This is my 2nd outsourcing project i am involved in, the first was with Glaxosmithkline, we had some resources from India who created a travel management solution, quite impressive i must say!!

All they are doing is looking out for their fellow people, absolutely nothing wrong with that, if the Nigerian establishment or the private sector is that stupid not to train its own people then there is no hope really

Some SAP roles were advertised recently in jobserve working for an oil company in Abuja, will be nice to know what nationality got the roles, they maintained the role should be for a returning Nigerian national or an expatriate, haha, dont know exactly what status i fit in, born in the UK, lived in Nigeria for a few years, returned to the UK, not been Nigeria in 20 years!!

When my assigment comes to an end, i am seriously thinking of taking an IS OIL solution course in London, its still part of a logisitcs module but its a solution created for upstream and downstream oil industry

when you are making or earning good SAP rates, you have to invest  in training yourself in the new solutions, eventhough i did not come through that certification route, believe me, sometimes that worked against me, I just seem to get assigment with industry leaders, when you work for the likes of Glaxosmithkline, EADS( made the A380 jumbojet) for example your CV will always create interest, its been pretty hard work i must say, not had a proper vacation in 5 years!!! except for the odd trip to asia through work and a week here and there

as Kiwi pointed out, you will never get an SAP role in this current financial crisis without certification, there are no ifs and buts, these days employers are looking for consultants with multiple skill sets, no good having just FI skills or SD, they are looking for FI CO, SD,MM, a bit of ABAP on the side, how do i know this?? i just had a phone interview last week, i was just fortunate that i started as an FICO consultant before i moved in Logistics, SDMM

There are some private SAP training centres in London who are offering SAP certification training for 2000 pounds, 8 weekends, plus the fee for the exams, some of these centres are affliated with SAP, the same course from the official SAP academy with a view to taking the foundation certificate as they call it these days could knock you back 4000-10000 pounds!!

There are still no guarantees that you will find instant employment!!! so basically one has to ask themselves if they really want an SAP career, are they in it for the money or the high rates?? if they  are looking for the monetary rewards, you will not have a rewarding career, i did not start earning good rates until 5 years ago and i have been working with SAP for 10 years

To those that are still interested, good luck, its not easy at all, put in the work and you never know what might come out of it!!

I hope you guys enjoyed that SAP open day in Lekki, we need more Nigerians jumping on the SAP bandwagon, the career is lucrative if you put in the hard work, like Kiwi pointed out, dont let the Indians take over the SAP market, seems its too late for that comment, they already are, i am in the middle of an outsourcing project with IBM in Sweden, we are currently training loads of Indians to take over our consultants roles at the end of our assignment

I must point out, yes the Indians know a thing or 2 about SAP, very down to earth and friendly, are they intelligent that us?? absolutely no way!! they are more organised than Nigerians, this is based on my interraction with them, thats why they seem to have cornered the Nigerian market

they come in enmasse!! take no prisoners, they are good at what they do, they network, they bring their friends and cousins in, even their uncles as well, its almost an industry within an industry

fair play to them, as for Black people, not trying to generalise, it seems ''some'' black sucessful SAP consultants will never let a fellow brother in, even if they have the skills and technical know how to suceed in this career

I know one or 2 consultants that could have given me advice and direction back in the days but choose not to for reasons i cant understand, maybe they saw me as a threat?? not answering calls, the usual

I could have easily chosen to be a one man army, i rather chose not to, did not receive any assistance to get where i am today, I have helped a few people including white people to get a foot into the SAP , today they thank me for this!!! i believe if you give help, you never know when you might need it!!!

Why should you allow other nationals to corner a lucrative trade in your country?? when you will never get an opportunity in their country??

thats why more Nigerians need to change the staus quo, get certification, do what neccessary ad go and earn the petrol dollars haha!!!

sorry i dont need a visa to work in sweden, was born in the UK, i actually work in stockholm

well i live and work in stockholm, its so hard to get a job in Sweden period, even the lowly paid cleaning jobs as someone pointed out, if any student wants to study here, they better have funds to sustain them or rich parents

a word of advice!!!

well if you have an accounting background and marketing as well, maybe FICO or SDMM might be an obvious choice, you have to analyse your strong points, i will say go for the certification of your choice if you can afford it

that SAP event planned in lagos, for prospective SAP consultants around lagos should attend, you will get a lot of information

dont know if i have posted this website  http://www.sapdb.info/  your one-stop for all SAP documentation, e-books, certification resources, loads of SAP material, links to other SAP websites

for the user that asked a question about a TERP certification ( business process) one thing about SAP is you have to apply your skill based on your background, i have heard quite a few people with some qualifications that do not fit into SAP, you end up with qualifications which cant help you jump in the SAP bandwagon

like i said earlier, SAP in Nigeria is still virgin territory, the ''would-be'' SAP consultants based in Nigeria better get certified as soon as possible as you can corner the market before that market becomes saturated like Europe

In www.jobserve.com some SAP roles based in Nigeria were posted, they were looking for ideally Nigerian nationals with SAP project experience or returning- Nigerian nationals, ex-pats might be preferred

well my take, an experienced SAP project manager anywhere in Europe will be in a job despite the financial crisis, that is a high profile role, such consultants are highly paid as SAP implementations depends on their skill and know how, some can rake in as much as 700-5000 pounds a day based on experience, multiple implementations, industry type, such a consultant is unlikely to work in Nigeria unless they are looking for an adventure, A Nigerian SAP project manager based in europe might/ will not consider this offer, i might be wrong at the same time, the financial rewards and package has to be oustanding

I think an ex-pat will likely get that role, not trying to downgrade Nigeria based SAP consultants, it will be difficult to recruit from Europe for the said reasons i gave

well personally, My contract is coming to an end after 2 years and a half and what a long contract, feel physically burnt out, like Kiwi said, i definitely need a well deserved holiday

keep the questions coming in though, it helps to work my brain!!!

This was taken from jobserve.com

this is a live role for any SAP project managers aspiring to work in abuja

SAP Project Manager - Nigeria. Contract


MC Partners are currently resourcing skills for a Greenfield SAP Oil & Gas implementation in Nigeria .
Our client requires an experienced Oil & Gas SAP Project Manager with full life cycle experience in ECC6 environment.

The Project Manager will work with implementation partner and end client managers from sizing and blueprinting phase. They will also have responsibility for managing project streams within functional development phase;

func: HR,FI,CO,SD,MM,ISOil
Tech:XI/PI,Business Objects/BI, BASIS/Netweaver

Upstream and downstream experience essential!


Candidates should ideally be Nigerian nationals or returning nationals, although ex-pat will be considered.


This contract is offered for 12 months initially with likely extension for final perpetration and cutover, go live and support.

once globalcom completes the undersea cables from the UK, watch internet prices fall, phones charges dropping, what Nigeria uses is satellite based internet connection or basicaly buying bandwidth from 3rd or even 4th party suppliers

Globalcom will probably corner the market once this project goes live, many ISP will have to buy bandwidth from them, should happen quite soon

has anyone heard of OZZY, the executive producer on 2face new album?? he is from east London, Nigerian by parentage, right now he is the hottest thing coming into the Nigerian market, he has relocated to Lagos, he organised the new 2face Videos, best Videos for any Nigerain Artist, check ''go down there video'' featuring sway, No Nigerian artist can boast of a quality video on a big budget

He is basically a producer, manager, studio mixer, engineer, Mr fix it, got wide contacts in the UK / US

He is doing some contracts in Lagos now

Anything else, please ask, am sure a few experienced ones here will not mind passing career tips, like i said, the Asian SAP consultants in Nigeria will be milking their clients dry, if you can get certified, there should be one or 2 opportunities for Nigerian based SAP consultants

right now dont think about trying your luck in Europe, the market is already saturated and only the experienced ones with multiple lifecycle implementations are still getting new contracts in spite of the financial crisis

Hi, not really sure what companies use SAP in Nigeria, i had a list ages ago, the likes of NNPC, Shell, Mobil, some big breweries, do a bit of research, maybe you can get some information online like Google, if i do find such a list, il gladly let you know!

as per what functional modules are popular, i will guess the usual suspects FICO SDMM, the manufacturers are likely to use MM, maybe the new ERP, CRM, SCM, HR, PLM, the oil sector will likely use the IS solution

Just depends really and the nature of their business

Of course SAP has to be seen to integrate all the latest technologies into their platform, Netweaver is becoming big now, as someone pointed out ESS/ MSS, SRM

SAP are posting good profits, new vendors are implementing SAP, that is good news for consultants, i still belive Africa wil be the next market, still virgin territory, in Nigeria at least 25 big companies use SAP, Nigerian consultants based there should look at this as an opportunity to break in before the market gets saturated

Kiwi points are absolutely spot on, quite suprised that Nigerians have not jumped on the SAP bandwagon, as he rightly pointed out, SAP is still in its early days in Nigeria, i can bet the Indians are milking these Nigerian companies dry in terms of consultant fees

He rightly points out Nigerians tend to be Cisco, MCSE, MCP certified, well the early IT boom of the 90s is well and truly over, these days, all the worthless online degrees cant give you any meaningful roles

To be quite honest in the Uk, i only know about 3-4 Nigerian SAP consultants, i dont think they have been out of jobs even with the current financial recession, maybe the rates might be reduced slightly but a 100 pound cut in a 500-700 a day rate for the top consultants will hardly dent a hole in their wallet

I guess for entry level SAP consutants, certification seems a must have, i did not take this route as i was lucky to work for a company that implemented the old SAP version 3.1 in the early 90s and just basically worked my way up

SAP seem to be making in-roads in to the Africa and middle east markets and usually Nigeria will typically be on SAP radar, i will expect a few Nigerian companies to implement SAP in the near future, this will provide opportunities for new Nigerian SAP consultants

what a joke!!! Dbanj richer than 2face, 2face has done more international shows than Dbanj, his popularity does not extend outside Nigeria, maybe some parts of London and Africa, 2face has done loads of shows in Europe, US, carribean, Dubai and he gets paid over 20K USD per show, the soundtrack to Phat girl in which they use his African queen hit, he made some good money off that

Dbanj is a pretty good artist and sucessful it seems, thats good for Nigeria music!!

hey guys, well my brother called yesterday, he is  in lagos working on some projects, well its quite true Komo was on the radio spewing out crap about how he owned the track and what not, the presenter calls my brother, komo not aware my brother was in the country, Komo gets scared and starts stammering live on air, well the latest is, komo management have dropped him from the label!!!!

you lot can make up your personal judgement on this case, Komo could not even answer my brothers questions!!

to Kiwi, well said, SAP is not for the faint hearted, it takes years of dedication and training, for people looking to make a quick buck, SAP is not for you, if you are chasing the money and not the skill, your career will nose dive, i can tell you that much

you have to use your background to identify where you fit into the SAP world

well MM ( SRM supplier relationship manager) definitely a good skill to have but at the moment there are not many jobs going in europe, check www.jobserve.com

not many companies use this ERP module whiles some are still in the process of implementing this solution, we use SRM though in my company

according to the ERP skills ''to have'' ranking SAP MM is not ranked highly, reason being most industries, well least the ones i know source their materials through a 3rd party vendor, they do not manufacture their own goods, so basically they only use a limited version of MM as in setting up the material master, maybe invoice verification, purchasing, it is quite good to expand your skills and possibly add SD ( sales and distribution) to your skill set as these days, most clients expect you to know the integration points between all ERP modules

adding SD will surely make your skills stand out, about joining SAP consultancies in europe from Nigeria, well i am sure european consultancies will prefer to hire consultants and would-be from the UK or EEC  or maybe as far as India, this is what i have noticed in the last 10 years

They also prefer SAP consultants with experience, maybe in your case with certification, id rather be honest, the likelihood of a european consultancy recruiting a consultant from Nigeria rarely happens, if you were in the UK, that will be another case

having said this, SAP in Nigeria is growing by the day, you can certainly carve out a niche for yourself, there are definitely more opportunities to get a SAP role in Nigeria than in the UK, maybe you should build a profile for yourself in www.monster.com choose Nigeria as your country, most agencies use this website to find SAP talent and you never know if your CV stands out, you will certinly get a call

To the user that asked how it was possible to help other users with limited SAP experience get roles, maybe i should have pointed out, these friends i helped, both of them have at least 5 years SAP experience but not on a consulting level, they were end users or super users so to speak but i helped them to re-structure their CV and send it to UK based IT consultancies who helped them to get a foot into SAP consultancies

they do earn good rates now they have been consultants for 2-3 years

one girl, i taught her everything she needs to know about SAP, within a year she was already working for good company in the SAP project team

one thing to be pointed out though, i cannot help Nigeria based SAP consultants get jobs, if you are in the UK, thats another question, i have no links whatsover with Nigerian trends in SAP and its consultancy market

any questions, feel free to send a mail to marks30@hotmail.com

www.sapsuperusers.com
www.erpgenie.com
www.sapbrain.com
www.simplysap.com
 http://www.sapdb.info/ probably the best of the lot, so much Elearning downloads, access to training guides, certification guides, you cant go wrong with this site

well i believe Nigerians with the right skill set should develop a career in SAP, you dont ''so called foreign experts exploiting you in your country, they will come and milk your country dry, they will certainly earn over 1000 US dollars daily rate plus expenses and accomodation

any other questions, send a PM

yep SAP is very demanding, maybe thats why most people dont choose this as a career, it is quite different from the likes of MCSE, CCNA, SAP is very hands on, eventhough there is SAP standard installation, many companies implement a company specific or customised installation

For the experienced consultants in here will know exactly what i am on about, you can read loads of training guides and once you get a foot in, you  realise these guides dont  help  that much, what it does, it  helps to navigate round SAP easier, understand the SAP database, how to create reports, some companies i have worked with have different interfaces with SAP, with those that use EDI ( electronic data interchange) thats a different ball game, some companies have up to 20 systems linked with SAP

you also have Industry specific solutions as Kiwi ponted out, like IS oil, SAP for retail, SAP for defence, SAP for manufacturing, they even have a SAP installation for small business

having read some threads, it seems some people want to jump in because of the high rates, i will rather be honest here, of course everyone will choose a career where the potential earnings are high, nothing wrong with that

Within SAP, you have the ''whats hot'' skill set and whats not, so far in the last 5-10 years, it seems SAP FI has been the number skill set favoured by clients ( i got this information from a reputable IT website) SAP SD is also an ''in demand module to know, these days ''SAP business process expert is a highly sought skill, SAP project management is a top skill as well

back in the days, to have configuration skills will get you a foot in, these days having config skills is no longer a guarantee for placement, like i said in an earier post, you have to chase the skill and not the money, you have to choose where your skills fits inside SAP and nt simply chase whats hot because the rates are so high

So many people made this error in the early 90s during the IT boom, i know many Nigerians that were earning between 1000-1500 pounds weekly by taking courses, passing MCSE, MCP, CISCO online exams or getting certification, when the IT bubble burst in the early 2000s, many found out their skills were no longer applicable to todays needs!!

so far SAP has managed to be the top player in the ERP field, outsmarting the likes of oracle, the demand for SAP consultants has continued to see growth

The ECC6 seems to be skill to have, those working on 4.6 or 4.7 better upgrade or look for new roles where ECC5 or ECC6 is the norm, SAP help or what used to be called OSS ( online SAP support ) will cease supporting versions 4.6

Like i have pointed out, it has taken me 10 years to achieve what i earn today, some are far more luckier and earn top rates within a few years but i can safely say i understand the ''ins and outs'' of SAP, worked with every version of SAP right from earlier versions 3.1 to ECC6

any questions, please feel free to ask, i have acess to over 20 to 30 SAP websites for the beginners and even experienced consultants like myself

Seen a lot of threads posted in here, seems some people want to jump on the SAP bandwagon because of the potential high income SAP consultants earn, dont know if this is a good reason to start a SAP career

AS Kiwi pointed out, you have to choose carefully what SAP module you want to train with, you have to look into your academic background and see if the modules fits, you cant become an FICO consultant without any finance background, it just dont work, these days the in-demand skill in SAP is related to business process expert, not just having FICO or SDMM, HR, SRM skills, you have to be able to apply the business process skill to your client demand

Like i said earlier, i was lucky to work for a company back in 1998 in South London who had just implemented SAP version 3.1, basically worked my way up the ladder, joined the in-house SAP support team, left after 5 years to become an independent consultant, 4 years later, i am on my 5th contract working for a major telecommunications client in Sweden, been here for 2 years on an SDMM, EDI consultant

There are several ways SAP consultants joined this trade, some used the certification route, some worked their way up the ladder like myself, these certifications, though good to have is no guarantee for employment, experience more than anything else, i.e worked with multiple life cycle implementations is what get consultants the next big contract

I am not certified, but i can safely assume that i have over 10 years experience, having worked with in different projects, used all SAP versions from 3.1 to ECC6, understand business process and how to apply this to diffrent clients, quite familiar with new ERP processes , worked for major FTSE or bluechip companies, SAP has taken me round the world as far as places like China, as far as SAP rates are concerned, it becomes a little factor once you start earning high rates, i feel more fufilled if i perform a good job for my clients, can get contract extensions of up to 1 year and above

I hear SAP are making inroads into the Nigerian market and its about time, over 50 companies use SAP in Nigeria, this is a rather small figure but still encouraging, i can imagine due to lack of experienced of Nigeria based SAP consultants, these companies will have to hire expatriates from europe and the US and possiby India to work in Nigeria for high fees, probably in the range of £600-1500 pounds a day plus free accomodation, flights and expenses, In europe an SAP consultant gets a daily all inclusive rate but i guess in Nigeria, they certainly get a premium rate for their services

SAP is a good career if you choose your progression path carefully, as they say, dont chase the dollar, chase the skill and the dollar will certainly chase you!!!

I have helped a few friends with limited SAP knowledge to jump on the bandwagon and today, they are earning very high rates, your CV needs to be on point as well, your networking skills must be great, you must always keep up with the new processes in ERP, the internet is a great tool for keeping up with SAP

anyone can check this website http://www.jonerp.com/content/blogcategory/38/46/ that is SAP website started by Jon Reed a US based experienced SAP consultant, you get so many tips, you can send him questions, he certainly will reply

Right now, my contract is coming to an end and i have updated my CV and ready for the next role, who Nigeria?? maybe

okocha will learn from this episode, the same people that are eating with you are prepared to milk millions off him

Etim is only paying the price of screwing up his career, cant see anything to suggest that his once shady character has changed to say the least

Etim is a spoilt brat and still is, by his words, it seems he is envious as to what okocha has achieved, everything he could have wished for in life, fast cars, mansions, everything

if i was him, i will be frustrated as well going to Okocha residence and see Bentley azure, Lamboghirni, ferraris, porsche all lined up in his drive way

to make matters worse, been checked by white bodyguards, eating jollof rice / fried rice out of fine China ware washed down with the finest liquors like dom perignon

Sitting in an expansive mansion ( MTV cribs style ) listening to the birds cuckoo, cool fish pond, kids playing in the olympic sized swimming pool

Probably guests there, an array of european footballers, some high profile Nigerians as well all speaking in diffrent tones, french, some exquisite english, polished teeth, Tag hauer wrist watches

Then finally Okocha comes down to greet his guests speaking french, german, english, arab standing 10 feet high having just spoken to the manager of his posh restuarant that profits for 2008 was over 250 million naira and other worldwide investments boosted his account by nearly 3-4 million pounds

meanwhile Etim stops eating his assorted meat as all the adulation has got to him, he can vaguely see his old career flash past him, here he sees a world individual, he pauses, remembers the bokoto dish he had last night, he remembers the Santana 2.0 he had to park 50 metres from the party, he closes his eyes and silently says BIko, what have i did to myself, i was once like him, i can drinble more than okocha, i should be the one speaking french, german and queen english

thats where the green eyed monster takes over, and we get another allegation he sold to the tabloids for 10,000 naira

India is quite massive in SAP, seems like many outsourcing jobs are gong to Inida, just been affected myself, seems need to look for a consultant role

http://www.sapdb.info/what-is-grir-clearing-account/

very good SAP website, loads of information, loads of downloads, quality materials, books, e-books and what not

yep triple platinum and counting, the album will be released inn the Ghana market quite soon

2face album has been certified triple platinum!!!!!

2face new album has acheived platinum status after a week of its release!! just rceeived this news via inside souces earlier today, for the naysayers, this will be made official quite soon!!

2face new album has been certified platinum status, a week after it was released, should be official quite soon

yes its been released, heard one or 2 tracks in there, good quality stuff though, production is certainly on point

album has been released since Monday, a video should be released next week

1994 team all the way, that line up was awesome amokachi, oliseh, amuneke,finidi, yekini, okocha, adepoju, siasia, damn