₦airaland Forum

more info, what sector are you planning to go into, what town do you think you want to live in. . .

hey pple. . .

has anyone here ever received a call from this number +23222283256? when you answer it, what you hear is a computer generated female voice saying: 'Hi my name is lisa, i've been looking for friends like you. . .kiss kiss' or something equally silly, it's happened to my more than 5 times now, and i'm wondering what it's all in aid of. . .

hey pple. . .

i came across a funny problem today, it's a HP probook, 4515s, with windows vista installed, cant really remember the other specs. . .sorry about that

the prob is that once i toggle the wireless switch to the off position, it crashes. . .the computer boots with the wireless on(is that normal?) everything works fine until i try to switch it off and then the computer freezes, the owner said if you wait 30mins it'll come back up, but i dont really know, he doesn't know much about computers sef. . .

As Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher would put it in such a situation: “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”

eldee:
Aiite . . . In memory of 24, can we all talk about the influence the show has had on us.

1.For me . . . erm, I think I kinda no some weird words like 'do what you have to do' (torture), 'upload the grid to my PDA' (get the infra-red map of the area to Bauer's phone) . . . 'suppressing fire' (just spray without actually aiming to kill) . . . and words like that.

2. I also learnt that if you want to sell a WMD, hit the Russians, they always have friends to help, although they'll kill you after.

3. And yeah . . . if I get caught for anything and they ask me to give the names of the others, straight up, ask for an immunity deal from the President

4. The best bad-guys are not the Arabs, it's the Americans, Chinese and Russians in that order. . . the Arabs are not as cold-blooded as we think.

5. There is no such thing as an innocent American President. . .  they'll give the whole of Manhattan to save a policy they want to pursue, we're not safe.

6. I think I know how to disarm a bomb from my time watching 24

Be back with more . . .

lmao. . .

my personal fav statement.
my name is netotse and i'm a federal agent, ma'am i'mma need you to come with me

but mennn after renee stabbed jack, see as i dey vex, i almost broke up with the girlfriend i didn't have o. . .i just dey vex for any and everything female!

cabali:
Well I hear kiefer Sutherland is already onto another series already. And according to him, it makes 24 seem like a child's play. This possible?

na so e easy reach?

i need to read. . .arrrrgggghhhh

ibkaye:
too sexy for my toes

[i]na im come be wetin? [/i]er'one knows ballerinas have ugly feet. . .

JeSoul:
Lol. Precisely. But we give them a pass becase na 24. And don't forget this is the same Jack Bauer was hung and tortured by the Russian arms dealers and stabbed in the stomach by Renee only a few hours ago . . .
For where? He's going to kill the Russian president and they'll end the series with him about to be killed or something like that - so they can make their 3-part movie afterwards. Personally, I strongly prefer that he be killed off let him go and join Renee on the other side.

you're right about the stabbing thing o. . .anyways as they like to say back here 'actor no dey die'

as per the going to join Renee bit, cool down now, na so e dey vex you reach?. . .lol

kai, there really is no going back, what drove the point home for me was when he shot the secret service agents. . .there simply has to be a twist, 24 cant end like that o. . .i'm wondering what jack will do about the russian president o. . .normally he wouldn't go after him personally, but since it was him that gave the order for renee to be killed. . .

eldee:
24 is WACK!!!

Jack don turn Superman now . . . taking out a whole Russian Army in three minutes.
What's the use of watching 24 if we're not going to see people fight??

i'm sure if they could they would, but they prolly wanted to be able to show us the bit about president suvarov's involvement.

montelik:
President Logan: Oh that's, that's Jack Bauer, that's got be.

President Logan: Did you hear what I said? THAT'S JACK BAUER.

President Logan: Don't just sit there. HE IS COMING FOR ME.



I must have fallen out my chair laughing at that scene. Talk about raw and real fear. Can't blame him, who won't fear seeing something that looks like cyborg ninja coming for you.

that part cracked me up too. . .

men these writers are evil o. . .i think there's still space for one more twist, and for cole to be brought into play this late i'm willing to bet he has an important part to play.

CLF's cost NGN750? abeg you all should stop with the conjectures, a i bought one for 150 or 100 naira while i was in niger state, a 60 watt bulb was 60 naira there, but given that CLFs are supposed to last longer, i think it's a fair trade for money, though here in abuja some of our CLFs burnt due to voltage wahala.

AjanleKoko:
netotse, that sounds wack! Do you know what 300% of the current rates are? I don't know the price per KW, but if I pay about 5k naira now as electricity bill for my apartment, are you saying I should in fact be paying N15k?
Let's not mystify these things. Privatize the generation and distribution, and the prices will crash ultimately. People will pay for what they use. Can you imagine, I am hearing that PHCN wants to withdraw the pre-paid meters, as it was eating into their revenues. What backward thinking. Shior.

I thought I saw some post somewhere here about Nigerians paying the highest telecom tariffs in the world. What is that person smoking? Calling rates in Nigeria are in the top 20 lowest tariff bracket.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5534749-146/story.csp thats the best i could come up with from my phone, i'll dig up proper references when i get to my computer. . .

Notice MYTO is supposed to be 15 years but by 2011 we are meant to be at NGN10 per kwh and 2011 is like 3 years after commencement, i know it seems like magic, but that's what we have on ground in nigeria, do you remember the graph i posted that showed the military didn't spend any money on power infrastructure? Well all that time, more people were being connected to the grid and the tariffs remained the same, come to think of it, how many times have electricity tariffs been raised in nigeria sef?

@kobojunkie
i'll watch it and get back to you

omo. . .i give up . . .the first few mins are all that have loaded and they are showing one annoying guy like this . . .make i kuku wait make awon boys roger me the link

Kobojunkie:
I don't think the statements you have made above apply across the board. Not all businesses are run in the manual manner you would like to portray they do above. And yes, in most all businesses the customers bear the cost, so in cases where it is not cost effective, business owners feel it better to close store rather than continue.

i asked you to give the examples so i could see how far along you had reasoned the matter, it's alright to state that businesses have failed but you need to understand how and yes i understand you're pro-poor and you tend to look at things from their angle

my point was, some businesses will fail not cause the he/she couldn't afford electricity but because the person couldn't adapt his business model to fit his situation, what i was trying to do was give you an idea of the playing ground the people you listed as examples play in, so you could realise that while it is an important factor, your claim that a lot of small businesses have to close because they cant afford to run generators is shaky.

if you site your business in the wrong part of town you will fail,
a printer that bases himself anywhere outside shomolu in lagos needs to have a gangster edge cause he's outside the market, his prices'll be out of sync, customers tend to like the number of choices that they there get it's like a brokerage choosing not to have an office on wall street. i asked you to go there so you could see how the printers cope with the electricity problem.

a saw mill that is sited far from where wood is bought wont have the volume required to generate a profit electricity or no electricity because the wood is easier to transport after it has been milled.

you have to admit, in the two cases above the two business could(i woulda preferred to use will but for political correctness' sake) fail and it wont be because there was no light.

i have lived in areas where there was steady supply and i've also lived in areas with abysmal supply, i'm talking from experience.

gongo aso:
http://www.atdhe.net/16298/watch-24

watching live and direct

i'm on it the way those crooked politicians are on our 'national cake'

thanks man!

Kobojunkie:
Maybe not where you are but I know many of those that have been affected as a result of the low electricity supply to business.

lol. . .sigh. . .saw mills are sited near close to places where you can buy the wood,it's the market that determines the site and the costs are txferred to the ppl that want to cut the wood, we even had biz at a sawmill tde sef. . .lol

pepper tomato seller, most of them dont use electricity, they use the manual machines, which barely consume any fuel

printers, have you ever been to shomolu in lagos? that's the print capital, just visit that place. . .

salons, its the customers that bear the cost of the fuel, for instance cutting your hair when the generator is on costs more, not to talk of the perm, if she isn't making money, it's cos she's doing something wrong, think location or service delivery etc

I don’t know what they are. Like I said, my uncle told me of them and he is currently doing his research on what is available versus what he will need me to ship to him.

i'm starting to fear for you, is your uncle an engineer?if he isn't be careful o. . .the fact that you mentioned 17K as the price for batteries that'll be used with an inverter is a bad sign o. some dude was on NL complaining how his inverter backup fell from 12hours to 3 hours in 3 months, that's what happens when you use normal batteries there are a lot of ppl that claim to install solar panels in naija but can you really offer a service you dont know intoto?

Considering solar on limited knowledge is one thing but when you have access to all the necessary information on it, you quickly realize two things
a) It makes sense in Nigeria and Africa as a whole
b) It is more affordable than what many people currently have right now
There are villages in kenya, and schools in south africa running on solar already. They are doing fine. There are huts that power bulbs with solar in Uganda, kenya etc.  If it can work in those countries, I am 100% it can and will work in Nigeria for those who want to go for it, and you do not need to break the bank to go solar. I like to say again, SOLAR MAKES SENSE for Nigeria.

huts ehn?, nice to hear we're going after different markets, you really shouldn't think of nigeria and terms like 'huts' in the same sentence. . .

i'm really enjoying this discussion but i think we've derailed this thread enough, dont you?

Kobojunkie:
That part confused me because most businesses do not even get enough electricity right now from the subsidized grid. So, they are forced to go for generating which costs more.
When I think average small business in Nigeria, I think the small Garri/Tomator Grinding shops on the corner, the Print stores, Salons, Saw mills, small mom and pop stores that would like to offer services but cannot do that consistently, tailors shops, mechanic stores etc.

seen, even if they cant sha, they can pass the costs across to the customer, you picked the wrong examples o. . .i can 110% tell you none of those categories are affected in the way you described

There are less affordable batteries in the market as well. I have been in talks with my uncle who plans to spend $3000 to install solar on his house in the next 2 months, and the price he got for the batteries were Naira 17,000 each.

those aren't deep cycle batteries, they'll spoil much faster, trust me on that. . .dont use any battery apart from a deep cycle battery for any solar installation you do. . .(dont let afam catch you mentioning normal batteries o. . .lol)

We do not need to manufacture solar panels in Nigeria today, just as we do not need to manufacture TVs in Nigeria for to have them.  Actually, price of shipping is not as expensive as you think there. I know this because just last week, I got a call back from KLMCargo to give me quote I requested on cost of shipping Panels to Nigeria.

nice to know that, thanks for the info(even though i have no idea how deep you pockets go sha, cos 'not expensive' is relative)

You are looking at a site designed with the consumption of American homes in mind. Nigerian homes do not consume 1/10th of what Americans do, so Nigerian homes do not need to invest $13,000 to $25000 when thinking of moving to Solar. Solar panels are modular, so you can start by installing a 70W panel to maybe power some of the bulbs in the house, and then add more and more panels as you see fit. In addition, Nigeria gets about two times of the solar hours yowe get here in most of America, so there is really no need for that much of an investment.

i'm thinking technically, but seeing as i have never practically come across a solar installation and you have i'll defer to you for now. . .BTW the amt of usable sunlight is called insolation, i think it's abt 7-8 in naija, and besides, why would i want to power bulbs with solar panels? think more of fans and ish. . .you dig?(that's part of the reason Deep cycle batts are better)

I have already started exploiting solar and I am serious in telling you that the average Nigerian roof can comfortably fit the panels available today. Lol . . .  I am going to beat you to this as I am already working on getting my NABCEP certification and hopefully get certified as a contractor too so I can start selling and INSTALLING this year. ROFLMAO!!!

Not to worry, since i'm a gentleman, i'll let you have a few years start, it's always good to be nice to 'the competition'.and abt the roof size thingy for a home yes, not an office, offices tend to use more inductive loads than homes(AC's, lifts, printers et al ). make sure you get good technical ppl o, cos there are a lot of possible pitfalls. . . i'm not particular about installation and all, heck we might even do biz sef,  an advantage of being a PS engineer(a young one though) you think differently from your average engineer, plus i've spent a bit of time around PHCN so i have an insiders view sha. . . trust me when i say i know the twist that all the ppl that have considered solar in naija haven't considered.

Kobojunkie:
Affordable as in even the poor enjoying 24/7 electricity.
I am not sure I agree with your postulation that currently small businesses can afford electricity. But yeah, like someone already mentioned, medium to large businesses could be charged a premium so as to make it cheaper for households. Do we currently have enough medium to large businesses to make that happen? Or are we assuming many of those will come into being after electricity is solved? We have lost some of our companies in the past couple of years.
I disagree with the above assertion. There is no need for a substantial initial investment for solar. A store that uses 200 w/hr of energy to power a TV and lights does not need to invest in more than it would cost to have that set up.  Solar systems offer modularity as a benefit. You only invest in buying what you need, and can add to it as time goes on.
Many generator users already have the batteries, and inverters. Those can be used in a solar setting with little much else than cost of panels and installation to deal with.
You forgot to mention the many programs, some run by government, out there that help families pay for their electricity and heating bills.

why would you disagree that a small business should be able to afford electricity(he refers to utility not self generated o)? if they cant then they have no business doing business lol. since you say you do, can you give examples of or list the possible loads the 'said' small business'll use and i'll help you cost his electricity bill for a month. . .

having a generator and an inverter is not the norm in nigeria. . .a deep cycle battery costs 50-70 grand for a 200AH btw

we dont manufacture solar panels in nigeria(i know one govt agency is fooling themselves that they will soon, but where will the get cost effective electricity to run the factory?) so the panels will be shipped, that increases the price bigtime!

Kobojunkie:
The math you have there does not work for solar if you really think long term about it.  Assuming the current maintainance culture we have in Nigeria remains same, solar would likely not require our goverment reinvesting almost 2 Billion Naira each year into power generation for goverment buildings across the country for about 10 years. After the first 3 years of investing that amount, it could be at 100% supply from Solar. So in the long run Solar is definitely cheaper than our Government's current Generator economy. 

If used right, the panels can serve individuals about 25 years, and persons will likely recoup initial investment, and more, in the technology. People currently on generator do not recoup any of the costs they put in. And they continually have to pump and more money into getting electricty.  In fact I will go as far as to say that Solar makes more sense than generators to every single nigerian out there today.

'Financing cost for Solar Energy Systems is assumed to be 5% per annum. These costs are amortized over a 20 year life. This is a significant factor in the Index. Our Economic Payback page demonstrates how solar electricity cost changes with different interest rates.' from the same site, so you see that they factor in the costs into the price projections.

plus, as you know solar is space intensive, the way things are, there's not enough space around said govt building to site the solar panels, trust me i've given this solar thing a lot of thought, i even plan to exploit it in nigeria self i just have a bit of learning to do before i become naija's first solar millionare(or hopefully billionare)

i saw this somewhere. . .http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/05/24-executive-producer-howard-gordon-says-jack-bauer-wont-have-a-happy-ending.html

they had better not over try themselves o!

Kobojunkie:
I am simply advocating we go for AFFORDABLE 24/7 electricity rather than just 24/7 electricity.

Majority of our small businesses today cannot afford electricity costs and that is why many are closing the doors. Naira 6000 to a company that barely makes N15,000 a month is a lot of money. Many of our civil servants today barely make over that amount each month( assuming the recent change made by Jonathan has not already kicked in).

Do you happen to know how much compact-florescent bulbs currently cost in Nigeria?  The last time I discussed those bulbs, I got told that it was too expensive for Nigerians. Even solar is considered too expensive by folks who currently run huge generators down there. It is absurd but after researching, I figured out it is likely the case.

When you speak of electricity cost to low income households, what other appliances are you saying they ought not to have in their homes if they are unable to afford footing the bill for it?

Refrigerators? Light bulbs?Irons( for ironing cloths)? . . .  do you have a list?

I do not think it is fair to doom the other members of the household to a life of poverty for having an uncontrollable drunk in the house with them. ROFLMAO!!!

But prepaid meters do not guarantee that all persons will have 24/7 electricity. The issue of affordability still comes in to play whether you prepay or you do not.

civil servants earn allowances, for instance, your housing allowance is around 45% of your annual, you might earn a 15% entertainment allowance, etc. . .just letting you know so you dont get ambushed one of these days

@kobojunkie
i'll reply you in a bit, my mother has commandeered the computer. . .

@ziyaun
when you're ready let's talk. . .who knows sef maybe by then some of my 'contacts' would have matured. . .lol

Kobojunkie:
I suspected the Government was already subsiding the cost because when someone told me she only pays about $10 for 24/7 electricity, I immediately wondered how much of the cost government was already handling considering power is NOT CHEAP.
I am glad you at least admit that Private sector handling power will likely cause cost increases of 300% or more. However, when it comes to matters in Nigeria, I don’t believe miracles happen the way you assume it will. Yes,

Government is likely burdened  at this time with the cost of subsidies as you claim --- I mean there are the fuel subsidies, electricity subsidies, probably telecom (will have to research that) to be considered. , but I do not believe that the funds generated from businesses will be enough to cover all of the Nigerian population. That is why I am of the mind that Government, while thinking up a solution, only needs to consider potential costs and how it can better mitigate the situation in the future.

I mean sure, if the end the cost of electricity to businesses is lower than current cost of companies fueling their generators each day, maybe we can look at that working out, but as  we know of quite a couple of companies that have had to leave Nigeria as a result of high cost of running business on generators. So, I am still for Government having some serious plans in place to help the poor because, in my opinion, electricity to vital to helping lift people out of poverty in the developing/under developed world.

how do i assume miracles will happen? if it's cos of the statement i made earlier, i must admit, i'm not an economics-ish person o, i'm a straight up technical guy, and as for seeing things your way, i've always said that nigerians dont pay enough, my position on power in nigeria hasn't changed. If i remember correctly, you once were pushing for solar and all.

power is a long term thing, unlike telecomms where they were able to break even in 2-3 years, according to current calculations, it'll take close to 10years in power, so for that ten years govt will have to be paying the companies money, it's called securitization. problem is that at the current tariff rates, it'll be suicidal, hence the chicken and egg scenario which MYTO was meant to solve, but the thing is, with the way the credit market is, where will the private investors get the credit to enter the market NOW, when MYTO hasn't achieved its goal, or better still, there's no clear cut policy on power in nigeria!

@kobojunkie
the government is actually already subsidizing electricity now, cos what the consumers are paying isn't up to the amount it costs to produce said electricity(forget about whether it is constant or not). . .my point is that for private investors to come into the NESI(naija electricity supply industry) the price'll have to be increased 300+%, the present subsidy is enough of a burden already, the government cannot, i repeat, CANNOT foot the bill. . .

i'm not in this for bragging rights, the nigerian power sector is something i plan to devote my life to.

Kobojunkie:
How will they pay for it?

How much did the BRT project cost Government? How much does Government make from the use of the service? Is the project running a loss or breaking even each month? Or does it, like most other government projects out there enjoy influx of 'free' government money to continue?

So, Nigerians who live on $1 a day( $30 a month) can afford to pay $30 a month for electricty(lets assume that is the base cost we get at the end of it all), and in addition afford rent and food?

well if we get the electricity up and running, it'll stimulate a lot of sectors and hopefully increasing the size of the working population. . .

while i'm glad that you understand the issues at play, you seem to be focusing on the problems and not giving any thought to the solutions, truth is we need creative people to reason a way out of this mess, cos government cant even fund the development of the sector entirely by themselves. . .best they can do is let private companies do it and subsidize. . .

i'm bappy. . .

@ibk
i cant fit to shout o. . .

selingel:
When you hear billions being mentioned, you wished they could be translated into modern infrastructure, employment and the good and betterment of us all.

if only it was that easy. . .

I love my mother to bits even though she gets on my nerves like no other person alive, and i'm not going to tell her in person until the next time I'm leaving home for a while. . .it isn't being manly, my liver just isn't enough.

@jcob
can you manage websites? i have a really small job that you might be interested in. . .

okay. . .it seems like y'all have decided to let this thread die abi?

anyways sha. . .

i'm preparing my PG applications for next year. . .so i'm searching for a job so i can work till it's time for a PG, i woulda started one this year but i've missed the deadlines

so far it seems no one is hiring so i'm back at PHCN, i'm in HQ now, system planning, there they plot how the grid is supposed to expand, generation-wise and transmission-wise. Caveat is, i'm not staff, they're just doing it as a favour to me so i'm not getting paid squat , however i dont plan to stay here long.

so from now on, my gist will be biggs boys gist. . .lol (meeting with Jonathan, that sorta thing. . .i wish).


there's hope for the power sector in nigeria o, i met a dude younger than me that likes power as much as i do today, if he was a she, i woulda married him, but since it's a he, i'll make do with letting him be minister of state for power when i'm minister

i'm not interested in all the politics of division y'all deal in, but i like this guy, and listening to him talk(or reading his interview. . .) you can tell he believes in nigeria, he's actually someone worth following, not all the loudmouth local champions. . .i wonder why i haven't heard about him all this while

Lord You have been good to me. . .