₦airaland Forum

ngozievergreen: leave dese ppl. Tell me d principle of d occam's razor.

Its about demand and supply. Do we have an export market for adire or ankara?

The Asians have made significant stride and cornered the juicy markets - North America & Europe

Maxymilliano: There is already a bail out plan for the textile industry by the government, after a recent interactive sessions with stake holders, it was discovered that the initial N180 billion bail out fund from the present government won't be adequate considering the long years of neglect in the sector.

It is good to know that somebody is making serious efforts rather than the usual rhetoric to revamping the textile industries.

Without power this revamping will just be money down the drain. Lack of power and over dependence on generator drove cost up significantly, so the sector became noncompetitive.

Fix the power sector first. period

PapaBrowne: Are you guys serious? After reading the posts on this thread, I heard to be sure that the article wasn't from 2010-2011.

Haba, there are many Nigerian online businesses doing good.

Wakanow has turnover running into billions of Naira yearly and sorry, they are a web based.

Travelstart is another travel web business and they are doing good too although they came from SA.

Dealdey is doing pretty ok.

IrokoTV is big time and they are rumoured to be worth over 30 million dollars. Plus they received funding to the tune of 8 million dollars.

Nairaland sef dey try, even though I think he is making much less now than previously.

But how can you guys forget two big game changers that arrived in 2012- KONGA and JUMIA(Kasuwa).
I have no idea how much they do in sales, but its obvious with the amount they spend on advertising, they intend to do sales running into billions yearly.

There are a host of others making money. But the draw bag usually is that people have become accustomed to the free web. Almost everything is free online(Facebook, Google search, Email and a host of other services). To get people to pay for the services you are offering, you have to provide a compelling solution to an existing need such that it beats flat out the solution provided by offline businesses.

At least you claim it's a rumour because I don't know what criteria was used in valuation. Anybody can claim anything until potential investors or share holders ask them to open the books.

How many people come to the site? How many of those are buying stuff or using the service? How much ad revenue is the site generating? What is potential future revenue stream? what assets do they have etc. You need this type of info before calculating valuation.

Olodostein: Of course, this shouldn't come as a surprise; where every Aki and Pawpaw is an importer of low standard clothes,etc.

We need to embrace our culture and clothing more. We also need creative fashion designers to set the trend for new designs.

Good sentiment but the business world is cold. Can we compete with the Asians in the world market? If we manufacture for Nigerian market, we should be looking at exporting too.

Years of bad decision in our manufacturing can't be undone so quickly. Can we get back even half of the jobs lost in 5 yrs? No

Fhemmmy: And those are some of the experience that someone that has gone to the Polytechnic to study Office Admin might need. . . . I think you have seen too much of Nigerian students being maltreated that made you to not blv anymore in gaining experience by volunteering.
Chairman, there are some real volunteering, for example imagine an architect that just finish school and have no portfolio at all, and decided to go and volunteer to work with one of Nigeria's biggest architectural company (Dont know one), gain experience, and now on his CV he has such experience on it for a year, that will make companies' looking for experienced architect to give such a person a chance.
Not all volunteers do Suya errands . . . .

Why not put together your portfolio and approach the company that this is what you can do to help reduce costs, increase revenue or bring in customers. If they believe you can help make profit, they'll offer you an incentive. "Show me what you can do for me" is the mind set of most businesses.

Too many people approach this companies thinking they're are good Samaritans. Remember they have to set up an office space for you. Why? just so you can gain experience.

Fhemmmy: We are not talking what the employer is gaining, for an unemployed person, there are few things that could have made the person not marketable, such as:
1. Lack of experience
2. Lack of knowledge of opened position
3. Not well networked
4. So much more.
By volunteering, you will be able to gain experience, yes, you are not getting paid, but experience will work for you later, you will be networked cos you are not staying at home doing nothing and your brain is doing nothing, but being busy while you work, though no pay, and you are networking while out of the house compared to when you home watching movies.
In all areas, nothing wrong in volunteering, even at the office, some people do it to get experience in other areas and be more marketable.
Never see it as slavery . . .

I'll talk about lack of experience:

Volunteering in an office by doing filing, paper work, researching online, creating documents with MS Word etc is not experience. As a volunteer this is the kind of task you're assigned to do. You end up everyday asking "Is there any job I can do?"

Real experience comes from working on a project, identifying problems, finding solutions, meeting with various stakeholders and ensuring the results are delivered. Most volunteering jobs may not expose you to this kind of experience

Fhemmmy: What do you think Industrial Training was supposed to achieve?

Industrial training is different since employers may have the need for that person. Also, there are tax advantages depending on the state/province

Fhemmmy: That is so not true, there is something called gaining experience and instead of staying home with nothing added to your Resume/CV, you could volunteer somewhere to gain some experience/exposures and by so doing some networking as well.

I'm not saying stay at home but if the vacancy exits why can't an employer pay you to do the job? For charity organisation its ok but not for a business.

If an employer believes you can provide REAL value, they will take that risk and invest in you. As a volunteer, most times the job you do is not very rewarding. Regardless of what you put on your resume, employers recruit based on your past result, hence SARs question (Situation, Action, Result)are very common at interviews. As a volunteer you may not have results to show from past jobs.

serenegroup: i disagree my brother. volunteering is one of the ways experience is gained and also an avenue for being choosen for a job when ever there is an opening any where. when u volunteer u are also training urself for a better opportunity in the future

For non-profit or charitable organisation, yes. If it's a business, NO. Situation may be different in other countries but in U.S.A/Canada, it's no longer an attractive option. So many reasons why it's not a wise option, but I'll cite one.

In summer time, organisation recruit summer students (and usually top students) with a view to developing/mentoring them for future employment. And these are paid jobs. As a volunteer you will be doing similar jobs to these students, so organisations do not see any advantage with bringing in somebody they don't need.

Most volunteer work, generally involve less challenging tasks. Experience is only gained when you're exposed to real challenges and risks.

zangiff: you can also try blogging but its a way of investing ur time

Blogging is very hard work bro and not rewarding

Don't get seduced by all these bloggers claiming success. How many have been blogging for over yrs and making enough money?

Volunteering is just the same as slavery. Don't waste your time working for free. Any company that values your contribution to their bottom line should pay for your effort.

Employers are only after results and profit, not to help pad your resume with "make up" work

ballabriggs: All what he listed above was what lead to the death of the trains and it is the same thing experienced by that brother on his train ride, nothing has changed. How do you spend so much money and what you get is a crap service that will ultimately lead to the death of the trains?

We talk of continuous improvement. If service today is similar to what obtained before the death of the trains in the late 1990s, then I'm afraid, that which killed it in the late 1990s will ultimately kill it today. I expect reasonable people to see his story as a first step in problem-solving as he has identified a problem and then work towards finding solutions and improving quality of service. However, what we have are people looking for who wants "to bring them down", pathetic!

[b]And that is why I say privatize the trains [/b]and let the NRC focus on maintaining and building the rail tracks. Take the NRC away from the Ministry of Transport, let it run independently of that 'Alhaji Minister'. Let it run like a business, driving quality and continuous improvement of service. Quality should be at the center of everything within the NRC. It should be a language and there should be a 'taken-for-grantedness'.

Who will invest their money in this? Credit is very tight world wide and there are more profitable ventures than a derelict rail system in a very corrupt country

This should be a top priority by Nigerian govt. They know this, but corruption and greed continues to blind their vision.

What has changed? With the old trains Minna to Lagos was almost a day's journey. Carriages were overloaded with people standing, and train moved at camel speed.

I took that journey once and will never repeat that mistake.

Nigeria! what a country.

Even when the news is good, we still find a way to make it bad news. One day of pure ecstasy and pride and just like that we're back to same ol, same ol

Keshi, the first indigenous coach to win a cup for SE.

sleekch1c: Some of the responses on this thread shows the average Nigerian IQ.....even jobless, anti-social and very depressed individuals are telling a female comedian who is doing well for herself that she is fat. Are you ppl dat daft and bereft of ideas? What is your business in how the lady looks like? She is making her money and all u sad and pathetic individuals are here typing crap with ur cheap phones and antique laptop computers. Pity!

But who is Helen Na? yes I'm jobless today and have time. And she's on front page

Since you know her who is she? Is she wife material?

[quote author=A-40]I don't know if Dwight didn't do his research on just how ornery Kobe could get! Kobe also plays with injuries so people tend to listen when he talks. On this issue he does have a point especially as Dwight has still not committed himself to the Lakers going forward so he has not endeared himself to the members of the team who probably see the possibility of him leaving in the off season anyway! However I do sympathize with Dwight in the sense that his shoulders are the most important part of his game. They do the most work and receive the most punishment from the opposition! Its easy to tell people to suck it up but not everyone has the same pain threshold

Lakers vs Celtics tonight[/quote]Oh yes, the big one. The most exciting match up in basketball or even in all sports. Maybe Barcelona vs Real Madrid is more intriguing

Anyway, I say Celtics win because:
- KG is playing championship ball and nobody to challenge him with Howard & Gasol out. Dropped 27 on Raptors last night
- The Celtics back court of Lee & Bradley have steeped up with Rondo out. They've hardly missed Rondo

Ok need to get my court-side seat asap. In front of my TV of course
-

Who can stop the Heat? They've been under the radar all season. just cruising. Last night's match vs. Houston confirmed they may be unbeatable.

In the East nobody can outlast them in 7 games. The Pacers? perhaps. In the West they own the Thunder and the Spurs are no threat. Grizs? Clippers? nah

Can The Lakers beat the Heat? Don't look like that now, but if they get to the playoffs, despite all the drama...hmnnnn

Feelings are meant to be hurt. No big deal. Kobe and Shaq loathed each other but played hard together to win. Howard should just shrug off Kobe's rant.

Staying with the Lakers is Howard's best choice of winning a ring. Plus, money wise only the lakers can offer him the max $111 million. Other teams can only give $80 million as per the CBA

Who is funding this project - land owners, govt or private developers?

Laudable project. Kudos to Lagos state for supporting this. That said, maintenance is one aspect that needs to be figured out. Given the lack of maintenance culture, over time the building can become derelict and an eye sore in the neighborhood. 1004 apartments comes to mind

Oh and there's the little matter of constant electricity to run the lifts. I know gen dey, but...

Billyonaire: Even Obama can not run Nigeria, the way it is mangled with defective Constitution and Federal Character syndrome. Another reason that Obama can not rule Nigeria better is because we are very ignorant of the duties of a President and that of a Governor. We almost always want GEJ to be the one to buy transformer for our streets and repair our backyard Roads. Obama can not rule Nigeria because our past Presidents did absolutely nothing right. We have been ruled and misruled by egocentric and militarily back-grounded ignorant fellows who found their way into Politics. GEJ is the best President Nigeria ever had. He would have done better if he was President of an Organized Country like the USA.

So I take this as admission that the man is not fit to lead Nigeria. BTW, The U.S. Presidency is far more challenging. Jonathan simply had no vision nor plan on how to fix the various issues. Handpicked by the ruling PDP to do their bidding, he doesn't not have the courage to exert his authority and do the people's business.

Though given his experience (Deputy Gov, Gov, VP & Acting President) I'm very surprised the man failed so woefully.

@OP
What exactly is the purpose of showing us list of activities/spending and touting it as achievement ?

With a yearly budget of N 3 trillion a year we expect significant improvements. Are we getting results. Absolutely not! 3 years of spending over N 10 trillion this is what we have to show:

- Nigeria remains anchored at the bottom of the Human Development Index (#156 out of 187 nations) Ghana, Cameroon, Namibia etc are way above us on this ranking
- Life expectancy is under 52 years
- We generate just 4,000 MW of power for a population of over 160 million. Logic dictates we need over 50,000 MW to drive industrialization
- Education and health service is in shambles. The corrupt elite prefer to spend $25,000 a year to educate their kids in Canada/U.S.A.

You expect rationale human beings to accept this list as achievement? Jonathan is working? Of course, that's what he's elected to do. WORK

We have to rise above the level of mediocrity that has become the norm in Nigeria.

[quote author=A-40]Personally I think they should trade him! Bad back bad shoulder! He is never going to be as dominant as Shaq! Kobe isn't 23
Dwight just doesn't seem like someone built for the pressure of LA you can see it in his face[/quote]They should do no such thing. That will be a panic move. Right now, they won't get equal value for him. A successful playoff run may change his mind and encourage him to stay.

funky medina: success has many fathers

...failure is a bastard, even an orphan. na so life be o

No Howard, no problem. Lakers have Earle Clarke. Earle who? He's a throw-in to the Dwight Howard trade and fast becoming the most valuable Laker. I love it when a no name player steps up when the coach calls his number.

Have the Lakers really turned the corner? Well the "fire D'Antoni" noise has subsided of late. That's a good thing. no more panic.

More importantly, will they make the playoffs and even get out of the West? They won in it all in 2002 after a very horrible start. Can history repeat itself? You never know, just never know. Its the NBA! where amazing happens.

All the doubters (yours truly included) may end up eating humble pie in June.

ojdollars: http://sports.pptv.com/africa/live/

thx this link works

Sam Milla: The saboteurs just took my light. Jonathan is working.

report him to Amanpour

KokoBeware: DO you really think those where the only people Amanpours crew Interviewed on the streets??... i could stake a lot that they screened out those that said power has improved and is improving.... she needed to package her story and that she did.....

You're only speculating; you don't know who was screened out.

Put aside her selection process and focus on the message. Fact is, as most people know: we no get light for Naija. All this he go come gan he dey go small na story. People that have stayed in African countries with constant power supply will just laugh at all this our light is improving thingy

What can $45 billion buy that they're shouting? Dangote alone has $12 billion in his reserve. Bill Gates nko?

Useless CBN people making noise and disturbing us. Abeg make we hear word. BTW, Did the count the one that has already been chopped?

[quote author=Okija_juju][b]I am not doubting that people do indeedhave as much as 4 generators in their houses and offices..

My dad has 4 Diesel generators as well and an Inverter. But that babe was just talking for the sake of it. Now I wonder why you felt insulted by the presidents comment. Here is an extract of the transcript from that CNN interview with the president;

Christiane Amanpour: Alright, well the United States Assistant Secretary of State has said that the method of the crackdown is inflaming the population and inflaming the situation.

Let me move on to the issue of corruption. When I interviewed you three years ago now, in your first interview as you assumed power, you said that the main issues for the people of Nigeria are corruption and even electricity, power you talked about. Well today those are still the same issues. Some 60% of the people of Nigeria don’t have enough or regular power, regular electricity. There’re constantly shortages and outages. Three years later, what do you have to say about that?

GEJ: I would have loved that you asked an ordinary Nigerian on the streets of Lagos, Abuja or any other city the situation about power.

That is one area that Nigerians are quite pleased with the government, that our commitment to improve power is working. So if you are saying something different I am really surprised. That is one area, one area that even civil society members agreed that government has kept faith with its promise.

Christiane Amanpour: So, so what should I tell people that keep contacting us and say they hope they have electricity just to be able to watch this interview on their televisions? Clearly it is still a big problem. Is it still a big problem, despite, you say, the progress you say you’ve made?

GEJ: We have not got to where we should be and of course you know the power infrastructure is one investment that you must complete the chain before the, th.., the bulb can light. You must generate, you must transmit, you must distribute. And even if you have the money and the political will to do so, you cannot do it over night. And we are working very hard, and I promise you that before the end of this year power will be really, reason…, reasonably stable in Nigeria. This is something that has been a problem for years, for years. So you cannot correct it overnight. It takes time even if you have the money.[/i]


What exactly did the president say that was wrong or remotely infuriating about his statement?!

The president said that Nigerians are happy with the current improvement noticed in electricity, I concur. Many Nairalanders also concur. Its evident in our homes. He also pointed out that we havent reached the pinnacle or even close, but without a doubt, there is an improvement. [/b][/quote]I cringed when I watched that interview. He appeared very unsure and pitiful. He seems not to understand the problem and rambled incoherently. Why didn't he mention the privatization process?

He dared Amanpou to ask Nigerians and she did. Most Nigerians aren't seeing the improvement in power and that’s the truth. A few, perhaps

C’mon over 5 years (as VP, Acting President & President) this guy still can’t articulate the issues about power sector in Nigeria.

ballabriggs: Jona is a known fraud. A man who lied stupidly on the $67 billion reserves, what do you expect again.

Back then in Lagos early 2000s, I used to get close to 18 hrs power supply daily and so I find it strange that the same level of supply is called "improvement" by Jona and his gang.

There is no improvement if it does not go round. Nigeria's population is increasing and it still seems at the same level per capita as it was in the 1980s. Improvement?

Thanks for this. The reason why this constant reference to 4,000 MW output is just hollow. Besides the pop. then was around 130 million.

Now we know the privatization process is ongoing and have been told to expect great changes when completed. Well, we'll wait

Rossikk: We've had about THREE polls on this issue in the last year and the vast majority testified that power supply had IMPROVED in their area. This is not a surprise since power output has DOUBLED since Jonathan came to power, from 2,400 mw to 4,500 mw at last count.

CNN can always find riff raff on the streets of Lagos to pour scorn on the truth. That's what CNN does for a living. They even made the whole world believe a Iraq was drowning in weapons of mass destruction just ready to go off at any minute. And it was all a LIE.

So lying, or getting their pansies to lie about power supply in Lagos is child's play to them.

As for that little paid Nigerian wannabe American whor.e who claimed she hadn't had any light for three weeks, does anyone here really believe her??

Touting megawatt increase is not how we measure improvement. When people see it, they'll talk about it. For instance, if govt can prove that 60% of neighborhoods or towns now have 18 - 24 hours regular supply vs. 40% in 2003, that's IMPROVEMENT.

Mogidi: Trust me if indeed it was Obahiagbon those words would be in the dictionary. He's not called king of verbosity for nothing.

Those words don't exist. He's just making stuff up. Who speaks like this?