₦airaland Forum

6 REGIONS and not 36 states!!!

This seems to be the only viable Socio-Economic/Political Structure for this country!

Federal-Regional-Local is the way to go

Coupled with Federal Territories - Lagos/Port Harcourt/Kano

Tech startups in Africa

Africa uber alles

The potential and pitfalls of African tech innovation

Apr 23rd 2016 | KIGALI | From the print edition


THE fastest, and cheapest, way to zip around the hilly capital of Rwanda is to catch one of the many motorcycle taxis, or motos, that attract custom by hooting at pedestrians as they drive along. Grab a ride on one and you can nip from one end of Kigali to the other for less than $1.

Yet catching a ride is a white-knuckle affair. Drivers seldom expect repeat custom so make no effort to be nice (which can be a welcome respite from over-chatty London cabbies). Most want to finish the journey quickly to look for their next fare. So many of them race about the city as if in a grand prix: they speed around blind corners, brake sharply at the very last minute and take off from traffic lights quickly enough almost to unseat an inattentive passenger.

The solution, according to two entrepreneurs, Peter Kariuki, a Kenyan, and Barrett Nash, a Canadian, is an Uber-style app that not only allows passengers to hail a ride, but also gives them some hope of surviving the journey. Their firm, SafeMotos, insists that taxi drivers own a smartphone, which contains accelerometers that can determine if drivers speed or brake too hard, among other things. The data they collect score the drivers on safety. Only safe ones get business.

Uber, the car-hailing app valued at $51 billion, and local startups have launched similar motorcycle-taxi services in various countries from Indonesia to Uganda, but SafeMotos is more than just a clone. Whereas in many other countries drivers are comfortable using digital maps on their phones, SafeMoto uses a simpler system: directing drivers via a series of well-known waypoints until they are close to the final destination.

Yet the experience of SafeMotos also underscores some of the difficulties of establishing tech startups in Africa. Its founders say that the main problem many face is a shortage of skilled coders. There is no real ecosystem of tech entrepreneurs who can bounce ideas around, or inspire bright young people to quit safe jobs in the civil service and start their own companies.

This is slowly changing. Technology hubs, where startups cluster in shared office space, in Nairobi, Cape Town and Lagos are producing promising companies and attracting international attention. Last year African tech firms raised $186m in funding, says Disrupt Africa, an analyst, and it has finally produced a “unicorn”, or tech company valued at more than $1 billion. Yet plagued by power shortages, expensive and unreliable internet connections, and ruinous bank rates, the continent has a way to go.

From the print edition: Middle East and Africa

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21697278-potential-and-pitfalls-african-tech-innovation-africa-uber-alles?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/africauberalles

Here

Lagos State Internally Generated revenue for 2014 was more than 31 States of the Federation combined!!!

MODIFIED

source http://eoebevy.com/index.php?topic=2409.0#sthash.8AGOicb4.90xfmCzh.dpbs

Data Source: National Bureau of Statistics / Joint Tax Board / State Board off Internal Revenue

http://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/report/325

http://voiceofnigeria.org.ng/23-states-in-nigeria-collect-n3-149trn-igr-in-2014-nbs/

According to Saharareporters the antisocial bill has made a comeback!

cc Lalasticlala, Mynd44

The National Economic Council Meeting (NEC) on Thursday met at the Council Chambers in Abuja. The meeting was chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and attended by governors, deputy governors, ministers, CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele among others. See some of the cheerful moments at the occasion.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/04/photos-jolly-good-politicians-federal-executive-council-meeting/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

The jihadi group Boko Haram are usually characterized as the biggest threat to Nigeria’s state security and even as one of the world’s deadliest militant groups.

But in the first four months of 2016, Boko Haram have actually been responsible for less deaths—208 to be precise—than other sectarian groups in Nigeria combined, which have accounted for 438 deaths so far, according to the Council on Foreign Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker. A huge chunk of these are down to an ongoing conflict between predominantly Fulani herdsmen and settled farming communities, which is costing the Nigerian economy billions of dollars per year as well as hundreds—if not thousands—of lives.

Subscribe now - Free phone/tablet charger worth over $60

The Fulani —also known as the Fula or Peul—constitute a mostly Muslim people scattered throughout West Africa but concentrated in certain places, such as northern Nigeria. Fulanis are primarily nomadic cattle herders who follow their livestock along migratory patterns. This wandering lifestyle has brought them into conflict with settled farming communities in Nigeria, who have accused the Fulani of cattle rustling, kidnapping and murder.

Clashes between mostly Fulani herdsmen and settled communities have been concentrated in north central Nigeria, particularly the states of Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Nassarawa. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari ordered an inquiry into clashes between herdsmen and farmers in Benue at the end of February, which reportedly resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands being displaced. As well as the obvious security threat, the low-level battles are draining Nigeria’s economy of resources and potential funds. A series of reports published in July 2015 by global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps found that the four problem states stood to gain up to $13.7 billion annually in total macroeconomic benefits if the conflict between herdsmen and farmers was reduced to near-zero. And the benefits are not just limited to state-level—Nigerian households affected by the ongoing clashes could expect their incomes to increase by between 64 and 210 percent were the conflicts to be resolved.

Nigeria’s Middle Belt—where the four problem states are located—is an area of ethnic and religious diversity, where the majority Muslim north meets the largely Christian south. On top of this, the Fulani have historical rivalries with other ethnic groups in Nigeria, particularly the Hausa. Led by the religious reformer Usman dan Fodio, a Fulani army fought a four-year jihad in the predominantly Hausa states of what is now northern Nigeria, eventually triumphing and establishing the Sokoto caliphate. The caliphate was one of the most prominent African empires in the 19th century and was only abolished by the British in 1903.

Because of this fraught geography and history, the herdsmen-farmer conflict is often characterized as ethnic or religious in nature. But this is a mischaracterization, according to Lisa Inks, one of the authors of the Mercy Corps reports. “We definitely believe that the conflicts are caused primarily by competition for scarce resources,” says Inks, citing land and water as the two major conflict drivers. According to Inks, solutions lie in supporting both parties by the establishment of grazing reserves for livestock, increasing funding for communities affected by the clashes and improving security at conflict hotspots.

The security implications of marauding, armed Fulani herdsmen are significant for Nigeria, already struggling to contain the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast , revived militant attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta and substantial pro-Biafran protests in the southeast. If taken together, casualties attributed to Fulani herdsmen in 2014 totaled 1,229, according to the Institute for Economics & Peace Global Terrorism Index 2015. It is problematic, however, to group Fulani herdsmen together into a single unit and classify them as a terrorist movement, according to Leena Koni Hoffman, Nigeria expert and associate fellow at Chatham House. Fulani herdsmen cannot be considered a terrorist group akin to Boko Haram or the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), says Hoffman, because of “the absence of a core ideology around the violence.”

Despite the lack of an ideological basis, links between the organized militants of Boko Haram and the roaming Fulani herdsmen have been suggested before. According to Hoffman, collaboration between herdsmen and Boko Haram is unlikely in terms of formal affiliation but could take place in different types of “criminal activity,” such as cattle rustling. “There could be a link between groups who are exploiting the context of insecurity and instability [in Nigeria] to strengthen their position,” says Hoffman.

Whether such links exist or not, the herdsmen-farmers conflict is clearly damaging Buhari’s vision of a unified Nigeria and sucking potential resources and revenues out of the country. “The farmer-herdsmen conflict is not even the most high-profile conflict in Nigeria,” says Inks, “[But] even this ongoing, relatively low-level intercommunal conflict is costing the country billions.”


http://europe.newsweek.com/nigerias-herdsmen-and-farmers-are-locked-deadly-underreported-conflict-450293?rm=eu

grafikii:
And who are you defending? the buffon?
You posted some crap here and i asked to show proof of finished project, that automatically makes me apc?
you guys are pathetic.

My apologies if you are not 'APC', I am not 'PDP' I am NIGERIA, if you are too then I'm certain we should understand ourselves.

The issue of completion of contacts can be addressed in another thread.

Let's address issue of unnecessary falsehood on this thread please.

Regards

grafikii:
This link says the projects will be completed in 2015, where are the projects?

This sounds like the classic APC "STRAWMAN" ploy.

The issue being discussed RIGHT NOW is not 'completion of project' as important as that is, what we are discussing is the honourable minister's apparent penchant for FALSEHOOD.

Your response does nothing to puncture this claim instead you appear as one who mindlessly (or maybe not mindlessly maybe there is some reward for all this 'hard work') defends anything that emanates from stalwarts and officials of a particular political party.

blackpanda:
OP so if I owe N10 and I give u 50kobo, have I honoured our agreement
Pls dont print fictitious document here just to gather sympathy for your "un-noble" cause. After all your blowing big big grammar, your story does not add up!

How much is 10% of $1.1Billion?

I guess the last sentence in the original post applies, No?

It is disheartening also that gullible youths refuse to fact check drivel fed to them because it is from some alleged intellectual.


http://www.premiumtimesng.com/business/99957-nigeria-gets-n172bn-chinese-bank-loan-for-three-projects.html

...ff

In his discretionary foray away from the designated portfolio of Minister of Power, Works and Housing the 'honourable' Minister Babatunde Raji Fashola 'SAN' proceeded to explain the rationale behind the numerous foreign trips of the president.

In his treatise the Minister for reason best known to him furnished his account with some very pedantic issues, two examples of which are the counterpart funding of the Rail project and the 'standing position' of Nigerian Presidents in Pictures taken at Global Fora.

Counterpart funding: The minister alleged that Nigeria's counterpart funding was not released by the last administration. The document below says otherwise.
'Standing Position': Needless to say that as silly as this is the picture below clearly shows again that the 'honourable' minister told an untruth (aka a blatant lie).

It is disheartening that the so-called super-minister lies with elan

It is disheartening also that gullible youths refuse to fact check drivel fed to them because it is from some alleged intellectual.

sources
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/04/buharis-foreign-trips-takeaway-babatunde-fashola/
tweets by @chxta

MODIFIED
cc Lalasticlala, Mynd44

A Twitter user @i_am_Anomeli shared the document below purportedly communicating a request for N4,000,000.00 and N1,380,000.00 financial assistance by the Kogi State APC Chairman Alh. Hadi Ametuo from the State Governor Alh. Yahaya Bello.

N4,000,000.00 for office rent and N1,380,000.000 for 5 months salary

Minutes on the letter as follows:

FS,GH
Please release the ........ workers salary of N1,380,000.00
2. Tell the party Chairman to ... the rent demand notice
we shall pay accordingly

SIGNED


MODIFIED
cc Lalasticlala, Mynd44

As reported by the State House Official Twitter Handle Minister of Finance states that Nigeria/China Currency Deal is not a swap agreement

MODIFIED (Punch NG)
http://www.punchng.com/no-currency-swap-deal-with-china-fg/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

MODIFIED
cc lalasticlala

I am angry….during the last elections Nigerian youth were galvanized and they voted massively for change from the previous administration. The results showed the role the youth played in effecting this victory for the ruling party.

So when there was a delay in ministerial announcements I was hoping that it meant that PMB was searching for few of these young men to bring into his cabinet, ginger up the place, launch new ideas, and change from being seen as a “northern President” to a Pan Nigerian President.

But of course this didn’t happen, many of them were soon discarded and instead, they were quickly relegated to become media trumpeters; good for retweeting, taking pictures and releasing press materials to the public but not for much else.

[b]Not one ministerial position was given to any person below 40. Indeed the youngest Minister is 48 years! Some of you may justify this by saying that age isn’t a thing, or that Buhari couldn’t find younger and more experienced people below that age- but remember that Buhari was 41 when he became Head of State in 1984, meaning his ministers were between 30-40 years old… yet in his second coming he chose people from the ages of 50- 70 as his team.

Now if we are practicing democracy why shouldn’t the majority have their way? If 60% of Nigerians are Youths, it means that 119Million Nigerians are below the age of 35 but not even 10% of the present cabinet are youths. How is this fair representation? The term “youth” is like a disadvantaged group similar to widows or orphans as they consider any positions or opportunities given to youths as “CSR” or a “favour”.

All very patronizing. But the question is who made Nigeria the biggest African economy today? Was it the 40-70 year olds? No, it is the youth. The greatest opportunity Nigeria has today is its youthful population! Yet the Youth can only have their say (online), while the “adults” have theirs (On ground). That makes me angry and you should be angry too.

Young man and young woman – the implications of this are enormous- it means that the people who were ministers in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s were about 25- 40 year olds, yet today very few people under the age of 30 have even held a local government chairmanship position! So are we moving forward or backwards?[/b]

These “Adults” determine how you live, but you say you are free! They collect taxes, fines, incentives etc. and they accept the monies happily with no thought of your “age” or “inexperience but if you ask for a chance to shape and make the future of Nigeria they tell you to hold on…you are too young!

But you aren’t too young to donate to their campaigns abi? You aren’t too young to die for their candidates abi? But has any of them died for you? You are only good as social media consultants because they don’t understand technology not because they would ordinarily have hired you otherwise. You are good as rebranding consultants abi? But when it’s time to help rebrand Nigeria, we hire foreign firms to do that. The youth won the war but they didn’t get any of the booty from the spoils.

The Gods Are not to blame
But I don’t blame them, I blame you! Because your sole aspiration in life is to make money, be famous, drive a nice car, get married, and go for summer in London with the kids! You have never thought of sacrificing your luxuries for a greater cause- that of the future of your country which incidentally includes your London bound kids. So you would rather leave politics/governance because it is a “dirty” game. You don’t want to get your hands soiled abi?

Well if politics is dirty game, why can’t you be the hand wash? Why can’t you be the disinfectant?


Instead you leave people who proclaim their patriotism (by mouth only) but were also ready to sacrifice their immediate comfort for a greater prize- “ elected office” dirt and all and the sad thing is that half of them aren’t as educated, passionate or as innovative as you are but what they lacked in those areas, they made up for through their willingness to consult, mobilize, finance, convince and win people over with their words and promises- the result of which is that they become your leaders…and you their subjects…

That’s not where it stops, it means that they can determine whether or not you will remain in business, or whether you can set up a business at all or how your family lives, how they are educated, how you are taxed etc. Hell, they can determine if you can even get FOREX to spend when you eventually go to London for family holidays.

I am angry ….at the Facebook warriors and the Twitterati whose passion for their own future is epitomized by frantic retweets, rants and online brawls which either complain, soliloquize or attack people purely on partisan matters which even they do not clearly understand. They are mere pawns in the game. I am angry…. because I am one of them! So I am very guilty too!

We the people of this country called Nigeria submit that we were all created equal and no man or woman should be discriminated against as a result of religion, ethnic bias, education, lineage and most especially age.

It’s time for our people to take responsibility for the future of this country, it’s time to stop blaming President Buhari, GEJ ,OBJ and all the other past leaders for the past failures because that’s what the word connotes- its past!

Stop shouting APC or PDP is better because it’s a lie. They are the same! It’s the same players who just changed their jerseys!!

It’s time to fight for the future because that’s all we have left and time is not on our side ….and they will not hand it over to us easily, we have to wrest it from them …That’s after all how it happens in real life. That’s how they got it from the colonial masters and let’s be honest if you were in their shoes you would do the same…..

PS: If you are angry and want to do something about it please email me: aamaikori@gmail.com!! Thanks—

———————–
Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Audu Maikori is a Nigerian lawyer, entrepreneur, social activist, public speaker, creative industry professional, and the Founder and President of the Chocolate City Group.

This thread is earlier

https://www.nairaland.com/3045212/scandal-buhari-using-boko-haram

#CleanSweepBuhari Jeffrey Archer must have been on o something...

#CleanSweepBuhari Jeffrey Archer must have been on to something

Top-rated Canadian-made private jets chartered regularly by the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, are now being flown by the new Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, investigations by Saturday PUNCH have shown.

The development brings to question the new administration’s criticism of financial recklessness of the previous administration and its resolve to cut costs in the face of falling oil prices.




The Bombardier luxury private jets with cozy interior, flown by Kachikwu and Emefiele belong to VistaJet Holding SA, a Swiss charter airline that has satellite facilities in some countries of the world, including Nigeria.

Diezani had faced sharp criticism for chartering VistaJet’s private jets for several months and accumulating huge sums of bills that was almost half of the cost of a private jet.

The CBN, impeccable sources within the apex bank revealed, had also entered into a long-term and renewable contract with VistaJet.

The contract gives Emefiele unfettered access to one of VistaJet’s luxury planes any time of the day and for whatever number of hours.

According to top officials of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency working in the Air Traffic Control Towers in Lagos and Abuja airports, Emefiele has been flying regularly one of VistaJet’s private jets.

He has been sighted flying the Bombardier Challenger 850 flown by Diezani during the last administration.

According to unconfirmed sources, the CBN pays $1m to VistaJet a year for the use of any of ......

http://www.punchng.com/kachikwu-emefiele-fly-private-jet-used-by-diezani/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

I'm not sure PMB appreciated the need for Ministers early on

What is 'good for the goose is good for the gander' (for the pedantic - 'what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander')

Question: Was Tinubu acquitted of the charges against him? If not partisan politics aside his case should be revisited barring any conflict with statutes of limitation.


cc lalasticlala, seun

Citizens need to think with their heads and not with emotion.

Neither men have what it takes. The system that keeps on throwing up candidates like this needs to be reviewed

In all these political permutations, what happens to the people?

#HowToFixNigeria

If by 2019 Nigerians who are currently under 40 years old (and who are detribalised and selfless) are not able to wrest power from the 'usual suspects'. Nigeria's migration from third to first world nation may very well not take place before 2100

Migration from third to first world status CAN take place in a generation (33 years) with consistent committed selfless and visionary leadership (across party lines) propagating a POLICY MASTERPLAN that must be arrived at via extensive research and creative problems solving.

Nigeria's problems are more than 50 years old! The solutions to these problems are just as old.

A youth (36 years or less) will DV be 69 years old or less in 33 years, he or she will either be faced with a gargantuan mess of a nation or a country that is head and shoulders above most nations of the world.

Which would we rather have?

Dem no dey plant corn for morning harvest am for night, guys we've really really got to start thinking and doing.

Will APC ever Change?

Will Tinubu ever Change

http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/exclusive/drug-crimes-apc-leader-bola-tinubu-still-suspect-u-s/