Life 3 Weeks after the Ban 💭

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Hello <<First Name>>,

Is the world getting hotter or is Lagos getting most of the World’s heat?

To answer that, January was the warmest month in 141 years of record-keeping, and 2020 is “virtually certain” to be among the 10 warmest years on record.

Now that explains a lot!

Now, The Stories for the Week.

Transportation

The Lagos Okada Ban, 3 Weeks after

Image result for Lagos ban okada

It’s been 3 weeks since the Okada Ban, While commuters are gradually adjusting to the new system of movement in Lagos, ride hailers are considering alternative means of making profits and remaining in the business.

How are the People, Ride-hailers and Government adjusting to this?

People: It’s tough moving around, with lots of queues at the bus stops, more private vehicles are out on the road creating even more road congestion. Also, due to the higher demand for services, bus drivers have derived means to make more money from passengers by doubling their charges and things are getting expensive. Thankfully there hasn’t been an increase in criminal activities in the state.

Ride-hailers are considering possible pivot to logistics as Gokada has now, in collaboration with Jumia, launched a delivery service called Chop. GIG Logistic, although not confirmed yet, is reportedly hinted to be in talks with OPay for partnership in delivery services.

Government: Meanwhile, the state government is hell-bent on moving on with its plans to place more regulations on Uber and Bolt. This, according to speculations, is to enable the state to gain more ground in the competitive market with its own hailing services, MyKab.

Manufacturing

Nigerian Lawmakers reject Innoson cars for latest Toyota Camry

Over the past few months, border regulatory activities by the Nigerian government has literally shoved Made in Nigeria foods down the throats of Nigerians meanwhile members of the House of Representation have also chosen to acquire foreign utility vehicles instead of patronising locally made products like Innoson motors.

Why aren't we patronising our own?

Many Nigerians are displeased over the actions of these lawmakers, hence the question “why aren't we patronising our own?

Price too high or Quality too low?

The fear of quality assurance has always come into play when considering buying things that are made in Nigeria. Here, fewer resources are used to produce more products and services. On the other hand, cost is another throbbing problem. Exotic cars, reportedly cost about 9 to 12 million (without shipping cost), depending on the variation. Innoson motors are sold at relatively higher prices than Toyota cars.

How much is spent on importing vehicles to Nigeria?

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that Nigeria spent the sum of N1.08 trillion to import used cars and motorcycles in one year (October 2018 – September 2019). Used cars and motorcycle importation accounted for 7% of the country’s total import.

Why it matters
With the recent introduction of the Local Content Act -- a law to promote the purchase of more local contents -- and Executive Order 05 by the President. The Federal Government had raised the duties paid on imported cars so high in order to discourage imports.
But this move appears to be counterintuitive because Leaders primarily lead by example whether they intend to or not.

Africa

What South Africa Leading the AU means

As hinted in last week’s newsletter, the African Union has a new chairman -- Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa -- and for the next year he is charged with leading the AU – an organisation with 55 member states that differ widely in terms of size, economy, political culture, language and historical trajectories.

Now that seems like a lot to Handle!

Yes, it is. This is coming 18 years after the last time SA via Thebo Mbeki led the AU.

SA is coming to continue the work its predecessors Paul Kagame of Rwanda (2018) and Abdel el-Sisi of Egypt (2019) started.

What should we expect?

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first, South Africa’s image in the continent has been severely tarnished by the various waves of xenophobic attacks in the country and accusations that the government isn’t doing enough to protect other Africans living in South Africa. The country is also facing several economic issues with High unemployment high on the list.

On the positive note, South Africa has an opportunity to move beyond the ‘disappointing’ legacy of Dlamini Zuma's tenure at the AU Commission. It can strengthen Africa’s relationship with the UN, ensure the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area agree, revitalize agenda 2063: Africa's blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future. This and many other AU initiatives.

Looking Forward: South Africa has a lot to offer but it will have to contend with some negative perceptions of how it acted in the past and send strong signals that it is resolutely dealing with the xenophobia problem domestically. Also, this is an opportunity for it to prove that Leadership quality matters more than the economic or political weight of the country in the AU chair.

Technology

Google shutdowns its Free Wi-Fi Project

Image result for google wifi station

Google announced this week that it is shutting down Google Station, a service that allows partners to roll out free Wi-Fi in public places providing free internet access to residents of developing countries such as Brazil, Philippines, Indonesia, South Africa, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam and Nigeria.

Current Status of the project

The search giants currently offer free public WiFi at 400 railway stations in India and more than 5,000 other places around the world. Its users amounted to 8 million monthly consuming an average of 350MB of data per session.

Why the shutdown?

Declining Internet fees - Internet penetration has largely increased which has resulted in the declining price of mobile data worldwide since the product was launched.
Not making enough money - It tried to monetize the service by showing ads to users who signed into the service but this business model has not translated to a sufficient return on investment.
Scaling issues - Because each market where the service is offered has different technical and infrastructure requirements, it was difficult to scale up and to make a sustainable business.

What’s next?

Google partners in India and South Africa, Railtel and Think WiFi have confirmed that they will continue to offer free WiFi in the locations where it has been launched, however, in other countries such as Nigeria its fingers crossed as Google has said that it will be up to its partners to decide whether to continue offering Wi-Fi for free.

Why it matters
This was at attempt at Innovation that didn't work out. The need for innovation to gain rapid market share in an unexplored space spurs companies to look for new ways to solve the world's problems.
Many attempts don't work out but the few that do end up being widely successful.

Financial Services

Patreon is now giving out loans

In the bid to become a more sustainable company, Patreon, a platform for creators to earn monetary support from fans is now providing cash advance to its creators.

Customers get credit lines normally

Normally, companies give credit lines to their customers to enable them to make more purchases, especially when they are making bulk purchases or they’ve been longtime faithful customers. This builds a greater bond between the buyer and seller. But this case takes it a step further.

What’s different about this?

Here, Patreon is usually a middleman connecting creators to their supporters. It makes its money by taking a cut from the money creators earn. However, by offering microloans it’s creating an additional stream of income: Creators get money immediately in exchange for some of their future earnings plus a small premium.

This sounds Familiar

Yes, it does, Companies issuing microloans has become a trend in different sectors.

E-Commerce: Shopify the Canadian e-commerce platform rolled out its version (Shopify Capital) of the service in 2016.

Ride-Hailing: In 2018, Uber launched Uber Care to provide easy access to microloans, life insurance, family health for thousands of drivers.

Payments: Stripe, the online payments processing giant, last September launched its own “flexible financing” service for businesses using its platform, called Stripe Capital.

But Isn’t this what Banks do already?

Yes, you’re right. But there’s something about banks that people can’t seem to shake off. A survey by the World Economic Forum found that just 28 per cent of the millennial and Gen Z generations trust their banks to be fair and honest.

Big Picture: It appears any company with financial history of customers can become a financial service company in its own rights. Even with the influx of new fintech companies, more companies would keep adding financial services to their product line for the very first time.

In the end, as per The Verge, Every business is different, but they all have the same blood: money.