Category: Small Business

Tilapia is an important source of protein, income and livelihood provider for millions of people. The Lagos Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) is empowering groups to use cages to raise tilapia.The initiative has benefited the people of Lagos and caused men and women to smile to the bank. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

The cage culture has been defined as the rearing of fish in cages, especially in water that cannot be drained.These include lakes, canals and rivers. In the coastal waters, the cage culture has become a successful venture.

  At Afowo, Lagos State, the government is promoting the use of cages as a livelihood means for fisherfolk and augmenting fish production.Tilapia are major species cultured and the farmers are smiling to the bank.

One of the groups making money from fish farming through cage culture is the Ogbonge Women Multipurpose Agricultural Cooperative Society. Its President, Mrs Asonye Chinasa, said the group has made a profit of N6.6 million from selling fish raised through the cage culture.

She described the cage culture experiment in Lagos as a major success story, hoping the sector would undergo considerable expansion, driven by the success in helping Nigerians secure a nutritious source of food and maintaining livelihoods.

The programme is powered by the Lagos Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support (APPEALS) project. According to her, beneficiaries will play a dominant role in supplying fish products to consumers in urban and rural areas.

The National Project Coordinator, APPEALS project, Mr. Mohammed Sani Jobdi, sees it as a great opportunity to boost entrepreneurship through the aquaculture sector. He noted that the cage culture practised in Lagos appears to be promising, adding that efforts would be made to replicate it to create income sources and get more youths  and women to be involved in entrepreneurship.

He emphasised the need for promotion of cage aquaculture in reservoirs by following good management practices and providing support services. He assured the entrepreneurs that the government would provide the infrastructure and cooperation for the development of cage fish culture.

At the cottage industry in Afowo, farmers can classify, weigh, and prepare tilapia for marketing.There will also be water, electricity, sanitation and toilets for farmers.The Coordinator, Lagos APPEALS, Mrs. Oluranti Sagoe-Oviebo, said the project sets up cage farming units by providing technical as well as financial aid to groups and the returns are encouraging.

 She said the APPEALS project had empowered farmers on tilapia production, using the cages as part of efforts to develop aquaculture and also improve residents’ nutrition.

Mrs. Sagoe-Oviebo said efforts were being channelled to helping women and youths meet standards in exporting seafood products.

She said 150 cages had been installed in Afowo. She said the APPEALS project was focused on enhancing the contribution of small-scale fisheries to food security and sustainable livelihoods through better policies, strategies and initiatives.

According to her, the project supports the creation of job opportunities for youths and women through the development of aquaculture and fisheries’ management practices, as well as improved post-harvest handling, and fish processing practice.

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She said the key success factor  was community management. She explained that the cages required a very high level of initial investment .

She added that cage culture is a business model with sizable input and production cost.The groups were supported  with  initial capital investment  and the government also constructed  the jetties.

According to her, the government set out to facilitate the introduction of cage culture to commercialise fish farming and enhance food production for its citizens.

The initiative has gained traction with several fish farmers involved in cage culture. She emphasised that APPEAL provides technical support and advisory services to farmers to ensure their success.

 As part of the initiative, the government is establishing cottage processing industries to develop and commercialise the industry.

As the fisheries sector continues to grow, she indicated that it is of vital importance that proper infrastructure is put in place as well. This will uplift and improve rural livelihoods and will in turn help achieve an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.

 The President, Lagos State Catfish Farmers Association (LASCAFAN), Sejiro Michael Oke-Tojinu said there is a huge demand for fish and the return on investment makes the business model very attractive.

He stated the pivotal role of reservoir fisheries and aquaculture in enhancing fish production using enclosures such as cages.

According to him, cage systems efficiently utilise the water bodies by harnessing their natural productivity and are economically, socially and ecologically viable. He said the entrepreneurs would  earn more by exporting the tilapia to Benin and Togo.

She continued that the cage fish scheme has solved the livelihood problems of many residents of the area, contributing to financial empowerment.

The marine cages programme is helping the fishing sector in Afowo community, Owode, Apa Kingdom in Badagry Local Government Area .

The cage fish culture system will drive youth and women towards positive changes and provide benefits to the small-scale farmer, such as lower feed costs and the ability to grow a higher diversity of species in a small area.

For the United States-based think tank, Brookings Institution, while basic skill development and workforce preparation skills are important in the education system, a paradigm shift must take place to produce talents that are globally competitive. To this end, more institutions are organising training to boost capacities for the global job place. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

Competing in the global economy has been difficult for Nigerian graduates.This is because advanced countries not only need advanced technical and vocational skills, but also a flexible workforce that can adjust to rapid shifts in demand.

For Brookings Institution, a United States-based think tank, transformation could not take place in Africa without sufficient skills to handle low to high productivity activities.To this end, investing in skills has become so vital to  growth and competitiveness.

To this end, a lot has to be done in finding pragmatic solutions that will boost employability as global competency skills are necessary so that young people can invent a future that appropriately addresses global challenges.

In particular, education systems are being oriented towards producing youths who have strong foundational as well as specific skills for jobs. In line with this, programmes are aligned with competencies to take advantage of the upcoming new jobs and opportunities.

Today this end, institutions are organising training programmes to boost capacities to offer products for the global job place.

For Nigeria, building job-relevant skills has been identified as pivotal towards building a more competitive and efficient middle-income economy. However, the skills gap that has emerged with the changing labour market conditions may be starting to hold back the economy.

Lagos Business School (LB) restructured its MBA programme in its quest to develop managers with globally competitive skills that will prepare them for an increasingly complex business environment.

The Dean of LBS, Chris Ogbechie, observed recently that the school has been at the forefront of executive education in Nigeria for over three decades, and  ready for partnership to deliver value and impact .

While the demand for job-specific skills has been growing around the world,he was of the opinion, , skills development was  a common concern.

In the higher education industry  in Nigeria, there’s a wide range of skills, from entry-level positions to people with multiple doctorate degrees. There are instructors and faculty members that are just light years ahead on teaching and learning and applications of technology. But there are others who are still at a very basic level.

Hence, institutions are rising in organising training programmes to boost capacities to offer products for the global job place.  At the global level,  engineers who possess the proper training, education, and experience often find they have multiple professional opportunities and options. This makes it possible for them to use their wide range of knowledge to grow and foster successful careers in both the public and private sectors.

As  economic  growth continues  has  shifted the composition of  gross domestic product(GDP)to  the higher-value-added industrial and service sectors, the   Faculty of Engineering,University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) recently hosted training workshop to equip lecturers with the necessary knowledge and skills to  train good engineers that can  use a host of professional skills including strong communication, teamwork, social and cultural awareness, leadership and creativity.

 These align with competencies and skills highlighted by Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria(COREN)and employers, including communication, creativity, cultural awareness, ethics, leadership, risk management, systems thinking and teamwork.

The workshop, which was hosted at the Mechatronics Virtual Laboratory located at UNN saw active participation from 18 lecturers hailing from eight departments within the Faculty of Engineering. The training sessions were  conducted by five facilitators who had previously undergone training during the COREN regional Outcome Based Education Training (OBE) train-the-trainers workshop held in November 2021. These facilitators, having acquired valuable knowledge and expertise from their previous involvement with the COREN workshop, were well-equipped to guide and instruct the enthusiastic educators during the training program.

The training was organised by the Engineering Education Research Group (EERG), in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering at UNN.

The Coordinator of the research group, Dr. Ijeoma Ezika, emphasised the importance of expanding the knowledge and skill set of Nigerian universities’ faculty members in OBE principles and implementations.

The Event Coordinator, Dr. Patrick Akpan, furthermore, highlighted the significance of the training in enhancing the quality of engineering education.

 The Associate Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Sunday Ezeoha, an Associate Professor, who represented the Dean, expressed his utmost satisfaction with the programme.

COREN through OBE has been training  engineers that are employable globally. The  initiative by COREN is aimed at improving the skills of trained Nigerian Engineers to boost the country’s global competitiveness in the field of Engineering.

By upskilling the nation’s Engineers, Nigeria can attain impressive heights in engineering such as becoming a member of the 22-member Washington Accord, which has only South Africa as a member from Africa.

The OBE engineering education hinges on three basic parameters: knowledge, skill, and character. Combined, these parameters are designed to bridge the gap between engineering education and industry.

Five  Nigerian  startups were among  the 10 outstanding finalist impact enterprises representing the west Africa region, during first Sankalp West Africa Summit in Accra, Ghana.

 They include Kitovu Technology, Farm Corps, Simkay Foods,Drug-It Solutions and startup Pad Up Creations.

Startups from other countries  were Alcoford Corporation from Togo; Green Afro Palms, Clean Energy startups ShaQ Express and Sustainable Energy Technologies Limited from Ghana.

Every year, the summit rewards high impact enterprises  in the Africa region, which are tackling key development challenges. The finalists also get the opportunity to pitch their enterprises to a jury.

This year, the winners were the four most innovative young entrepreneurs in West Africa, whose ideas are well- poised to deliver significant impact outcomes, while solving some of the most complex social challenges.

The Sankalp West Africa Awards  winner was Green Afro-Palms from Ghana, an agricultural startup engaged in  oil palm farming and processing.They also pay it forward through farmer sensitisation aimed at promoting environmentally sustainable oil palm farming.

 The First Runner Up was Kitovu Technology from Nigeria. Kitovu is an agri startup that build climate-smart farming and post-harvest infrastructure for African agriculture, which provides smallholder farmers with decision support and access to tools and resources that optimise their productivity and incomes.

The Second Runner Up was ShaQ Express, Ghana’s first superapp. It is a  tech company addressing the evolving needs and challenges in the e-commerce and logistics industry their mission is to connect packages to people.

In a unique format, the Fourth Winner, called as the ‘Sankalp Ecosystem Award’ is given through a voting process from practitioners from the developmental ecosystem.This year the winner was Pad-Up Creation from Nigeria, a circular economy startup that manufactures and produces washable and reusable sanitary pads as a sustainable solution for women and girls in Africa, thereby showing how innovation coupled with intent can significantly impact and deliver on sustainability and social good.

“The Sankalp West Africa Awards  has truly been an enriching experience when it comes to meeting hundreds of impact enterprises whose business promise and potential is crucial to solving economic and development challenges in the region. There is tremendous appetite for growth amongst startups here and we are inspired by the ideas and the cutting edge innovation of our winners, each of whom demonstrate the ability to drive action, catalyse collaborations  and influence positive outcomes,” said Sankalp Lead and AVP Intellecap Africa, Arielle Molino.

The summit, supported by Visa Foundation, IDRC, Siemens, AFEX, was Energy Catalyst and Miller Centre, witnessed over by 300 change makers from the West Africa Region.

Many startups and platforms are transforming the face of agriculture. One area that has witnessed new entrants is the fertiliser industry. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

Nigeria and the rest of Africa agri-tech innovation space have been busy the last few years. One  area witnessing new entrants is the fertiliser industry with  startups  developing solutions to address nitrogen deficiency in the  soils, facilitate fertilisation, produce biofertiliser, among others.

So much has happened across the startup space to tackle drought resistance, pathogen suppression, and soil productivity challenges.

Chief Executive  and Co-founder, Releaf, Ikenna Nzewi,  has  combines the best American biotechnologies to better serve the agriculture sector in Nigeria.

 Nzewi noted that use of technology  would boost the fortunes of farmers and productivity.

Thanks to innovation, a fertiliser startup, Phospholutions, has developed a soil-amendment product called RhizoSorb.

According to Phospholutions Chief Executive, Hunter Swisher, the product aims to reduce phosphorus runoff and enhance plant root depth, decreasing the amount of both water and fertiliser needed to have healthy plants.

“We’re alleviating the burden that nutrient pollution puts on our farmers, taxpayers, and environment. We create innovative technologies to treat pollution and produce sustainable fertiliser and products to manage nutrients more efficiently,’’ he said.

Right now, the Phospholutions team is broadening its mission to include retaining, recapturing and recycling nutrients, focusing on transitioning from high volume to high value fertiliser.

Recently, Phospholutions  was selected by agricultural industry leaders as the winner of the International Fertiliser Association(IFA)/ Mohammed VI Polytechnic University(UM6P) Africa AgTech Startup Showcase at the IFA yearly conferenc in Prague,   Czech Republic capital.

The startup was chosen for developing  technologies to increase fertiliser efficiency, affordability, and minimise the environmental impact of global phosphorus use.

Phospholutions beat seven other startups to secure the grand prize of 20,000 pounds, during a competitive, live                                                                                    final round judged by a jury of experts and with voting by Annual Conference delegates.

The other seven finalists included Nigerian startup FoodLocker, a farm produce and consumer goods aggregator for large buyers.

Launched in December 2017, FoodLocker forecasts foodstuff demand through deep machine learning, thus enabling large-scale buyers to efficiently procure fast-moving consumer goods and fresh produce from smallholder farmers.

Others were Natura Crop Care, which offers innovative, patented climate-resilient solutions for sustainable soil health, reducing carbon footprint and doubling farmers’ incomes;Agri IOT, which is developing Croptune, a real-time mobile application that recognises nutritional deficiencies in crops; Albo Climate, which offers a remote and accurate solution for quantifying, mapping, and monitoring carbon sequestered in ecosystems worldwide and  Farmer Lifeline Technologies, which has developed a solar-powered device that scans crops and alerts farmers to pests or diseases while providing recommendations on fertiliser or pesticides.

 Agricolleges International, which is a cloud-based online learning institution that provides affordable, accessible and industry-relevant education and training in agriculture and related agri-industries and  Safi Organics, driving crop production and consumption of agricultural inputs and commodities through decentralised fertiliser production.

In today’s digital era, there is a growing emphasis on increasing female participation in entrepreneurship to bridge the digital literacy gap. More women are making strides in technology, entrepreneurship, and e-commerce as they break down barriers.

The tech industry’s male-dominated landscape has left little room for women to excel and created a shortage of technical professionals.

This widening gap in digital literacy among low-income female entrepreneurs necessitates more experts due to technological advancements.

Digital literacy enhances access to education and learning opportunities, empowering individuals to leverage online resources and educational platforms for self-improvement and personal growth.

To address this need, The Wivesroundtable Foundation created the Digital Academy for Female Entrepreneurs (D.A.F.E) project, with funding from The Coca-Cola Foundation (TCCF).

The recently concluded D.A.F.E cohort focused on fostering gender inclusivity and economic advancement for women in Lagos State through digital literacy training.

Its curriculum covered social media basics, strategies, and digital marketing.
The initiative empowered women to amplify their voices, challenge stereotypes, and drive societal change using social media, blogging, and digital content creation.

The project targeted female entrepreneurs aged 18 to 60 in Lagos State with the sole purpose of economically empowering over 500 women in Surulere, Lagos, promoting digital training, and establishing a learning assistance framework.

Celebrating the successful completion of its latest cohort, the 12-week-long program ran from March 2nd to May 31st, 2023. It brought together prominent members of commercial, entrepreneurial, and charitable communities to acknowledge the achievements of these female entrepreneurs and showcase TCCF’s commitment to economic progress and gender inclusion.

The Coca-Cola Foundation continues to support women and youth empowerment initiatives through grants to non-profit organizations for social impact programs. The D.A.F.E project focuses on women and youth empowerment in Africa’s economic development and sustainability in a bid to increase women’s interest in technology, enable digital tool usage, reduce inequality, and boost income.

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The closing ceremony recognized the success stories of D.A.F.E beneficiaries and provided a platform for participants to share their experiences and creative thinking. Many showcased their innovative business ideas and digital products or services, demonstrating technology’s transformative influence on women-owned enterprises.

Throughout the training, 528 women entrepreneurs participated in two-day physical and virtual classes, each supported by dedicated staff to aid effective learning. By the program’s end, 40% of previously digitally illiterate participants became comfortable in the digital space, with 60% already recording online sales and expanding their digital knowledge.
Amaka Chibuzo-Obi, Founder/Program Director of the Wivesroundtable Foundation, expressed gratitude for TCCF’s support in making a meaningful impact in women’s lives. She emphasized the importance of easy-to-understand technological concepts and digital literacy for middle-aged women to increase sales, grow businesses, and improve living standards.

To successfully kickstart the project, the Wivesroundtable Foundation utilized various channels to target women, including social media, community leaders, religious places, women’s associations, and structured markets for information dissemination.

The partnership between the Wivesroundtable Foundation and The Coca-Cola Foundation marks a crucial step towards enhancing the quality of life of low-income female entrepreneurs through digital literacy.

The Coca-Cola Foundation continues to support transformative ideas and institutions that address complex global challenges and that leave a measurable and lasting impact. The Foundation’s giving is focused on sustainable access to safe water, climate resilience and disaster risk preparedness and response, circular economy, economic empowerment, and causes impacting its hometown community. Since its inception in 1984, The Coca-Cola Foundation has awarded grants of over $1.5 billion in service of its mandate to strengthen communities across the world.

The Entertainment Executive/CEO, Typical Gents Salon, a celebrity gents salon in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Azeez Olanrewaju Adenekan, may have become the rave of the moment in the Arab Nation, where his salon is fast emerging the preferred hub for men’s grooming.

Popularly known as Lanre Typical, Adenekan, a top music executive/international promoter cum celebrity stylist, is leaving no stone unturned in his quest to dictate the pace in Dubai’s men’s grooming space, as he continues to leverage innovation to offer his already growing high-end clientele the optimum barbershop experience.

According to the budding entrepreneur, the upscale men’s salon offers high-quality organic products and other premium range options in facial creams, serums, and moisturisers. The latest in this range, he added, include solution-based treatments such as anti-wrinkle peels, acne-fighting washes, and anti-aging facials.

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He said apart from the grooming services that accompany a basic hair cut and shave, the salon also offers shampooing, perming, beard grooming, scalp treatments, facials cleansing, manicures and pedicures, keratin treatment, hair coloring, and even dreadlocks styling. “Men are starting to put their best face forward,” he said.

 “Every man needs a haircut, and Typical Gents Salon is a location where guys may visit to unwind for a little while, catch up with pals once in a while, and leave with a custom cut. Women are no longer the only ones interested in investing in their appearance. The modern guy is more aware than ever that his look plays a role in his quest for success and confidence.”

With famous stars like Davido, Dbanj, Zlatan Ibile, 2face Idibia, Zinoleesky, John Obi Mikel, and Punjabi singer Fouji, as some of the celebrities that make up Typical Gents Salon’s strong portfolio, Lanre Typical is arguably, one of the most famous celebrity hair stylists in Dubai.

Adenekan has been celebrating the finest talents and outstanding individuals in the Nigerian and African entertainment industry, bringing the best artists to enrich the nightlife experiences of Africans based in Dubai.

The Nation learnt that at Typical Gents Salon, the top-notch entertainment executive/promoter, who is also the CEO of TypicalNaija.ng, a blog known for fashion and music distribution, takes care of clients who have had a hard day or week at work by giving them a hot towel facial, a nice new haircut, and a sip.

WEZE, a wholesale marketplace for used and new electronics, has secured $3.7 million to develop its technology infrastructure, broaden its product offering and expand into new markets in Africa, Europe and South America.

  The funding round was led by Right Side Capital Management, with participation from C2 Ventures, Boro Capital, EVPI Investments and other angel investors.

  The global market for consumer electronics is projected to grow to reach $1.70 trillion by 2028, driven by rising disposable incomes of consumers, the growing tendency towards digitisation and the increasing utility of personal electronic devices such as smartphones, wearables and other devices.

  However, the process of buying and selling these devices in wholesale quantities still remains manual, especially in emerging markets. This manual process leads to various inefficiencies and adds to the cost burden for buyers which they typically pass on to consumers, raising the barrier to access potentially life changing products.

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Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Eze (pronounced – “Easy”) connects thousands of buyers across the world to used and new smartphones, laptops, tablets and other electronics. Buyers can purchase from the largest electronics inventory repository in the world with over 200,000 SKUs available at any time and have their orders delivered as quickly as the next day, depending on where they are ordering from.

Buyers can also pay securely in their local currency, making it easier for them to buy the electronics they need. Eze vets all sellers and physically inspects each device that is purchased before it is shipped to the buyer, to ensure that all devices are fully functional and meet the prescribed quality grading.The startup already has loyal customers in more than 50 countries across the world, including the US, UK, Nigeria, Mexico, Ukraine, UAE and it has sold more than 500,000 devices, with less than one per cent defect rate.

The Chief Executive and co-founder, Eze, Josh Nzewi, said: “Our mission is to power unfettered access to consumer electronics across the world, enabling users to maximise their potential with the experiences provided by these devices.

“We are thrilled to have the support of our investors, and we look forward to using this funding to enhance our platform and provide even more value to our customers. Our goal remains to become the go-to destination for B2B buyers and sellers in the electronics industry, especially in emerging markets, and this investment will help us achieve that goal.

“We believe that Eze has the potential to revolutionise the wholesale electronics marketplace.Their platform is user-friendly, with integrations that enable an excellent buyer experience. We are excited to support them in their expansion journey.”

Haul247, an end-to-end logistics tech platform connecting businesses to haulage and warehousing assets, has raised $3 million in a seed funding round.

Haul247 will use the investment to increase its market share in Nigeria, expand to other African markets, recruit talent, and develop its technology.

Alitheia Capital led the $3 million seed funding round via its uMunthu Fund, while Investment One participated. This follows a pre-seed funding round in 2021 by Khafid Gbadamosi and Horsham Gates. More recently, the company was selected as one of the recipients of the 2022 Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.

With over a thousand trucks on its roster and about 151,000 sqm of warehouse space available across various locations, Haul247 provides a unique platform for businesses to  book trucks and warehouses across multiple geo-locations in Africa using real-time technology.

Africa’s logistics industry remains fragmented, with over 80 per cent  of the market being operated by informal carriers that own one to three vehicles.

“Africa’s logistics sector continues to be hampered by a lack of supporting infrastructure, bottlenecks in service delivery, and a widespread informal approach to logistics business,” said   Chief Executive,Haul247, Sehinde Afolayan.

Haul247 was founded to address the supply-demand mismatch in the ecosystem and optimise logistics service delivery in key African markets.”

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Afolayan, who has over a decade’s experience in the African supply chain business, believes that solutions to logistics in Africa that do not solve warehousing challenges will be more costly, inefficient, and risky.

“Our platform connects businesses with reliable and efficient haulage and warehousing assets, making the movement of goods across the continent easier and faster. With the support of our investors, we will expand to new markets, recruit more talent and develop our technology to make logistics even more accessible and efficient for businesses in Africa”, he says. Afolayan believes this funding round will help Haul247 cement its position as Africa’s Airbnb for trucks and warehouses.

Managing Partner at Alitheia Capital, Tokunboh Ishmael, added, “We are excited to be at the forefront of optimising logistics service delivery in key African markets, as trade and commerce is a key lever for driving development. Our investment further enables Haul247 to provide a seamless logistics solution for transporting and storing goods across the continent in a way that unlocks value and amplifies impact for individuals and companies throughout the value chain”.

Haul247’s proprietary software enables individuals, enterprises, manufacturers, and FMCGs to book logistics services in three simple steps quickly. The software takes an order request from a shipper, attaches a quote, and then matches the request with the most suitable truck and warehouse for efficient fulfillment.

Companies looking for warehouse facilities can also use the same process, making it an efficient and versatile platform for all logistics needs. Additionally, the system allows shippers to track the status of their goods until they reach their destination.

The founders of Haul247, Sehinde Afolayan, Tobi Obasa and Akindele Philips, believe the company is well-positioned to unlock Africa’s commercial potential while delivering value to clients and partners.

The co-founder, RootHub, a Google-certified trainer in digital skill acquisition, Tony Onuk, has intensified efforts to produce skilled professionals adept at handling digital tools, DANIEL ESSIET reports

Emerging technologies that may have a huge impact on economic growth abound in Nigeria.

Against this backdrop,  the co-founder, RootHub, a Google-certified trainer, Tony Onuk, is upskilling youths and organisations in the use of some emerging technologies which have the capacity to create jobs.

In the Southsouth, where he operates, there is a huge opening for entrepreneurial ventures and deployment of such skills.  

Within the region, there are many young players who have launched small enterprises in auto, manufacturing, healthcare, education and other sectors with the skills they acquired in emerging technologies.

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Following this, there are vacancies for youths specialising in fintech, e-commerce, supply chain logistics, internet and software services and ed-tech in Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Rivers states.

A key player in the startup sector, Onuk has made progress on his mission to ensure that lack of skilled manpower is not a challenge for Nigeria to reap the benefits of industrialisation.

Onuk and his team launched RootHub in 2014, from a small space in Ibom e-library, Akwa Ibom, alongside five startups. The organisation has impacted many youths with technology skills, helping them to access choice employment, advance career paths, and drive self-reliance through entrepreneurship.

In 2016, the organisation partnered the Akwa Ibom State Government, through the Akwa Ibom Enterprise and Employment Scheme, to train 3,600 youths and supplied the tech industry with highly-skilled persons.

The company has created a co-working space that includes an innovation laboratory, a business incubator, and a community centre. It also provided work spaces in five states, with the headquarters in Akwa Ibom, and branches in Rivers, Ebonyi, Oyo and Lagos states.

With so many new entrepreneurs and startups entering the business market yearly, Onuk sees a lot of opportunities to invest in training  specialists in top fields since not all  firms have a good source of funding for human capital development.

Onuk has transformed many businesses and continues to inspire with his business acumen and foresight.

With technology, Taslim Salaudeen is making it easy for businesses to get data to conquer the marketplace. DANIEL ESSIET reports

One Nigerian who has joined the growing list of those solving problems in Africa, especially for business organisations, is the founder of Milsat Technologies Limited, Taslim Salaudeen.

He is empowering businesses take charge of their future by providing them access to valuable consumer data and insights, so they can be smarter and faster in driving their business sustainably.

He founded Milsat in 2020 to provide practical data solutions for businesses across various industries. Today, businesses rely on the firm’s analytics solution to discover new opportunities in the market, conduct due diligence on those opportunities and manage their portfolios with a dashboard and real-time alerts.

His selling point is location specific data.

He created a platform where people could access the support they need. The company is serving many businesses across Nigeria and beyond.

Salaudeen said: “Data Acquisition is the act of collecting data, storing and analysing the data to enhance planning, strategising, and decision making. For example, a company working in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) space might want to know which geographical area their product sells the most, what kind of people live there, why are they buying it or why are they not buying it. It could also be that a telecom brand wants to know 100 new locations that meet their ROI requirement to deploy their mast. In this scenario, a data acquisition service provider comes in to meet that need.”

The location intelligence expert further said there are different uses of data. However, Milsat has carved a niche in providing location data services to reduce time and manage funds deployed to field research.

“As a data acquisition provider, we help our client do the fieldwork using the right tools within the shortest period (usually saving them between 40 and 70 per cent of their initial budget for fieldwork),” he said.

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On how he made an in-road into his field, Salaudeen said. “I’ve always loved Geography. I am fascinated by anything that brings me close to nature.  As fate would have it, I gained admission to study RemoteSensing and Geographic Information Service (GIS) at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo State. Though I had completed a pre-degree programme in Geophysics at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, attending FUTA, studying GIS and meeting people with unrivalled innovative minds kicked off what I will call my journey into technology. However, a few departmental courses exposed meto practical applications of computer vision in Geography and software for modelling the environment.”

He mentioned that their primary brand offerings include field surveys, location data collection, mobile mapping application, dashboard development and location intelligence technology advisory, among others.

On the brand’s achievements, the tech expert said: “In the past three years, I’ve consulted for several organisations and international agencies, with the most groundbreaking being the TechnologyResearch and Advisory for the National Population Commission. My work initiated the shift from the orthodox pen-and-paper methods to modern mobile applications and dashboards.

“I created diverse solutions for the pre-enumeration census which aimed at annotating the buildings in the country. I was able to reduce the turnaround time for enumeration area map download and provisioning from a projection of 16 months to less than 30 minutes if executed concurrently.

“Interestingly, the solution has been translated into an architecture for the upcoming Nigerian census,” he added.

Like in many businesses, his has also faced challenges.

Salaudeen explained: “I’d say finding the right team and implementing the right structure and culture is a challenge that often goes under the radar.

“Also, carefully crafting our solutions to solve the multiple spins of problems faced by our clients was a problem we had to deal with in our early years. Things are different now and we stay ten steps ahead by expecting any problem with our broad solutions.”

The tech entrepreneur did not fail to offer a piece of advice to youths and budding entrepreneurs saying.”I encourage budding entrepreneurs to believe that their dreams are valid and can become anything they want in life.”

The tech space is an interesting one, your ability to apply tech to every field of endeavour stands you out.

  “I have failed multiple times in tech which sounds bad to an everyday person. But my failures were just catalysts and shapers of how I approach situations. One good side of tech is that it is an enabler. If you like cars, with tech, you can build products for the automobile industry that solve automobile inclined problems,” he stated.