Category: Tech

Are you currently managing a big team, and you feel overwhelmed? That is a pretty common problem because, with the growth of the business, the team usually grows too, which then feels overwhelming to the team manager. Luckily, there are many different ways to save time and energy while managing a tool. We want to give you helpful tips and tricks here!

Why can it be overwhelming to manage a big team?

If you are managing many people in a team, there can be numerous tasks that take far too much time and are quite monotone—for example, creating a work-Sheet for all the working hours of each team member. Not only is this a brainless task, but it also takes a lot of time, especially if you have a big team. This time you could be investing in more productive tasks. It is also quite challenging to keep an overview of all the functions that have to be done by the end of the month and who is working on them. This can be tricky for a team of 50 people but even harder for a team as big as 200 people. Therefore, It is understandable that you feel overwhelmed and are looking for solutions. Luckily, you found the relevant article here because we have helpful tips and tricks on managing a big team successfully!

These are the best tips and tricks for managing a big team!

Are you tired of spending so much time on tasks that should not take this long? Do you want to manage a big team successfully without feeling lost and overwhelmed? Then have a look at our tips and tricks on how to manage a big team!

Use time-saving tools

Since the internet, many new tools will help you save a lot of time, energy, and work, but since there are so many on the market, it can be confusing. Not every tool is a good one, and it takes time to figure out which one is better than the other. If you are not willing to invest this time, we have a recommendation for you! This rota software is an excellent choice because it allows you to create a worksheet for each employee online with only a few clicks. Rather than physically handing out the working hours for the week, you can do it online, and everyone can look at it whenever and wherever they want. Not just that, but if someone in your team has a holiday planned, this person can mark this early enough in the calendar so when you create the weekly or monthly roster, you can keep the holiday in mind. This way, you will always have enough employees around and don’t need to worry that you might give too many people a day off.

Have you caught yourself spending hours and hours at the end of the month just counting each employee’s working hours? This is an annoying and unrewarding task, but with a proper tool, you can automate this process. You can invest the time you would usually spend, counting on more productive tasks.

Outsource time-consuming work

It is impossible for you to find a tool that does a task for you, and you would love to spend this time more productively. Get a virtual assistant! This person can do the task for you and efficiently outsource unrewarding work!

A Lagos based importer of automobile batteries and the Chief Executive Officer of Emilinks Limited, Mr Solomon Chukwuemeka Nwadiogbu has lamented the annual loss of N150 billion to fake battery products damaging a lot of cars in Nigeria.

In a chat with Journalists at the weekend, he expressed displeasure over the colossal damage fake batteries have cost the economy over years and offered solution to the challenge saying that his company was willing to offer Nigerians batteries with five years life span with three years warranty.

“In Nigeria, battery failure is one of the top problems among car owners. Nigeria needs about five million batteries every year, this includes solar, forklift, cranes, and other heavy-duty equipment. For a country with an annual demand of 720,000 vehicles, you would agree that this is a very big issue Nigerians are struggling with.

“The use of bad batteries will affect the engines of automobile vehicles. We foresee a serious threat because of the influx of substandard batteries into the country that is a threat to the economy because many people waste their hard-earned money to buy these products at an average cost of N30,000, and going by Nigeria’s annual battery demand of five million batteries, it means we are losing a whopping N150 billion naira annually to fake automobile batteries” he noted.

Nwadiogbu, who majors in the importation of European electronics and other products said his company had imported quality batteries that could last five years with three years warranty but however regretted that some countries were making Nigeria a dumping ground.

“At Emilinks we have ‘follow-come’, same quality as the ones that come with a brand-new car. We have them in different sizes; 65 amps, 75 amps, 63 amps, 77 amps, 90 amps, 140 amps, 190 amps, and 100 amps. They are all made in Europe and have a 3 – 5 years lifespan so long as the car’s charging system is okay.”

The Ekiti state government has partnered with TechCabal Insights (TC Insights), an Africa-focused digital economy consultancy that leverages big data to help startups, investors, operators, big tech companies, government and other ecosystem players on and off the continent to answer specific questions and implement key interventions, to launch a software development training boot camp.

The boot camp, which is limited to residents of Ekiti, aims to train 50 people in software development.

The Ekiti State Government believes that this training will enable the state to fast track its economic growth as well as the socio-economic advancement of its citizens.

Speaking on the partnership, the Head of Tech Cabal Insights, Mr. Olarenwaju Odunowo, said: “According to a Google/IFC report, there are less than 100,000 software developers in Nigeria.

“This means the country has a lower developer-to-population ratio when compared to countries like Egypt and South Africa.

“Also, technology has contributed immensely to the growth of Nigeria’s economy. From Paystack’s $200m acquisition to Flutterwave becoming a unicorn, the success stories abound.

” But at the root of this growth is the immense human capital powering these companies.”

He further noted “about 43% of Nigeria’s population fall within the 0-14 age range and with such a young population, the country has the potential to position itself as a leading innovation hub globally.

“This means there is an opportunity to empower the next generation with the necessary skills for the future of work and the Ekiti State government is leading the way.”

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) and Google announced today an inaugural Google.org Fellowship to provide one million additional Africans with access to TEFConnect, as part of the Foundation’s mission to empower young African entrepreneurs from all 54 African countries.

The announcement was made during an event held at the Foundation’s headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria, which was attended by several African political and business leaders.

This partnership is the first Google.org Fellowship in Africa and will offer enormous opportunities for Africa’s digital community. Nine full-time Google employees, including software engineers, UI/UX researchers, and policy experts, will work with the Foundation to design and build an upgraded version of the TEFConnect platform. TEFConnect is already home to over one million African entrepreneurs and offers tailored tools, market partnerships, and access to coaches and investors to small businesses.

This fellowship builds on an initial $3 million grant by Google.org to support the 2021 TEF Entrepreneurship Programme by empowering an additional 500 African women to start or scale their businesses.  The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme is a US$ 100m initiative that has supported over 15,000 African entrepreneurs and is the largest entrepreneurship programme in Africa.

“Before the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, my water company suffered financial setbacks. Since TEF support, I have purchased new machines and impacted more communities to ease the water purification process. I deliver clean water to villages that lack access to clean water at an affordable price. The Tony Elumelu Foundation Grant was a dream come true for me and a great opportunity. More people should partake, this is the most innovative platform in Africa,” TEF Beneficiary, Lungile Marhungane, CEO, Jesu Puro Water.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalysing economic growth, driving poverty eradication and job creation across all 54 African countries. TEF has disbursed over $85 million in seed capital to date to support small business growth across Africa.

Speaking, the co-Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Dr. Awele V. Elumelu said, “We are pleased to continue to share our unique ability and platform to identify, train, mentor and fund young entrepreneurs across Africa with like-minded institutions like Google.org who share in our commitment to empower young African entrepreneurs. It will be exciting to see the ways in which the refreshed TEFConnect platform will continue to provide a space for growth, personal development, and meaningful exchange for African entrepreneurs. In line with our founding philosophy of Africapitalism, we believe that entrepreneurs are the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

Jen Carter, global head of technology at Google.org, commented on this exciting partnership, “We are delighted to kick off our first Google.org Fellowship in Africa. The Tony Elumelu Foundation does so much to empower African entrepreneurs, and we are thrilled to be able to lend the expertise of Googlers to expand the reach of the TEFConnect platform to an additional 1 million entrepreneurs.”

“Google’s commitment in Africa has progressed from sponsoring projects to collaborative partnerships with established African organisations like the Tony Elumelu Foundation, dedicated to developing young African talent. As Africa’s digital economy grows, African entrepreneurs are in a prime position to establish a powerful digital footprint, and this fellowship is one step closer to transforming the landscape” she added.

Green Energy International Limited (GEIL), a leading indigenous oil and gas development company and the Operator of the Otakikpo Marginal field in Rivers State has achieved an exceptional safety milestone – 4 million manhours without Lost Time Incident (LTI) since commencement of operation in the field.  In response to the recent increase in Health Safety and Environment (HSE) incidents in the industry, Green Energy International Limited has developed and implemented a suite of key HSE improvement programmes in its area of operations.  These improvements have built on its previous HSE initiatives to ensure the Company and its personnel continue to work to attain an incident and injury-free environment where everyone goes home safe each day.

Mr. Chukwuka Igbokwe, HSE GM of the Company praised the Company for its efforts and the milestone and he emphasized that the Company is proud of this achievement since most E&P Companies do not attain such man-hour exposure without a lost time incident (LTI).  He further stated that the milestone means a lot to everyone at the Company and shows that people can work each day and throughout the life of the facility incident free. GEIL will continue to work with all contractors to ensure an Incident-free environment where everyone is safe and comfortable to always express their perceptions to safety with a consciousness towards looking out for each other.

Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe, the CEO of the Company, stated that “in as much as this figure is significant to us which statistically shows how safe our operation has been, we talk about safety, incidents, successes, and incident-Free performance by speaking about people and possibilities”.  He further explained that GEIL wants to promote accomplishments in terms of what it makes possible for its people and their families, not just because someone is happy to get an incentive having reached a particular metric.

Read Also: GEIL accelerates Social, Economic Change in Rivers

Professor Anthony Adegbulugbe further emphasized just as any other operator in the oil and gas industry, the Company cannot claim to have done everything right without challenges, but GEIL can beat its chest that its incident and injury-free journey is on course – thanks to the well informed and supportive workforce and management.

Poised to sustain its world-class safety performance, GEIL wants to be and remain in this position of “preventing” fatalities and serious injuries. The Company believes that not recording fatalities or serious injuries should be a result of consistent operational discipline when executing high-risk tasks, not based on the fact that incidents have not been recorded or the belief that such incident cannot happen in its operation.

With this, Green Energy International Limited (GEIL) reviewed its activities alongside historical industry data related to fatalities and high potential events and has developed and implemented a safety assurance programme “Life-Saving Actions and Barrier Checks” which aligns with the IOGP Life-Saving Rules. The programme is intended to support existing management systems, policies, safety training programmes, operating procedures, and work instructions.

At the launch of the programme, the Company’s HSE GM, Mr. Chukwuka Igbokwe affirms that these Life-Saving Actions and Barrier Checks are meant to draw attention to activities that could most likely lead to a fatality and confirming that the critical (life-saving) actions/barriers are in place before work begins.  This approach is in line with the Company’s established and enduring core beliefs that safety is not the absence of incidents, but rather it is the presence of defences/barriers.

Google on Monday announced the participants in Google for Startups Accelerator Africa Class 7.

The selected startups are developing solutions in areas such as healthcare, education, fleet management, logistics automation and recruiting.

This seventh class includes 15 tech startups from seven African countries, with Cote D’Ivoire joining for the first time. The class was selected from thousands of applications, with final selection based on product stage, program alignment and market fit.

Over the next three months, they will work with Google mentors and facilitators learning best practices on a range of topics including Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, organisational culture, growth strategies and more.

Google for Startups Accelerator Africa programs are organised around a virtual bootcamp concept that includes seminars, one-on-one coaching sessions, and peer-to-peer learning opportunities. Bootcamps will take place in March, April and May.

Says Folarin Aiyegbusi Head of Startup Ecosystem, Africa: “We’re thrilled to be starting off our seventh cohort with such a diverse and inspiring group of companies who are harnessing technology to tackle the problems that many people on the continent face every day. Startups in Africa are solving some of the region’s most pressing issues -from employment to logistics, banking, healthcare, and education. This is a journey that we’re happy to be on.”

The Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program has supported 82 startups from 17 African countries over the past four years. Collectively, they have raised $112 million and created 2800 direct jobs. In this time,  Google has invested $5m through a combination of equity free funding and product credits for Google services.

“As a digital identity onboarding platform based in Nigeria, iVerify.ng is extremely delighted to have been selected for Class 7 of Google for Startups Accelerator Africa amidst our need to deploy more robust technology infrastructure and scale our operations across Africa. We’re looking forward to the workshops, mentoring and inestimable value we’ve heard so much about. Thank you for validating our dream!!” says Zita Agwunobi, CEO of iVerify.ng, one of the selected startups.

Balqis  Chepkwony CEO of Kenyan startup Fleetsimplify says: “Fleetsimplify is thrilled to have been selected for the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa! We’re looking forward to working with the Google team to bring sustainable shared mobility solutions in Africa.”

“Google is committed to Africa’s growing startup and developer ecosystem,” adds Aiyegbusi. “Providing end-to-end support and investment to startups pays off for everyone in the long run. As these startups grow, they advance their local economies, create jobs and opportunities, and provide solutions in their communities. A stronger African economy is great for everyone, and Google is committed to helping African businesses thrive,” he concludes.

Selected startups (in alphabetical order)

1. Clafiya (Nigeria): Clafiya connects patients to health practitioners to provide fast and affordable on demand primary care services in Africa.

2. Fleetsimplify (Kenya): Fleetsimplify is a fleet management platform for shared mobility.

3. HydroIQ (Kenya): HydroIQ is a virtual water network that gives consumers and utilities a single, transparent platform to manage their water consumption and management.

4. iVerify.ng (Nigeria): iVerify.ng is a digital identity onboarding platform.

5. LaRuche Health (Côte d’Ivoire): LaRuche Health offers inclusive apps that simplify care delivery and improve patient access to preventive healthcare services.

6. LyRise (Egypt): LyRise is a platform that provides companies with an easier, faster way to hire and work with vetted AI and data talents from Africa.

7. MDaaS Global (Nigeria): MDaas builds and operates modern, technology-enabled diagnostic services in clinically-underserved communities in Nigeria.

8. Multiplied (South Africa): Multiplied offers data-driven design at scale through infinite personalised content for marketing.

9. Nulitics (South Africa): Nulitics is a specialist Mixed Reality (XR) software development and system integrator with a focus on XR wearable technology.

10. Ridelink (Uganda): Ridelink makes cargo mobility affordable and accessible for small businesses at the tap of a button.

11. SmartClass (Tanzania): SmartClass is a skill-learning network that enables youth to learn from their peers.

12. Sukhiba (Kenya): Sukhiba is a decentralised community-based commerce platform.

13. Terawork (Nigeria): Terawork is a pan-African online freelance marketplace plugging Africa talent into the global workforce.

14. The Marking App (South Africa): The Marking App provides a data-free application that automatically marks handwritten school assessments while also automating school administration.

15. truQ (Nigeria): truQ is a tech-enabled logistics platform automating and optimising short haul (or intracity) logistics for automated retail distribution companies in Africa.

Google on Thursday launched Mail Magic, a digital treasure trove which aims to preserve and showcase Mali’s historic and contemporary art and culture.

Since 2015, Google Arts & Culture has been working with local and international organisations (see list below) to digitise, curate and share Mali’s incredible stories and rich heritage.

Together with its local partners Google Arts & Culture identified four key pillars of Malian culture – manuscripts, music, monuments and modern art – and worked closely with local communities and experts to digitally document the country’s rich art, architecture, scholarship and musical tradition, and to share stories of its resilience in the face of political struggles with the world.

With the launch of Mali Magic, people from all over the world can view an array of manuscripts, music, art and heritage sites including over 40 000+ digitised endangered manuscripts many of which were smuggled to safety during political unrest in the country. It also contains more than 50 exhibits which include the first online, interactive tours of some of Mali’s most significant historic sites,  at-risk mausoleums and mosques including the Sidi Yahiya and Djinguereber Mosques and the Tomb of Askia, all created using Street View.

Google Arts & Culture also worked with artist and musician DJ Spooky (Paul Miller) to create short videos to explore the evolution of storytelling, from West Africa to the American blues. An original album, Maliba, by Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara, produced in Mali and written about the country’s cultural legacy, was created exclusively for the project. The collection also contains a wealth of videos and imagery which capture Mali’s contemporary art scene and profile some of its artists.

Read Also: Five ways to turn up the love this Valentine’s Day, by Google

Says Chance Coughenour, Program Manager and Digital Archaeologist, Google Arts & Culture: “The Malian city of Timbuktu gave birth to an abundance of learning in the fields of human rights, morality, politics, astronomy and literature captured in thousands of  manuscripts. When this ancient knowledge was threatened by extremist groups in 2012,  local communities raced against time to preserve these treasures. This legacy is now available for people across the world to explore.”

Dr. Abdel Kader Haidara, the ‘badass librarian’ known for smuggling the manuscripts out of Timbuktu, said  “[They] are more than important historical documents. Central to the heritage of the West African nation of Mali, they represent the long legacy of written knowledge and academic excellence in Africa, and hold potential to inspire global learning from the actions of the past in confronting modern day issues.”

“The preservation of global heritage is a huge endeavour, “ adds Coughenour, “Many experts, NGOs and cultural institutions work in this space and do an incredible job. We are honoured to support our partners with the technology to make their work accessible to people all over the world,” he concludes.

Highlight content available in the Mali Magic project:

• 40 000+ assets digitised manuscript pages

• 50+ exhibits on Mali heritage – manuscripts, music, monuments & contemporary art

• First ever Street View capture in Mali of 9 heritage sites

• 3D model and annotated tour of Djenne Mosque

• 1 music album, Maliba, by Fatoumata Diawara

Organisations working in partnership with Google Arts & Culture on the Mali project include:

SAVAMA – Manuscript Digitization & Curation – which aims to preserve and enhance the Timbuktu Arabic manuscripts that constitute the Islamic cultural heritage of Mali, Africa’s collective memory and part of the world’s heritage.

Timbuktu Renaissance which aims to leverage Mali’s and Timbuktu’s heritage and living culture to promote peace and prosperity

UNESCO, which has published two stories of its efforts to reconstruct mausoleums and ancestral heritage sites targeted during the conflict,

Instruments 4 Africa  a non-profit organisation committed to cultural preservation, I4A supports artists to keep their practises alive so they can continue to empower their communities

Brooklyn Public Library, which hosted the launch

…Google announces initiatives to support African women entrepreneurs, including $1m Google.org philanthropic commitment and Hustle Academy cohort

Google today announced that its philanthropic arm, Google.org, is committing $1m in charitable funding to support programs helping women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, as part of a series of new initiatives aimed at supporting women-owned businesses.

“Research shows that 58% of small and medium-sized business (SMB) entrepreneurs in Africa are women,” says Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Head Brand and Reputation, Africa – Google. “Despite this, women-run businesses show, on average, 34% lower profits than those run by their male counterparts. They are also less likely to receive funding and investment. This is why we are announcing a series of initiatives today, aimed at providing the support women need to grow their businesses.”

In addition to the funding announcement, Google has also announced #LookMeUp, a campaign to showcase women entrepreneurs and tell their stories. These stories feature women like Vivian Nwakah in Nigeria, who launched Medsaf, a pharma supply chain solution to help Nigerians get access to quality pharmaceutical health care services, Mary Mwange, CEO and founder of Data Integrated who is driving innovation in the mobile payments sector in Nairobi, Kenya, and Mosa Mkhize in South Africa, who launched Origins Publishers to provide her children – and others like them – with books in their home languages.

“Google is also providing free tools to support women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and has launched an intensive program to drive the discovery of women-owned businesses through Google Business Profiles,” Makinde says.

These tools include Google Business Profile, which helps businesses create a free webpage to make them easier to find online, and Primer, an app-based skills building platform,  which allows business owners to access a series of free, custom designed, bite-sized lessons on the go.

To help women business owners to develop their skills, Google has also dedicated the March cohort of the Hustle Academy to women-owned SMBs. The Hustle Academy, launched last month, is a free, week-long bootcamp designed to help SMBs build the expertise they need to expand their businesses.

Crypto mining is one of the most popular and straightforward ways to profit from Bitcoin. Although it is still a relatively new venture to most people, Bitcoin mining mainly entails solving complex math equations to mint new coins for circulation and verify transactions on the blockchain network. Miners compete to solve the cryptographic puzzles based on the Bitcoin protocol, and the first one to get it right receives a standard number of rewards in Bitcoin. Visit Ethereum trader for more information on bitcoin trading.

Bitcoin miners use powerful computational rigs with specialized software and hardware to mint new tokens and verify transactions. Unlike crypto trading, mining also requires high-level computational skills. You can invest in mining either as a miner or a hardware and infrastructure provider. While both options can make you good money, the profitability of Bitcoin mining mainly depends on equipment and electricity costs and the difficulty associated with mining.

Bitcoin Mining Equipment

Early miners mainly used their personal computers to mine Bitcoin, making huge profits. They already owned the systems, impacting almost no equipment costs. They could change their devices’ settings to run more efficiently with little downtime.

Besides, the competition was also pretty low since professional Bitcoin mining rigs with massive computing power had not entered the game. Early Bitcoin miners only competed against individuals on home computers. Overall, individuals didn’t want to engage in Bitcoin mining despite the varied electricity costs across regions.

However, the Bitcoin mining landscape significantly changed with the introduction of the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASICS). The chips offer up to 100 billion times the capability of early personal computers. They have rendered personal computers inefficient and obsolete in Bitcoin mining. The ASICS enable miners to significantly reduce expenses such as purchasing new equipment and paying higher electricity costs, maximizing profitability.

The Difficulty of Mining Bitcoin

The difficulty level associated with Bitcoin mining is variable. It usually changes almost every two weeks to maintain a stable production of verified blocks for the blockchain and new tokens for circulation. A higher difficulty rate means a lesser likelihood that an individual will successfully solve the equation and earn the rewards. Alternatively, a lower difficulty level means any miner can quickly solve the puzzles and earn Bitcoins.

The difficulty rate of mining Bitcoin has skyrocketed in recent years as many professional rigs and individuals rush to join the network. The difficulty level was 1 when Bitcoin launched in 2009. As of November 2021, it had increased to over 22 trillion. That means Bitcoin will become even more difficult to mine over time, and there is nothing that any individual miner or company can do to prevent it.

Shifting Rewards

Bitcoin’s inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, capped its supply at 21 million tokens. That means no more of the coins will ever come into circulation after miners have generated the 21 million tokens. They have currently minted more than 18 million Bitcoins. Besides, the Bitcoin network’s protocol also halves the number of Bitcoins awarded to miners every four years to further control its supply and circulation.

Miners initially received 50 BTC for completing a block. The Bitcoin network has halved the reward to 25 BTC, 12.5BTC, and 6.25 BTC in 2012, 2016, and 2020. Current miners earn 6.25 BTC for completing a block, but the reward size will continue to decrease in the future, despite the expected increase in the difficulty level.

Bitcoin mining can earn you good money as an individual miner and an investor. However, you should first conduct a cost-benefit analysis based on electricity costs, equipment costs, efficiency, time, and Bitcoin value to determine profitability.

Media personality Akinsanya Seun has shared his ‘2 cents’ on the price to stardom for Nigerian artistes, he said the price of every fame bears children with numerous features; patience, hard work, determination, vision, and more importantly, consistency.

Akinsanya said this on Tuesday in a chat with our reporter.

He said “Consistency is like a land you build anything on; it serves as the befitting immobile natural characteristics which all other factors depend on.

“In the business called music, many factors have become a necessity to attain the a-list, more importantly as a Nigerian artiste.

“While some have attained their dream status of fame and wealth in the music industry, some are on the verge of pulling through, others have given up.

Read Also: ‘Artistes should be original, connect with right team to grow’

“Africa as a whole has produced renowned musicians the world would always remember, and Nigeria who has one of the largest numbers of musicians in the continent, competing alongside South Africa and other top countries has spearheaded this achievement.” He said.

He noted that the glory music pioneers like Fela Anikulapokuti, King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, and many more have been a great force of courage to many upcoming artistes who want to hit stardom and many top-tier list artistes who have attained fame.

He acknowledged the fact that the likes of Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido pulled through into the international market, walking in the footsteps of these said legends.

“The exemplary focus on getting what one wants despite one’s limitations speaks volumes of the tenacity of consistency.

“Although, the land that flows with ‘milk and honey’ will be the center focus for bees and bears, i.e the prey and predators”. He said.

On a final note Akinsaya advices fast-risings to understand that everything is achievable in such land but all things must be in place with the backbone of ‘consistency’.