Global Problems are basically human problems, according to Simeon Ononobi, founder, Myadsapp.com, which are typically challenges that can be felt everywhere else.
To solve these problems, Ononobi, who doubles as the CEO SimplePay, said that start-ups in Nigeria and Africa in general should be focused on solutions that engender convenience, affordability, shelter, poverty, information, flexibility and affective.
He made the intervention during a presentation at the just concluded Nigeria International Technology Exhibition & Conference (NITEC 2016), held in Lagos, adding that start-ups ‘Thinking Global’ while positioning their solutions, cannot be overemphasised.
To ‘Think Global’, he noted, implies asking critical questions such as, “Are you solving a Problem? Can tech provide a solution? Do you have Less Human Intervention? Does the business rely on you? Can you scale it”?
Using ‘MyAds’ platform as a template, he said, the application was designed to solve advertising needs in the country.
‘MyAds’ show all manners of Ads on one’s phone whenever they receive calls, and in return credit them with some points, which they can convert to airtime of any Network of their choice.
MyAds app, actually, is a very cool application that does not require any root access, thus, “We are solving advertising need, creating value; we are creating wealth; solving a peculiar problem; we are scaling because we prepared the solution for it from scratch.
On why MyAds solution is scalable, Ononobi said, “We Are Solving and Advertising Problem; giving analytics to the Advertisers; paying the users to help build the products; very little money (but shared by all); creates jobs/ alleviates poverty; global problems.
Digital Marketing
Nodding in agreement, Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, country manager, Google Nigeria, who delivered a paper on “Trends Driving the Future of Marketing & the Digital Landscape”, the internet has become an accelerator of ‘everything’ as five billion people expected to be online and ten billion mobile phones connected online by 2020.
Ehimuan-Chiazor believes that African Startups should draw strength from the fact, “The Static Consumer is A Dying Breed”, hence digital marketing is daily creating opportunities for innovators.
She said that with the evolution of ‘digital consumer’, Mobile will become the center of marketing, as statistics by Google reveals that in 2015, the average time spent per day by Nigerian Adults were 3hrs on Mobile! Which is about 51% of all digital time spent.
She said that winning the battle requires mastering a moment mindset; reminding the participants that content will remain the king which will spur the merger of digital and creative agencies, disrupting traditional marketing models.
According to her, “Brands will create, co-create and curate content. Social media will become the internet as consumer service is going social”.
In summary, The Google Country Manager reiterated that the fortunes African start-ups are searching for are hidden in the internet, “The Static Consumer is A Dying Breed; Personalised data driven Marketing will be more refined; Mobile will be the Backbone of Everything; Content will remain king; Social will drive a lot of Internet activity; Tomorrow’s Competitors look nothing like Yesterday’s Foe and Analytics/Big Data mastery are business imperatives”.
Kids & Coding
On his part, Charles Emembolu, CEO, Crestsage Ltd, said that believe “…every African child should learn (know) how to program a computer”, led to the setting up TechQuest.
TechQuest holds fun, interactive, practical sessions where we equip children with the skills they need to build interesting animations, awesome games, interactive websites, engaging apps and inspiring science projects.
“Knowledge is like a garden; if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested. For instance, every web programmer needs to know the basics of HTML – HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the “skeleton” of the World Wide Web. So, a visual, drag-and-drop programming language built by some really smart folks at MIT; it is arguably the best tool for introducing anyone to coding,” Emembolu said.
Opportunities For Africa in Gaming Industry
Is There An Opportunity For The African Gaming Industry? Zubair Abubakar, co-founder, Chopup Games can’t agree less.
Quoting PwC report, he said that South Africa the most developed market on the continent is predicted to grow from $204m in 2013 to $314m by 2018; “Kenya, could grow from $44m to $103 over the same period”.
Nigeria, however, is not left out in the games market, as the country can grow from $71m to $170m (¬N48bn) over the same period.
On why local gaming companies are not milking the cow yet, Abubakar, listed lack of proper distribution channels; little or no funding available and dearth of skilled human resource” as challenges facing the local companies.
He suggested angel/VC funds for gaming; skills development/training in game design and development; collaboration with other gaming companies, as part of solutions to the challenges.
a So happy to see the boss CFA on the midst of this great tech heads and interesting people.
They really touched a lot of areas including gaming, wow, so so interesting. NITEC 2016, certainly can’t be overemphasized
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