Abuja university, Gwagwalada!

27/07/2021

Hi all, earn N500 airtime by testing a website. A startup is looking for African based testers to test out the registration flow of their app. 50 people are needed to do this.

How to

1. Visit www.atsign.com
2. Generate a free atsign
3. Submit your atsign at this link https://forms.gle/2P4MCZDmMRZG3sYd6

You will get the airtime to your phone within 1 hour

24/06/2021

Hi all,

We saw this tweet a few days ago, and it just blew the mind. Think of it, there is a 25 thousand dollars reward for referring an excellent, skilled designer to a company. This is the big challenge of society today - there are more jobs looking for qualified people, while at the same time there are more ways to learn quality skills for free.

If you are seriously and honestly thinking about your future, here’s our recommendation

Learn mobile app development. There are 3 billion mobile devices on earth, and that number will only continue to grow. Learn Google’s mobile app development framework Flutter, and start building things for the world. Here’s a link to a free tutorial on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0uinJvhNxI
Learn product design. Companies around the world are looking for people who can take care of product development pipelines. Google has a free course on Udacity which you can take here https://www.udacity.com/course/product-design--ud509

For those who are interested, we encourage you to jump into the Flutter course, and then sign up for this hackathon holding between July 9 – 11, 2021, there are about $4250 in prizes to be won
https://fhirathack.devpost.com/

Finally, we would like you to try out the buzz and wavi app created by the . Here’s a link to download the app https://wavi.ng/

It’s a privacy focused project that I am interested in. I will send airtime to the first 30 people who create an and complete this form https://forms.gle/Qia7zhCkRnhTEhiF8

20/08/2019

The Invictus Challenge

time

Invictus

That's all I heard all weekend. Invictus this, invictus that. Turns out that it was a different Invictus to the one I know.

For me, I know Invictus the poem, whose last stanza reads thus;

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.

You can find the full invictus poem here https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51642/invictus. It was reportedly Nelson Mandela's favourite poem - a stoic's anthem.

I read this poem a lot, especially when the challenges of being a Nigerian try to overwhelm me. For instance when I see Unity Bank launch an eduTech challenge with total prize money of N5 million. https://opportunitydesk.org/2019/08/06/union-bank-edtech-challenge-2019/

That is 5 million for the top 3 entrants!

But Big Brother Nigeria is giving N60 million to some folks who did what exactly?

Last week I passed a roadside furniture shop. It was raining and the only thing that protected these very beautiful furnitures was flimsy tarpaulin. The first thing that came to my mind was - "Just look at uncaptured value. But who will exploit it?"

I have been lucky in my career. I have been blessed to be chairman of one of the few African startups that became a Unicorn - Interswitch PLC.

But I am getting too old to be complaining. The challenge this Monday is simple - apply to join the Silicon Lounge here https://forms.gle/jfGSz68BUFumpvVy9. If you are willing to work with other smart and driven people on building exciting projects, you are welcome.

I will close the form after we get 1000 people. Invitations go out 31st August.

https://forms.gle/jfGSz68BUFumpvVy9

Questions to [email protected]

12/07/2019

Another very great and inspiring post from our favourite Artificial Intelligence expert, Dr Evans Woherem. Please, read, enjoy and share!

Good day friends. Thank God it's Friday?

In my Monday challenge, I promised you guys that I would read a book this week and write something I learned from it. the book I chose was Why Nations Fail.

Now, first things first, I was only able to get to page 185 of this over 500 page book. You can see a picture of the notes I made at page 79. This picture is also proof of accountability. In my corporate career, the first thing you learn is accountability. If you don't have it, you will not succeed. If you manage to get to the top without it, then all the more spectacular will be your fall.

So, before the key takeaway from the book, here is a quote:

"The low education level of poor countries is caused by economic institutions that fail to create incentives... and by political institutions that fail to induce the government to build, finance and support schools"

The book makes a clear connection between politics and economic development. And throughout the book, my understanding is that the authors are trying to establish that the fault in poor countries lie with the people who allow wrong institutions to be imposed on them.

However, that is not my key takeaway from the book. In fact, my main takeaway from the book is on the book cover - the title. WHY NATIONS FAIL!

You see, as humans, we have been trained to think in terms of positive outcomes. Just go to church on Sunday and listen to the shouts of AMEEEENNN when pastor says that you will get your prayers answered this week.

But do you notice that the pastor rarely talks about what you will suffer if you make mistakes. Actually I am wrong. He will tell you that if you do not pay your tithe, you will suffer a laundry list of wahala. From poverty, to missing God's grace.

It is this clever strategy that makes a lot of people pay tithe. THEY ARE THINKING IN CONSEQUENCES!

This book is a beautiful example of THINKING IN CONSEQUENCES. They could have titled it WHY NATIONS SUCEED. But no. They are telling you WHY you will FAIL. And Nigeria is a perfect example of what they are arguing.

So, as you prepare for TGIF, think of the consequences of the decisions that you are making with your weekend. You could be learning a new skill to improve your self. Or you could be hanging out with the dudes. It's your choice, your life, YOUR CONSEQUENCES.

Final notes:
If you read this far, congratulations. Statistics show that only 20% of people will get to this point in the post. This book got me thinking about the audience that I write for. So I started thinking about setting up a private mentoring group for driven people who are willing to discipline themselves and learn the ropes of succeeding in the 4IR. Is this something that you would be interested in? Let me know in the comments

08/07/2019

Be part of this challenge...

20/05/2019

Join the with Dr Evans Woherem former Chairman of Interswitch PLC and Former Executive Director (IT) at First Bank PLC.

Dr. Evans Woherem is an accomplished computer systems expert, Africa’s most famous banking technology professional, and a highly respected adviser to banks, leading companies and governments on ICT matters. He was an Executive Director of IT & Operations at First Bank of Nigeria Plc, and Unity Bank Plc, from where he retired in 2011.

Dr. Woherem is the MD/CEO of Compumetrics Solutions Limited, the Adviser-in-Chief of Ivory Learning Academy (a premier ICT training school), the Chairman of Caranda Management Services Limited (a leading business outsourcing company), and the Chairman of Digital Africa Conference & Exhibition.

Dr. Woherem is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, where he obtained a Certificate in Advanced Management Program (AMP). He has B.Sc. Behavioural Science with emphasis on Organizational Psychology, M.Sc. Cognition, Computing and Psychology, M.A. Economics and Social Studies, and PhD in Expert Computer Systems.

CHALLENGE MONDAY

In recent times, the social media space has been awash with news and reports of su***de in Nigeria. The word depression is increasingly entering our lexicon.

Although one of my degrees was in Behavioural Science, I will not dwell much on the internal and external reasons for depression and su***de. However, let me say that a key driver of depression among the youth is joblessness.

I have always believed that jobs are not created out of thin air. Rather, they come often from well-trained people gathering to create value in the market. For instance, Uber was a rough idea that required technical and business skills to pull off. Today it is a multi-billion dollar company that employs thousands of people around the world.

There are Ubers hiding within all of us, but most times we wait for the government to help us. However, there is an avenue that the government is already investing in millions every year without us realising it - the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Think of this for a minute. The government pays you an income for a year, and sends you to employment that often takes up only your 8-4 five times a week.

Four hours every day, between 4pm and 8pm is enough to learn anything, work on any project and build new businesses. At places like Harvard, these sort of things were called capstone projects - something that you show at the end of your program to demonstrate that you are adequately prepared to transfer the knowledge gained into practice. How excellent it would be if it were to be mandatory for every corp member to submit their capstone projects at the end of their service years.

So, the challenge this Monday is this - what would be your capstone project if you had one year to do as you pleased?

05/04/2019

They are HIRING!

Email your cv to [email protected]

We are hiring!

Are you an IT savvy project manager with at least 3 years experience in a corporate environment?

Then we are looking for you. Come join our team and prove to yourself that you are a rainmaker.

Email your cv to [email protected]

02/04/2019

Career success tips from Dr Evans Woherem founding Chairman of Interswitch Plc and former Executive Director (IT and Operations) at First Bank