THE NATION TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2015
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e-Business FEEDBACK
Konga.com force behind Infinix’s success
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• A cross section of ‘parliamentarians’ at one of the sessions of Telecoms Consumer Parliament organised in Lagos by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).
‘Women representation in tech industry stands at 7:3 ratio’
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AINONE’S Chief Executive Officer, Funke Opeke, has lamented underrepresentation of women in global technology industry, adding that the current 7:3 ratio, as shown in Global Technology Industry reports, was unacceptable. She has therefore stressed the need for concerted efforts to reverse the imbalance. MainOne said it is in its efforts to redress the imbalance that it is for the second year, supporting the Women Technology Empowerment Center’s Technology Camp. The 2015 Technology Camp is a two-week technology education and mentoring programme designed to help girls develop an early interest in computers and other information technology. Represented by an official of the firm, Temitope Osunrinde, at a
media forum in Lagos, Opeke recalled the 2015 Technovation Challenge World Pitch held at San Francisco in the United States (U.S.) where four Nigerian girls clinched $10,000 after beating finalists from India, U.S., Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia with their mobile application, Discardious, which seeks to tackle the refuse disposal challenge in Nigeria. Osunrinde urged stakeholders in the industry to step up activities to encourage young females to take up technology careers, and also highlighted the opportunities the industry offers women in making meaningful contributions to society through relevant, cutting-edge innovative solutions. He further emphasised the MainOne’s support of initiatives aimed at encouraging technology careers for girls including the Glo-
bal Girls in ICT Day and the W.TEC Technology Camp. He said: “At MainOne, our goal is to provide girls of all ages with support, mentorship and the motivation to pursue ICT-driven careers, eventually becoming active role models themselves to the next generation of girls. Our CEO, Ms. Opeke is an ITU (International Telecommuincations Union) female role model and believes this cycle is necessary to create better opportunities for our girls and revert the gender imbalance in technology.” Speaking on the occasion, Executive Director, W.TEC, Oreoluwa Somolu, said the technology camp adopts a variety of strategies that enable female students maximise learning experiences and make them better equipped to pursue careers in technology.
Afmobi creates jobs with Palmplay
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FMOBI Nigeria’s team of experts have designed a wireless platform that will help employ Nigerians or make them entrepreneurs through a plethora of fun apps, games, movie, music, pictures and business content hosted on a magical fun box called Palmplay offlineTM. Afmobi has its business plan clearly mapped out for just the African market and hopes to create a content-rich wireless hub whereby Nigerians can download games, movie, music, apps and pictures without using their mobile data. In a statement, the firm said the name Palmplay offline TM has offline in it for a reason and that is because all the download on this wireless platform happens offline (without using mobile data), adding that useres' mobile data is
perfectly safe when the user enjoys premium content download over the wireless connection with amazing speed. It said the firm just completed the first training for young set of entrepreneur, adding that the training had about 20 persons that were trained on how to use the magic box called Palmplay Offlinetm and how to make steady income as an entrepreneur. "Palmplay offline TM boxes have bandwidth that can cover a given distance, which means users can enjoy contents from a supplying box within a given range. So, the business plan is to locate high traffic spots where there are clusters of people at any given time and install the box. "Palmplay freelance agent can maintain a steady stream of income
by getting the Palmplay offlineTM boxes installed at different location where there are descent cluster of people such as tech vendor stores, super marts, hotels, campuses and others. The more people connect and sign up on the platform they have access to download some contents for free while the paid ones ranges from between N10 and N100 depending on the content needs to be activated. As they are buying cards to activate them, the agent gets 10 per cent of every income generated from each spot created," the statement explained. According to the firm, Afmobi is a mobile and internet tech services company with headquarters in Shenzhen, China and three other offices in Lagos, Accra, and Nairobi, Kenya.
House of Phones states commitment to customers
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HOUSE of Phones Nigeria Limited, a mobile phone sales and repair outlet, has restated its commitment to providing the best deals and most reliable as well as convenient service to Nigerians. A statement endorsed by its Chief Executive Officer, David Osinowo, explained that the firm is famous for its excellent services over the years, adding that it will keep up doing all it could to satisfy its numerous
By Modupe Elegushi
customers. He said: "We are able to fulfill our commitments by harnessing our local knowledge, by leveraging on our global competencies and capabilities, and by forging strategic partnership with top distributors and established logistic companies." Osinowo said the company will continue to provide the fastest and
reliable repair services in the country to customers. He said:"We have the tools and expertise to repair most makes and models of phones and tablets. We also offer pickup and delivery service for your phones and tablets for repairs at your convenience. "Some of the services we provide include sales of mobile phones, accessories, tablets, laptops, repairs, recycling, pick-up and delivery services."
IGERIA has been purported to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world and today foreign investors and businesses are increasingly focusing on Africa’s most populous country. One company that is forging a success story in Nigeria is leading Chinese smartphone manufacturers – Infinix mobility. What is interesting about the success model for this company is that it has been built on a long term partnership with Nigerian ecommerce company, Konga.com. Entering into Nigeria’s market, Infinix Mobility exclusively adopted Konga.com’s ecommerce platform for the introduction of its first flagship device, the Infinix Zero. The unprecedented but very ingenious move saw Infinix enjoy record growth from Konga’s widespread reach and penetration across Nigeria. Konga capably rose to the task of building popularity and preference for the Infinix Zero with strategic marketing campaigns and support and within the first few weeks of the device launch, Konga.com recorded over 100,000 units of the devices sold. Since then, Infinix continues to reapply this winning model, retaining Konga as its exclusive partner for the launch of their devices. According to Bruno Li, Country Manager for Infinix Nigeria, “With the heights we seek to take the Infinix brand to in Nigeria, it was clear that Konga is one company that would get us there”. In November 2014, Infinix launched another device on Konga.com; Infinix Hot
By Olatomiwa Akande
X507. Unsurprisingly, the outstanding success was replicated. Today, on the back of innovative marketing and positioning led by Konga.com, Infinix has now grown to be one of the top selling mobile devices in Nigeria. According to Konga’s Marketing Vice President, Gabriel Gab-Umoden; “Konga is happy to be a part of this incredible success story. We bring to the fore the importance of local content in reaching customers. Our marketing and sales strategy is predicated on Konga’s deep understanding of the Nigerian consumers and the best ways to reach them with the right value proposition in terms of competitive pricing and with excellent service delivery. We also commend Infinix for delivering top value in the mobile phone category. They have been instrumental in driving up smartphone and android penetration up in just a few months”. Konga’s successes with introducing and building brands is pretty extensive. Some other brands in Nigeria today that are very well known and respected in the Nigerian market following joint launches with Konga.com include Polystar, Lenovo, BlackBerry, Huawei, Gionee, Fly, Skyworth, Saisho. According to Infinix Country Manager Mr. Li, “Infinix is set to launch the highly anticipated Infinix Zero 2 phone on Konga, this May”. Click here to be one of the first to own the device exclusive to Konga.com. •Akande, a Media Communications Expert, wrote from Lagos
COMPLAINTS BOX My phone number is 08033242256. Complaints: I always receive unsolicited text messages from my service provider . This SMS can come anytime of the day including weekends! They come through coded numbers such as 5201, 5031 ,3021 ,3031 and others. They normally command me to subscribe to one thing or the other like health tips, sports, music, wise sayings ,proverbs and all sorts of stupid distractions! I normally delete these SMS but am getting tired and frustrated ,pls ,advise them to stop all these rubbish or else I will be forced to tear their SIM card into shreds! I don't need the messages at all! There are lots of problems in this country and it is unfair that my service provider should be adding more through numerous and high provoking and insulting unsolicited and vexatious messages! My phone number is: 08165255703 Complaint: Each time I buy airtime on my phone, it disappears with the speed of lightning. Kindly use your good offices to ask my operator what has happened to my line. My phone number is: 08187580759 Complaint: My problem is with data. Over the past two weeks, I have spent so much on my data subscription. I actually subscribed to a data plan that
should immediately give me 2G data according to what my service provider promised. I loaded airtime and dialled the appropriate code but to my utmost disappointment, the data ran out within four days. I don’t stream videos on Yutube, I don’t download pictures or engage in internet frivolties. This has happened to me almost thrice in recent weeks. I have tried contacting my service provider hoping solution will come my way. Kindly use your platform to compel my service provider to “return my stolen data” 08035735383 is my phone number: My problem has to do with data. I use a Blackberry phone and naturally I subscribed to a data bundle plan. My worry is that each time I intentionally deactivate my internet connection at the expiration of my data plan, I noticed that my service provider kept deducting my money for data usage. I am shocked that this could still be happening to me because the data icon had already been deactivated. Or does it mean that so long as one uses a smartphone, data subscription becomes automatic? My service provider should not auto-renew my data subscription. It is courtesy to ask if I was interested in continuing with the data bundle plan. •Send complaints lukajanaku02@gmail.com
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