What is Customer Discovery?[i],[ii]   We are now three chapters deep intoThe Startup Owner’s Manual – a recently published book by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf[iii]. You can catch up by reading Chapter 1, and Chapter 2. You can also read the main precepts of the Customer Development Manifesto here.   Why does it make sense not to invest enormous amounts of energy, time and other resources working on a fully baked business plan when [...]

 “The resources are there. It is for us to marshal them in the active service of our people. Unless we do this by our concerted efforts, within the framework of our combined planning, we shall not progress at the tempo demanded by today’s events and the mood of our people. The symptoms of our troubles will grow, and the troubles themselves become chronic. It will then be too late even for Pan African Unity to [...]

Refer to feature article with the title Science Controversies Past And Present (PHYSICS TODAY, October 2011, page 39) by Steven Sherwood.   The controversy between the heliocentric and the rival geocentric models have things in common with the earlier one between the atomic hypothesis of Democritus and the rival Aristotelian hypothesis of matter. In each case the correct hypothesis was rejected and sadly for about 2,000 years science was in a coma. The history of physics, and [...]

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria has recently unveiled an 80 paged progress report of his administration. Titled, Sure and Steady Transformation, the document itemizes the progress he has made in various sectors of the economy from agriculture to power.   Here are some sample achievements as documented in the report: Finance Review and clean-up of the oil subsidy regime through the creation of the Aig-Imoukhuede Committee, which later turned into a Presidential Taskforce. The committee [...]

Africa is the world’s second-fastest-growing region. Poverty is falling, and around 90 million of its households have joined the world’s consuming classes—an increase of 31 million in just over a decade. But a new McKinsey Global Institute report, Africa at work: Job creation and inclusive growth, shows that the continent must create wage-paying jobs more quickly to sustain these successes and ensure that growth benefits the majority of its people.   Despite the creation of [...]

It is easy to open websites and clone Amazon.com and eBay in Nigeria. There are many players in Nigeria joggling for the irrational exuberance that is Nigerian opportunity.  Unfortunately, all of them will fail. Nigeria is not structured for companies in the likes of Amazon.com to succeed.   From Kasuwa to  Konga, Tekedia predicts they will exit within five years. Our reason is simple: the open market structure in Nigeria will make it tough for [...]

Subject:     The phoney announcements by CERN   We refer to the CERN announcement of July 04, 2012 on the discovery of the Higgs boson. Before anybody gets too excited, it should be noted, in a rather mild submission, that the announcement is arrant nonsense –it is the height of ignorance and naivety-sheer humbug. It is difficult to accept that the so called scientists would conspire to squander Europe ’s (now) scarce resources in an exercise [...]

MainOne Cable used to be like a rock star. It was heralded to offer a new vista in broadband communication in West Africa. The company did what it was planned to do. It brought the cables from Europe to West Africa with fun fare. Possibly, the company had anticipated support from the Nigerian moguls to  do the main jobs – pay for the last mile and the middle mile coverages.   The last mile is [...]

Political unrest in many parts of Africa especially in the Sahelien Regions has been on the ascendancy in recent months. From Mali, Guinea Bissau, Niger, Sudan, South Sudan among others have seen various rebel groups carry out deadly attacks on legitimate governments which have rendered those nations among the failed states of the world.   According to Ambassador Chris Kpodo, Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, these political upheavals in the sub-region can be attributed [...]

Are you investing in Facebook? Remember what Tekedia said when this firm went public? We said the right price was $20.  Now, it is coming close to the right numbers.   Yet, Facebook failed because the stock is overvalued. Facebook needs to trade in the neighborhood of  half the debut price. That means the real price should be $20. We continue to think that Facebook stock price will keep falling.       Facebook is [...]