Government has increased the cost of electricity. Government has increased the cost of fuel. The number of pieces in a box of imported toothpicks for suya has reduced. The sizes of most consumer packaged goods have reduced (though “price” remains constant). The polytechnic teachers have joined their university counterparts to warn the federal government NOT to attempt to open tertiary institutions.
Yes, you can count that knowledge is getting more expensive in Nigeria. But do not worry, Ogun state had promoted all the students, from one year to another. Yakata, all the oohs rejoice (I told you I will get to the next class, exam or no exam). Magically, all primary six kids move to JS1 with no common entrance examination. Blame Covid-19 but indict the highly unprepared Nigeria. Before coronavirus, some men were telling us that they have digitized Nigerian schools: today, we just noticed that everything was a lie.
The Ogun State Government has announced September 21 as the reopening date of schools in the state.
The new students who will be resuming for the first time after the nationwide closure in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will join students in SS3 who are currently writing the West African School Certificate Examination.
The state government announced that all students had been given automatic promotion to the next class, including automatic placement for primary 6 students in public primary schools into JSS1 of public secondary schools.
The students will be resuming in their new classes for the first term of 2020/2021 academic session.
But there is an exception: Nigerians still want to pay the same thing on imported European football because DStv and GOtv owner, MultiChoice Nigeria, is not part of Nigeria. That is a paradox for MultiChoice Nigeria. It has to go alone and that is a big problem for it. Yes, it has struggled to find ways to communicate to a nation. There are many things to learn here on how NOT to allow your market to define you.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
What is happening here is that MultiChoice is winning their purses and wallets but losing the customers. It is a very dangerous trajectory for any brand, and if the company does not fix it, it has no future as a company in Nigeria. Simply, when MultiChoice came, it turned consumers into customers and then got many into the level of fandom through its European football product. But over time, most of those fans are falling back to customers and even consumers. Yet, because there was no other option, they stayed as consumers, paying, even when they have lost it all with the company selling to them.
Any brand which cannot find a way to communicate its challenge will fade. Do not be like MultiChoice as you run your business and serve your market. Find ways to carry your customers along by helping them understand basic things which can help you change their understanding of your brand. When a brand becomes docile, it becomes a feather tossed into a river.
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.
The marketplace is a jungle, once you allow any side to control the narratives, they will steamroll you.
MultiChoice Nigeria still have a PR issue, it’s not every time you play defensive, you need to play offensive most times, and shift the conversations to exactly where you want them. If anyone complains about hike, ask them to show you what has remained same, you realise that your accusers have no case, but you have to be strategic in order for your messaging to stick.
As for Ogun State and universal promotions, whatever happens now, the real impact won’t be felt anytime soon, it might be between five to ten years, before a singular error of today could be made manifest.
A nation in motion…
Yes indeed – MultiChoice does not inspire on how it has managed its PR playbook. I am so surprised how they cannot make simple points and allows itself to be beaten down everywhere. Personally, I would share a plot of growth of licensing fees and explain how forex and inflation have driven our pricing. I will possibly use this as a flash case on PR and Branding in our program.
I think you have getting some reward for this write up my friend… So I want to ask, what has DSTV done to reduce the effect of the current reality that C19 has brought on us?
No need to double post. Thanks
Can’t Nigerians pay for only the channels they view? Must I pay for the whole channels when I only view 6? Time to adjust your billing system. Unnecessarily expensive.
I share your thoughts as well. This shows dstv original plan is to rip us of our moni. It’s either their strategy or marketing dept. R sleeping or they just refuse to do the necessary things. MTN said per second billing isn’t possible but GLO made it possible. Pay as you view is possible it’s just that they v a plan to keep milking us. Thats why they keep repeating movies of 25yrs ago every week.
I think at this point,we have luxury of choose what channel we want to watch rather than given us so many channels that are not useful.
With unstable power supply, we still have to pay for channels we don’t watch. What a nation.