Before I visited his country, a colleague from Nigeria described to me how an up-and-coming Nigerian youth shared the same interests as youngsters in developed countries: they want to have i-pads, use social networks, and so on – as everybody else. Yes, I’m aware that this is just one part of the Nigerian society. Not […]
Agenda 2063 (VI): Lighting Africa with Hydroelectric Power
Flying over Africa during the day is just spectacular. If you fly from East to North Africa, watching the Nile River is absolutely impressive (6,853 Km. long!). Unfortunately, I haven’t had an opportunity to see the Congo River. I hope to see this one at a close distance and not from the sky: its flow of 42,000m3/s is second only […]
Smart Cities’ Challenges in Africa
Caught in the midst of traffic at Lagos after attending a discussion about the electricity challenges in Nigeria, I told my driver about how smart cities would improve people’s lives. He gave me a skeptical look, which I interpreted as “will I ever see this come true…?” I read recently an article about strategies for […]
Consumer Products: A Luxury Product?
Before moving to Nigeria for a relatively long period, I thought that testing the waters would be a good idea: would I adapt to a country so different to my own? I had many question marks: some were important issues, others were really minute. One of these minute issues was: will I find the toiletries […]
Manufacturing in Africa
Lagos is full of street vendors (see an earlier post about their frenzy activity!). It can get overwhelming! One of my Nigerian friends explained to me “Yeah! We’re traders! There’s hardly any manufacturing, and there are historical reasons for this: the Brits were interested in selling overseas what they manufactured at home…” This seems to […]
