Zoo opens in Nigeria's Lagos as part of efforts to boost tourism

 

    If you live in Lagos, Nigeria's sprawling commercial capital or are simply visiting, you can now see some of Africa's wildlife up close. Located in a suburb 40 kilometres outside of the city, is the Omu resort which houses a zoo and an amusement park.
    Opened in 2014, Omu resort hopes to draw local residents and attract tourists coming to the West African country.
    Olabisi Falase, the resort's Public Relations Officer says they have invested over 836 million naira (4,201,005 U.S. dollars) in the facility.
    "We opened up this resort as a result of lack in the tourism industry. For a couple of people we had asked about tourism in Lagos, there really are no tourist destinations apart from only a handful. We wanted to have something unique, something that contains quite a number of activities. You know we have a zoo, an amusement park, we have a sea world, go-carting, quad-biking, and we have a fun area, play area for kids," he said.
    Nigeria is putting plans in place to revamp its tourism industry as part of efforts to wean the country off its reliance on oil revenue. A slump in global prices is hammering the West African giant's economy.
    Some of its tourist destinations include game and nature reserves. But many of these are located far away from major cities.
    Since its opening a little over a year ago, the resort has hosted nearly 450,000 visitors.
    Some of the animals were brought in from Cameroon and Niger.
    Apart from the zoo and amusement park, the resort also offers quad biking facilities and a play areas for children.

Link to the video: Zoo boosts Nigeria's tourists attraction

   

Pics courtesy: Angela Ukomadu

Nigerian company aims to increase access to decent toilets

    The sight of people defecating openly can be quite shocking for many to see but for many Nigerians, they are left with no choice as they lack access to decent toilets.
   Some 2.4 billion people around the world do not have access to decent sanitation and more than a billion are forced to defecate in the open, risking disease and other dangers, according to the United Nations.
    Even where there are toilets around the world, some hardly warrant the name as they are not located in safe and clean facilities.
    In a report released in 2014, the United Nations stated that over 30 million Nigerians have no access to safe toilets.
    One company that has been involved in reducing the number of people who defecate openly is Dignified Mobile Toilet company.
    From what was just a temporal need at a high profile wedding in 1996, Caje Oleforo and his late friend, Otunba Gaddafi started the business of procuring mobile toilets for public and private use.
    Caje Oleforo, Executive Director, Dignified Mobile Toilet Company says it is still surprising that in a metropolitan city like Lagos, many still defecate openly.
    "We have come of age. We are more than 50 years. We are exposed, Nigerians are widely travelled. If you get to the airport, I was listening to the news yesterday and I heard something like 50 Million people travel through our airports both locally and overseas, every year. And so with that figure, you will think that you won't find to a reasonable extent open defecation but it still happens along our corridor, along our street here." Caje said.
    There are over 10,000 public mobile toilets in the city stationed at central markets, bus stops and schools.
    All over the world, World Toilet Day is marked on the 19th of November yearly.
    It is an international day of action to create awareness on the importance of toilets and draw attention to the global sanitation challenge, open defecation.
    Apart from the mobile toilet being a way of curbing the rate of open defecation in the city, some local residents see this as a business opportunity.
    In major cities globally, sanitation remains a part of its biggest challenge.
    With international days like the World Toilet Day, many hope that the global sanitation challenge will help reduce open defecation.

   

 Caje Oleforo, Executive Director, Dignified Mobile Toilet Company

Uber launches taxi service in Nigeria's commercial city

Uber Driver - Pic courtesy Uber Lagos

Getting around in Nigeria's boisterous city, Lagos can be a nightmare for commuters who often encounter what many call a go-slow - a traffic jam crawling through lanes of hooting yellow buses and rickshaws every day. Apart from running late, commuters often worry about their safety. Nigeria is one of the world's worst countries for kidnapping, getting in the wrong cab could end up costing you or your family a lot more than the agreed taxi fare.
A number of new taxi service companies are now offering transport options to commuters with a promise of making their travel easier and safer.
Silicon Valley's Uber a new entrant, recently launched its online cab-hailing services here.
The company uses a smart phone app and GPS technology to provide taxi services by linking up customers with a trusted driver who is nearby. The drivers go through an eight step process of vetting to check their psychological state and car documents. They also undergo training on customer service and appropriate conduct. Uber is now competing strongly with Easy Taxi, a Rocket Internet startup launched in 2013 with same strategy of providing taxi services by linking customers with a trusted driver nearby. 

Link to the video:

Uber makes entry into Nigeria market with 'safer' taxi services

Pic courtesy Uber Lagos

Uber riders - Pic courtesy Uber Lagos

Young entrepreneurs open Nigeria's first coffee chain

Pic courtesy Cafe Neo

A coffee shop in Nigeria's Lagos is a rare sight for many living in the West African country. The coffee culture is something that is alien to the Nigerian culture but all that is fast changing with the opening of coffee shop Cafe Neo in the country's commercial city. Popular Cafe Neo set up shop in the high-brow area of Lagos in 2012 to attract Nigeria's budding middle class with its unique coffee sourced from Rwanda. Established by two brothers, Ngozi and Chijioke Dozie, their aim is to celebrate the return of coffee to its African roots. The brothers are looking to leverage on the country's population and are working towards ensuring the business is successful before coffee giants like Starbucks make an entrance into the Nigerian market. The atmosphere in the coffee shop is slightly upbeat with music playing in the background, sofas have been set up with free WiFi internet for those who intend to stay connected while having a cup of coffee. The new cafe phenomenon was a challenge for the brothers at the initial stage but currently, they attend to over 100 customers daily.
Co-Founder, Cafe Neo, Ngozi Dozie says the need to establish a coffee shop came when they realised Nigeria did not have cafes solely dedicated to selling coffee.
Coffee giant Starbucks is already eyeing the sub-Saharan African market and will open stores in sub-Saharan Africa for the first time next year after agreeing a deal with Taste Holdings in July.

Link to the video:

Business brewing at Nigeria's first coffee chain

Pic courtesy Cafe Neo

Pic courtesy Cafe Neo

Ngozi Dozie - Pic courtesy CCTV

Nigerian Teens Create Mobile Web Browser

Anesi and Osine Ikhianosime - Pics courtesy Kenya Citizen TV

Two Nigerian teenagers, Anesi and Osine Ikhianosime have created a mobile web browsing app known as 'Crocodile Browser Lite' that they say is faster and more easily accessible on lower end phones commonly available in Africa and other developing countries.
Anesi and Osine Ikhianosime are teenage brothers living in Lagos, Nigeria. Like many children their age, they spend a lot of time on social media and browsing the net. But the two boys decided to do much more. They developed their own browser known as 'Crocodile Browser Lite.'
Anesi and Osine taught themselves how to code when they were 12 and 14-years-old respectively using free online resources and reading books. Now 16, Onesi says they are also motivated by a desire to help people and are passionate about developing the IT industry in Nigeria.
Industry analysts have long hailed the explosive growth of mobile telecoms in sub-Saharan Africa - 635 million subscribers by the end of 2014 climbing to 930 million by the end of 2019 according to a report by Ericsson.
But size isn't everything. Development in the mobile and IT sectors depends on the quality of those mobile phone connections, subscriptions and surrounding infrastructure. The number of expensive smartphones that can run sophisticated games and applications is low.
Anesi and Osine see as an opportunity for new, innovative technology. They say 'Crocodile Browser Lite' is faster than more conventional browsers like Google's 'Chrome' and can be supported on lower-end phones common across Africa.
'Crocodile Browser Lite' is available on Google Play store and has so far received 40,000 downloads.

Link to the video:

Crocodile Browser by Nigerian Teens