Dabar Objects starts us up this week with “Nigeria and ECommerce: We must be joking”. He pointed out issues about Nigeria doing eCommerce successfully. He discussed why he thinks that even though about 5 million people confortable uses mobile phone in the country, only a minute do eCommerce and that most of them are in Lagos, the country's main commercial hub. He also made some suggestions on how to get PCs into every home.
Still talking technology in Nigeria, Chippla reports about Abuja, Nigeria's Capital going Wireless. In his blog entry titled “Abuja Goes Wireless” he says
“This would be the first of its kind in any Nigerian city and it is meant to be cost-effective and affordable in comparison to current internet technologies used around Nigeria which are, by any standard, prohibitively expensive”
Kazey Journal asked a very vital question about Nigeria's Technological development. He asks “Can a Nigerian Afford a PC?” He argues strongly with facts and statistics and concludes that Nigerians sure can afford PCs. He also looked into the content issue, asking whether the average Nigerian knows how to use a PC or what to use the PC for? After a long and convincing piece on why he thinks Nigerians can afford PCs, he concludes that
“Yes the average Nigerian, can afford an average specification pc, and no the government should not fund such schemes like “Computer for All Nigerians Initiative”, they should spend their funds and allocations on creating a better infrastructure and solving poverty rather. This is because never in history has an average Nigerian benefited directly from any scheme targetted to the masses, and thus it can be concluded, that such scheme, would meet the same fate of its predecessors”
On a more lighter mode, Aderemi's notebook discusses Nollywood, the Nigerian movie industry. While he points to us that Nollywood rakes in as much as $200 million annually, making it the third largest in the World, behind Hollywood and Bollywood, he looks at issues plagueing the Industry. In his words:
“The film industry in Nigeria is overcrowded. Film quality have dropped significantly and the titles (e.g Pure Water, Area Scatter) have become a joke, little thought goes into it”
“Yet the demand continues to grow, why? Recurring themes like Love, romance, fidelity and family cohesiveness observed in the movies is pulling the crowd in. Nigerians aboard also feel the need to stay abreast of the hottest titles further fuelling demand.”
He concludes with the difficulty he faces in parting with his hard earned money to get any of these movies.
Chipla's blog had looked into an article by Paul Salopek of the Chicago Tribune on the peculiarities of Nollywood.
Naija Blog gives us an interesting letter to read and keep in our pockets for the week. He had complained to the BBC about their non-coverage of the “Change in Nigeria”. The post, titled “The BBC and Nigeria” is the respose he got from the BBC. While the letter points out the things BBC has recently reported about Nigeria, the BBC further said:
“As for the wider BBC, a search on the BBC news website on the word Nigeria produces over 200 stories which were filed recently and we have plans for both our Newshour team and our Religious Programmes to go to Nigeria in the next few months to record programmes.”
An interesting read indeed.
Black looks, among her already many posts for this week has an interesting read on what she calls “Cheap Monkeys”. In the post she looks into why researchers in the West are now using Africa as
research bases and testing ground for their work. Of a great note is the issue of Animal rights making things difficult for scientists in the West using animals as test for their work. Lack of such opposition and reduced cost have made these scientist to take Africa as a better testing ground for their work. She says
“it is the lack of legislation, lack of opposition to animal testing and the lower cost in Africa, which encourages Western scientists to work there”
Oro has an extensive report on his trip to India for the “South-South ICT-Enabled Traveling Workshop, India” Reporting on one session on the use of ICTs by a village of 2,500 he writes.
(She gave) “examples of how the villagers have been able to use ICT tools for information retrieval, agricultural practices support and access to health services (precaution, disease control, etc). The information received by women volunteers are taken to the community in their local languages”
Musings of a Naijaman comments on the “alleged attempt by the Nigerian president to force through a change in the constitution thus guaranteeing himself a third term in office” which has led to an “unwieldy coalition of would-be presidential aspirants, people who have been pissed off by Obasanjo in some way or the other, sheer opportunists and some genuinely concerned Nigerian patriots.”
