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I was thinking last week how places like Nigeria will be the location of the next start up bubble as they pass through the threshold of punctuated equilibrium.

I was thinking last week how places like Nigeria will be the location of the next start up bubble as they pass through the threshold of punctuated equilibrium. They have unique problems that a bunch of tech geeks in the Bay Area and hipsters in Portland would never think of needing to be solved.

vezycash 10y ago
>They have unique problems that a bunch of tech geeks in the Bay Area and hipsters in Portland would never think of needing to be solved You're right about that. The tech scene in that country would remain paltry until two things are solved. First, the internet. The telecos have only built dumb pipes to Europe. There is no peering agreement amongst local telecos. It's better to host a website in the US than locally because the roundtrip time would double rather than decrease. Thus, that initial low cost barrier to building something that allowed the internet to blossom like a flower is absent. Remember how Google and Facebook leeched off their university computers and network for years? It can't happen because of this factor. And because usable Wifi simply doesn't exist. It's either passworded for University staff use or insanely slow. (I've visited at least 3 Nigerian universities and Two in Ghana.) I've spoken to several students and the situation is the same. The second issue to be tackled would be payment. The major players are tied to the banks. Thus, they can't reorient their thoughts to what's required to make online payments smooth, easy and cheap for users.
- ejanus 10y ago
  Thanks for your comments. I have visited so many universities in Nigeria and I think that the drive is not there at all. However, I heard that private universities are far better equipped and oriented(I have not visited such schools). I just noticed one thing among Nigerians, my people, they would prefer to blame the system instead of working to overcome obstacles. I operate an online shop and my target market is universities.I only accept bank transfer(awkward you my say) and PayPal. I hope to network with you in the future.
  - vezycash 10y ago
    My email is visible on my profile. If it isn't. It's my profile name @live.com

vezycash 10y ago

>They have unique problems that a bunch of tech geeks in the Bay Area and hipsters in Portland would never think of needing to be solved You're right about that. The tech scene in that country would remain paltry until two things are solved. First, the internet. The telecos have only built dumb pipes to Europe. There is no peering agreement amongst local telecos. It's better to host a website in the US than locally because the roundtrip time would double rather than decrease. Thus, that initial low cost barrier to building something that allowed the internet to blossom like a flower is absent. Remember how Google and Facebook leeched off their university computers and network for years? It can't happen because of this factor. And because usable Wifi simply doesn't exist. It's either passworded for University staff use or insanely slow. (I've visited at least 3 Nigerian universities and Two in Ghana.) I've spoken to several students and the situation is the same. The second issue to be tackled would be payment. The major players are tied to the banks. Thus, they can't reorient their thoughts to what's required to make online payments smooth, easy and cheap for users.

ejanus 10y ago
Thanks for your comments. I have visited so many universities in Nigeria and I think that the drive is not there at all. However, I heard that private universities are far better equipped and oriented(I have not visited such schools). I just noticed one thing among Nigerians, my people, they would prefer to blame the system instead of working to overcome obstacles. I operate an online shop and my target market is universities.I only accept bank transfer(awkward you my say) and PayPal. I hope to network with you in the future.
- vezycash 10y ago
  My email is visible on my profile. If it isn't. It's my profile name @live.com