17042019 - 9th NASS: Fresh crisis looms in APC over leadership slots

Nigerian users move to Jiji.ng after OLX acquisition
Popular
classifieds
marketplace, Jiji.ng has
signed agreement with another ailing
classified platform OLX, to redirect
its Nigerian users to Jiji.ng
in a business deal involving acquiring
OLX businesses in four other
countries.
Jiji said this deal will see it
building a leading pan-African
classifieds business. According to
the agreement, Jiji will acquire
OLX businesses in Ghana, Kenya,
Tanzania, and Uganda, pending
certain regulatory approvals, and
OLX users in Nigeria will be redirected
to Jiji. CEO and co-founder
of Jiji, Anton Volyansky, said that
joining Jiji’s family will allow OLX
users in these countries to benefit
from its market-leading products
and services. OLX reach, combined
with Jiji’s own proprietary search
and delivery algorithms, will create
a beneficial combination, giving
users a radically streamlined
experience and making the buying
and selling process more
convenient.
“Users will always come first for
us. We warmly welcome OLX’s
customers to the Jiji family and we
look forward to our new customers
joining Jiji on its journey to
empower their lives by providing a
safer, more secure and enjoyable
online shopping experience”.
The company’s Nigeria country
manager, Yuliy Shenfeld, added that
“this acquisition is the next step in
fulfilling our promise of making the
Nigerian economy thrive by helping
each and every Nigerian have
their businesses online. Thanks to
Jiji, more than 300,000 businesses
Vanguard, Wednesday, APRIL 17, 2019 — 23
have increased their sales and improved
their family fortunes, so far.
This was made possible by millions
of customers who placed their trust
in Jiji for the best prices and the
widest range of products and services.
“In the wake of this transaction,
the Jiji team of more than 500
people is excited to build a truly
Pan-African classifieds empire with
Nigeria being the epicentre.”
General Manager of OLX in
Africa, Middle East and Asia,
Sjoerd Nikkelen, said: “We are
proud of our achievements in Africa,
including the sustainable
businesses we have built in Nigeria,
Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
We continually evaluate our
portfolio of classifieds businesses to
ensure a disciplined approach to
how and where we allocate capital
and management time. With our
focus on accelerating the growth of
other markets, now is an opportune
time to sell our interests in these
markets. We are pleased that Jiji will
continue to provide the exceptional
quality of products and services that
customers in these countries have
come to know and enjoy from
OLX.”
By Juliet Umeh
Youth unemployment in
Nigeria is a big
challenge. University
and Polytechnic graduates still
scramble for limited job
opportunities in the blue chip
companies with little or no
success.
One of the reasons, usually
attributed to the situation is poor
skills which has limited jobs to a
few people.
However, technology experts
believe that with the expected
4th industrial revolution where
technology will be key to
everything from production to
sales and services, Nigerian
universities should begin to
reorient the mindsets of their
studentsfrom seeking
employment to being employers,
particularly, when leaving the
university.
This is by producing only
youths with strong digital skills
that can survive in the new world.
The fourth industrial revolution
is a new chapter in human
development, enabled by
extraordinary technology
advancements far different from
those of the first, second and third
industrial revolutions.
The era is driven by artificial
intelligence, Blockchain and
Internet of Things, IoT.
These three are platforms
where mostly everything is done
with the intelligence of the
machine rather than that of the
human being.
In an effort to start a crusade
that will see to the production of
Nigerian youths with digital
skills, New Horizons Technology
institute, organised an innovation
and enterpreneurship revolution
seminar at the Bowen University,
Iwo in Osun State, recently.
Speaking to the students at the
event, Technology Strategist, Dr
Olufemi Oyenuga said for the
students to fit into the fourth
industrial revolution, they need
strong digital skills because the
era favours only those with strong
digital skills.
Oyenuga told the students to
always feel hunger to learn new
skills because traditional skills are
already declining. The new skills
he itemised include: Data
Engineering, Transformational
Consulting, Data Science,
Universal Interface and USB
designing.
He also added Business
Analysis, Big Data Science and
Artificial Intelligence Science as
part of the skills that will lead them
to becoming important people in
the fourth industrial revolution.
*A typical factory in the 4th Industrial Revolution.
4th Industrial Revolution
Artificial Intelligence, IoT,
Blockchain lead the way
•Old skills not sustainable
•Nigerian youths need strong digital skills to survive
Oyenuga said: “You need to
embrace the future because the
future is not only human versus
machine, but a combination of
machine and human beings.
Soon, you won’t be needing
offices, shops or physical
presence to be an entrepreneur.
For every solution you are
thinking about, there’s a robot
that can do it and they think faster
than human beings.
Oyenuga, who was a medical
doctor that metamorphosed into
IT expert, said digital experience
is driving the digital economy
now. However, his
optisimndimmed when he
added that most professions may
be out of job in few years. He said,
“Even with a medical degree, I
will tell you that IT and medicine
are so fused together. In the next
five years, we may not need a lot
of doctors.
“In the world today, there are
five artificial intelligence surgical
theatres. There’s one each in
Spain, Canada and United
States, another one is coming in
South Africa where machines
will actually do 60 percent of
doctor’s work.
While urging students to start
thinking of problems they can
solve with technology, he noted
that artificial intelligence can
solve problems in the
transportation, manufacturing
and agriculture sectors.
Oyenuga said: “For instance, in
Agric sector in Scotland, they
put sensors inside cows and those
sensors keep data back to a
centralized system that processes
data and tells them when the cows
want to mate or produce milk.
The data is monitored every day
by farmers. So, they know exactly
when to go and milk the cow.
“Artificial intelligence is used in
tomato cultivation in Spain.
They put sensors in the soil to
understand the soils texture, the
composition of the soil and that
automatically translates to the
kind of tomato that comes out
from that farm, like wise in
aviation industry too.
“My point is that
Technopreneurship is actually
the way to go for your
generation.
I standing in front of you is a
testimony that your first degree
or second degree does not matter
anymore,” Oyenuag averred.
Also speaking, the Managing
Director, New Horizons, Mr. Tim
Akano, charged students to see
every problem as an opportunity
for them to make business out of
it. He said the bigger the problem,
the bigger the opportunity of
becoming millionaires, but he
urged them not to go into
business because they want to
become billionaires rather
because they want to solve a
problem and then money follows
as a reward.
Akano gave instance of former
student of the institution whom
he discovered four years ago and
groomed who has become a big
name in tech industry in Nigeria,
Mr. Samuel Ekpe. According to
him, the most crucial skills that
students need to survive aside
their first degrees are: critical
thinking, creativity, collaboration
and communication.
C
M
Y
K