22052021

Parchive App to eliminate car parking
stress in Nigeria
Stories by Moses Nosike
Parchive App, a first of its kind
technology-driven
innovation,
is
revolutionizing the parking
industry, simply by helping
Nigerians search, reserve, and pay
for parking space since its inception
in 2020.
Speaking on the motivation
behind the initiative, Parchive’s
Chief Executive Officer, Oluyinka
Oginni, said that the difficulty he
experienced in securing a parking
space when he visited Computer
Village, Ikeja, Lagos, prompted his
decision to proffer a solution.
According to Oginni, I frequently
visit Computer Village in Ikeja,
Lagos to get technology gadgets.
During one of my trips in August
2018, I drove to my usual parking
spot, but on arrival, it was
completely occupied. “I spent over
30 minutes searching the area in a
bid to locate a parking spot to no
avail. I eventually got stuck in traffic
and finally had to go back to the
previous car park I visited before
finding an open spot to park. This
frustration led to in-depth research
to find a solution to reserving a
parking spot before getting to his
destination”.
Oginni further said, “in August
2018 I took time conducting
research on the best solution to
resolving the parking menace in
Lagos and if there was currently a
solution in the market. We also
carried out a market survey to ensure
that this was a solution users actually
wanted and its results revealed an
overwhelmingly positive response
to the idea and highlighted the
potential benefits users saw with the
solution. Before the end of 2018, I
assembled a team to develop the
product and I was actively involved
in ensuring we got to the Minimum
Viable Product (MVP) stage.
However, I and my team still had
The world is faced with
complex social and
economic challenges ravaged by
an arduous pandemic in today’s
knowledge-based environment.
However, societal progress
depends on cultivating leaders
who can operate effectively in a
global and changing
environment and adapt to
diverse systems and institutions
to meet the change demands of
disparate communities. Moreso,
for young people situated at the
margins and exposed to societal
ills, which renders them
vulnerable to alienation or
resentment from mainstream
social institutions such as
education and vocation. So,
therefore, with globalization
uncertainty, what can we, as
individuals, do in our immediate
environment or inside our
organizations to effect the desired
change? These, amongst other
things, have entreated the need
for socially conscious leaders to
pursue social goals as part of
their enterprise objectives
leading to change as social
entrepreneurs. The social
entrepreneurship essence aims
to create public good by exposing
and ameliorating social problems
by adopting entrepreneurial
precepts with social values to
achieve positive social changes.
The social entrepreneurial impact
excels through new communitybased
ventures that focus on
value creation, sustainable
L-R: Adewale Alli, the CMO, Oluyinka Oginni, the CEO and Fola
Oyewole, the CTO
our individual full-time jobs, and
that meant we could not fully
dedicate adequate resources to
launch the product once it got to the
MVP stage. In 2020, the team
decided to dedicate all our time to
complete and launch the product.”
Continuing, Oginni said that
Parchive’s main goal is to ensure
people conveniently drive their cars
in Nigeria without the struggling of
a place to park. Since its launch in
October 2020, over 1000 parking
transactions have been completed
on the platform despite the fact that
some people now work from home
due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, as part of measures
to eliminate transactional and
financial monitoring bottlenecks
for car park operators, Parchive
introduced cashless transactions as
a gamechanger in an industry
notorious for physical cash
payments. Current car park
operators on the platform can
easily withdraw their earnings
directly into their bank accounts,
further driving digital transactions
in the economy
On the company’s long-term plan,
he said, “five years from now, Parchive
would have expanded to the rest of
Africa. We designed the application
with potential users across the
continent in mind ensuring that
anyone with a smartphone/device
can easily download the app on
Google Play store or use our WebApp
for IOS users, create an account, type
their destination in the search bar,
view car parks closest to that location,
and easily reserve a parking spot. We
were also excited to see that over 60%
of our customers are women, with
use cases ranging from paying for
parking at their workplaces to
making reservations when they visit
the market.”
In addition, the Chief Technology
Officer, Fola Oyewole said that
Nigerians only need to download the
app on Playstore or visit
parchive.space to create accounts.
Once their accounts have been
created, they can type their
destinations in the search bar to view
and reserve the closest car parks to
their destinations. For Car park
providers who are interested in
partnership, they can also visit their
website to sign-up
Ken Etet
ete: e: The social entrepreneur
solution, empowerment and
innovation, and collaboration not
maintained status quo and the
appetite for controlling industry
forces that have impoverished
communities in the first place.
As a general principle, on the
one hand, social change aims to
reduce inequality and make
other people’s lives better. As
such, notions of social change are
situated around institutional
policy changes to benefit a group
and implicit changes in a group’s
value, status, or authority that
leads to better individual, social
condition and societal
development, and
empowerment. Accordingly,
community wellness and social
innovations are good for society
and enhance society’s capacity
to act and foster a shift in attitudes
and actions that enable sound
policies centered on creating
community-based sustainable
economic opportunities. On the
other hand, a social entrepreneur
or a change broker fosters
collaboration that elevates active
inclusion within organizations
and communities.
Consequently, I care about
social innovation and positive
social change because people out
there need modified social
transformation toward equality.
Ostensibly, social innovation
through the impact of a change
broker agency and its significant
role in infusing sustainable
development that leverages
technology
and
entrepreneurship and is a
priority in strategies for social
change, which is a major driving
force behind common wealth
creation. Conversely, social
entrepreneurship and its related
innovation development are vital
to empowering societies and are
often critical for marginalized
communities’ equity and must
bring concerned groups
permanent benefits, unlike
technical innovation, which are
contemplated innovations only
after the strikingly groundbreaking
discovery that can be
marketed.
As a strategic thinker and sociopolitical
conscious enterprise
innovator: Ken Etete uses his
green space above his private
residence hoisted by a social app
to create a fitness and leadership
community, which means he
opened his home to total strangers
to engaged socially, contributing
to societal well-being, astonishing
right? I thought as much too. The
green space is now a family
community called: The Rooftop
Gym, which aims to promote
fitness and mentor young leaders,
acting as a change vector. During
and the still existing Covid-19
complexities and the apparent
incapacity of existing public
Evans Jakpa-Johns, PhD
Student, Management &
Technology
read more on
www.v
.vanguar
anguardngr
dngr.com
SATURDAY Vanguard, MAY 22, 2021—27
Zylus Group feeds 1000 Ajah
residents for Eid celebrations
A
leading business capital organisation, Zylus Group International,
on Wednesday 13, May 2021 put smiles on the faces of young, old,
needy as they took to the streets of Ajah community Lagos in the spirit Eidel-Fitri
feeding more than 1000 with its “Feed the 1000” initiative.
The GMD, Zylus Group International, Oluwatosin Olatujoye, said, “the
“Feed the 1000” initiative came up as a result of the group’s dedication
towards helping the less privileged in the society with the inclusion of those
who cannot afford to celebrate Eid-el-Fitri by themselves.
“We are dedicated towards our service to humanity, besides the
programme of feeding some less privileged persons, we carried out many
activities geared towards helping the needy and putting a smile on their
faces. We’ve had several CSR programmes where we feed children and
even those in correctional facilities. With our “Feed the 1000” initiative we
wanted to bring smiles to the people’s faces this Eid, we don’t want them to
feel left out because they can’t afford to celebrate in their homes. We are
positive that this would be a beginning to greater initiatives”.
He added that the company has plans towards celebrating children of
selected schools during the upcoming Children’s Day, this May.
A member of the team, Jolayemi James, said that the company choose to
carry out this initiative during this period to show love and celebrate with
the less privileged.
“If you want to transform lives and reach out to people, you have to start
from somewhere. We are committed to our mantra: Nurturing dreams,
fulfilling realities. Jolayemi added.
One of the residents, Ahmed commended Zylus Group International for
their kind gesture in celebrating the festival with them by sharing food to
residents in the area.
Zylus Group of staff sharing foods for Ajah residents during Eid-el-Fitri
celebration
NIMN Elections: Presidential
candidate assures of a more
professional institute
A
s preparations for the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria
(NIMN) elections gather momentum, one of the candidates
vying for the office of the institute’s president, Mr. Idorenyen Enang,
has said his priority on assumption of office would be to further
enhance professionalism among members.
Idorenyen made the pledge, recently, while presenting his agenda,
at the institute’s Presidential Debate, organized for candidates vying
for the office of the president.
According to him, with the huge presence of its members in different
sectors of the nation’s economy, the time has come for the marketing
institute to take its pride of place in the comity of professional bodies
in the country.
While commending the outgoing president of the institute, Mr.
Tony Agenmonmen for its efforts at rebuilding the institute, Idorenyen
assured of his commitment to continue with the rebuilding process
to enable him effectively reposition the institute.
He argued that one of the strategies he intends to adopt is by
unleashing the power in members, and make them actively involved
in the affairs of the institute.
Besides, he assured that the institute, under his leadership, would
strengthen its bond with the academia, to enable its vast human
resources in the nation’s academic space contribute their own quota
to the growth of the institute.
“One of the things I intend to do is to strengthen the bond between
the institute and the marketing departments in the nation’s higher
institutions. For instance, we need to make our professors of
Marketing, contribute to capacity development in the institute.
“We intend to have a huge bank of materials in the institute, and
we can achieve that by asking marketing professors among us to
give us highly researched works which would be warehoused for
the use of members”.
The president hopeful assured members of the institute of a quality
leadership, on assumption of office, on May 28, this year. Earlier,
one of the candidates vying for one of the two vacant council
seats, Mr. Chidi Nwakpa, promised to use his influence as a council
member to enhance the quality of membership to the institute.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Lagos Women’s Wing
visits Gani Adams
The Women’s Wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Lagos state has said that
contrary to the media report, the visit by the group to the Aare
Onakakanfo, Iba Gani Adams was not a “powerful delegation of IPOB
Women” as tagged by the media. The women leader of the Igbo sociocultural
organisation, Chief Mrs Violet Uche Obiora said in a
statement.
The statement titled: Rebuttal on the media post; “Powerful
Delegation of IPOB Women Visits Gani Adams in Lagos”. Read: “It is
with a deep sense of duty, that I humbly write to correct an impression
generated by a wrongly tagged post.
“We the “Ohanaeze Ndigbo Lagos state, Women’s Wing”paid Chief
Gani Igbo Adams, Aare Onakakanfo a courtesy visit in his Lagos State
residence to mark Eid-el-Fitri celebration on Wednesday, May 12, 2021.
Unknown to us, pictures taken at the said courtesy visit were posted on
several social media platforms with the caption, “Powerful Delegation
of IPOB Women visits Gani Adams in Lagos. The above statement is
false, misleading and misrepresents the identity of our group and the
purpose of our visit.