It’s a great opportunity to be here as a guest blogger. My name is Mutiu Okediran and I had this interview (via email) with Francis Onwumere. He is a freelance web developer.

Enjoy the interview…

Francis said no matter the difficulty you are facing as a startup

Start by having a plan. At least start and don’t let the difficulties woo you

SN: Please tell us about yourself, your background and interests?

Francis: I’m a 25 year old freelance web developer and have been doing this professionally for close to four years now, mainly as a means of extra income while studying chemistry at University of Nigeria.

Originally it all started by chance. I had just finished secondary school in 2000 and while trying to gain admission into university, I came across this HTML book at one Akoka study centre in Lagos. Alongside my A-Level studies, I gradually began to explore the world of HTML and web design.

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Qubestreet is a pan-African media & entertainment start-up pre-launched in Nigeria in November 2006, with the goal of uniting Africans through interactive solutions, events, publications and new media interactive projects across different niche markets.

The idea of the site is to showcase the best of African talent to the rest of the world and, at the same time, connect top rated African brands to the global market through the use of technology and innovative portals. These portals will connect different people with shared interests, hobbies, occupations and backgrounds.
 
Since the conception of Qubestreet Media and Entertainment, the company has participated in and also supported various events in Nigeria such as:

• Fusion 2006
• Pink Pearl Breast Cancer Awareness Concert 2007
• The Emancipation of the Duchesses (A high school reunion)
• Burst ‘n’ Move Hip-hop Project
• Bump ‘n’ Grind Awards Night (Corona Class of 2007)

Qubestreet is proposing an official launch in Nigeria and South Africa come 2009 and is poised to offer services such as event management & consultancy, publishing, production and promotion of events, and new media technologies.

Qubestreet will be launching different products such as 1709 Communications (new media technology), Street Press (publishing), Mahsive Promotions (events production and branding), Naijaborn (social networking).

Qubestreet is seeking funding and support and would also value collaborations and partnerships. The company is registered in Lagos, Nigeria and Johannesburg, South Africa.

When the announcement came in June this year that the 3G iPhone will be launched in Africa, I was eagerly anticipating to witness the hype in Nigeria, even though I had witnessed the hype first hand in France last year.

Before then, Vodafone had signed a ten-country deal with Apple to supply the iPhone to Africa. In September, the 3G iPhone finally arrived in South Africa after a lot of rumors and speculations.

Today, iPhone 3G is available in 64 countries across Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, South America, the Middle East and the Carribeans. In Africa, the 3G iPhone is currently available in Egypt and South Africa.

I was curious to see what African countries are next in line for the 3G IPhone launch, so I visited the Apple’s website only to find out that Nigeria was not listed amongst a total of 13 African countries where the 3G iPhone is launching soon. This makes me wonder if Apple recognises Nigeria’s mobile phone users growth rate (over 66 million mobile phones in Nigeria) and the fact that Nigeria is the largest telecoms market in Africa.

Although it was indicated that country availability and rollout schedule are subject to change, it’s hard to believe that Nigeria has been left out of the iPhone craze and buzz around the world.

On the funny side, here is a cartoon from Wired Scout that describes the launch of iPhone in Nigeria.

About iPhone 3G

With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. And like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser.

Since the Blackberry device came into Nigeria in 2006, there has been a huge hype about the future of mobile devices in Nigeria. While we await the arrival of the Apple iPhone into Nigeria, here comes another smartphone designed and manufactured for Africa - Anabel Mobile.

Anabel Mobile is Africa’s first smart phone with value added services and functunalities such as the ‘push and pull email’ which has been the hallmark of the Blackberry device.  The handsets are manufactured and distributed by Nigerian-based start-up Anabel Mobile.

In a statement released to THISDAY, the company stated that “Anabel Mobile is a global brand created by Nigerians and which has chosen first to start with Nigeria giving Nigerians the respect and focus that many international brands have failed to do”.

Anabel Mobile devices are equally designed to meet the needs of high end students who are running sophisticated graduate or senior programmes and need advanced mobile devices for data analysis, communicating and reporting, and for sharing large files whether data, voice, music or video.

What Makes It Unique?

The Anabel Smart Phone is said to be extremely stylish and very user friendly and runs on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1, which makes it compatible with any PC anywhere in the world.

The Anabel Professional Series, which comes in ranges from PS 100s up to PS 200s, allows you to synchronise your Anabel Smart Phone with your PC, all your data, emails, presentations etc and since it is running on windows you can also prepare your power point, excel or word presentations while on the move in your car or while waiting for a flight at the airport.

The smart phone has been accredited and approved by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). The NCC also granted Anabel Mobile a licence to operate within the Nigerian territory for sales of its full range of products. NCC is said to be excited that the Anabel devices will be the first hand held devices to carry the NCC accreditation and approval stamped on its devices. 

My take on this

Although I’m excited to witness the launch of Nigeria’s first smart phone, I’m still skeptical about its functunalities. Particularly because the brand is hardly mentioned amongst other big mobile device companies such as Apple and Vodafone. I hope Anabel Mobile is truly what we expect it to be - a Blackberry-like smart phone.

If you want to host a website in Nigeria, you may decide to choose the .ng domain name registration since it is the official Internet Country Code Top Level Domain of Nigeria sponsored by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) with the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA) as the Registry.

To register the .ng domain name, you must have actual physical presence in Nigeria (as an individual or as an entity) and you can make the registration through several registry services that offer the .ng registration. NiRA has announced that it expects to gain 2 million users over the next 18 months, fueled in part by a January 2008 memorandum of agreement between NiRA and NITDA.

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