This week, Ola Brown, the founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria took to Twitter to share her take on how Nigerian tech entrepreneurs “still think their businesses will work exactly like their silicon valley equivalents”. Here are few tweets from the insightful thread including reactions.
9. There are a lot of things you must unlearn from silicon valley to run a successful tech business in Nigeria
— Dr Ola Brown (@NaijaFlyingDr) September 25, 2017
13. I believe silicon-valleyism in Africa has actually held us back we continue to build great products that aren’t useful to our people
— Dr Ola Brown (@NaijaFlyingDr) September 25, 2017
14. This has led to a large proportion of our tech companies being funded by contiuous grants not investors
— Dr Ola Brown (@NaijaFlyingDr) September 25, 2017
Preach!
Haha. I don’t know how we are supposed to progress focusing on others.. That’s counterintuitive!
— Mubarak Sumaila (@ventureplato) September 25, 2017
https://twitter.com/bidemisadiq/status/912261780541513728
Some think Nigerian entrepreneurs are not entirely to blame
The issue is source of capital. Entrepreneurs will work in a space that is attractive to investors; in our case, foreign investors…
— Gabriel Akan Gab-Umoden (@Akan_Umoden) September 25, 2017
And our local investors aren’t helping either. They prefer to fund ‘sexy’ Silicon Valley modelled startups.
— FAN (@fanwosu) September 25, 2017
To what degree should tech be used to solve local problems?
https://twitter.com/kambeyakari/status/912288606982742016
True. That’s why one needs to have offline onboarding ramps for the online services.
— 🅾️🅱️🅰️ (@diokpaigbo) September 26, 2017
Read the full thread here and quick question: is your startup solving a real local problem? Here are some other interesting topics on social media this week.
Ayo Fayose 2019
This week, Ayo Fayose, Governor of Ekiti State, announced his candidacy for the 2019 presidential elections.
FLASH: Ekiti Governor Ayodele Fayose Commences Publicity About The Joke Of Presidential Ambition @GovAyoFayose pic.twitter.com/7GnhwL5pPk
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) September 26, 2017
Some think he’s a joke
Honestly what Fayose and FFK did today at Abuja is a serious blessing to Buhari and APC in 2019.
These men eternally lack sense— Souljah (@jeffphilips1) September 28, 2017
“On seeing Fayose’s so-called presidential declaration on TV, I wondered if he was declaring to be a regional president” – Sen. Kashamu 😂😂
— Jubril A. Gawat (@Mr_JAGs) September 28, 2017
While others don’t find anything funny
U find Fayose’s declaration funny but you believed PMB who had 150 cows for 12 years to make $1 = N1? The joke is on you. #ContinueUrMumu
— Coaché Memotaka PureBlood (@naijateddy) September 29, 2017
Fayose is a threat to Buhari and his APC dummies, if he have just four fayose-likes in the opposition we won’t be in this mess we are in.
— Olúyẹmí Fásípè AICMC (@YemieFash) September 29, 2017
In the absence of a lesser evil…
Atiku, Buhari, Fayose for 2019 Presidency.. I wont waste my time voting,I will wait till 2023. There should be better candidates then.
— 🐅🐅🐅 (@CallmeDimpl3) September 27, 2017
2019 Presidency . Who would you vote for?
Please vote & retweet— Peacemaker (@iamebendavis) September 27, 2017
Hello 280 characters!
This week, Twitter increased its 140-character word limit to 280 to accomodate languages like English that have less expression per character. They made this known through a tweet from their official account and from the company’s top executives.
https://twitter.com/Twitter/status/912783930431905797
This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence! https://t.co/TuHj51MsTu
— jack (@jack) September 26, 2017
Originally, our constraint was 160 (limit of a text) minus username. But we noticed @biz got 1 more than @jack. For fairness, we chose 140. Now texts are unlimited. Also, we realize that 140 isn’t fair—there are differences between languages. We’re testing the limits. Hello 280!
— Biz Stone (@biz) September 26, 2017
Some people are not impressed
https://twitter.com/legostormtroopr/status/912815191099809792
“Blah blah blah. 140 was arbitrary blah blah. Blah blah blah solving a non-existing problem blah blah. Tweets can be 280 now.” #DidItIn140
— Doctor Popular (@DocPop) September 26, 2017
Twitter is still testing with a few people, here’s how they are using it:
I just saw a 280-character curation of popular Twitter phrases rolled into one tweet and I have never felt the need to throw a device away like I did then.
But here I am, right now, writing long-ass posts for no reason at all.
Call me Pat. Because I am Pat of the Problem.
Heh.
— ִ (@xylemic) September 28, 2017
The power of a seed is not in its size but in the quality of its product. May every small effort of yours always yield multiple results of blessings. Life is not by Grade but by Grace. Not by Labour but by Favour. Not by Merit but by Mercy. May the Grace & Favour of God locate U.
— Ibe (@maziibe_) September 28, 2017
Saudi Arabian women can drive
This week, Saudi Arabia recorded the end of many years of driving ban for women. King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia passed a royal decree permitting women to drive. The decree will take effect from June 2018.
Women in Saudi Arabia are celebrating after the country lifted the ban on women driving. pic.twitter.com/Y9tRSs6xlG
— AJ+ (@ajplus) September 29, 2017
Here are some of the reactions to this news on social media
https://twitter.com/AsYouNotWish/status/913162815854092288
https://twitter.com/one_by_two/status/913369483674292224
https://twitter.com/StefMacWilliams/status/913598079210749953
Congratulations to all women in Saudi Arabia! The ban on driving will be lifted next year & all women will have the right to drive #Progress pic.twitter.com/Zsc7gbMR8n
— Kris Jenner (@KrisJenner) September 27, 2017
Progress!!
