Life in Nigeria today is like living in a dilapidated caravan, or driving around in a fancy jalopy.
When this sort of accommodation or transportation is your daily reality, then your long-term ambitions become hobbled by the pragmatic quest to simply make it to the next day’s hustle, the next salary, the next windfall or gift from that well-to-do cousin, and perhaps, for businesses, waiting for that large order that may never come. Under these faltering conditions, a balanced diet, quality education, satisfactory healthcare, comfortable and safe transportation, and strategic focus become luxuries.
For most folks, simply existing has become a risk; and for businesses and corporate citizenship, a wasteful pleasure. Phrases like “the economic growth and recovery plan” begin to sound somewhat pretentious. Another government mirage perhaps. Sadly, the disdain for diligence is rife and few Nigerians seem convinced that patriotism has its rewards. The paradox of hoping for affluence has become a pandemic, with citizens, companies and communities prowling around for scarce resources and opportunities like a herd of famished goats. Even government’s uptake of loans – $1 billion from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and $1.3 billion from China’s Exim Bank for rail projects – has not restored confidence in the shaky polity. Another $1 billion World Bank facility is expected to flow into government’s coffers in 2017, says Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun.
“The economy is on the path to recovery and confidence in the macro-picture is key,” Adeosun told CNBC Africa anchor Wole Famurewa in February. “Government is focused on investing in the priority areas of power and infrastructure… even as we continue work on payroll clean-ups and efficiency at the state level…”
The dire economy will not stop government from taking its statutory pound of flesh from companies, as oil revenues now represent only 10% of GDP. So, tax reforms will take center stage. At 6%, Nigeria has one of the lowest tax to GDP ratios in the world, with Ghana at 15% and South Africa 24%, Adesoun cautions, warning that “we should be very careful about getting excited about recent crude oil price recovery.”
At the micro level, pervasive poverty, disdain for Abujanomics and the proliferation of dodgy pyramid/Ponzi schemes is the new social order. Camouflaging as financial literacy, network marketing or empowerment programs, they represent on one side, the quest for overnight wealth and absolute disregard for government’s agenda and promissory notes, and on the flip side, the emergence of a new breed of professional charlatans peddling crafty concepts in an increasingly sophisticated economy.  Somebody needs to commission a poll to measure Nigeria’s social desperation index.
In a risk-averse, reward-hungry society such as this, contemporary concepts and capabilities like coding, digital literacy, big data analytics, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things (IOT) and artificial intelligence (AI) are farfetched ideas. Non-profits like the Lagos-based Book Club, which has been promoting the altruistic pleasures of reading books and advocating for a return to the culture of heuristics, seem largely ignored, their activities lost in the babble of personal, communal and corporate survival.
The nation seems to have lost a large portion of its liberal ethos. The number of pepper soup joints and event centers has now surpassed the number of libraries and bookstores in the land. Clearly, the pursuit of leisure and lucre has overtaken the quest for the wealth of knowledge to be found on books – or e-books.
But it is difficult to grow a culture of reading and research when citizens go to bed every night with hunger in their bellies and hyperinflation on their minds. Consumer price inflation peaked at an 11-year high of 17.9% in September 2016 and had neared 19% by February. “2016 was defined by politics and policy spats… our currency and foreign exchange issues led to the economy catching cold. But as we entered 2017 the forex issue moved from being a cold into financial pneumonia stage,” Kayode Oguntayo, a Lagos-based entrepreneur told this writer.
Notwithstanding these issues, Nigeria’s $1 billion Eurobond was eight times oversubscribed during its early hours of trading on the London Stock Exchange last February. The 15-year bond offering 7.875% in trading is the first Nigerian offering since 2013 and the 2015 change of government. Nigerian legislators had last year rejected government’s plan to raise $30 billion through loans.
Could Nigeria be flirting with a new era of economic rejuvenation?

Risks, Rewards  And Eurobonds

Sibongile Sambo spent most of her childhood looking up at the big tubes of metal in the sky. Each time she heard a helicopter or a plane, she would stop everything and imagine how it would feel to be 40,000 feet above sea level.
In her early twenties, Sambo applied to be an airhostess and it had seemed she had the job in the bag. She passed all the written and physical tests and impressed the panel with her knowledge of aviation, but there was one small problem.
“I was too short (1.5m) and at that time they were still really strict about the 1.6m height. I understand why. It’s because they needed people who could easily reach the cabin and be able to take out and pack in the clients’ bags.”
Sambo was later offered a position as crew on a smaller domestic flight, but she had just completed her degree and, after much deliberation, passed up on her dream for a desk job. Years later, while working at De Beers, she found just the opportunity to dream again.
“The position I was in allowed me to fly in their private jets, to all other operations to either Botswana or Namibia. That rekindled the actual love for private jets. And I liked the idea of private jets because you don’t have to wait in  queues at the airports.”
Sambo quit her job to focus on her new love of private jets. She registered her company under Sibongile Rejoice Sambo Aviation (SRS Aviation) and naïvely applied for a tender the government was offering aviation firms for cargo transportation.
“I took it very lightly. You know when you submit a bid, it’s your first time and you actually don’t believe you will get it. And in this industry, I thought it would take me much longer than it did,” she says.
Sambo won the bid and had to raise R1 million ($92, 890) to get the plane from Dubai to South Africa to move the cargo. She applied for loans, but was turned away from businesses that said aviation was risky and her lack of experience was a disadvantage. There was one person Sambo could always count on, her mother.
“She was working as a nurse in London. She came back, released her pension money and asked her sister to also assist with her pension money,” says Sambo.
The job went better than expected and Sambo managed to repay everyone. SRS Aviation began to generate a steady clientele and the money rolled in. She became the first South African woman to own an aviation company, which is 100% black female-owned. Despite her accomplishments, she was often criticized for her lack of experience and many thought she would not survive in the male-dominated industry.
In 2010, disaster stuck. Clients began to pull their planes from SRS Aviation, in what Sambo believes was a plan devised to sabotage her. So, when the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) came to inspect her operation, there were no planes in her hangars and no recorded flights, as she was no longer managing the planes that had  once operated under her license. Sambo lost her license.
“It has been such a roller-coaster. The business took off very well from 2004 to 2007. In 2008, we started seeing a little bit of a slowdown. In 2009, we saw the jet fuel hike, and in 2010 the recession came. So, we experienced a huge dip and I basically retrenched everyone.”
In 2013, Sambo reacquired her license and business began to boom. She currently has seven employees and generates an annual turnover of R5 million ($462,850), which she says is little in comparison to their R35-R50 million turnover during the good days.
Over the years, Sambo has received recognition for her achievements in the industry. In 2007, Fortune Magazine named her a ‘Leader of Tomorrow’, and in 2009 she was nominated for the Queen Victoria Memorial Award by the Europe Business Assembly in London. Last year, she was placed on the FORBES ‘10 Young Africans Millionaires to Watch’ list.
“I wish I could tell people that it doesn’t look as easy as you read about. It made me feel happy that I didn’t lose hope and just let my dream die. I persevered and I hung on to some of my investments, which helped me get back on track.”
SRS Aviation offers services that include: VIP charter, air cargo charter, tourist transfers and film work. It has expanded into supplying aircraft spare parts for Boeing and Airbus and is looking at handling ground equipment for airports.
“I still don’t own any airplanes. I still lease people’s airplanes, so they come and go on my license. That is a challenge because I can’t really be completely in control of the particular machine. Therefore, I can’t really control my time.”
Being in an industry that is not female-dominated has made Sambo a role model. She has proven that when it comes to dreaming, the sky is certainly not the limit.

Reach For  The Sky

Worldwide, commuting has proven to be an increasingly expensive, stress inducing and environmentally unfriendly necessity—the latter due to the increase in carbon footprint generation, defined by the UK Carbon Trust as “the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person”, thanks to more vehicles being used on our roads.
Alternate forms of transportation have been eagerly sought and this has led to companies such as Ultra Motor developing a range of electric and hybrid-powered bicycles designed to alleviate these personal and ecological issues. FORBES AFRICA recently got the chance to test ride a power-on-demand electrically assisted bike for ourselves and we were pleasantly surprised.
Developed with short distances in mind, the A2B Metro, the company’s flagship model launched in 2008, utilizes pedal power which can be offset by an infusion of electric-powered momentum, allowing you to slip in and out of traffic and get some exercise, or not, if you’d prefer—all for a greatly reduced running cost. And as for the headache of finding parking—consider that a thing of the past.
The A2B Metro weighs in at a robust 37kgs, which, while not light by any means, is only tedious when it needs to be shifted in or out of tight areas. Once in motion, the weight seems to disappear and the bike is highly maneuverable and fun to ride, even when pedal power is used exclusively. Thanks to a seven-speed Shimano derailer, changing gears is simple, quick and the chain never threatened to come loose from its gears or housing. Even traveling uphill is not an issue, thanks to the motor, which comes alive at a flick of the wrist, so you don’t have to go to that early morning meeting gushing like a geyser. Crossing large intersections holds no fear for the A2B owner; slipping off the pedals or not generating enough momentum in time for a changing robot are all offset by the ever-present motor that can take over as quickly as you need it to.
We found that the electric throttle became difficult to keep a grip on over extended periods, but that’s no doubt because it was only designed as an assist and not as an exclusive means of propulsion. The bike has a lithium-ion battery, with the option of a second one that can be installed in the Y-frame, which is placed on a rail behind the seat and housed in custom alloy for more efficient cooling. It takes a mere four to five hours of charging time at a standard outlet, and with two batteries installed, the bike has an effective range of 64km. Charging is easy as the rear battery pack simply slips off and is then attached to a standard wall socket.
Lithium-ion batteries have proven successful and popular in consumer electronics because they have no memory effect, lose very little charge when dormant and have one of the best energy densities available. In addition, they are much lighter than their counterparts, and it is advised that they be charged regularly, versus other batteries that should be totally depleted, making them more practical to use.
The frame of the Metro is created using hydroforming technology. The process entails placing lightweight aluminum on a negative mold of the desired shape, and then high pressure hydraulic pumps inject fluid within the mold, causing the metal to match the shape exactly. The benefit of using hydroforming technology is that complex shapes can be created with a higher stiffness-to-weight ratio, and at a reduced per unit cost.
The hand-sized 250W brushless hub motor sits on the rear wheel of the A2B Metro and there’s no visible cabling, making it safe to use and water tight. As opposed to conventional brushed motors, this variant has the permanent magnets on the rotor and the electromagnets are moved to the stator, essentially turning it inside out. The benefits are that without brushes which erode due to wear and tear, these motors are more reliable and cooler, with less sparking and noise produced.
The Metro comes with accessories in the form of pannier bags and racks so you can take your essentials with you. You don’t need a special license or gear, other than a helmet, which makes it far more user-friendly than traveling by motorbike. The oversized seat ensures traveling longer distances is comfortable and won’t result in regular chiropractic visits.
And if you thought the A2B was a slouch, think again—it’s capable of clocking speeds around 28km/h. Stopping the A2B is the task of multiple disc brakes that work tremendously well and won’t get clogged up or slip in wet weather conditions. The front wheel quickly clips off, allowing punctures to be fixed with relative ease­—not so much with the rear configuration—and the wide tires mean the bike can deal with some pretty tough terrain, albeit not off-road conditions. Front and rear suspensions, with the latter having the ability to be set as specific preloads, also help transition the ride over any bumps or potholes, as we South Africans are accustomed to experiencing frequently.
The Metro has a built-in display that shows the bike’s speed and range and also sports integrated lights in the front and rear for added visibility and night riding.
An issue we experienced was with securing the bike to standard racks. Due to the large tires, and also because the front one clips off, the A2B has to be turned around and secured using a long cable. Similarly, car racks will battle to transport the bike as a result of its weight and girth. We also found that the A2B attracted a lot of attention, making us somewhat paranoid at the thought of leaving it unattended outside a shop, even for a few minutes. And with an asking price of R35,000 ($4,000), it’s not a possession you’d want pilfered!
The bike’s quality is overwhelmingly good, so it’s no wonder this beauty was designed and built in Helmsburg, Germany. Ultra Motor is looking at the prospect of adding software to the Metro in due course, allowing bike technicians to plug it into diagnostic systems much like modern cars. While the jury is out on whether or not this is simply overkill, no doubt servicing the bike will call for an unwanted expense thanks to these ‘innovation

Tag: Transportation

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Reach For The Sky

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