THE FUTURE IS MOBILE

Mankind has always wanted more. Mankind has always wanted speed. Many innovations in the history of human existence have been indicative of mankind’s subliminal/overt craving for ease and wealth creation. Many innovations have changed the course of history; the steam engine, electric bulb, electricity, radioactivity, polymer, telephone and the internet. The introduction of GSM, internet and many information technology tools have changed business models, organizational communication and created great companies, offering business as well as social services. Mobile phones and devices give the advantage of portability and convenience for movement. They offer the same speed desk devices such as the PC offer, maybe better in some cases. Globalization would not have a better ally than mobile devices, because they are the last in the race and lineage for offspring’s for human communication. Anything that would be created after smart phone's, feature phones and advanced feature phones would also be mobile and that’s the idea-making life easy and portable for mankind. The import of the pervasiveness and functionality of mobile phones is that services and businesses would be created and optimized around them. Mobile payments, internet banking, social networking and other emerging industries are customized along mobile lines to avert big bang disruption. The world currently has 6.8 billion mobile phones in a world of 7billion people. This implies a penetration of 128% in the developed world and 89% in developing countries according to ITU. The penetration of mobile phones in Nigeria according to the regulatory body for telecoms-NCC puts the figure at 78.8%. The NCC informs that a good number of Nigerians own more than one mobile phone. The leading network MTN has 45m subscribers, Airtel of India- 25m, Etisalat- 15m and indigenous Globacom- 28m.Many firms’ asides having regular websites now have mobile sites dedicated to serve mobile phone users. According to research, 69% of Nigerians access the internet through mobile phones. What business decision should this inform? I think advertising decisions. Many people spend at least 2hours on the internet and if most of them access through their phones, then brand managers and government in cases of e-governance should create strategically a mobile advertising budget to cater for this latest insights on mobile usage and pervasiveness. To ignore the potent regime of mobile advertising is to prepare for a loss of branding war. There are networks that have done well in Africa in mobile advertising in Africa. Inmobi and Twinpine have productive footprints in this area, but I hear Inmobi has left, leaving Twinpine. Globally, over 130 mobile money initiatives have been deployed. About 80% of that is in Africa. 31% off Kenya’s GDP moved through mobile money platforms. Total African mobile transfers are expected to exceed $200billion by 2015, accounting for approximately 18% for Africa’s GDP. Is the future mobile or not? The most notable of mobile innovation is in Kenya with their M-Pesa and M-Shwari. The smartphone industry in Nigeria is now worth 245bn dollars , that’s different from the regular mobile phones. The lifes of people now revolves around their mobile devices. Mobile devices have become a vital organ in humans, particularly people in Africa, since they had to leap frog other means of communication and embrace the mobile fad. Mobile devices such as tablets, Blackberry, Android, Nexus etc. have become things people build their emotions around and the means through which they conduct their lives. This calls for some computer mediated communication research. Lastly, the fundamental premise for this piece is to note that anything that is pervasive and makes life easy for mankind carries the day. The mobile devices are just the perfect fit for this description and the future of mankind would be determined by them. The future is mobile.

Colonialism or Business Modernity: China's Engagement with Africa

Trade between China and Africa was worth over $200billion in 2012. That is a good figure between both trading blocks. However, the terms of engagement as well as the macroeconomic dynamics of the relationship between Africa and China needs to be explored. The nature of value exchange between both blocks has taken the dimension of exchange of minerals and crude oil with infrastructure largely. There is also the platform of flooding our market with Chinese mass produce goods. This evidently has an effect on informal sectors, hence micro-economic activity of the average African citizen, especially in places like Nigeria where the regulatory environment seems to favour the Asian business engagement. Manufacturing which has always been in a state of coma is enjoying accelerated death owing to this. According to Lamido Sanusi, Nigeria's CBN governor, "the decline of African manufacturing from 12.8 per cent to 10.5 per cent of regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the United Nations." Sanusi has warned against the mode of engagement as a catalyst of redefined mode of colonialism. Colonialism was simply using of political control to make colonies resource efficient, transporting the resources abroad and producing goods in overseas manufacturing firms for consumption in the colonies. The Chinese are doing it in a redefined manner that I like to call business modernity. It doesn't involve political coercion. It just requires engagement through provision of funds for infrastructural development and hedging against risks associated with such development and drawing huge mineral resources for further production of export goods in their country, which make their way to other parts of the world and Africa particularly. They made available a credit line of $20billion available for Africa, alongside other initiatives and partnerships. It is worse for Africa, because many countries have comatose manufacturing sectors, and the model of consumption of Chinese export goods further makes the manufacturing sector susceptible to decline, because of the inability to compete with Chine se firms that have scale, energy, supported by a technocracy and also has ambition. The dialectics offered by western representatives such as Hillary Clinton "a model of sustainable partnership that adds value, rather than extracts it" from Africa. Unlike other countries, "America will stand up for democracy and universal human rights even when it might be easier to look the other way and keep the resources flowing." and David Cameron," believe the model of authoritarian capitalism [in China] we are seeing will fall short in the long term. ‘When people get economically richer they make legitimate demands for political freedoms to match their economic freedoms. This model is unable to respond. These statements are significant and unnecessary concomitantly. Significant because it brings the business modernity to the consciousness of Africa's sleeping intellectuals and dormant administrators in local development institutions. It is unnecessary because African leaders seem to even lack the fundamental will , which is the political will to get things right on the economic and wealth creating front. A phenomenal profligacy censured by corruption has led to an economic situation where over 400billion dollars has been stolen from Nigeria since crude oil has been discovered in 1978 according to Oby Ezekwesili, former World Bank chief and $851billion between 1970's and 2000's according to Global Financial Integrity. The argument by the west is not a generous one, its an economic one. it originates from trying to recover their slack, where China had gained by engaging the will bankruptcy of African leaders. China just built the headquarters of the African union. The west have enjoyed this sort of thing in the past and it help their fortunes in great bounds. I bet they want to feel how China is feeling now. Africa is growing owing to the commodities boom, the population of Africa comprises of young people who would according to Mckinsey have a deep pocket of $1.8trillion to spend from by 2030. The west need not act like they love us, China needs no further patronage. Its our leaders we should call to account. We youths particularly should get involved in foreign policy-in policy making generally. We need to stand up, so that the many years of slavery and colonial rule and the redefined business modernity won't further reduce the optimum we can get by being economically responsible and proactive. China is engaging Africa, the west is apprehensive. What are African's doing? They are not aware and their leaders are not proactive enough. We must do something. Colonialism or business modernity are just the same.