Binatone Unveils Trade Fair Package for Customers

It is going to be a rewarding time at this year’s Lagos  International Trade Fair with Binatone as it unveils trade fair package for customers to mark 45th Anniversary in Nigeria.
The fully Air Conditioned Binatone Stand will  have on offer fabulous deals and numerous freebies for every purchase made at the Fair ground which will take place at Tafawa Balewa Square complex, Onikan in Lagos between November 1st and 10th.
The Managing Director of Global Appliances Nigeria Limited, the Sole distributors of
Binatone products in Nigeria, Mr Prasun Banerjee said the gesture is part of the company’s
decision to enable its teeming customers to check out its wide product range in Domestic and
Kitchen Appliances, Cooling as well as Power Protection products.
“Binatone, founded in the UK in 1958, commenced operations in Nigeria in 1974 and has been
consistently delighting customers with high quality, innovative products at affordable prices.
 Banerjee disclosed that apart from a flat 10 percent discount on all purchases, there will be
specially branded assured gifts like Kitchen Utensil tools and Calendars for every purchase.
Moreover, on the purchase of select Binatone products during the Trade Fair additional
Binatone products as free gifts will be given to customers. These free gifts would include
Binatone Heavy weight Dry Irons, Orbit and Stand Fans, Double Wall Cool Touch Kettles and
Stainless-Steel Kettles.
He explained that a full Range of Binatone products that will be on display during the fair,
including Multi-functional Gourmet Machine and Yam pounders, wide range of Fans and Air
coolers and the innovative Bluetooth Tower Music Fan. There would be power protection
products like Surge protection devices and the 10 KVA centralized stabilizer, suitable for an
entire house. Small Domestic appliances like the wide range of heavy weight and high-power
Irons with Binatone’s Magi-cloth (specially designed to absorb the extra heat that would
otherwise spoil an expensive, dress, shirt or suit,) would be on display. There would also be
kitchen appliances like the Blenders with Unbreakable jugs and stirring sticks, Smoothie
makers and Juicers and wide range of jugs and kettles. Personal Grooming products like Hair
clippers would also be on display.
Other products that will be on display during the 10-day trade fair according to Mr Banerjee
will be the pressure pots with a transparent lid, an energy saving ceramic cooking plate, table top gas cookers, a premium garment steamer for larger items of clothing and of course, a
whole range of other products in the fan, small domestic appliance and power categories.
“Apart from innovation, outstanding design and unbeatable value for money, we continue to
offer our two years warranty to every customer on every Binatone product. We want to use
this opportunity of the Trade Fair to encourage our loyal and valued

Five lucrative ways to use whatsapp for business

The simplicity of Whatsapp shouldn’t fool you into thinking its use is limited to mere casual chatter. Whatsapp can be a powerful and highly cost-effective business tool to those who know how to properly employ its features for business. Here are five lucrative ways to use Whatsapp for business.

For customer engagement and support

Whatsapp is a great tool for delivering customer service and a great platform for customer engagement and support. Whatsapp’s SMS features and its ability to send images, video clips, documents, media and audio files make it a great tool for customer engagement and support; it can be used to engage customers and help increase sales as well as garner a good reputation for your business. Whatsapp is also a great follow up tool for converting business leads into repeat orders, and is a platform for you to also share regular updates about your business at little or no cost rather than through email or SMS. It’s also an effective, convenient and cost-effective way for customers to reach out to you when they have complaints or feedback on your products or services, rather than customers wasting time and spending hundreds of Naira on-hold, waiting for their calls to be picked on a customer care line.

For market survey

Whatsapp is a great interactive tool for getting real-time suggestions and feedback from your customers about your products and services, through brief and concise questions relating to the areas of your business or service you need information on.

For promotions or advertising

In addition to helping with customer engagement and support, Whatsapp offers a good platform for promoting your products, discount or sales offers. If you don’t want to broadcast messages, you can use your display picture, status updates and even profile updates to promote or advertise your products or services. If you want to be creative and put in some extra effort, you can send out e-brochures with images of a product, video clips containing directions on the use of a product, or video clips on discount or sales offerings on your products or services to targeted people or groups on Whatsapp. You can also solicit responses to your videos or e-brochures at the same time.

For business services and transactions

As a business owner, you can encourage your customer to make orders for your products or services on Whatsapp, and you can even hold E-Classes or Tutorials on Whatsapp. In cases where your students might find it hard to get together at a central venue, Whatsapp can easily be the venue for your tutorial classes, and Whatsapp media, documents and audio file sharing feature makes it very interactive for an online tutorial platform. Your students can easily make the payments to be included in the class before-hand, and once the payment is confirmed, you add the students to the closed Whatsapp group for your tutorial class. Even concierge services can be run through Whatsapp, as well as other similar business services.

For internal team communication

A great thing about Whatsapp is that practically everyone uses it and it really doesn’t require any training to use. In addition, you don’t need to explicitly ask your employees or team members to check the app because chances are they’re already hooked to it, this makes Whatsapp a great tool for internal team communication. You can form Whatsapp group for different teams in your business, for example you can form a Whatsapp group for the Business Strategy team, another for the Sales and Development team etc. Your team can share ideas, instant messages, images, audio files, video clips and other media among themselves in a quick and fun way. You also don’t need to be too afraid of the information shared on the these groups getting out because Whatsapp messages are protected with an end-to-end encryption that not only makes it one of the safest messaging apps in existence, but also adequately protects your data from leaks.

Be nicer to your customers than your competitors-Omolola Onabanjo

Omolola Onabanjo, a graduate of Banking and Finance from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago- Iwoye, Ogun State, is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LollyPop Accessories. In this interview with Pressmen, she speaks about her voyage in the world of business and e-commerce.

What inspired you to go into this line business?

I was inspired by  my love for smartphones.  Back then  in school when Blackberry was the trend and there was a high demand for the product among students, I had one and my friends had interest in it, so I saw  that as an avenue to help them get it and as well make profit. That was how one friend would tell another and gradually referral started coming and everyone would come and tell me to help them get a blackberry. When I realised my business was fast spreading and I had no money to stock up phones as it was capital-intensive, I had to focus on the weakness of Blackberry which was their weak battery and at the fact that power was bad in  our school environment so I  had to key into power banks which  started moving so  well and that was it for me. Everyone needed one either you are a blackberry user or not. You just don’t want to be with a switched off device.

What was your start-up capital?

To be candid I started my business with zero capital, the strategy I used then was to help some of my friends and my colleagues who wanted to buy or sell a new or used smartphone, laptop, and some other gadget at a commission. I used to ensure these products come with a proof of ownership to be on a safe side and I was later able to design a black and white poster which I pasted on school notice boards and strategic places where students could  easily see it and through that I got a lot of referral and those commissions as time  went  on became the capital I channelled towards my business. I then started buying flash drive in bulk, memory card, hands free and power bank to sell.

How would you say the business has grown since starting?

Thank God for social media and e-commerce platforms, my business has amplified since the invention of these platforms. They have really enhanced the growth of my business and helped me survive even without a physical outlet yet. I run my business 100 per cent online, through retweets on Twitter and shared post on Facebook,  I have been able to make sales and send my product to 30 states so far in the country.

What are some of the challenges you have faced since starting the business?

Being an entrepreneur in any society comes with different challenges depending on the product or services rendered, the major ones I have faced is trust issue, many anonymous hide behind different accounts on social media to defraud people, hence making it hard for legit imate ones like me to convince buyers to pay before delivery, so what we do is to initiate ‘pay on delivery’  if you are in Lagos and also in Ibadan, as I have representatives there as well. Another challenge is capital to further broaden my business and lastly is logistics in terms of delivery.

What can the government do to address these challenges?

The government should make access to loan for start-up easy with minimal interest and also gear up private organisations to invest in start-up business by so doing it enhances both the business and the economy at large.

 How do you source most of the gadgets you sell?

I get my products from Amazon and other International e-commerce stores.

What are some of your expansion plans?

One of my plans is to have an offline outlet very soon which is going to major in varieties of accessories to gadget, a store that will meet all your accessories need.

Also, to set up campus representatives. I will love to have students in each campus in Nigeria that sell my product. I have already done that with my alma mater but I’m working towards other universities as well. This will help with brand awareness and also help the student to make extra cash while schooling. It could be a form of side hustle while nurturing their entrepreneurship spirit

Can the tech sector diversify the country’s economy from oil?

Definitely, this is the 21st century- the conceptual age and the world is becoming more digital on a daily basis with advanced technology. So at the moment, technology at a steady rate is shifting the country attention away from oil.

Advice to other entrepreneurs?

Be nicer to your customers than your competitors.

If you are working on a product that’s going to be consumer-facing, then feedback is invaluable. You should be out there being brave and talking to people and asking for feedback as much as possible.

New WhatsApp Feature Will Prevent Taking Screenshots Of Private Chat

Facebook- owned messaging app , Whatsapp is introducing a new update which will prevent its users from taking screenshots of their private chats if enabled .
That is not all . WEBetaInfo also reports that another update (a fingerprint authentication security feature ) is working on will have users scan their fingerprint to access chats.
The screenshot from WABetaInfo shows ,

“ Fingerprint security – When enabled , fingerprint is required to open WhatsApp and conversation screenshots are blocked .
“ You can still reply to messages from notifications and
answer calls if WhatsApp is locked .”
Whatsapp security update
“ This new feature has already begun to generate mixed feelings. ‘We do not know why WhatsApp decided to prevent screenshots when fingerprint is enabled , and personally. I don’t know if users like the idea , '” WABetaInfo wrote.
It is not yet known if this new feature will apply to Andriod users
or iPhone users or both of them .

The good side is , they are also set to introduce new animated
stickers. Recall that earlier in the month , Whatsapp announced
via a statement that a new feature to stop people from
automatically adding people to group chats is underway . This, it
stated, will limit the abuse and improve the terms of privacy.

Cardless withdrawal and police ignorance

You probably may have heard how a dude, Azeez Morofu, was manhandled by a mob at Ibadan and handed over to the police at Iyaganku Police Station. His offence? That he withdrew money from an ATM without a debit card. Yes, and…wait, he was wearing a dirty pair of jean trousers!

The surprising twist to the incident was that the Police who should know, did not know that technology has made it now possible for an individual to choose either to use their debit card or not when making withdrawals.

The technology came into existence about two years ago or so, in the US when Wells Fargo Bank announced that customers could then withdraw money from ATM without using a debit card. The new technology allowed smartphone-toting customers to withdraw money at all of its 13,000 ATMs without inserting their debit card. Customers then were required to input a code and their ATM PIN number to access ATM options.

Basically, cardless cash allows you to withdraw money from an ATM without using your debit card. Instead, you can opt to receive a unique code from your bank to your phone (either by text message or within your mobile banking app) that you can then use at an eligible ATM to verify your cash withdrawal.

The technology arrived in Nigeria much later in 2017, though it is still relatively unpopular.

As we move to join the rest of the world in the emerging technological dispensation, our police must also be educated so as to teach them not to embarrass themselves the next time someone makes a cardless withdrawal at an ATM point.

Now here’s how it works:

GTB:
How To Setup Gtbank Cardless Withdrawal Using the Ussd Code
1. Dial *737#
2. Click the option that states cardless withdrawal.
3. Enter the amount you want to withdraw, and click the OK button.
4. Enter the last 4 digit of your GTbank ATM card.

Access Bank:
1. Dial *903# from your phone and select “Withdraw Money” option.
Select “ATM Withdrawal” option.
2. Enter the Amount and validate the transaction with your PIN.
3. You will receive a transaction code for successful withdrawal.
4. Keep the code and visit any of our nearest ATM.
5. Press ‘0’ to perform a cardless withdrawal.

UBA:
1. Dial *919*30*Amount and follow the onscreen instructions.
2. Go to the nearest UBA branch and use the ATM.
3. On the ATM screen, select “Paycode Cashout”
4. Enter the amount then select OK.
5. Your transaction will be verified and your cash dispensed.

I hope this article has helped you with additional knowledge. If so, use it for your good.

Nigeria’s largest online marketplace Jiji buys OLX business in 4 African countries and redirects users in Nigeria!

Jiji.ng – the largest classifieds marketplace in Nigeria – has reached an agreement to redirect OLX users in Nigeria to Jiji and to acquire OLX businesses in four other countries, building a leading pan-African classifieds  business.

Jiji and OLX today announced that both companies have reached an agreement under which Jiji will acquire OLX businesses in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, pending certain regulatory approvals, and OLX users in Nigeria will be redirected to Jiji.

Joining Jiji’s family will allow OLX users in these countries to benefit from Jiji’s market-leading products and services. OLX reach, combined with Jiji’s own proprietary search and delivery algorithms, will create a beneficial combination, giving users a radically streamlined experience and making the buying and selling process more convenient.  

Anton Volyansky, CEO and co-founder of Jiji commented: “Users will always come first for us. We warmly welcome OLX’s customers to the Jiji family and we look forward to our new customers joining Jiji on its journey to empower the lives of its customers by providing a safer, more secure and enjoyable online shopping experience”.

Yuliy Shenfeld, Jiji Nigeria’s country manager, said “This acquisition is the next step to fulfil our promise in making the Nigerian economy thrive by helping each and every Nigerian take their business online. So far, thanks to Jiji, more than 300,000 businesses have increased their sales and improved their family fortunes. This was made possible by millions of customers who placed their trust in Jiji for the best prices and the widest range of products and services. In the wake of this transaction, the Jiji team of more than 500 people is excited to build a truly Pan-African classifieds empire with Nigeria being the epicentre.”

Sjoerd Nikkelen, General Manager of OLX in Africa, Middle East and Asia comments“We are proud of our achievements in Africa, including the sustainable businesses we have built in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. We continually evaluate our portfolio of classifieds businesses to ensure a disciplined approach to how and where we allocate capital and management time. With our focus on accelerating the growth of other markets, now is an opportune time to sell our interests in these markets. We are pleased that Jiji will continue to provide the exceptional quality of products and services that the customers in these countries have come to know and enjoy from OLX.”

Following the closing of the transaction (which is expected to occur once certain regulatory approvals have been obtained), all users of the sell-and-buy classifieds websites of OLX Nigeria, OLX Ghana, OLX Kenya, OLX Tanzania, and OLX Uganda will be redirected to Jiji. The Jiji team will strive to make the transfer seamless and to provide a high-quality user experience across all geographies.

About Jiji.

Jiji is a leading classifieds marketplace in Africa. Starting from Nigeria, the company expanded to four new geographies in 2019. The consolidated audiences of Jiji and OLX will reach by end of the year a single user base of more than 10,000,000 monthly unique users. Currently, more than a million ads are live on Jiji at any given time. In 2018, the Jiji app was #1 by downloads in the Shopping category for Android users in Nigeria, and it is currently the highest rated app in Nigerian e-commerce.

About OLX.

OLX is part of OLX Group, a global tech company which operates a network of market-leading online classifieds platforms across five continents. OLX Group is a Naspers company, a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. Around a fifth of the world’s population improve their daily lives by using the products and services from companies that Naspers operates and invests in.

I withdrew $10million in one day for the sight of it, Just to confirm my wealth-Aliko Dangote

Ever wondered how $10million in cash would look like and the feeling the sight of it spread on your bed would conjure in you, knowing that you are the owner, especially if you are just realising how wealthy you were?

Then, you must listen to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, who did just that by withdrawing that amount from the bank just to look at it and prove to himself that he was indeed rich.

At a witty encounter with his fellow billionaire, Mo Ibrahim, Dangote told an audience at the Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, how he actually wrote a cheque and withdrew the amount at a time a ceiling was not yet existing on how much an individual at a time just to have that feeling.

Dangote said in the interview: “You know, the way it is, when you start a business, your first target is to make your first million. Okay, fine, I did that. After a year or so, I realised that I had much more than 12, 13billion, and I said ‘Ok, fine, all these numbers are just written numbers.

“One day I went to a bank, and at that time, there were no restrictions, and I wrote a cheque and cashed $10m for myself. I put it in the boot of my vehicle, and I went home and I opened it and I looked at $10m and I said ‘Now I believe I have money.’

“I went there by myself, I drove myself to the bank and I cashed the money and I took it to my room and looked at the money and the next day, I took it back to the bank.”

Surprisingly, Dangote, who all the time was all smiles as he shared the experience with his host, while drawing applause from the audience, revealed that he did not have even a single dollar in his pocket during the encounter.

Asked how much he had, the business magnate, said: “You will be surprised I don’t even have a dollar. Nothing, I don’t have nothing,” to which Ibrahim retorted: “That’s money for you. When you have money, you don’t carry money.

Minimum wage:Presidency gives update after meeting with labour leaders

Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu,yesterday met with the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Ayuba Wabba, as part of efforts to convince organised labour to call off their industrial action. Shehu was at headquarters of the NLC in Abuja where he urged the labour unions to see reasons and call off the strike. The presidential aide, who issued a statement after the visit, assured that the federal government was taking steps to get the unions to call off the strike. According to him, the federal government has already accepted labour’s demands to reconvene the tripartite meeting on the proposed new national minimum wage. The Presidency on Friday stepped up efforts to convince labour unions in the country to call off their strike following the earlier meeting at which the government accepted their demand to reconvene the tripartite meeting on the proposed new national minimum wage. The presidential aide revealed that the meeting between the labour leaders and the representatives of the employers of labour had been scheduled to reconvene on Oct. 4. He said: By its tripartite nature, the committee is made up of persons from the public sector, (Federal and State Governments) and the private sector made up of the largest private employer group and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA). Shehu stated that invitation letters had since been dispatched to all the participants. “At the moment, the Presidency understands that the combined leadership of the unions, having met and deliberated on the position of the government had now set in motion a process of consultations with their constituent members to determine their next line of action. “The Presidency wishes to assure that the federal government is taking every step necessary to get the unions to call off the strike,’’ he maintained. SOURCE:Dailypost Nigeria Awonuga Oyinlola