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Facebook To Open Operational Office In Lagos

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Social media giant, Facebook, said plans are on the top gear to open an operational office in Lagos, Nigeria.

The office will be home to several teams including sales, partnerships, policy and communications as part of the company’s ongoing investments in Africa.

“It will also be the first office on the continent with a team of engineers,” Archibong said. “The office will support the Sub-Saharan region and is expected to become operational in H2 2021,” Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Head of New Product Experimentation said in a statement.

“The opening of our new office in Lagos, Nigeria presents new and exciting opportunities in digital innovations to be developed from the continent and taken to the rest of the world.”

Archibong disclosed that Facebook through the Lagos will be building products for the future of Africa, and the rest of the world, with Africans at the helm. 

“We look forward to contributing further to the African tech ecosystem,” Archibong said.

The new Lagos office follows the 2018 opening of NG_Hub, Facebook’s first community hub space in Africa in partnership with CcHub, and the 2019 opening of our Small Business Group (SBG) Operations Centre in Lagos, in partnership with Teleperformance. 

The SBG office supports small and medium businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa through community programs as well as marketing training programs, all aimed at enabling SMBs to accelerate the growth and development of their businesses.

Since the opening of its first Africa office in 2015 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Facebook said it has made a number of investments across the continent to support the tech ecosystem, provide reliable connectivity infrastructures and help businesses grow locally, regionally and globally.

In 2016, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg visited Nigeria – his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa.

The influence of the Nigerian social space market is an underlying factor for Zukerberg’s visit to Lagos – four years ago. 

However, the need for proximity to it’s rapidly growing market space in Nigeria could be identified as the major factor for the soon-to-be Facebook office in Lagos.

Currently, Google and Microsoft have grown their local presence in Nigeria in recent years with Microsoft injecting a $100 million commitment to build software development centres and employ close to 500 African developers by 2023.

Facebook’s decision to open the Lagos office will result in a stronger hold of the African business space over rival Twitter – whose CEO Jack Dorsey visited the continent in 2019.

Jack said Twitter intends to be much closer to the African people – but not than Facebook who is already expanding their reach in Africa.

“The office in Lagos will also be key in helping to expand how we service our clients across the continent Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director, Facebook Africa said.

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The Economics of Product Decisions: Applying Behavioural Economics and Game Theory in PM

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Amarachi Nnochiri
Amarachi Nnochiri

Product managers often need to make a clear-cut decision: what should we build next? But the decisions which hold real importance go beyond adding features.

It’s about getting what makes people tick.

It goes way beyond what you would expect, getting into how people behave and using game theory.

These areas give insight into how users decide and how a product’s design can improve growth and keep people interested.

This is what Amarachi Nnochiri excels at. She is a senior product manager that knows how to use economics and psychology in her job.

She goes beyond simply managing product tasks; she develops whole product systems based on how users think, feel, and use a service. Her background shows how understanding human psychology and behaviour can give you a significant advantage in the competition.

One idea Amarachi uses is  “loss aversion.” In this scenario, people feel worse about losing something than they feel good about gaining something of equal value.

She uses this when designing her products, mostly when it comes to pricing and getting people to try new strategies. For example, instead of giving a free trial, she might use a freemium setup where users get some stuff for free but could lose it if they don’t buy an upgrade. This pushes them to pay.

She might also use progress bars or streak counters, since losing progress gets people to keep using the product.

Amarachi also uses ideas from “game theory” to get how users act and change their behavior. She realizes that users are doing more than operating a product, but are playing a game with other users or with the product itself. She designs things that use ideas like “Nash equilibrium,” where nobody can do better by changing what they’re doing. For a social product, this could mean creating a system where doing something good for yourself (like inviting friends) also helps everyone else. This makes the whole thing stable and positive.

Her know-how in game theory also applies to making strong “network effects.” This means making stuff that gets better as more people use it.

A good example is a social network where each new user makes the product more helpful for everyone else. Amarachi endeavours to make things go viral on purpose, not just by luck.

She might use “commitment devices,” which are things that make a user stick with a behaviour by making them depend on it socially or functionally. For example, inviting team members to a tool makes the user stick with the platform and makes the product’s network stronger.

This way of thinking is better than just following the usual steps. By using these economic and psychological tricks, Amarachi develops competitive advantages which are difficult to replicate.

She knows that a company’s best thing is not just a simple interface, but a product that’s designed to sync with how people behave.

Her product choices aren’t just about the needs of users, but equally focus on motivating them to like the product, use it, and stick with it.

In her work, choosing a subscription price isn’t just a business thing; it’s about behaviour. Designing a social feed isn’t just about the content; it’s about balancing what people want and watching how they interact. Amarachi knows extensively about the economics of product decisions. This makes her products innovative and appealing to human behaviour, which leads to more use, keeps people around, and helps the product grow. She’s a leader in product management, where identifying customer desires is backed by understanding human motivation.

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Glo reduces international call rates 

By Sandra Ani

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Glo and Globacom


Technology Company, Globacom, has announced significant reductions in its International Direct Dialing (IDD) rates, making international calls more affordable for its existing and new customers across Nigeria.

Effective August 10, the new rates began applying to over 15 popular international destinations, including United States which will has moved to ₦30 per minute, down from ₦35, United Kingdom is now N350 from ₦400, while India also moved down to ₦40 from N45.

The rates for China, Saudi Arabia and Cameroon however recorded major reduction moving to N75, N300 and ₦700 respectively.


The reduction was also extended to African countries including Benin Republic which goes for ₦650 per minute, Niger Republic ₦750, Ghana ₦500, and Togo ₦650. United Arab Emirates also moved from ₦450 to ₦325, Germany to ₦550, Côte d’Ivoire ₦700, Libya ₦700, while calls to Malawi is now N1,100 from ₦1,200.

Glo aims to provide more value for its customers through these revised rates, encouraging them to make Glo their preferred network for international calls. New IDD bundles will also be introduced, offering frequent international callers even more attractive deals.

Globacom, which remained optimistic that frequent international callers will benefit immensely from the reductions in IDD bundles, enjoined customers to take advantage of the new rates to stay connected with friends and business associates across the globe.

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Oil subsidy removal freed up resources for infrastructure – Enugu Governor 

By Orji Israel, South East Correspondent

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Oil benchmark

The Executive Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, has attributed the financing of numerous infrastructure projects embarked by the state government to the oil subsidy removal policy of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.

He made this declaration at the Govermment House, Enugu, during a courtesy visit by a delegation of federal government led by Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, as part of activities lined up for the 2-day Citizens’ Engagement Series in the South East geo-political zone.

“For us in Enugu, we are able to accomplish all we promised our people during the campaign, thanks to the bold decision taken by President Bola Tinubu, which has freed up resources needed to execute humongous capital projects,” said Governor, while listing ongoing projects in the state, which include the construction of 7,000 classrooms, 3,300 hospital beds and 2,000-hectare of 260 farm estates across the 260 wards of the state.

Governor Mbah also pledged more support for the policies of the federal government, saying they are in the best interest of the people of the state.

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