Nigeria’s newest mobile telecommunications company, Etisalat has unveiled a feature on its pre-paid product - the Easy Starter - that allows subscribers to be informed of callers who tried to reach them even when they were not immediately available or while their phones was switched off.

The new feature called, Missed Calls Notification is available to all subscribers on the Etisalat network at no cost. The idea is to help promote better businesses and personal relationships since you are able to find out who tried to reach you when your phone was switched off or not within a network coverage and thus get back to them.

The feature notifies subscribers about those that tried to reach them immediately they turn their phones back on or get back into an area where there is Etisalat’s network coverage. What this means is that all attempts to reach a subscriber on the Etisalat network are registered and a subscriber is notified whenever this is necessary.

This notification is sent via an SMS and includes the number(s) that tried to reach them, the date that the attempts were made, the time the number(s) called them and the number of times the number(s) tried to reach them.

What is unique about it?

This service is the first of its kind in Nigeria’s telecommunications market and is a default service on Etisalat’s network which does not require the subscriber to activate the service.

Since I arrived in Nigeria, I’ve been looking for ways to set up a voice message service for my networks (MTN Nigeria and Glo Nigeria). The last time I tried to set one on MTN, my incoming calls where diverted (as if my phone was switched off at the time) and I lost several calls as a result of this with no missed calls notification from my network.

Recently, I wrote a post about how Etisalat plans to compete in the Nigerian mobile market and since their launch, as expected, Etisalat has been making their Nigerian subscribers enjoy talking. I’m eager to see more interesting features from Etisalat in the nearest future.

For those small business owners and young start-ups looking for low-cost web designing and development, WebsiteMesh.com is probably the right choice. The site offers smart web design solutions at an affordable price.

WebsiteMesh is a packaged-based website design service for people who want to own websites easily, fast, and within a reasonable budget. Websites on WM are often in 3 packages, namely, Blogs, Business Websites and Social or Community Websites).

WebsiteMesh’s Blog package offers Internet entrepreneurs an opportunity to start and build a personal blog (or weblog) that can generate revenue, while the Business website package is targeted at small businesses who want to sell products information and services on the Internet. Community Websites packages which could be a blog network, a social networking utility or a portal with a CMS driven forum, is based on WordPress MU, which means your users will be able to have their own independent blogs, themes, and styles plus various plug-ins per blog.

WebsiteMesh provides features such as forums, Peer-to-Peer networking, multi-user blogging, and above all, an enterprise level support to keep you social networking business up and kicking. There are over 1,000 templates to choose from, each designed to fall within a package, and tested to pass the usability and accessibility mark.

Mutiu Okediran recently did an interview with Damilare Onajole, one of the founders of WebsiteMesh, and here’s what Dami had to say:

WebsiteMesh.com’s ultimate goal is to get lots of small businesses in Nigeria on the internet, this would then be followed with a massive reliance on internet media for business growth. Internet usage is growing tremendously in the country, but small businesses are not catching up. We did a survey and discovered that the cost and ease of getting a website discourages most entrepreneurs, so we made pricing our edge. With as low as 15,000 a small business will get a complete website package with a content management system to manage his ‘online office’

Read more on Dami’s interview here on StartupsNigeria.

How does it work?

Once you choose a package and a template, your website would be setup within 4 days. You can then login into your customer account panel and would be given support from WebsiteMesh’s admin. The idea of the site is to make website startups as seamless as possible, thus open source applications like WordPress are used as a basic platform.

How much does it cost?

The cost of getting a website with WebsiteMesh depends on the packaged template chosen, and the options you choose. You can use the costing form to get instant cost of every template, package and options available.

My opinion

I think that this web design/marketing strategy by WebsiteMesh would give them an strong edge to cater for those markets that are yet to be tapped in Nigeria. The cost is quite reasonable and affordable for small businesses in Nigeria.

My hope is that small businesses in Nigeria take advantage of this web design service to launch their businesses on the web.

I’ve been following the South African blogosphere in recent times and when the SA Blog survey was announced by 24.com in collaboration with Afrigator and Amatomu, I was eager to see how much the SA blogosphere has developed.

From the stats shared my way by Justin Hartman of Afrigator, 88.4% of SA Bloggers earn zero revenue from their blogs, which makes me wonder if Google Adsense is a viable method to earn revenue from blogs.

A look at the figures below will show that the average a South African blogger makes is between R1 and R200 a month. Only 2.9% of the total blogs surveyed earn more than R3000 from their blogs (about $300 USD), which raises several questions as to the essence of the adsense program for African bloggers.

I’m interested to see what the figures are for Nigerian bloggers, even though there is no statistical generating blog aggregator such as Amatomu or Afrigator for Nigeria that could run a blog survey within the Nigerian blogosphere. Perhaps Afrigator could arrange a blog survey for Nigeria?

• But is there any better way that African blogs can earn more revenue from there blogs?
• Is Google Adsense and other Affiliate Marketing revenue generating models really worth it?
• Can Adgator be a better substitute to Adsense?

While we wait for the launch of Afrigator’s Adgator, Africa’s first blog advertising network on December 8, we hope that this new ad network will make African bloggers earn more money from their blogs. But my problem with Adgator is that only South African blogs can join the ad network.

So the question is: Could this service be extended to all African bloggers?

Naijahotjobs.com, the largest online career development community of unemployed youths in Nigeria has launched a project that would provide startup ideas and solutions to youths that seek to better their future in the areas of entrepreneurship.

The project is an online career community that brings all the unemployed graduates in Nigeria together, to discuss issues ranging from small business startup, entrepreneurship, securing loans and capital for businesses, providing solutions to aptitude test samples, helping each other on assessments/interviews, notifying each other on new job openings, thereby reducing fraud & internet crime related cases amongst the unemployed.

The idea of the project is to reduce the rate of unemployment in Nigeria; reduce and eliminate fraud related cases that is been perpetrated by unemployement in the community; and reduce failure rates in test and assessments of candidates during job placement interviews by creating career knowledge base for various fields of study, assessments samples/ explanations, entrepreneurial ideas and entrepreneurship development skills.

Naijahotjobs hopes to partner with the National Directorate of Employment,(NDE), an organization mainly responsible for issues of youth unemployment in Nigeria, in order to make reality some of the dreams of helping thousands of small business start-ups nationally.

Unemployment has been the greatest problem facing youths in Nigeria and this project hopes to use the internet effectively to interact without borders, ask questions and provide advice to individuals who needs them.

My take on this

I think that this initiative (if done properly) would create an avenue for unemployed people in Nigeria to network with others and share ideas around an online community.

It would be interesting to see if investors, venture capitalists and incubators would interact with these people to find those that have smart and financially viable business start-up ideas to invest in.

Since the unveiling of the Nokia N79 and Nokia N85 mobile phones on August 26, Nokia fans in Nigeria have been anticipating these new releases and finally they have arrived into the Nigerian mobile market.

Yesterday, I got a glimpse of the N85 Nokia gadget already making a buzz in the mobile industry. As a Nokia fan, I’m always fascinated by Nokia’s usability technology and have recently become more interested in a site for Nokia fans in Nigeria. Nokia is the 8th most searched word in Nigeria within the last 12 months.

According to Nokia Nseries Director, Juha Kokkonen:

The Nokia N79 packs cutting-edge technology into a compact design – a characteristic of the iconic Nseries – that allows people to discover, create and share their passions with others. Behind its sleek exterior, Nokia N79 is a technology powerhouse that offers a full range of multimedia experiences including integrated navigation where available, music with FM transmitter, high-speed connectivity, superior web browsing, 10 pre-loaded N-Gage games and an advanced 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

The Nokia N79, which comes with Xpress-on smart covers that are available in five cool colors: light sea blue, espresso brown, olive green, white and coral red, is perfect for the style conscious. The convergence of photos, music and navigation where available in the Nokia N79 combines with hi-speed 3.5G HSDPA and Wi-Fi to make it quick and easy to share experiences on websites, blogs or online communities.

Also according to the General Manager, Nokia Nigeria, Mr. Phillip De La Vega:

The N85 comes with an eye-catching 2.6” Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) screen and smooth, sleek finish, thereby redefining the mobile experience. It boasts of N-Gage gaming, music with in-built FM transmitter, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and geo-tagging capabilities, three month integrated license for turn-by-turn voice navigation where available and high-speed connectivity, all in one device.

N85 is engaging and interactive with its pre-loaded 10 made-for-mobile N-Gage gaming titles that jump off of the screen, thanks to the dazzling OLED display and a voucher to activate one full game license. Dedicated gaming keys light up when the device is in landscape gaming mode to further enhance the action-packed experience.

A state-of-the-art 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and bright dual LED Flash captures clear, sharp images as well as Digital Video Display (DVD)-quality videos at 30 frames per second. Combined with A-GPS it is possible to geo-tag favorite pictures to see where each photo was taken.

I’m not sure what the cost is for these gadgets, but would be sure to provide updates as soon as I have the information. However, if you have any info about these latest Nokia series, you can leave them in the comments.

If you are a Nokia fan, you can also share your thoughts here.

A few weeks back, I interviewed Dayo Edunjobi, a Nigerian blogger and author of Blogging Made Easy, who shared with us insights into his new ebook on blogging (one of the best materials on blogging in recent times). Finally, Blogging Made Easy has been released to the public.

Just last week, Dayo sent me a review copy of Blogging Made Easy and I decided to take some time off from my online activities over the weekend to read this material. I must say that this ebook is quite impressive as it provides information for different kinds of people, including wannabe bloggers, on and off bloggers, experienced bloggers, personal bloggers, business bloggers and others.

Noteworthy is the fact that the Nigerian blogosphere is bubbling and would soon experience bursts in the next few years, and I think that an ebook on blogging would be generating a lot of buzz in our local blogosphere. Yet, this is just the beginning as I foresee more resources and materials on blogging as it relates to the Nigerian blogging industry in the nearest future. Yeah, you guessed right…I’m currently writing one;-)

Who is this ebook written for?

• Wannabe Bloggers - You can benefit from practical guides to help you get the best out of your blogging experience.
• On and Off Bloggers - If you have been blogging for a while and not getting positive results like you desire, the ebook has something to offer you.
• Experienced Bloggers - If you are a well-experienced blogger with some achievements but having difficulties maintaining and generating more ideas for greater success.
• Personal Bloggers - You can learn fast and easy ways of getting more blog comments and building more traffic for your blog by creating a blog community of loyal readers.
• Business Bloggers - You will find blogging mistakes that should be avoided in order to become a successful business blogger.

What’s more?

There is a promotional offer (22% off) for Blogging Made Easy if you order before 31st December, 2008. Thus, you get a whopping 22% discount, if you order your copy between today and 31st Dec. You will only have to pay N5,460 (naira) to grab this wonderful ebook. After this promotional offer, the ebook will be sold at the original price of N7,000 (naira).

For more information about Dayo’s ebook, Blogging Made Easy, please visit http://www.bloggingmadeasy.com/

If you would like to order for this ebook, you can visit http://bloggingmadeasy.com/#Payment

Patrick Cushing wrote this post for Enter Venture and is thankful for Loy for reposting it on StartupsNigeria.

Ever since I started the international startup series on Enter Venture, I’ve been hearing about the African startup scene. A few of the sites in this post kept popping up in blogrolls across the web so it’s been a thrill to finally dig in. So far, I’ve covered Asian, Middle Eastern, European, and Australian web startups. The sites coming out of Africa are just phenomenal.

These types of sites — these hidden gems — are why I started this international startup series over a month ago. I wanted to see and demonstrate the way that the global startup climate was evolving, or in some cases, being created before our eyes. From where I stand in the U.S., I must admit I rarely hear about African startups. From the looks of things, that is / will be changing soon! Check out some of these great sites:

Startup Africa

Startup Africa covers the African technology and startup scene, with a particular focus on startup events. From a glance at the tag cloud, Ismail Dorat’s blog tends to focus largely on events and startups coming out of South Africa. If you’re ever doing an Enter Venture-like startup review, the site’s sidebar is extremely useful with a breakdown of startup news by African countries — there aren’t too many posts outside of South Africa, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

StartupsNigeria

Loy Okezie’s blog reviews web startups and web trends specific to Nigeria. This includes everything from Google maps’ Nigeria coverage to Nigerian entrepreneur interviews, Nigerian startup reviews, and even an assessment of the Nigerian VC environment. If you’re looking to brush up on Nigerian web trends, this is the place.

Appfrica

Appfrica is an African developer / entrepreneur’s heaven. The blog covers a wide breadth of African IT news and culture topics. Their Afridex is a Crunchbase-like African startup index. They feature African tech interviews. Web trends. Mobile trends. Conference coverage. A forum. A wiki. Mix in a great, clean design and this site is nearly homepage worthy.

Bandwidth Blog

Bandwidth blog is the South African and global internet startup news blog, which means, they cover just about everything and some of their posts happen to be about South Africa. You’re just as likely to find a critique of FriendFeed as you are the latest news about Afrigator. They also have one of the coolest sections on any blog that I’ve seen with their series of office photos from startups all over South Africa..

TechMASAI

TechMASAI looks like the most low tech of the African startup blogs with a basic, hosted WordPress theme, but what it lacks in design aesthetic, it makes up for in a devotion to startup profiles. TechMASAI has the most singular focus on startup reviews with roughly 4 of 5 posts focused on profiling new startups.

Also worth checking out are ITNewsAfrica, Startup Kenya, and Timbuktu Chronicles.