Hey guys, Has someone ever thought about this?

Why is it that big companies gives out their company projects like web development, software development etc. [to foreigners?] Nigerians, especially, do that alot. Why do they give it out to people out there to accomplish this task for them? Why not Nigerians?

Does this means we don't have experts among Nigerians.

Check out the "products" of Nigerian web designers and compare that to those designers abroad, and you will get your answer.

Actually, some big companies give out their projects to Nigerian web design firms who know how to market themselves well. MTN Nigeria's website (MTNOnline.com) is maintained by a company called Tavia Technologies.

Our professional web developers simply need to learn how to market themselves better and produce results more consistently. I am quite certain that we'll get there some day. Outsourcing is a global trend, and we're not the only country where people in "IT" are complaining that their jobs are being taken abroad!

Seun is right...big companies do give their projects to Nigerian web design firms but they have to be really good. My sister's boyfriend owns a web design firm that designed and maintains Guardian, Punch, Champion, JAMB and WHO Nigeria websites. Who would think all these companies will give the work to a Nigerian firm?

i agree with Seun.. if nigerians can really market thier self very well. Well for those site IAH mentioned they where developed by DNET SYSTEMS. They use the advantage of designing for one Company for other companies.. E.G DNET SYSTEMS design website for all Newspapers media.. let say 100% dnet did 95% of it.. but check those site out we have broken lines and all that.. Well they know better.

That was why Kazey said Check Nigerian Product and compare that of Abroad.. See the thing is these Over there they all got thier hands on nice product to get them self updated in new tools.. but nigerians howm many tools do we have.. Check www.christembassyonline.org that was perfectly done by whity..And let me put this clear u see why i lyke whity cos..they work in hand together with team. u can imagine a Nigerians.. Learning Flash, Macromedia Studio, and all the Web Design tools in this world u can think of and that same nigerian will get him self involve in software development and going far to an extent of Geting himself Networking Skills.. i'm not suprise though i belong to this category.

But Whity since they are team up, let say they are five in numbers. one out of them might be very good in flash only, the second might be good in PHP/MYSQL only so on so on lyke that.. and when they are done with the job, that will be thy "BOMB"

So thats is just it. but guys 4get we got talent in Information technologies, if not 4 those Scammers given us bad names...

Thanks guys

Big multinationals will hardly give their stuffs (most expecially their websites) to a local company. Reasons is that a website is their face in the Information age, if they get a badly designed/manged website they are in for a big trouble, can you imagine what will happen if microsoft.com, symantec.com, cisco.com are hacked. When you also look at the security side of most of these Nigerian designed website you will know they are lax, when you peruse the codes you will laugh and laugh. Even on MTN website, they used to lift codes before.

Nigerian so called webmasters need to get their acts together, those guys that designed vmobiles website did a helluvajob there.

Am more interested in Spatial Technology or GIS (Geographic Information System).. this is the application of IT in the Mapping industry. MTN spent almost $1million on the acquistion of mapping data to be used in their RF planning and Transmission Planning, well that is no news anymore, but the fact is..the mapping was produced by a foreign company (South Africa). Vmobile is towing the same line. Glo is practically giving all its mapping contracts (worth over =N=50million) to Alcatel..when will these companies ever have faith in Nigerian Specialists?? when??

have you ever question Competency? are they upto standard? their product?

......... "This has been the problem Nigerian IT professionals are passing through.

They have not given them the chance to apply the knowledge in them"..........

You guyz are well done.

well nigerian companies issue out web and It jobs to Nigerians but its more of companies who understand the level of the services that give their jobs out, many nigerian firms give enuff jobs out, i can beat my chest on that. but man u gats be good, not all web developers around us are good, some designes are so bad na only God go save us.. But if

Interesting topic.

I cannot agree more with Seun. The fact is that a lot of companies have given web projects to Nigerians but unfortunately majority of these jobs were messed up by the Nigerians as a result of unreliable web hosting, prolonged delay on the actual job time frame, poor design, very limited or no support available etc.

In some cases, people just collect the money and disappear.

Another reason is that most of these companies will give these jobs to friends or relatives rather than focus on the ability of the handler to perform.

I have heard over and over again business owners that will tell me that my prices are high, that they saw cheaper prices on Guardian adverts or quotations from web hosting companies. I simply tell them to make use of the cheaper ones he saw if cost is their only concern.

Hi everyone, i just want to set one thing straight. Christ Embassy website wasn't designed by a whity. It was designed by a Nigerian, based in Nigeria, who happens to be a good friend of mine. Though he had some help from some co-workers, u guys will agree with me that www.christembassy.org is one of the best sites ever designed. i believe we have wonderful web designers in Nigeria. the problem is these guys dont market themselves. if you like Christ Embassy website, then i know you'll like all his(my friend) other designs. Check out his official website @ www.defaultltd.com. You will also get to see the list of his clients. Check it out and let me know if you dont believe that Nigerians are really talented. May be, you could get him to design YOUR OWN WEBSITE!!!

mmm intresting as in really intresting, ill surly check it out

When you say a website is the best what do you really mean?

Best in terms of functionality? visual appeal? animation? effective?

1. The use of language translation software on sites never produces the best results because these translations are dictionary based and may not make sense when you consider the content and context of the messages being translated.

2. The quality of a website lies in the ability of a manager to decide what needs to be published and what needs not to get on the site. The simpler the better.

I think most business owners that own websites do not depend on the websites to succeed so may never bother with the usefullness or otherwise of the website. As long as it is fine it is presumed ok. With time these things will change.

The simpler a website is the better. Imagine what you have on the home page of google. Is it that they cannot pay the most expensive web designers out there to design stunning graphics or what?

It's about the business surviving, it's not about friends telling you "hey your site is cool, I like it". If you have a business website and you do not get any business from that site, it's just another money down the drain.

  white lady is marketing .. i bet my ass that site is a Flash Template men.. don't say nigerian can do same but when you see a nigerian website men.. you will everly know.. No doubt we have great Web-designers in nigeria and the people here in this forum are not left out.. but lets face the fact.. i don see Flash Template tier so, And let me tell you i have customized a Flash template to the core, no today, not yesterday.  probably it might not be template but i doubt it.. you know When you dey chop beans and person close your eyes, and them say make you open your mouth dem con put beans for your mouth... no bi go tell you say that  stuff wey u dey eat nah beans... but he try sha if no bi template.

@ smartsoft

I tell you sincerely, it is not a template design. And you say i'm marketing? Well, you can say that again. At least i know the guy is good.

@ whity lady.. are u there when his busy designing ??

With the level of complexity involved in the commercial website I am developing, [12 programmers] I dont think a nigerian company can win the bid becasue they have not done much per say.....

@ Smartsoft
Sometimes i am there when he designs cos i want to learn one or two things from him.

@whitelady: no doubt the guy dey try, but au come only the christ embassy site and his own site (defaultltd.com) are the whaoo!! kinda sites there, his portfolios aint special.. he's designs are not consistent rating it along with the stuff christ embassy has.. so this is my verdict... he is part of the christembassy design team and as lernt some stuffs from them but he asnt matured to that class yet...

e.g the capl site had som poorly edited images, compared to what he deliverd on his site
http://www.dcltelecom.com/ has a very bad color blend.. the blue was bleeding too much... compare to his site

but dat apart sha, he's good at least he's site got me hooked. but the portfolio ........ naaaaaaaa

The answer is simple. Exposure and ability. And cost. Nigeria has no scarcity of good minds, but we sure do have a massive scarcity of experienced minds. One of the first questions I was asked as a programmer in this country was how many lines of code I used on average. The answer? Quite a number. But the fact was that my code was buggy and patchy, with the patches being patched. There seems to be a distinct lack of professionalism in Nigeria. I used to work in an ISP in Naija, and the uptime was waaay below 85% (I know, I wrote a code to measure it).

I think we are simply used to mediocre solutions.

larger_20:

With the level of complexity involved in the commercial website I am developing, [12 programmers] I don't think a nigerian company can win the bid becasue they have not done much per say.....

Sorry for asking, but what type of commercial website would require the services of 12 programmers?

My concerns are

1. Will these 12 programmers remain with you for a long time to guarantee continuity?

2. Do these guys have skills that are at par with each other? If no, would there not be mistakes or lack of adherence to programming standards?


I think we have seen far more failed online projects that I cannot even count them. So make sure you get it right the first time especially when the project costs real money otherwise you may end up hurting your business.

Isn't is funny how we say Nigerians are inexperienced, yet we won't offer them projects that let them acquire the experience.  It's a catch 22.

I'm a full-fledged web pro, and work alone.  For those who want to be taken seriously in the world of web app development, here are tools you must learn:

Linux
Apache
MySQL
PHP
HTML, Javascript, CSS, DHTML, XML, AJAX
SEO (very important)
DNS
Adobe Photoshop
A+ Certification

There are other routes such as Flash, ASP, ColdFusion, Java, etc.  But most people these days stick with the open source community, and the migration is only going to increase.

One more thing, you're wasting your time if you think using wysiwyg  programs is the way to go.  Learn HTML, period.  I use nothing but notepad.

When I first started, I worked day and night without pay, to create a complete website (http://www.oasisoflove.com).  Nobody would offer me a job until I had a major project to showcase my experience.  Once I had my site done, I started job hunting.  My current employer hired me because according to him, all the other applicants had nothing tangible to show him that they've done.  Today I have dozens of major websites under my belt.

I hope this advice helps.

Afam:

Sorry for asking, but what type of commercial website would require the services of 12 programmers?

My concerns are

1. Will these 12 programmers remain with you for a long time to guarantee continuity?

2. Do these guys have skills that are at par with each other? If no, would there not be mistakes or lack of adherence to programming standards?


I think we have seen far more failed online projects that I cannot even count them. So make sure you get it right the first time especially when the project costs real money otherwise you may end up hurting your business.

The company that won the bid has full time 12 programmers working 40-45 hours per week. Turn around is expected within 2 months of starting work. I cannot pay in full at a spot so I am offering them a share in the company which is about 40% stake..A website with yahoo or google capability [ Student graduating from stanford built] ...I definitly will not mess with it with nigerians studying in nigerian university..period and since u asked...daily running of the business can be seen below

For operational cost, 4 web admin are required with one graphic designer to attain to our clients for advertisment purpose.  Also the company will have a spokes person for news and advert interrviews. We are outsourcing legal advisers to handle legal issues ...The original 12 programmers that designed the site will be needed once a month to run maintaince and upgrade/ Maybe more than once a month depending on security vulnerability..I hope this helps...

Interesting!

Most nigeria companies do not market themselves well which of course stems from the fact that they don't hav much 'skills' to market. no real investment in building a tech-savvy team. I see nigerian designs at times and just laugh...using rainbows colors all over a website. they spoil job for others.

Of course there are a few of us that are good. If u got a good marketing team who are also technically adept, u'll get jobs. A Nairaland member Deji olowe designed Access bank website..

And when they give the jobs to Nigeria...they underpay. I partnered wit a friend to [b]re[/b]design www.starcomms.com but we were paid peanuts (less than 300k). This is bad. I have a friend in Dubai who earns $12K monthly workin wit cold fusion technology only.

Check out www.2advanced.com and see what foreigners have got to offer. Its not only bout the design but how it helps your business. Solid biz-tech integration and creativity is what most nigerian firms lack.

But its not all bad except u want it to sound bad. My firm designed 12 websites last yr. 10 are foreign websites.

I see nigerian designs at times and just laugh...using rainbows colors all over a website. they spoil job for others.

Why does it have to be a "Nigerian" design, rather than just the individual who built the site? Should we hold every Nigerian ransome for one person's actions?

You have no clue what Nigerians are doing around the world.  And not every Nigerian is actively marketing his skills, as many simply work full-time for other design companies.

Web design today is very easy.  Most designers simply grab several ready-made templates, extract ideas from each template, and combine those ideas into one.  How hard is that to do?

Before you design your next website, make sure you've learned Photoshop.  Then go to google and search for "web templates".  Start with the free templates.

I'm not a designer, but a programmer.  However, when the occasion calls for it, I deliver.  Check out these sites that I cobbled together:

http://7hillsfamilypractice.com/
http://requesttraq.com/
http://hiphoenix.com/

talking about marketing , well am good in my programming but maybe bad in my marketing so can any of u start up a thread on how to market urself giving concrete instances adn maybe from your personal experience, so we novice cld learn am still in school u know and would like to prepare for the chalange, thanks

Seeing sites like

White lady:

@ Smartsoft
Sometimes i am there when he designs because i want to learn one or two things from him.

His site has expired. Or didnt you get the link right? www.defaultltd.com

layi:

Most nigeria companies do not market themselves well which of course stems from the fact that they don't hav much 'skills' to market. no real investment in building a tech-savvy team. I see nigerian designs at times and just laugh, using rainbows colors all over a website. they spoil job for others.

Of course there are a few of us that are good. If u got a good marketing team who are also technically adept, u'll get jobs. A Nairaland member Deji olowe designed Access bank website..

And when they give the jobs to Nigeria, they underpay. I partnered wit a friend to [b]re[/b]design www.starcomms.com but we were paid peanuts (less than 300k). This is bad. I have a friend in Dubai who earns $12K monthly workin wit cold fusion technology only.

Check out www.2advanced.com and see what foreigners have got to offer. Its not only bout the design but how it helps your business. Solid biz-tech integration and creativity is what most nigerian firms lack.

Yes www.aronnigeria.com, www.babingtonjewellers.com and a host of others attest to this.


But truly some Nigerians who know their onions have some tight jobs (functionality & aesthetics) in their portfolios. Firms like woo interactive, issl, socketworks etc.

I don't agree that Nigerians don't do a good web development job. I think the problem is Infrastructure, I know of many good nigerian developers. For exaample I provide the hosting service for http://www.futminna.org and I'm really proud of what these Naija guys are doing. They've developed a full portal for the school.We just need to encourage our guys. Most Nigeiran exp programmers didn't know anything about cpts when they left the shores of our great country.

I strongly support lifting of codes, is the best way to learn, just rememeber to give honor to whom honor is due. It makes no sense to reinvent the wheel

layi:


Of course there are a few of us that are good. If u got a good marketing team who are also technically adept, u'll get jobs. A Nairaland member Deji olowe designed Access bank website..

To put the records straight Deji Olowe did not design Access bank website, it was designed, developed and still maintained by Tavia Technologies.