1. Your National Identification Number (NIN) is used to tie together all records about you – demographic data, fingerprints, head-to-shoulder facial picture, other biometric data and digital signature – in the National Identity Database making it relatively easy to confirm and verify your identity when you engage in travels and transactions.


2. It is used for retrieving your captured information from the National Identity Database
your matching information associated with your NIN can be then used to verify that you are really who you say you are.


3. NIN help provide accurate records about actual living/dead persons in every region of the country. It help keep track of actual transactions as well as movement of people within and out of the country. It also help confirm which individuals are in actual need of particular Government services, e.g. age and retirement confirmation for pensioners.

4. When it comes to access to vital services (like passport issuance, banking services, land transactions, insurance services, pension, health insurance, payment of taxes, voter’s registration, consumer credits, and all Government services), your NIN becomes necessary for:
• cutting down the time needed for verifying documents to properly identify you in order to access the services you require
• reducing errors in allocation of services to the right people
• prevention of fraud (419) where someone else impersonates you
• verification of the real identity of other people you go into financial or business transactions with or even people you wish to employ such as house help
• ensuring you are properly identified when receiving health services, e.g. verifying the actual blood types of blood donors at hospitals
• verification of voter eligibility during elections.


5. Even outside the country, your NIN remains valuable whether you are travelling or are part of the Nigerian diaspora:
• you can easily identify yourself with other proud Nigerians abroad
• the Nigeria Government would have more accurate statistical data of its citizens living abroad, useful for harnessing more skills and talent
• identity verification using the NIN would enable easier discovery of relatives and friends worldwide
• senders and receivers of money and goods/services can be identified, verified and traced as needed, enabling secure international transactions.

In the very detailed and clear article...

I noted that 'money' is a very obvious need for every business. Even Dangote still dey find money

But then, having money alone cannot make an idea prosperous or bloom.

There are other very important factors we must have to pay attention to and not always blame 'money' all the time.

When is the best time to give up?

When is it the right time to know that you have tried and your dreams are just mere illusions?

When is the right time to say "Bleep it, this thing can never be possible"?

I feel there should be a right time to acknowledge that no matter how much of clean water is poured into a drop of dirty water, it can still not be clean.

I feel there should be a limit to being determined, consistent, hard hearted, goal driven and just refocus on another dream.

Maybe or Maybe not...

I am just thinking out loud.

'Kismet'...

Is there a sense of "meant to be" in the formation of Startups? or maybe SME's?
Can businesses be built on fate, goodlucks or maybe destiny?

Like when it's time for your idea to make headlines, it would. Until then...

I'm just thinking out loud

The Small Business Administration (SBA) defines a "small" business as one with 500 employees or less.
This category basically is where startups fall in.

In 2019, the failure rate of startups was around 90%. Research concludes 21.5% of startups fail in the
first year, 30% in the second year, 50% in the fifth year, and 70% in their 10th year.

One very important question we have never gotten a perfect answer to is “Why these Startups fail”. In a
recent survey with VC’s to provide an answer to this, most venture capitalists summarized the reasons
as to “horses” (that is, the opportunities start-ups are targeting) and “jockeys” (the founders). But is this
all the reason?

For me, I doubt… There is a high need for sustainability because the challenges that they face, are not just significant but weighty. While finances and investments remains the core need for sustainability and growth, I would really not want to focus on the obvious.

Paying close attention to why Startups fail, if we stare at the question quite well, we would definitely find the answers staring back at us. The primary reason for failing should be traced back to the same reason why it was set up. Most startups fail even before they begin operations. This is because they set up the wrong team.

Going by Y-Combinator interview guidelines especially the SAAS startups, there is always an important
question of if any of the founders are Tech Inclined. Most startups ae formed with the right problem and
solution in view but then having the wrong people on board leaves the whole setup totally insignificant.
The high cost of getting talents to build from the scratch then becomes a problem.

For the previous paragraph, we have praised the set of startups having the right problems and solutions
properly checked but then they fail for other reasons. How about those who are too intoxicated about
the solution they have that they fail to understand the product-market fit? Startups fail when they do not solve an existing market problem. Most companies believe that their invention is quite appealing and there will be a huge demand for their products and solutions. If the product fails to create demand due to low market demand, then the company will face a downfall.

This is in fact one of the common reasons why SAAS startups are always beautiful to watch from the
beginning with their amazing products but along the line, they vanish. No proper product-market fit, no proper business model, no proper marketing, no proper understanding of customer needs, no plans for
competition, just great products but then great products alone do not survive a great market. Do they?

Most inevitably, sometimes, a startup might get strangled with legal complexities, Government policies
especially in niches quite fragile and decentralized and this can be the cause of failure. It could be
anything such as the suspension of an affiliate account generating maximum revenue or the inability to
launch on a global scale.

Well, these are the top reasons for the failure of startups. Besides these, there are other reasons
including failure to pivot, cash burnout, lack of use of the network, no investors on board, etc.
However, for whatever reasons, in the end, sometimes, it is not about the most experienced or most
talented or perhaps the most opportuned, it is about who holds their card till the last minute (exit of
IPO) to drop a pick 2.

Keywords: startups, SAAS, product, business, fail, sustainability, market, demand, founders

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION!

As someone who's venturing into a new business, what do you source for; a problem or a solution?

Well, i really can't say about you and every other person but this is what I'll do; I'll go after a solution with a problem.

YES!

I remember my teachers in High school will always say there is no invention that has not been invented.

EVEN SO...

Every solution has a limitation. Science and Technology has always taught this from the beginning of time. This is why there will always be evolutions

STAY WITH ME...

You're still surprised? See, sourcing for problems is old school. Very old school!

Sourcing for problems is time consuming...

Sourcing for problems is brain draining...

And the beautiful thing is that Marketing in general and of course selling to Nigerians teaches us that you don't give people what they NEED, you give them what they WANT

Paystack, Flutter Wave and the likes sourced for a loophole in a solution and made massive money from it

Netflix did the same...

Cowrywise did too...

Their solutions were not solving a fresh problem. Their solutions only solved limitations in those niches.

Most times, our ideas alone cannot always be right #yourheadnocorrect

You need to understand the strategy of the business. Only then...

If You Don't Bite, You Many Never Eat

I laughed at my first sight on this but then I remembered i had a similar experience trying to finish up a project yesterday.

�

Nobody asked you to bite a pencil. It's just a physical experience of my fiction

But then one way or the other, no great piece have ever come out without biting.

I mean the tons of drafts, the torn copies out of frustration, the deleted posts even after going live

This is one common experience I have witnessed among great copies and great result in general.

I have said my own...