ABRPM Blog

I have just finished talking with a friend in France. We spoke for an hour. I even took him on a virtual tour of the hotel I was in at the time of the conversation (Protea Hotel, Port Harcourt). He was in awe of the set up. But that’s not the point. The point is this hour long call was absolutely FREE. Yes, crystal clear, video conferencing for free. Save the cost of my laptop. It cost me nothing. This is courtesy of software available from www.sightspeed.com . All you need do is download the software onto your system and you are good to go.

This led me to start thinking……. Globalization…..the world is a village………distance is being made irrelevant………..the world is being flattened…

All familiar sayings, I know. But I can’t help think that we in Nigeria are not part of this new world; we are being left behind. How else can I explain the fact that it costs more to speak to my mom in Lagos than it costs to speak to my wife in the UK. This also means that it is easier and cheaper to do business with a company/individual in US, UK, France etc than it is to do same with my compatriot in Ogun state. I can hire an architect in India without ever meeting him physically but to hire one in Abuja, a few hundred miles from me, I will probably have to risk my life, spend time and cash going to meet him/her.

In Nigeria majority of us (Nigerians: literate, illiterate and over 16 years old) don’t have mobile phones, even fewer have internet access.

Yes, you have internet access but you are a minority in Nigeria and even then it’s one thing to have it and quite another for it to actually function when you need it to. In four weeks here I have spent no less than 30 hours at the banks trying to put through transactions that will take no more than a combined 3 hours in the UK. Half the time, I was trying to transfer money to third party accounts. I will normally do this online but it was either a case of PHCN doing their job and depriving us of light or my internet connection was down, the banks website was not functioning or their server was down as well. That was basically 27 hours should have been used productively. And we are the lucky ones in a culture where internet access is a luxury as opposed to being a basic commodity in other countries. Now I think of it, it is cheaper and quicker to deal with my bank in the UK than it is to deal with any bank here. They don’t pick my calls; if they do they can’t help me because their systems are down. If I choose to do it online their server is down or my connection is slow. So how are the the UBA’s, GTBank’s et all supposed to compete should Barclays bank or Lloyds TSB stroll into town? Just the same way Protea Hotels have strolled in to town and dominated all local hotels in a couple of years.

I have just recently returned from a 3 week road trip. I drove from Lagos to Abuja to Port Harcourt and back to Lagos. I passed through at least 12 states and this trip only showed me that not only is Nigeria not a part of the Global village, it is like a planet in its own right. I came across people in Nigeria whom I realised will never meet or deal with, some of whom will never own a mobile phone talk less of enjoy the benefits of the internet. But they have roads running through their towns and villages. A recurring though is: Are they really Nigerians or do they think I am Nigerian? If they know they are, do they claim to be or feel like Nigerians at all? I believe if I had spoken to them that they were thinking the same of me. I could not help thinking it will have been more beneficial to all concerned to have the infrastructure in place enabling them to access other people in and outside their villages, towns and countries and ensuring they have electricity so we can all join the new global village. This will invariably mean instead of leaving their towns/villages for Lagos, they can stay there and develop the town as has happened in India. Once they joined the information superhighway, they realized they didn’t need to go to the US anymore. They could stay in India, with family and eat their preferred Indian food and still do business with or work for American companies. Hence outsourcing to India, hence Wipro and Infosys(Indian companies that service the biggest American companies).

At the time I thought it was impossibility in this ‘planet’ called Nigeria to be completely internet enabled. I mean in an era where countries in Europe are joining the EU enmasse so as to be on par with the US and reap the benefits of Globalization, there are more fragmented ‘countries in Nigeria’ than there are member states in the EU.

But by chance I stumbled upon an article which was celebrating the fact that it cost $25,000 to provide wireless internet access to one of the most remote towns in Vietnam. So remote that it took an 8hr of train ride plus a 2 hour drive through mountains and another 2 hr walk while carrying the equipment to get to the site. Basically, the town is nowhere and now they are part of the Global village. $25,000 was all it cost to get internet access to such a place. I thought it will cost gargantuan amounts of cash. At $25,000 a pop, I can think of a few Nigerians who can make the whole country internet enabled from their own resources combined with Government cooperation. If it was possible in such a remote part of the world then can we really afford for Nigeria not to join the Global Village?

According to PMI Quality is defined as conformance to requirements. And from their (PMI’s) research, everybody pays for quality. You can be proactive and pay for it upfront(in which case its called cost of conformance) or you can be reactive and pay for it afterwards when things don’t work or when the project deliverable is presented by sign-off and it is rejected(in which case it is called cost of non-conformance). Cost of non-conformance is a lot more than cost of conformance in terms of cash and in terms of time taken to rectify the situation, provided it is rectifiable.   

Back to the issue of putting Nigeria on the information superhighway. From where I sit, the cost of non-conformance is a lot greater than $25,000.  

Comments are welcome.  

Respectfully

Ayo Sanni, PMP

It all started like a project that would not stand the test of time, considering the way previous projects of such magnitude had suffered in the hands of government. Well, you may say that it’s too early for me to conclude that the BRT scheme in Lagos would stand the test of time – the first in Sub- Saharan Africa.
But what is interesting to me is the way and manner the scheme has been approved by other state governments –(Rivers state and I also heard that the Oyo state government is also coming up with the scheme soon) striving to make the transportation system better thereby offering the rare “dividends of democracy”, seen what is happening in the Oil rich state of Rivers where the new scheme is being put in place and sponsored by the Bank that whose official language is yes.
You know that i can’t gist without drawing your attention to the importance of project management in all of this – to the PH scheme
There would have been Assumptions i.e educated guesses you make on a project
Historical information from all that happened in the Lagos scheme, but before going to historical information, were there lessons learned after the project in Lagos was concluded – what is Lessons Learned?
Lessons Learned – The Project Manager and his/her team discuss what were the things that worked and the things that didn’t work on the project, what i simply term W⁶ i.e (what went well, what went wrong). This should be done on every project you embark upon and also documented so that future projects would not suffer from the same issues that the old ones suffered from – i hope that the new BRT scheme in PH would be a lot better than the one in Lagos … broader dedicated lanes so that buses that are parked on the side lines don’t obstruct coming buses behind them etc
To the issue of risk identification on our projects meet me next week for …
Gbenga  O
 

You would agree with me that great things are happening in Naija especially in the way our projects are been managed.
You remember the PH Airport that was scheduled to last for a few months but lasted forever and was subsequently re-awarded. This seems to be the trend with major projects in our dear nation Naija at 48. This is in contrast to the third mainland bridge and the way in which it was managed. I can say that I am impressed with the way that project was right from the start when all the stakeholders including you and myself were carried along with that project. And we (yes, we finally recognized as stakeholders) were informed and also of the alternative routes. We were informed when it was to be closed, as milestones were reached, and immediately the project was completed. This says that communication is key in managing projects. In fact 90% of a project manager’s job is communication.
Now come to think of when we all heard that the bridge would be closed for repairs, most of us thought that it would take the best part of a year for the project to be completed and really I wont blame you because we all are used to uncompleted projects, but this was a different project by all standards – completed ahead of schedule and stakeholders were carried along. I now don’t know if the cost of N762million that completed the project work was the actual budget for the project so I can’t say that it was within budget. Yes as regards the scope because I am talking about the triple constraint – for the government to have been satisfied with the work then it means that it was within scope and quality was not compromised.
Once again we see the power of project management at play and we cant over emphasize it’s immense power as this is a major skill that has placed the developed nations where they are today as their businesses are projectized and practically what would help our small businesses and governments in managing projects.  We will be watching for more examples of the benefits of project management. 

Yay!! Friday is here again whew! A break from multi-tasking at work, emails, incessant phone calls, text messages everyone seems to love texting these days.. I imagine the happiest set of people this friday are the bankers!they get to rest from today till wednesday the 1st of october, thanks to Ramadan holiday and Independence day! A well welcomed holiday i must say.. Ok so i’m 5 minutes from heading out the door and on home!…better leave before the rain starts pouring. Have a fab weekend and holiday everyone! try not to get too fat eating ram and whatever… hasta luego (see ya later)!!!

Chinny