Nigerian Geographic Intelligence Awareness

Nigerian Mapping Agency And STL Unveil N170,000 Mapping & Geospatial Blogging Competition For Nigerian Students

2012-01-19T05:07:00.000-08:00

Spatial Technologies Ltd (www.spatialtechnologiesltd.com) -Nigeria's foremost mapping and GIS solution provider in collaboration with Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (www.osgof.gov.ng ) -Nigeria's mapping agency is inviting students in Nigerian tertiary institutions studying Surveying, and Geographic Information (GI) related course to enter into a blogging competition codenamed Project Zuma.

Project Zuma -an online competition named after the popular and legendary Zuma rock in Niger State is a strategic online campaign designed to improve and strengthen the online information and brand awareness of Nigerian GIS, map based solutions, Location Based Services, etc.

According to Ireti Ajala -the CEO of Spatial Technologies Ltd, "In 2011, there were over 40million internet users in Nigeria. That figure is even more than the entire population of some countries across the world! A large percentage of Nigerian internet population are students. The implication of this is that Nigerian students contribute immensely to the global internet traffic. The idea behind project Zuma is to engage Nigerians studying Land surveying and other geospatial related courses across Nigerian tertiary institutions constructively and assist them to channel their intellectual capacity, creativity and vibrancy towards an agenda of national development and other worthy projects instead of wasting precious time and money on social network gossips via Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, etc"

Professor Peter Nwilo -the newly appointed Surveyor General Of the Federation said, "Project Zuma is expected to provide the platform to improve the online search profile of Nigerian mapping industry regarding news, information, who is doing what within the industry. The project is also expected to improve the creativeness and innovations of our students. This we believe would transform Nigerian GI industry from being a sluggish, uninspired industry to a vibrant, innovative and technology savvy mapping industry providing a wealth of information about the emerging industry to the internet community in a consistent and efficient "

Why Blogs

The Internet represents an unlimited opportunity for an industry brand, and blogs are just one of many platforms that can benefit the Nigerian GI Industry by providing a wealth of information to investors, researchers, academics, corporate companies in Nigeria, students, Government and others interested in Nigerian GI Industry . Blogs could also assist Nigerian students studying geospatial related courses to keep abreast of what is happening around them and learn to articulate their thoughts and perceptions in their chosen industry to reach a wider community.

Objectives of Zuma

To connect with Nigerian GI professionals and students of surveying, GIS, Geography, etc across the country.
To improve the brand profile of Nigerian GI industry and make it more attractive to more people in Nigeria.

Competition Qualifications

1. To enter the Zuma competition, you must be a Nigerian student either at undergraduate or post graduate level studying any of the following GI courses:

Land Surveying
Geography
GIS
Computer Science
Geology
Architecture
Estate Management
Other geography related course

The blog must focus ONLY on the Nigerian Geospatial Industry
It must be maintained for at least 2months.
You must keep it fresh and updated regularly by posting news, articles, innovations, etc about what is happening in the Nigerian GI Industry, atleast once in 2weeks.
You must link each post to your Facebook page and encourage your friends to create links to your posts from their Facebook pages

Possible Topics for Blogging

News about how Nigerian companies are using GIS, maps data, etc in their operations and the outcomes. (this is the who is doing what in the Nigerian GI Industry)
Information about how government ministries and agencies (either at Federal, State or Local Govt level) are currently using or promoting the use of Geospatial solutions for specific operations as effective tools for improving the standard of living in Nigeria
What are the flaws in the current curriculum of tertiary institutions teaching Land Surveying, GIS, Geography and other geospatial related courses in this era of Information Technology and how can these be improved?
What online Map based applications can be built using Google map API and what possible opportunities are there to monetise these within the context of Nigeria?
What Mobile mapping applications could be developed and monetise within Nigeria
Others

Criteria for Judging the best Blog

Dept of content
Style of writing
Accuracy of information provided
Relevance to Nigerian GI industry
Number of relevant or useful posts found on the blog
Number of followers on your blog
Number of blog posts linked to your Facebook page. This means that you must get your Facebook friends to embed links to your posts on their Facebook pages

Panel of Judges

The best blog would be selected by an independent panel of judges comprising GIS experts, Geographers and Land Surveyors based on the criteria listed above. The winners of Project Zuma competition would be invited to a press briefing venue in Lagos to develop and pitch the idea behind their winning blogs before a selected audience of stakeholders in Nigerian GI industry.

Celebrating the winning Blogs and Authors

Spatial Technologies Ltd would use a high profile online social advertising campaign, utilising innovative digital technologies alongside mechanics such as Facebook, Blogs, online press releases, etc to create awareness for Project Zuma both during and after the competition. The campaign will also improve the online search profile of the winning authors and could greatly improve their chances of getting good jobs after their graduation.

How to Enter the Competition

1. Send an email to iretia@spatialtechnologiesltd.com to register for the competition (remember to put Project Zuma in the subject title)

2. Your email must include the following details:

Your full name
The name of your school
Your level
Your course of study
The topic for your blog
The URL for the blog

3. You will need to scan and send as an email attachment a copy of your student ID card. This will provide conclusive evidence that you are truly a Nigerian student.

Please note that this competition is opened to both Undergraduate and Postgraduate students in either Polytechnics or Universities across Nigeria

Important Dates

• Competition Start Date: March 05, 2012

• Competition End Date: May 01, 2012

• Award ceremony: May 12, 2012

Reward

1. First prize will get N100,000 cash

2. Second prize is N50,000 cash

3. Third Prize is N20,000 cash

Tools to assist.

1. How to start your own blog http://www.howtomakemyblog.com/

2. Creating a FREE blog using Google Blog http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g

3. Creating a FREE blog using WordPress https://en.wordpress.com/signup/

Examples of existing Blogs on GI and Mapping

• www.lagosstreetmap.blogspot.com (Nigerian Geographic Intelligence Awareness)

• www.gisuser.blogspot.com (Anything Geospatial)

• www.gis-geoblog.blogspot.com/ (Geoblog)

• www.blogs.esri.com/Info/blogs/gisedcom/ (ESRI GIS Education Community)

• http://blog.gispathway.com/ (GIS Pathway Blog)

• http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/ (Surveying, Mapping and GIS)

Enquires:

Direct all your queries or questions to Ireti Ajala

Email: iretia@spatialtechnologiesltd.com

About Spatial Technologies Ltd

Spatial Technologies Ltd (STL) is Nigeria’s foremost GIS solution provider and supplier of accurate digital maps and GIS data. We specialize in developing geospatial databases about Nigeria for the Nigerian market. Today, with offices in Lagos and UK, we stand on the threshold of solid expansion and opportunity in the industries we serve. And we are investing the resources that will help enable that growth

Website: www.spatialtechnologiesltd.com

Email: info@spatialtechnologiesltd.com

About Office of Surveyor General of the Federation

The office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (OSGOF) is statutorily saddled with the responsibility of providing and coordinating surveying and mapping activities within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

As the central depository for Survey, mapping and Geo-information activities in the country, state survey departments, oil companies, private practitioners and institutions are required by law (cap 194) to inform the (OSGOF) of their surveying and mapping projects

Website: www.osgof.gov.ng: Email: info@osgof.gov.ng

Blog: http://osgof.blogspot.com/

Total Nigeria’s Online Filling Station Finder –An Innovation with Bad Geography

2012-01-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

It is estimated that there are over 40million internet users in Nigeria in 2011. It therefore makes business sense for any serious business in Nigeria to have a web presence to connect with the Nigerian public effectively and consistently.
Big business corporations in Nigeria use their websites to engage with their customers and provide credible information to potential customers that would encourage patronage.

Total Nigeria PLC had taken business-customer interaction to another level with the use of an online interactive map or Location hub on its website http://www.totalmapng.com/.
Total introduced this new concept and functionality to help its consumers find the brand, thus reinforcing brand values of innovation and design excellence. Total Nigeria PLC wants to use this amazing solution to assist millions of Nigerians to find the location of Total petrol stations across the country in an exciting way -how innovative and ingenious!

There is no doubt that mapping and location-based services are essential elements of any high-quality business website: they drive people to your real-world locations, enhance consumers' experience of your site and increasingly form the center-piece of online search, book and buy transactions.

By implementing a map-based petrol station finder on its website, Total Nigeria Plc is demonstrating a recognition that maps help improve the quality of user experience and contribute to a high-quality online environment -well i hope Nigerian banks are that thoughtful of their customers.

With this tool, customers of Total Nigerian PLC can select any state from an initial map of Nigeria to view the locations of Total's filling stations within that state. I selected Lagos for obvious reasons and it returned a static map of Lagos with dots representing clusters of Total filling stations scattered across Lagos.
I clicked on the Yaba dot on the map and it returned a list of Lagos mainland suburbs e.g. Akoka, Igbobi, Ikorodu Rd, Murtala Muhammed Way yaba, Ojuelegba, etc. Clicking on the Ikorodu Rd option and it opened up to a page showing a picture of the filling station, and other useful details such as the name of the dealer, address, city, etc. There is only one thing I can say about this solution; simply ingenious!

The concept is brilliant and very innovative; however the implementation is flawed and geographically warped. As a Geographic Information System (GIS) analyst, the first thing I noticed was that the map of Lagos used for the solution was neither spatially accurate nor consistent with the actual geography of Lagos.
To start with, how can Yaba be located at the North East of Lagos? Apapa was displaced by an offset of several kilometers from its actual place!
The one that got me fuming was Surulere where I grew up. Total Nigeria placed Surulere North of Ibeju Lekki!! I am convinced that this solution was developed by someone that knows absolutely nothing about the geography of Lagos and does not care to know!

This brazen mistake could have been avoided by simply looking at Lagos State GIS Project portal or even the mighty Google map.
What I found disturbing was that this map was produced by a company that claims to have been operating in Nigeria for more than 50years! I would have expected Total Nigeria to have a fair understanding of the geography of Lagos where it commissioned its first filling station in Nigeria in 1956. By hosting this glaring geography blunder on its website in such a brazen manner; Total Nigeria PLC portrays itself as an organisation that pays no attention to details or does not care if it provides inaccurate information to its customers -hey Nigerians wont notice the error, they must have thought. O ma se ooo.
This error is a huge attack on the brand awareness of Total Nigeria PLC and a slap on the good people of Lagos . May I offer a sincere apology on behalf of Total Nigeria PLC to the good people of Yaba, Surulere and Apapa for this spatial error. It is also a double attack on the image of Nigerian Geographic Information and mapping Industry!!! Total Nigeria placed double premium on technology and aesthetics of its website on the altar of location accuracy and consistency.

For businesses with a location dimension, including the petrol filling stations, showing information in a local context is critical to connecting with consumers and boosting the conversion rate of surfers to footfall and buyers. However it is equally important that the information portrayed on such websites must be accurate, and consistent. What is worth doing, is definitely worth doing welll!

Total is a global brand and its operations spread across several countries. I was curious to find out if this chronic lack of geography knowledge permeates across its international operations in other countries. So I made a search and stumbled on its Uk portal where it offers Service station finder capability using Google map. I evaluated this portal for spatial accuracy and consistency and found it to be very impressive. http://www.total-servicestations.co.uk/finder/? Somebody could argue that Total Nigeria used a cosmetic map layer for Lagos, so what is the big deal sef? Granted some cheap companies use cosmetic map data for their websites to score cheap brand points. Why was cosmetic map layer of UK not used on Total's UK portal as well? Was Total Nigeria cutting cost? Was it a deliberate attempt to redefine Lagos' map or this is the best that Total Nigeria could actually achieve under the circumstances because of a dire scarcity of competent location-based technology experts in Nigeria to implement a better solution?

I decided to implement a simple service station finder for Total Nigeria covering just Lagos metropolis to demonstrate that there are companies and individuals within Nigeria who have requisite skills in implementing a functional and accurate store finder using the power of geography.

This solution was implemented on LagosLocation.com which is an online Location Based Service (LBS) portal I developed to provide interactive mapping capability and Mapvertising Solutions to the general Nigerian public. The portal delivers more LBS maps and geospatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to businesses across Nigeria.
I sent out a team of map experts in November of 2011 to map and collect location data about Total Nigeria filling stations across Lagos metropolis. Some 82 Total petrol filling stations were mapped down to street level and searchable by suburb names. This data collection exercise cost me over N250,000 but it was worth it to demonstrate that I am committed to providing world-class location advantage in Nigeria.

LagosLocation.com resonates with its core value of providing accurate online location advantage for businesses in Lagos in the most innovative and efficient way. Business locations are captured and implemented as Points of Interest (POI). 82 Total petrol stations across Lagos were integrated into LagosLocation.com complete with contextual business details to provide a visual connection between an icon on the map and real-world business details. This information is displayed via a mouse click.

Each of the 82 Total Nigerian service stations was displayed on LagosLocation.com as an icon against the backdrop of the online street map of Lagos. Each location contains mapvertised information detail including:
• A contact phone number
• Address
• Corporate Logo

Product or Service Marketing Information.
LagosLocation.com’s map data also contains contextual product or service information. This allows for additional exposure of Total Nigeria’s brand through the use of summarised marketing information about the company, its products or services. This Marketing Information is localised and relevant to Total Nigeria’s customers and therefore more productive.

Contextual Product Pictures
LagosLocation.com also integrated pictures of Total Filling stations. The use of pictures in this context would help to reinforce and strengthen the brand of Total Nigeria Plc as customers can easily connect a product picture with the business, this would also help to enhance the user experience.

Spatial Technologies Ltd -the owner of LagosLocation.com has an excellent reputation in both online and desktop mapping solutions in Nigeria, and is well known for its flexible technology and focus on innovation.

Total Nigeria should be commended for the use of this location-based petrol station finder as a viable platform to engage with its Nigerian customers in a new exciting way, however it is very important that the right tool and accurate data be used for a consistent brand awareness

How many Houses are in Lagos as at December 2011?

2011-12-27T14:07:00.000-08:00

2011 is a year that map and GIS experts in the Nigerian spatial industry would not forget in a hurry. It was the year when the Lagos State GIS project was launched with the fanfare and pageantry it rightly deserved.

In June 201, the Lagos State Government made a profound statement that there were at least 1,194, 525 houses in Lagos. (see: http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2011/03/08/1-2-million-houses-in-lagos/)

For the first time in the history of Nigeria, a state government could say categorically how many houses are found within the state without any fear of a back lash from the so called experts. This statement could easily be dismissed with the typical Lagosian impatience of “and so what”? However, for those that know, this announcement must be seen and celebrated as the most important and iconic declaration ever made by a state government since Nigerian Independence. For the first time, it is possible to plan adequately for infrastructures like schools, hospitals, roads, etc more efficiently and in a consistent way simply because the number of houses within the state can be determined spatially and accurately within a reliable level of confidence.

6months after, I am not sure that Lagos State govt is in any position right now to confidently issue an updated figure with confidence representing the number of houses in Lagos as at December 2011. My trepidation is anchored on the fact that during the official launch of the project in march 2011, very little was said about the data update strategy for the project to improve the data currency assurance going forward. If this seemingly insignificant piece of information was omitted during the project planning, then it was an important omission that could have significant impact on the future relevance of the project.

Is the data collection management a one off-sprint or is there a strategy that defines the systematic methology for collecting data updates? E.g, when a new building springs up somewhere in Lagos today, how long does it take to register it in the LAGIS database?
Will the LAGIS project still be dependable to give an accurate estimate of the total number of houses in Lagos 7years from now?

There were 2 types of incidents in 2011 that fueled my fear that the LAGIS may not be capable of supporting any serious decision making process 5years from now.

1. Lagos flood of July 2011 must have affected Lagos landscape one way or the other.

2. From March 2011 when the LAGIS project was officially launched by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, a number of buildings have collapsed while new ones are springing up almost every day.

Are all these updates reflected in the LAGIS database?

So I ask once again, what data update strategy is put in place to ensure that the LAGIS map database remains current and relevant
For the data to remain reliable dependable and capable of supporting decision making process in the most consistent way, (for which reason it was set up), it must be updated and versioned very regularly. A definite data lifecycle strategy must be applied rigorously to make the project relevant 50years from now. The ISO 19100 series of standards for Geographic Information could be very useful in defining this strategy.

Are Nigerian Land Surveyors Natural GIS Experts?

2011-12-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

The Nigerian spatial industry is currently dysfunctional principally because there is a lot of confusion surrounding who has what responsibility. Land Surveyors with limited Geographic Information System (GIS) experience and skills are increasingly stepping forward as the real GIS experts and this had greatly stunted the growth of GIS in Nigeria. Foreign mapping companies are coming to Nigeria in their droves to collect map data without contacting Office Of the Surveyor General of the Federation (OSGOF) as required by Cap 194 laws of the Federation of Nigeria which regulates all mapping projects in Nigeria. The implication of this is just one word: Chaos! Everything is a big fat “Nigeria jaga jaga everything scatter scatter ” thanks to Abdul Karim’s song

Historically, the practice of surveying in Nigeria is rich and robust. Land Surveying is the science and art of making all essential measurements to determine the relative position of points and/or physical and cultural details above, on, or beneath the surface of the Earth, and to depict them in a usable form, or to establish the position of points and/or details. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveying)

It is universally accepted that Cartographers are the traditional map makers. Land Surveyors in Nigeria like in other countries of the world are however the traditional map data collectors. Their trainings are technical and very rigorous to ensure that they remain successful and relevant as the map data collectors.

Most land Surveyors however are confusing GIS with just knowing how to use MapInfo Professional or the powerful ESRI’s ArcGIS. The honest truth is; GIS goes far beyond simply using these applications. GIS is about using map data in these applications to solve geographic problems in a consistent and efficient manner.

GIS allows us to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize geographic data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. A GIS helps us answer questions and solve problems by looking at our data in a way that is quickly understood and easily shared. (Source: http://www.esri.com/what-is-gis/index.html)

There is a fundamental difference between the roles of a land Surveyor and a GIS Analyst. A GIS Analyst does not need to be trained as a land surveyor to function successfully in his role as a map user. He is trained to use map and other ancillary data in solving geographic problems.

For me, I think the analogy of a farmer and a chef vividly illustrates the dynamic and complex relationship between a land Surveyor and a GIS Analyst. The farmer is the expert at growing the food. He knows the best time to apply ferterlizers, what disease could potentially affect a healthy yield, when to weed, etc. However the chef is the expert at turning raw food ingredients to mouth watering dishes. A chef knows when to apply the seasoning, what percentage of water to add to excite the palate, etc

A GIS analyst relies heavily on the accuracy of the data gathered by the surveyors; however he also depends on the expert skills of other professionals like the DBA, the IT infrastructure, developers, testers, Requirement analysts etc. A surveyor cannot double as a DBA and GIS expert at the same time while clutching to his hat as a surveyor otherwise he’ll become jack of all trades and master of none.

The LAGIS project is a classical example of how we can potentially get things wrong and turn a world class project into world class nonsense if this confusion between a the roles of a land Surveyor and a GIS Expert is not laid to rest once and for all times. Surveyors involved in the LAGIS project have done a wonderful job of capturing several layers of spatial data around Lagos State. The next step is to start using the data stored to solve different problems affecting governance in the State –this is the job of the GIS Experts. Surveyors involved in the project therefore need to concentrate on ensuring that the database created is current and within the pre-define accuracy’s level of confidence. A land Surveyor however can function as a GIS expert provided he has requisite skills and professional experience to function successfully in that capacity. By the same tokent, a GIS expert can also function as a map maker if he has the skills.

Our spatial industry will still remain primitive and very unattractive to investors as long as serious confusion and uncertainty remains regarding who is statutorily responsible for what.

STL Introduces "Unlocking the Power & Secrets of MapInfo Professional" advanced GIS Training in Lagos, Nigeria

2011-12-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

The "Unlocking the power and secrets of MapInfo Professional" course is part of Spatial Technologies Ltd’s (STL) commitment to providing quality hands-on MapInfo Professional and advanced GIS training to the emerging Nigerian GI industry.
The course is designed to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical GIS experience using the compelling power of MapInfo Professional. STL would be using location data about the branches of Zenith bank, dealer (B2B) location data for MTN and Globacom as case studies to assist delegates connect with the course effectively and put it in the right perspective.

STL will provide the following map data for the training.
1. Zenith Bank Branches (Zenith_branches.TAB)
2. UBA Branches (UBA_branches.TAB)
3. GTB Branches (GTB_branches.TAB)
4. First Bank Branches (Firstbank_branches.TAB)
5. Oceanic Bank Branches (Oceanic_branches.TAB)
6. Intercontinental Bank (Intercontinental_branches.TAB)

POINTS OF INTEREST (POI)
1. Markets venue location data (Market.TAB)
2. Restaurants Locations (Restaurant.TAB)
3. Schools Locations (School.TAB)
4. Shopping Mall Locations (ShoppingMall.TAB)
5. MTN Dealer location data across Lagos (MTN_Dealers.TAB)
6. Globacom Dealer location data across Lagos (Globacom_Dealers.TAB)

OTHER MAP LAYERS
1. Lagos Street map (Lagos_Road.TAB)
2. Lagos Landuse Map(Lagos_Landuse.TAB)
3. Lagos LGA with Demographic details (LagosLGA_Census.TAB)
4. Lagos Towns (Lagos_Suburb.TAB)

Required Previous Experience: Each student is expected to have a good knowledge of database, simple SQL scripting and a working knowledge of MapInfo Prodessional software.

Target: Much of the reason you use MapInfo Professional is to perform geographic analyses on your data with the aim of making strategic decisions. This course would take a look at some sophisticated GIS analyses that illustrate practical ways MapInfo Professional can be integrated into business decision making process. MapInfo Professional can be useful in understanding patterns and spread in a way that will be difficult using only spreadsheet. At the end of this course, delegates would know more about using MapInfo Professional to conduct market analysis, competitive analysis, Customer Management/Targeting. The course also contains 2 practical workbooks to be undertaken by each delegate to gain practical experience in using GIS to make informed business and strategic decisions.

Course Description

1. Market Research: MapInfo Professional allows you to analyze your market area. If you are a business strategist or a business decision maker in Nigeria, the future of your organization depends on the decisions you make today. The key to smart decisions is putting accurate, relevant business to business market research and business data into the right business context. The application of GIS in Nigerian businesses has grown rapidly in the recent years. This course would help the delegates identify the critical success factors that can be focused on to improve the performance of the worst performing sales outlets using the power of geography for a typical business

Workbook 1: This section of the course would use the geographic spread of Zenith Bank branches as a case study. Each delegate would be able to undertake a practical geographic analysis that investigates the existence of a correlation between the geographic spread of Zenith Bank branches and grocery market venues across Lagos.

(STL will provide the geographic location of existing Zenith Bank branches and of grocery market venues across Lagos for this project)

2. Competitive Analysis: Understanding how competing brands position themselves can allow retailers to learn from their mistakes and successes, and act in a distinctive and powerful way. More importantly by understanding where the competitors are located can provide a powerful tool to stay ahead of the competition. This course would therefore assist delegates to explore what geographic comparative analyses for typical business markets should include to assist businesses in Nigeria to position themselves better.

Workbook 2: The Nigerian telecom industry is one of the most competitive industries in Africa. Operators use a network of sales and product Business-to-Business distribution channels to get products to the Nigerian consumers. Delegates would be conducting a geographic comparative analysis of MTN and Globacom distribution networks to gain insight into how GIS can be used to investigate the strenghts and weakenesses of each distribution channel and identifying opportunities for channel optimisation.

(STL will provide the geographic location of B2Bs making up both MTN and Globacom distribution channels for this analysis. The B2B location data was gathered from an extensive field geo-market research project conducted by STL in 2010 across Lagos )

Specific skills required for the above analyses which would be covered in the training include the followings:

1. SQL Selection through queries:

whole textual entry in the data
partial textual entry (wildcards)
numeric values in the data
length or area of a map object
more than one aspect concurrently

2. GIS Analysis -Thematic mapping:

shade areas
size of points
thickness of lines
two layers at once
mini-charts to compare values
Redistricting for presentation

3. Output and printing:

Copy-paste techniques
Create Layout windows

4. Data Manipulation:

Creating new tables from scratch
Importing external data (Microsoft Excel & Access)
Creating new fields
Use of various field types
Table "packing"
Simple calculation from existing fields

5. Database Management:

Understanding spatial database management system
Creating ODBC from MapInfo to Oracle
Making a DBMS table map-able
Selection using SQL

Dietary requirements : This course includes lunch as well as mid morning and afternoon refreshments for each day. We are happy to cater for vegetarians and those with other dietary requirements, providing we have advance notification.

Opening hours: 9:00am - 4:45pm on training days.

Date: February 3 & 4, 2012 (2days)

Internet access: Delegates can use the internet or check webmail on a dedicated machine in the Spatial Technologies Ltd reception area.

Trainer : Our trainer will guide you through the functionality of MapInfo Professional; offering you help, advice and tips to improve your efficiency along the way. This course is 100% custom developed by STL's experienced GIS instructor who has 8+ years experience using and teaching MapInfo Professional

Car parking: There is ample free car parking on site.

Attendance Cost: N15,000

Enquiry: GSM: 0802 392 4832, Email: info@spatialtechnologiesltd.com

About Spatial Technologies Ltd (STL)

Spatial Technologies Ltd (STL) is a dynamic Information Technology company with special emphasis on map, GIS and Location based solutions. STL is registered in Nigeria with office in Surulere. STL has a select group of experienced GIS Professionals and other experts who share a common vision of providing high-quality customized service at a reasonable cost. Some STL clients include: UBA PLC, Airtel, ipNX, ICSL, Greenwich Consulting, Arcus GIBB, etc

Our Award

STL is the proud winner of RIMA Foundation Award for its innovative GIS solutions in Nigeria. RIMA Foundation awards are given as recognition to organisations (public and private) that have demonstrated excellence in their chosen fields, designing and implementing products relating to Information Management, security and technology for the benefit of their profession and humanity.

Lagos Online Enterprise GIS portal is more intelligent than Google Map!!

2011-11-16T08:32:00.000-08:00

I have just spent the last few days evaluating the online portal for Lagos GIS project i.e. LAGIS and I could not contain my excitement. ( http://gis.lagosstate.gov.ng/LAGIS/WebPages/Map/MapViewer.aspx) The only thing I can say is: Awa ti dee!!! Yes oo..nothing dey happen like Tuface use to say, yes oo, Lagos don arrive finally. Lagos has now officially joined the list of such cities as New York, London, Southampton, etc that have dedicated interactive online map portal!!

I found the LAGIS online portal very engaging and stimulating. It provides public access to the best of Lagos. The concept is world class and the implementation is brilliant. From a usability point of view, I found the layout and the map tools very easy to use and refreshing

An Evaluation of the Map Tools

This portal has a complete list of relevant map tools that encourages serious exploration and exploitation of the map content. The Zoom tools are standard professional tools and very easy to use. The panning tool is delightful. I also found tools like Identify, Previous Map, MapTip etc very illuminating as they take map interaction to the next level.

What sent me whistling Boney M's Brown girl in the ring.....tra la la la... was the set of map tools you get when you click on the “Work With Map” link. It contains some powerful tools that provide a good user interaction experience. LAGIS portal certainly puts the power of professional online map in the hands of the average Lagosian, however it does it in a very stylish and non-overwhelming manner which makes it even better. A user can measure the distance from one point to the other, do a “Nearby” Search, and generate URL.

A Comparative Analysis of LAGIS portal and Google Map portal

In terms of functionality, I dare say that this portal has more professional map tools than the mighty Google map. Some of the tools embedded in LAGIS portal that are conspicuously missing in Google map include the distance measurement tool, the selections tools and the Buffer selections!!!
I zoomed to an area I know so well in Surulere, using the “Select by Polygon” tool activated from the Selection option, I drew a polygon extent on the map and selected Address as the Selection Layer. When I pressed the ENTER” key, it returned a list of addresses selected within the drawn polygon. This is a standard GIS analysis in most professional GIS and mapping software like MapInfo Professional or the powerful ESRI's ArcGIS. It was refreshing to see this at work in such an unassuming and efficient manner on LAGIS portal. The availability of these tools for me is the evidence of the superiority of LAGIS portal over the mighty Google map portal.

Now let me talk about the map layers. The portal contains the following layers:

Addres
Address Parcel
Building Footprint data
Cadastral data
Bathymetric data
Polling Units
Utility
Road
Water
Landuse
Postcode/wards
Orthophoto
others

A comparative analysis between the LAGIS portal and the mighty Google map reveals that Google map content pales into insignificance when compared with what LAGIS portal has. I have always held the view that Nigeria’s administrative map data requires disaggregation to be relevant. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the postcode/wards on LAGIS Portal, it is almost too good to be true.

I work in the UK for one of the largest and most innovative mapping agency in the world with a robust and rich 220years of operational heritage. As a Geo Information Architect, working with huge map databases is what I do everyday. I work with a map database containing over 450million features, so I can assure you that I appreciate data at the level of granularity that makes it naturally possible to support decision making process both at micro and macro levels.

It was therefore very emotional for me to see the crisped boundaries of such wards as Aralile, Adeniran Ogunsanya, Shita/Bank Olemoh, Gbaja/Obele Odan, etc all in Surulere. This is actually the first time I would see these boundaries online and I must say that I am mightily impressed. Oh by the way, I dare say that there is no public portal in the world that holds this level of details for Lagos. This therefore makes LAGIS the most advanced online map data in the world for Lagos. Ooooh..i like the sound of this. For no just reason the song of Shina Peters keeps ringing in my ears… Ejowo kini won pe ni Founder? Oludasile! Oluwashina Peters ni oludasile Afrojuju…hahahaha..hey don’t get me started!!!

Imageries of Lagos on Google Map are a child's play when compared with what LAGIS is Offering!!

I am now looking at the Orthophoto for Lagos …men..the only thing I can say is Eko oo ni baje ooooo!! Yes this is an apt response to what I am seeing. I did a simple comparative test. I wanted to compare the imageries of the same area in both Google map and LAGIS. I zoomed to an area of Adelabu Rd in Surulere that I know very well.

On LAGIS I could make out the cars and houses distinctively (have you noticed the sharpness of the house with the red roof encircled on the south east of the image?)
Can you see the same house on Google image? It has blurred edges. This is a simple test to confirm that the resolution of imagery of Lagos on LAGIS beats that Google map hands down!!!!

On LAGIS, I could zoom in and see not just the buildings but also the fences that separated the parcels. I almost screamed with delight when I zoomed to see details of the house I grew up in Surulere. Seeing the house on LAGIS was a bit nostalgic for me as it brought back a flood of childhood memories. I felt like John Grisham when he wrote the book A Painted House. I even saw the water well that was dug in my neighbor's house some 25years ago when Lagos State Water Corporation was still flexing its muscle and the well; it is still there!!! I also saw the Mango tree we use to climb still standing in Mr Kehinde’s house..oooh that tree got me into trouble with my mum so many times.

I was one of the happiest people when I noticed that Google map now has satellite imageries of Lagos, but I can confess that the level of details of what I am seeing on LAGIS could make Google satellite imageries of Lagos appear childish. Yes Google could carry the satellite imageries of the entire world on its head like the FIFA World cup, but when it comes to Lagos in Nigeria, Google data is what Baba Fatai Rolling Dollar sang in his popular song..won kere si number wa..hahahaha
This to me makes LAGIS the best source of satellite imageries for Lagos in the world!!!

Required Improvements

Below are some specific issues in my opinions requiring improvements.

1) Performance: One single issue that I think would make or break this portal in terms of attracting traffic in a consistent way is performance. It is an understatement to say that the performance needs to be optimised. The response time requires serious improvement. Functions like Panning, zooming etc take valuable extra seconds to respond. My broadband speed at home in UK is almost 10mbps. I can imagine that would be even slower for a typical user in Nigeria where broadband capacity is a big issue. I guess this is where Google map has an edge. It would therefore be helpful to research into high performance WFS applications. FME Server is a good option. See an example of a map portal with enhanced performance at www.whereis.com

There is also a need to look into the “Identify” functionality. This does not work sometimes when used to retrieve behind the scene attribution data. Oohh by the way I could not get the print functionality to work; perhaps I was not patient enough. This functionality looks a bit complex. I will therefore suggest that a simple print functionality like we have in Google map would work better.

2) Cartography: The cartography requires more professionalism and thoughtfulness. I could not understand why the political and administrative boundaries are the starting layers. This starting view gives the portal a false and uninspired look that belies the sheer volume of map data contained therein. This is why I seriously think a usability test would really be helpful. It could be expediently useful to understudy and evaluate portals offering similar values for inspiration. The starting view that greets a user should be appealing and welcoming. It should be simple and reassuring. This would entice the user to explore the portal more and appreciate its intelligence. Unfortunately, the current starting view looks dull and not very innovative.

This is the starting view (a user will struggle to know where Ikeja is without having to zoom in first.)

I will therefore suggest that the first view should be a blend of 4landuse classes, specifically, I’ll suggest the following classes:

Water bodies
Developed areas
Scattered grassland or open surfaces
A single class containing a combination of other vegetation e.g. forest, and woodland etc

Express roads, major roads and major city point data should also be overlaid on the landuse. This simple combination will ensure that a user can simply decide where to zoom right from the opening view. I also think people can relate better with the suburb names as the starting layer than the LGA and the postcode/ward boundary names. I have implemented this idea on my very own Lagos online street finder.

Compare LAGIS opening view with my very own version of Online interactive Lagos street map which i developed in 2009 found at http://www.lagoslocation.com/mapPage.aspx

May I also suggest that a user should be able to differentiate the different extent of each LGA from the postcode wards. At the moment, when a user zooms in and the ward polygons appear, it is impossible to work out the logical relationship between the LGAs and the wards. It would be helpful if the same colors are used for both LGAs and the wards, however wards could get a lighter greyish color and the LGA boundary line could be slightly thicker just to represent the hierarchy and the logical relationship .

The colors should be complementing and mild. The view should not be cluttered and deterring. May I also suggest that the Atlantic ocean be used to mark the southern boundary of the state, this would definitely give it that professional look. I am sure Dr Uluocha or Prof Balogun both in Geography dept of Unilag who are world experts in cartography would be very happy to assist in this area.

Finally, what plans are there to monitise the website? I sincerely hope that the LAGIS team is not only thinking about creating paper maps to monitse the project. I have over 100 ways that can be used to monitise this innovative portal in a consistent manner. With my idea, the projected revenue for year1 could be around the region of 7digits and year2 would exceed this target. I am willing to share this knowledge FOC (Free Of Charge) with LAGIS if required.

I am also interested in knowing what lifecycle management strategy is being used for the data management? Will the unique ID of each feature be recycled or completely dropped when its lifecycle status changes? I will be writing about this some more in the future.

I am still basking in the euphoria of discovering this amazing portal and my guess is, it would probably take me several weeks to fully discover the power of this innovation. I plan spending more time exploring it further. May I offer my sincere appreciation to the team responsible for the LAGIS project for a job well done? I would also like to salute the courage and the tenacity of purpose of everyone involved. You guys have made the Nigerian GIS and map experts very proud. Congratulations on delivering an online portal that is considered far more intelligent than Google map from the perspective of a Nigerian user.

Hotels offering 10% discount in Lagos, Nigeria

2011-11-13T23:36:00.000-08:00

Lagos in the month of December is like no other city in the world. Enjoying December in Lagos does not have to come a price, or does it? LagosLocation.com is happy to announce the start of the December 2011 promo.

If you are planning a visit home to Mum and Dad, a trip to see the family in Lagos or a short break at friends it pays to get booking now. And if you plan to escape it all on a holiday booking earlier, you can also bag yourself a deal provided you book early on LagosLocation.com to enjoy 10% discount on some selected hotels.

Some hotels listed on LagosLocation.com are also offering free airport pickups for those taking advantage of these offerings. Book at LagosLocation.com and save money.

Oh by the way, we are happy to announce that we processed over 800 hotel bookings in October 2011. There must be a reason why all these people trust us with their hotel bookings.

Click here to see some hotels in Lagos offering discounts in December

The Error in Nigerian Postcode System

2011-10-12T04:07:00.000-07:00

A postal code (known in various countries as a postcode, or ZIP code) is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail. Once postal codes were introduced, other applications became possible.

History of Postcodes
Postal codes were first introduced in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in December 1932, but the system was abandoned i

A postcode can be numeric as in the case of USA or alphanumeric (i.e. both letters and digits) as used in UK, and Netherland.n 1939. The next country to introduce postal codes was Germany in 1941, followed by Argentina in 1958, the United Kingdom in 1959, the United States in 1963 and Switzerland in 1964. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_code )

NIPOST Implements Nigerian's Postcode
NIPOST –Niger

ian postal agency (www.nipost.gov.ng) had implemented a postcode system for Nigeria. By this token, NIPOST is placing Nigeria and indeed Nigerians on the shoulders of giants. Yes, we have joined the elite group of countries with advanced postal addressing system.

I could not contain my excitement when I discovered that it is actually possible to know the postcode of my former address in Lagos.

The postcode

adopted by NIPOST is purely numeric e.g. the postcode of the Pedro Police Station is 100233 http://www.nigeriapostcodes.com/views / hahahha..fantastic!!

How the Postcode works
Each Postcode

is built up from several layers of geographic information from the Postcode Area to the Unit Postcode, e.g. my house in Southampton, UK has the postcode SO16 4GU

SO denotes the Southampton postcode area. There are currently 124 Postcode Areas in the UK. Which represents approximately 220,000 addresses per Area. A total of 27 million data points.

SO16 denotes District 16 in the Southampton Postcode Area - there are approximately 3,000 Postcode Districts in the UK. Which represents approximately 9,000 addresses per District

SO16 4 denotes Sector 4 in District 16 of the Southampton Postcode Area - there are approximately 9,000 Postcode Sectors in the UK. Which represents approximately 3,000 addresses per Sector.

SO16 4GU denotes the full, Unit Postcode there are over 1.8 million Unit Postcodes in the UK. Which represents approximately 15 addresses per Unit Postcode

The question is, can 2 addresses within the same district but different sectors have the same full postcode? In UK, this is not possible!

An Evaluation of the Nigerian Postcode.
I did a postcode search on NIPOST website http://www.nigeriapostcodes.com/views/ and discovered that the postcode of Karonwi St in Itire,within Surulere LGA is 100281. To my surprise, this postcode is shared by the popular Allen Avenue in Ikeja LGA!! I am sure the good people of Karonwi St would not mind sharing a common postcode with the mighty and majestic ones in Allen Ave, but is this not a case of mistaken identify? Could Karonwi St be that close to Allen Ave that makes it possible to share the same postcode

Well, the answer is a capital NO!!! (see the map below generated using MapInfo professional) Karonwi St is approximately 11.3km away from Allen Ave (as the crow flies) The question is how can 2 separate streets that are 11.3km apart share the same postcode? Something is definitely wrong somewhere!!!!

How many houses or addresses fall within the distance covered from Karonwi St to Allen Ave? This suggests to me that what is being peddled as Nigerian postcode by NIPOST was not thought through and through. It is another classic example of not paying attention to details which has become the hallmark of our government agencies.

Uses of Postcodes in UK
1. Crime reporting at postcode level
Early in 2011, BBC reported the launch of a new crime-mapping websites for England and Wales. The site www.police.uk allows users within UK to see the offences reported in their local street by entering a street name or postcode. (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12336381 )

I visited the website and entered my postcode SO16 4GU (see the crime map

of my postcode below)

Visitors to www.police.uk, are able to find out which crimes have taken place on or near their street within the past month and which officers are responsible for their area.
Information on crime is broken down into six categories - burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other crime and anti-social behaviour. Sex crimes have been included in the "other" category, along with crimes such as theft and shoplifting, to help prevent victims from being identified

2. House for Sale or for rent.
In 2002, I was determined to move from my parents home in Surulere and get my own place. After working at MTN Nigeria for 1year and earning good money for the first time in my life, I thought it was time I got my own flat. One of my friends was kind enough

to take me to the agent that helped him to secure a flat at Anthony a few month before then. When we met the agent in his office at Sabo, he told me of this beautiful flat at Gbagada, I was delighted, however he informed us that we had to go to another agent at Ketu who was in charge of the flat at Gbagada!

Well, we drove to Ketu to see the new agent. The Ketu agent also informed us that the actual agent that managed the property had an office at Ikeja!!!! Suddenly I was reminded of the film titled "Gone with the wind" I was convinced that the agent at Ikeja would probably take us to Sango Ota to see another agent! Why does it have to be this chaotic?

www.Zoopla.co.uk is a comprehensive property website, focused on empowering consumers with the resources they need to make better-informed property decisions. The website helps users make sense of the residential property market by combining property listings with market value data, local information and community tools.
A user simply needs to enter a place name, area of refine the search with a postcode and
I tried searching for a property near my postcode SO16 4GU. The website returned a list of properties within my postcode units for sale. Fantatsic!! Now try implementing a similar solution using NIPOST's postcode data! It would be a disaster because Itire and Allen Ave in Ikeja both share a common postcode!!!

The implication of error in Nigerian Postcodes.

We have a number of property search websites developed by some smart and clever Nigerians targeting the Nigerian market such as the ip4properties.com.

It would be impossible to develop or implement any meaningful application using Nigerian postc

ode system in its present state. Without an accurate postcode system, it would be difficult to leverage and milk much value from the SIM registration database that was recently implemented costing several billions of naira!

Oh before I forget, without a proper postcode system, our address system will remain primitive, and our Finance Minister -Okonjo Iweala will continue to decry the dearth of quality data for government to implement good infrastructure plan.
Tim Akinbo had blogged extensively on this subject like so many other people about the value chain in opening up this postcode data to the general public, but what data are we talking about here? The same data that gave Itire and Allen Ave the same postcode?

By integrating Nigerian postcode search capabilities, Nigerian websites can provide deep values like Zoopla.

Hopefully, the Nigerian Police will one day finish re-branding and re-packaging it's website and start publishing intelligent crime data in a useful format (www.nigeriapolice.org) (Oh by the way, I hope Mr President and Inspector General are both aware that the website of the Police Force of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is currently down and had remained down for over 1month before today October 12, 2011. I have included today's date as a way to monitor how long the website will remain down)

NIPOST can recoup the cost of developing accurate Nigerian postcode database and maintaining its currency like Royal mail of UK by selling accurate and most reliable postcode data to the general public to implement different solutions that will touch the lives of Nigeria in so many meaningful ways.

A proposed Solution to Improve NIPOST Postcode system
I gave this peculiar problem a great thought and being a Geo Information Architect, I decided to model this problem and I came up with what I think is the perfect solution to this error in our postcode.
NIPOST needs to start looking at the wider picture here. Granted a functional postcode system would make it easier to sort and deliver letters, however there are hundreds of applications and solutions that could potentially ride on the wing of accurate and useful postcodes.

I am therefore proposing the following structure for our postcode system.

State + Postal Town + LGA + Electoral wards.

1. Why Use State?
There are 37 unique states in Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory. Any address within Nigeria would definitely fall within one state. So each state must have a unique code.

2. Postal Towns
NIPOST needs to create crisp postal town boundaries such that a postal town must not spill into another state. A single address in Nigeria must fall within one postal town

3. Local Government Area (LGA)
There are currently 774 official LGAs making up Nigeria with well defined political boundaries. Each LGA must be incorporated into our address or postcode system. Another reason is that each LGA is unique. Uniqueness is an important dependency that must be fulfilled when creating an intelligent address system. For instance, if our current postcode system had incorporated the LGA, It would make it impossible for Allen Ave which is in Ikeja LGA to share the same postcode with Karonwi St in Surulere LGA.

4. Electoral Wards
INEC had demonstrated that LGAs can further be broken down into electoral wards. This had made the work of NIPOST a lot easier. By incorporating the electoral wards, this will further introduce uniqueness data disaggregation in our address system at this level of granularity. It would definitely make it impossible for 2 addresses in separate LGAs and wards to share the same postcode.

When fully implemented
Allen Ave’s postcode could therefore look like:
Lagos State+Lagos North+Ikeja LGA+Ikeja North ward

Karonwi St could have a postcode made up of:
Lagos State+Lagos Central+Surulere LGA+ Surulere West ward

Yes NIPOST Can do it!!!!
NIPOST is on the good path to fame and prosperity for implementing a postcode system for Nigeria, albeit a non dependable system. A lot still needs to be done to improve the ultimate usefulness of our postcode in its current state.

Some impatient people may dismiss this proposition saying "bobo mi Londoner..Naija lo wa yi ooo heeee" (meaning, hey my guy from London, you are now in Nigeria). I am not advocating that we use either the American or the British postcode system, we can design and evolve our very own Nigerian postcode system. I have the requisite skills to implement this simple system and I am willing to consult for NIPOST FREE of charge.... provided NIPOST will pay for my mortgage in UK...hahahahaha:)

I personally believe in the capability and capacity of NIPOST to deliver a full intelligent postcodes for Nigeria. I also believe strongly that a good postcode system would breathe life into our primitive address system that could potentially assist our governments at all levels especially the local governments to take us to the promised land in some specific situations where Nigerians can start reaping the dividends of good governance in a consistence way
.

Nigerian Expert Developed African First online Open Source Geo-demographic Classification System

2011-09-12T08:54:00.000-07:00

I just stumbled on NIGECS (The Nigerian Local Government Area Geo-demographic Classification System and Profiler) -an amazing geo-portal www.nigerianlgaclassification.com produced by a team of experts in UK including a Nigerian to bless Nigerian citizens and all tiers of governments.
NIGECS is a synthesis of multivariate and multi-dimensional information to help unearth and understand the dynamics of the population groups and their residential areas. NIGECSS is the first interactive repository for geographical and statistical information about the 774 LGAs in Nigeria.

It represents the first attempt in Nigeria to provide online contextual and analytical geodata about socio-economic data down to LGA –amazing. This wonderful website was delivered by our very own Dr Adegbola Ojo of African Higher Education and Research Observatory (AFRIHERO), Sheffield, UK.

I did a quick Google search on Dr Adegbola Ojo and I came up with the followings:

Dr Ojo is a seasoned expert in geodemographics, Geographical Information Science (GIS) and spatial analysis. A recipient of multiple international awards, Dr Ojo is credited with developing the first set of open-source small area segmentation systems that address the policy needs of developing countries. One of such recent developments is the Nigerian LGA Geodemographic Classification System and Profiler (NIGECSS). (source: http://www.afrihero.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=103&Itemid=63)

The website defined a geodemographic classification system as “an attempt to simplify a large and complex body of information about people, where and how they live, work or recreate. It is developed on geographical ideas that similar people with similar characteristics are more likely to live within the same locality and that such area types will be distributed in different locations across geographical space.”

The system represents the first attempt ever documented in the history of Nigeria to use Google map as the platform for disseminating huge volume of data to reach a wider audience. This feat would have been difficult hitherto using traditional tabular databases. I found the application to be intuitively easy to use, refreshing and very useful The rate of data refresh is also incredible as it makes it very easy to move from one theme to the other in a relatively easy flash.

Although the portal has the ambience of an academic project (that is not surprising as the brain behind it has an academic background), it however was well thought out, well managed and most importantly very informative. Each of the 774 LGA in Nigeria was classified into 6 geodeomgraphic clusters i.e. SuperTown, Emerging Localities, Intermediate Territories, Diluted societies, Country dwelling, and finally Urban Nodes.

If properly used, this portal could assist Jonathan’s administration to achieve the strategic planning required to liberate Nigeria from its socio-economic quagmire it is currently languishing. Okonjo Iweala needs an integrated solutions like the NIGECS to make informed planning and investment decisions.

This initiative is a classic example of data begging to be used by the Nigerian government. The icing on the cake is that this huge data is online and FREE. The implication of this are:

By being online, it means it is available to anyone that is interested and has internet connection. The ITU reported that some 43,982,200 people have access to the internet in Nigeria as at June 2010. This represents some 28.3% of Nigerian population (source:http://www.internetworldstats.com/africa.htm.) Going by the heavy investment in under sea cable by Globacom, MainOne cable, to complement the NITEL SAT-3 means that this number could easily double or triple in a few years from now. This implies that this website and its excellent data content could potentially be available to more than 30% of Nigerian population in a couple of years from today –amazing.

Google map is evidently the most widely used online free map data application. I remembered screaming with delight in 2008 when I started noticing Nigerian street map data appearing in Google map. This could be as a result of Tele Atlast’s acquisition of Geo-Origin of South Africa. By using Google map platform, NIGECS is making this amazing GIS solution available to traditional non-GIS experts without being mandated to buy expensive GIS software like MapInfo Professional or even the mighty ESRI ArcGIS. An individual interested in this application does not need to spend time and money learning complex GIS software to benefit from it

GIS students, University researchers and other interested individuals within the academic community now have access to a wealth of FREE information. This would especially be useful in academic researches where the non-availability of such socio-econmic data at LGA level had always been a show stopper.

How can the Federal, State and Local governments benefit from this portal?

The data provided geographic spread of Nigerian socio-economic data along 12 important indices. They are:

Geodemographic clusters
Agriculture
Community Safety
Demographics
Education
Employment
Health
Household Infrastructure
Housing
Poverty Wealth
Socio-economics
Women & Children

These are important strata of data that any serious government should be interested in understanding how they affect its citizen. I have always held the believe that Geographic Information System (GIS) is one powerful tool that can help place the government in the driving seat when it comes to understanding issues affecting citizens. GIS allows the government to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. Examples abound around the world about how developing countries like India, South Africa, Dubai, Singapore, China, etc have been able to transform their countries by using modern methodologies like location based technologies that produce results.

To me, this NIGECS is the best thing to have happened to Nigeria since Atlanta 1996 when Nigerian Golden Eaglets won the Olympic Gold.

The ONLY thing I would love to see integrated on the portal is what MapInfo Professional called the INFO tool and ArcGIS calls the IDENTIFY tool. This small, almost inconsequential functionality allows a user to use it and click on any part of the map data to retrieve back-end attribution data. This makes it entirely possible for a user to complement the spatial diagram with analytical attributes to make informed decision. This functionality in Google map is called WHAT IS HERE and can be activated by right clicking anywhere on the map canvass. I believe that this tool will certainly enhance its ultimate usefulness.

I had a chat with Dr Ojo recently to know more about the source of funding for this project and he confirmed that the project was funded by the University of Sheffield. I was curious to find out the role that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the National Population Commission (NPC) played in this project. Dr Ojo said that it took him about a year to secure the data used for the application from NBS and he had to personally pay to acquire the data.

He added, “during the same period (as part of my doctoral research), I developed a similar system for the Philippines at a much detailed geographic scale (yet to be web-enabled). We secured the Philippines data FREE of charge within three months without much hassle.”

My advice to NPC and NBS is to contact Dr Ojo and come up with a framework for collaboration. One way is to provide him with updated data to power this amazing online application. An innovative and informative portal like this would always be relevant for strategic planning that could underpin Nigerian government's milliennial vision for as long as it is powered by the most upated data. By collaborating with Dr Ojo, premium statistical data could be provided as GIS data right from the websites of NPC and NBS to the general public for a fee. This collaboration could open up a vista of business opportunities to the NBS which could assist in defraying some of the data capture and management cost. We are probably looking at a multi-billion naira revenue here.

The website asserted that the Nigerian system is the first African open source geo-demographic classification system recognised in academic literature. It therefore leads the way for a new era of unbiased approach to understanding a wide range of issues within the public sector, private sector and indeed the academia.

Lagos gets N3 billion digital mapping project

2011-06-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

I have been following the Lagos GIS project with keen interest. I could not almost believe it when I heard that Fashola’s administration was considering a serious investment in GIS, it sounded almost too good to be true.

I have always held the view that every state government in Nigeria owes its citizens the duty of moving away from those methods that limit possibilities to more innovative methods.

You could then understand why I had this rueful smile on my face when I read in Vanguard newspaper that the project had been launched, I told myself –with this project , Fashola had undoubtedly placed Lagos State on the shoulders of giants above other states in Nigeria.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is one powerful tool that can help place the government in the driving seat when it comes to understanding issues affecting citizens. GIS allows the government to view, understand, question, interpret, and visualize data in many ways that reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. Examples abound around the world about how developing countries like India, South Africa, Dubai, Singapore, China, etc have been able to transform their countries by using modern methodologies like location based technologies that produce results

Although I am excited I cannot help being concerned at the same time. I am particularly concerned about how this project would be deployed and managed so that it does not join the list of failed GIS projects implemented in the past by Lagos state. govt

There are so many private companies within Lagos State that would be interested in the map data from this project for their own operational use. Banks such as UBA are currently investing huge capital in geographic intelligence solutions. My company - Spatial Technologies Ltd (STL) recently completed a Business optimization solution powered by GIS for UBA PLC as part of a N9billion expansion project.

By making some aspects of the map data from the LAGIS available to the general public for a fee, private businesses like Banks, insurance companies, telecom, electricity companies, retailers and a host of other huge companies within the state will therefore benefit greatly from this project and could be encouraged to invest in it.

I believe that the project could turn into a huge commercial success when LAGIS supplies all the map data required by the private sector within the state.
The project would then be self sustaining, self-financing and could potentially eliminate the need for the mangers of LAGIS approaching the govt in the future with cap in hand begging for more operational fund

The most important factor is to ensure that LAGIS outlives even the coming administration. This model had worked successfully for Ordnance Survey (OS) –UK mapping agency. OS as a trade fund company is financially independent of the British govt. OS is run like a proper business with all the elements of a big successful company.

OS map database contains over 400million features updated very regularly. In addition to the usual technical experts producing the map data that the British govt and private companies depend on, OS also has several Sales and Marketing experts that engage with both govt agencies and private companies to further help them to leverage on what is now known as the most intelligent map data in the world.

OS makes over £110million (N2.5Billion) annually from the sales of its map data to both govt and private companies in UK.

It is therefore not surprising to know that OS recently celebrated its 220 years of operation

I have no doubt that the LAGIS will meet international standards in terms of positional accuracy and completeness judging by the calibre of map experts involved, however the state govt needs to look at a wider picture here especially on how to turn this project into a lasting legacy that other future administration of the state can building on without re-inventing the wheel.

Entrusting this N3billion (£120million) baby to the Lagos State Lands Bureau would be a great disaster!! It would simply go the way of previous failed GIS projects in Lagos State and we’ll be back at square one. The Lagos State Lands Bureau runs like a typical civil service with all the familiar red tapes, managed by civil servants who are used to depending on the govt for budgets and other operational funds. Getting them to manage LAGIS means they’ll be back for more budget in about 7years from now

I could not help but noticed that there is actually very little information on how the general public can have access to the data. What are the technical specifications of the data, how much will it cost, how is it priced anyway? How often will it be updated? Is there a website where GIS experts within the state can go to get more technical information about LAGIS and its map products data, or do we have to depend on the press to provide this level of details?

By rushing to the press to announce that LAGIS is operational without giving definite answers to questions like these in a wider context is a sign that the project is already showing classic symptoms of failure. Is there anything we have learned from previous failed GIS projects e.g. PIE. If the govt does not come up with the efective business use cases that will sell the project to the private sector, then I can predict that LAGIS will undergo a natural death in the next 10years or another administration will need to invest over N3billion again to start a fresh project.

One specific thing that the managers of the project can do to get the private sector to buy into it is to provide an online interactive access to the data allowing the public to play with the data, to evaluate the data and most importantly to appreciate the complexity modelled into the data. I am convinced that this will definitely excite the general public and will also give them that sense of belonging.

Again, it is important that this project runs as a profitable business entity –financially independent of the state govt. I am particularly interested in knowing the projected sales figure for LAGIS after year 1 of operation. If nobody is thinking of this, then we have started on a wrong foot.

I am therefore suggesting that the state govt needs to invite world-class reputable business consulting companies like KPMG, Accenture, etc to advice the government on how to market the project and turn it to a huge commercial success.

STL Selected to Publish 170 outdoor billboard locations on Lagos online interactive Street Finder

2011-04-12T12:57:00.000-07:00

Spatial Technologies Ltd (STL), Nigeria’s foremost mapping and location-base solutions provider and owner of LagosLocation.com today announced that Timepiece Integrated Services Ltd, –a Nigerian innovative outdoor advertising solution provider has selected STL to integrate the location details of over 170 outdoor billboard sites on LagosLocation.com –an online location street finder for Lagos.

Timepiece Integrated Services Ltd provides the new innovation in outdoor advertising solutions in Nigeria by using outdoor clock branded billboards for advertising solutions. The company offers the Nigerian Market, different types of Clocks and Advertising panels of high diversity and applications. The management of Timepiece Integrated Services Ltd is convinced that adding location element in the marketing of its products gives them strategic advantage to compete effectively in the Nigerian outdoor advertising industry.

STL is expected to mapvertise over 170 outdoor billboard sites on its award wining online interactive street map of Lagos -LagosLocation.com Mapvertising is the unique way of pinpointing business advertising on online interactive maps using specific campaign logos and pictures with associated information. With the integration of each billboard location on LagosLocation.com, Timepiece Integrated Services Ltd does not need to invest in expensive desktop mapping solutions or learn to use complex mapping software to get the same result. LagosLocation.com provides a platform for Timepiece Integrated Services Ltd to evaluate the impact and nature of each billboard - directly on an interactive map using its campaign logo.

Each mapervised billboard site would appear on LagosLocation.com as an icon against the backdrop of Lagos street map data. The location of each billboard is searchable by suburb e.g. Oregun, Ikeja, Ogba, etc. Each billboard icon would have an information page which allows for additional exposure of Timepiece Integrated Services Ltd ‘s brand through the use of summarized marketing information about the its products or services. This Marketing Information is localised and relevant to each billboard and is therefore more productive

Integration of colorful billboard pictures on LagosLocation.com as part of the mapvertising offering would help to reinforce and strengthen the company’s unique brand in Nigerian outdoor advertising industry.

A typical clock branded billboard displays an advert panel of size of 1.2M x 800mm. This gives a total advertising area per unit of 3.9SQM.

Timepiece Integrated Services Ltd’s Chief Operating Officer, Shola Animashaun said "We decided to join forces with STL on the basis of its proven record with successful implementations of online mapping solutions for many high-profile customers in Nigerian outdoor advertising industry. The ability to view the online location map of our billboard sites will help our customers, not only to see our coverage, but also assist them to connect visually to the real-life location of our billboards advertising their products in an effective and consistent manner."

Ireti Ajala –CEO of STL said that “We are extremely delighted to have been selected by Timepiece Integrated Services Ltd to deliver this innovative and exciting online outdoor billboard mapping project in Nigeria. With this solution, Timepiece Integrated Services Ltd can now display the most current status of its billboards and ensure that its customers get value for money. Their customers can easily check the current status of their billboards online from LagosLocation.com and track their campaigns while they are still ongoing as opposed to just getting written situation report when it is too late”

About STL

For more details contact: Spatial Technologies Ltd

14 Raufu William Crescent,

Masha, Surulere,

Lagos

Phone: 08023924832(Lagos), +447982996752(UK)

Email: info@spatialtechnologiesltd.com

Website: www.spatialtechnologiesltd.com

About Timepiece Integrated Services Limited

Timepiece Integrated Services Limited introduces “The Timepiece” to the Nigerian Market as the solution to outdoor advertising challenges. In all the modern cities of the world, time and the media are inter-twined to the extent that the day to day activities of the great city dwellers are dictated and paced by them. Economic activities revolve decisively around time and the information provided by the media establishes choice for the the people.

“The Timepiece”

•Is a unique and novel medium for advertising and social messaging •Is an effective and efficient medium of reaching the mass market with the display of important information

•Combines the power of Time with the effectiveness of social messaging i.e. Time and The Media

•Is a four-sided clock in-synch with the international standard time via GPS Satellite signals that also combines four-sided advertising display panels.

•Harmonizes perfectly with as well as adds colour to the ambience of any urban setting

•Is a sophisticated European craft

For more details contact: T!mepiece Integrated Services Ltd.

Block A2-A4, Suite 58, Sura Office Complex, Simpson Street,

Lagos Island.

Tel: 01-881-9821, 0819-179-1120

Email: info@timepiece.com.ng

Website: www.timepieceng.com

STL concluded a 2day free MapInfo training course in Lagos, Nigeria

2011-03-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

There is an old adage which states, 'If it's free then it's not worth having!'. In March 2011 Spatial Technologies Ltd (STL) –Nigeria’s foremost map & GIS solution provider have set out to prove that this advice is a very long way removed from the truth.

STL recently concluded a 2day free MapInfo training course for 4 selected individuals in Lagos. The course that was aptly titled “Unlocking the Power & secrets of MapInfo Professional” was tutored led and covered principally the introductory and intermediate levels of MapInfo based.
The training provided several real-life scenarios on how one of Nigeria’s largest Bank is using GIS to make informed operational and investment decisions

In addition to providing meals, STL provided the facilities and all map data required for the training covering Lagos metropolis.
The map data used in the training include the followings:
1. Location map of over 600 bank branches in Lagos for Zenith Bank, Oceanic Bank, UBA, Intercontinental Bank, First Bank and GTB
2. Points of Interest covering such categories as markets, restaurants, schools, shopping malls, etc
3. Lagos street map
4. Lagos Landuse map
5. Lagos Local Government boundary data

A typical training of this nature costs over £800 but STL is offering it FREE of charge!

Picture showing the participants at the 2day FREE MapInfo training and their trainer Collins Anyanwu (MGIS Unilag)

One of the trainees said, “STL provided an excellent and very professional training. When I read that it was a free training, I was almost convinced that the training was just going to be a marketing gimmick, but I was wrong! All of us that benefited from the training remarked about the level of professionalism displayed by STL. The trainer was extremely knowledgeable and always had an answer to any query or question anyone in the group raised”.

Another trainee when asked if he would recommend the course to his colleagues at work said “YES, in fact I have started informing my colleagues at work and I am happy that they are all showing interest wishing they were in the training. Thank you STL for this great opportunity to be part of the selected few that benefited from this training”

Ireti Ajala the CEO of STL said “Industry related trainings are vital to the successful use of a Geographical Information System (GIS) in Nigeria. We believe this will compliment the formal GIS courses taught in our Universities. Our strategy is help participants in our courses develop the best possible route to acquiring Industry skills and experience and make themselves more marketable in the industry. We were pleasantly surprised when we received over 300 applications to attend this training. Someone was even willing to travel all the way from Owerri to Lagos and lodge in a hotel in Lagos for 2 days just to attend this course. This makes us excited to see the passion for GIS in Nigeria".

However, due to the increasing demand for this course, STL had decided to hold a series of FREE MapInfo sessions for individuals who can demonstrate their passion for GIS.

So if you are interested in this FREE course, send a mail to iretia@spatialtechnologiesltd.com stating why you should be considered for the course.

STL Introduces FREE GIS & MapInfo Training in Lagos

2011-02-02T21:03:00.000-08:00

Spatial Technologies Ltd (STL) - Nigeria's foremost GIS and Location base solution provider is providing FREE GIS training in Lagos using MapInfo Professional for interested people in Lagos
The course is divided into 3modules to provide progressive learning.
Module 1. GIS & MapInfo Fundamentals (2days) Cost FREE
Module 2. Advanced Data Manipulation using MapInfo (Duration (2days)
Module 3. Technical & Business Strategic Decision Making Process using MapInfo -a case study of UBA PLC and Zain (2days)

This invitation at this point covers just Module 1. Modules 2 & 3 would be planned based on the response from Module 1

Course Requirement: Each student is expected to be computer literate and ready to try something new and exciting. Previous knowledge of MapInfo and GIS are not required.

Course Target for Module 1: At the end of this section, each student should be able to open a table in a Map Window, browse an attribute table in the browser window, understand the standard tools, perform simple task such as changing the symbols of points, lines, polygons, label a map using a particular field in the attribute table, and finally save and open workspaces

GIS & MapInfo Professional Fundamentals (Module 1) Course Outline:

1) Introducing the Basics of MapInfo Professional:
• MapInfo file and directory structure
• Saving, copying, and closing
• Understanding the MapInfo Screen
• How a map and data are connected
• View Tools: Zooming, setting map
• Scale, arranging the map in its window
• Working with Layers
• Object size concepts
• Understanding Workspaces
• Labeling the map
• Setting the zoom range
• Map types: Raster versus Vector

2) Data Selection in MapInfo Professional:
• One or several objects by clicking
• Within a rectangular area
• Within a circular area of set radius
• Within a (user-defined) drawn polygon
• Within the boundary of an area
• Invert a selection
• Remove a selection

3) Creating and editing objects in MapInfo:
• Points of various styles / formats
• Lines of various patterns and thickness
• Areas of various fill and boundary style
• Reposition and reshape
• Reformat

4) Information tools
• Distance between points by measuring
• Object properties
• Statistics on stored numeric values
• charts production

Course Facilitator
The course would be taken by STL's Chief's Technology Officer. The course material would be sent as email attachment to each student selected by STl for the course.

Venue:
Spatial Technologies Ltd office:
14 Raufu William Crescent, Masha
Surulere, Lagos
Get location map and driving direction to the venue on LagosLocation.com

Course Fee: FREE

Joining Instruction:
There are ONLY 5 spaces available for Module 1. If you are therefore interested, you need to write and tell me why you should be considered for this training. I will also appreciate a brief background information about you e.g your area of expertise, etc. My email is iretia@spatialtechnologiesltd.com. I can also be reached at ireti.ajala@lagoslocation.com. I promise to acknowledge and reply any mail you send me.

STL will provide FREE snacks and FREE lunch. At the end of Module 3, you would be given a certificate of attendance and you may be invited to work with STL on a current GIS project as a consultant.

Question1: Why is STL offering MapInfo training that usually cost over £2,500 Free of Charge?
Answer: I thought we should start a MapInfo revolution in Nigeria and introduce more people to the exciting world of GIS and MapInfo at no charge.

Question2: Is STL qualified to undertake a GIS or MapInfo training?
Answer: STL had implemented multi-million naira GIS projects in Nigeria for UBA PLC, Zain, ICSL, Greenwich Consulting (France), etc. We have won an awad for our GIS projects, etc. Why dont you visit our website to see some of our past projects and achievements.

About me:
Name: Ireti Ajala
Designation: CEO Spatial Technologies Ltd
Total GIS Experience: over 12years
Previous GIS Experience: 5years as head of GIS unit for MTN Nigeria Communication Ltd
Current Country of residence: UK

Find me Online:
1. Google Search
2. My Blog

UBA PLC -Nigeria’s largest Bank selects STL as the preferred GIS Solution Provider for Branch Expansion project

2010-12-20T21:19:00.000-08:00

Spatial Technologies Ltd (STL)-Nigeria’s most innovative mapping and GIS solution provider is proud to announce that it had been engaged by UBA PLC to implement a map based solution to support a multibillion naira branch expansion and optimization project.

UBA is the largest financial services institution in West Africa with more than seven million (7m) customer accounts, and operations in 19 African countries, as well as presence in New York, London and Paris. UBA realized that banks in the Nigeria of today must be market driven and market responsive in a highly competitive market.

The success of such a financial institution depends heavily on its approach to data management, customer relation management. By adding a geographic component called “Location” to its database, UBA can gain enormous advantage in many ways.

The objectives of the project are:

1. To develop a systematic or scientific method of locating branches and ATMs for profitability

2. To provide a visual and scientific process to locating smaller sized branches “Spoke” around existing Large Branches “Hubs”.

3. An enabler to the realization of cost saving of over N9billion on branch expansion in Nigeria

This is a pilot project starting with Lagos and expected to spread later to other parts of Nigeria. Under the contract, STL provided the digital street map data of Lagos covering Lagos metropolis, Ikorodu, Epe, Badagry and Sango Otta. STL also mapped the locations of all existing UBA’s branches and ATMs including those of other banks that UBA recently acquired as well as mapping the locations of all branches of UBA’s 5 most important competitors throughout Lagos State and Sango Ota, Ibafo, Mowe.

The contract also covered the mapping of several Points of Interest (POIs) that were considered important considerations when choosing an optimum location for a new UBA branch. The categories of POIs mapped included schools, shopping malls, restaurants, “open-air” markets, hotels, etc across Lagos STL also geocoded the location of over 1,000,000 UBA’s customers based on their residential addresses into a GIS format. This made it possible for UBA to see for the first time the geographic spread of over 1million customers within the project area on an interactive street map of Lagos. Another deliverable was the demographic data of Lagos categorized into LGAs (Local Government Areas) projected from the Nigeria’s 2006 census data.

The project is expected to assist UBA PLC in the following strategic analyses:
1. Bank Network competitiveness/optimization analysis: A geographic approach to analyzing where new branches and ATMs should be located and what factors affect either positively or negatively their operation and profitability.

2 Competitors intelligence mapping: A structured approach using Geographic Intelligence to analyze the geographic location of competitors’ branches and ATMs to evaluate the effectiveness of all UBA branches in the face of competition

3 Customer management identification and targeting Analysis: This type of analysis would be helpful in evaluating the geographic distribution of UBA customers with respect to the branches and how to position UBA branches to serve them better

4. Demographic Analysis.

Following the development and implementation phase of the complex solution, STL provided ongoing enhancement and on-site support over a period of several months and quality MapInfo training to UBA’s staff that were expected to use the solution to deliver informed business investment decisions. The project employed well-proven location technology platform –MapInfo. MapInfo Professional is a recognized brand in the location technology all over the world and was selected for this project based on its ease of use, richness of depth, robust Database Management System (DBMS) functionality and superb cartographic capabilities.

This is the first GIS (Geographic Information System) implementation at this scale by any financial institution in Nigeria. This project also marked the first successful attempt by any private company in Nigeria to geocode addresses in a consistent way throughout the history of mapping in Nigeria. To be able to achieve this feat, STL had to build a complex AI “Address Infrastructure” for Lagos which is not an easy task especially considering the fact that address details in Lagos is not straight forward because of the inconsistency in the house numbering.

Ireti Ajala, Chief Executive Officer of STL commented: “We are extremely delighted to have worked with UBA on this important GIS project. By using GIS as a strategic tool, UBA would be able to make informed business and strategic decisions that would not have been possible using the traditional row-column tabular database approach.” Ajala who once headed MTN Nigeria’s GIS unit within Network Work Group further said “By this project, UBA had joined the league of such financial institutions as MasterCard, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Bank of the West, Royal Bank of Canada, NatWest PLC, and a host of other banks across the world that use GIS in making and supporting informed business decisions”

About UBA PLC

UBA is the largest financial services institution in West Africa with more than seven million (7m) customer accounts, with operations in 19 African countries, as well as presence in New York, London and Paris. It has over six hundred and thirty (630) retail distribution centres across Nigeria, its main operational base. Below are some of the achievements of UBA PLC 1) UBA was the first ever successful merger in Nigerian banking history 2) UBA received excellent credit ratings (short and long term); Global Credit Rating (SA) AA+ and A+ in 2005 3) Ranked Number One Bank in Nigeria (Augusto & Co, 2007) 4) UBA bagged the Emerging Global Bank Award, beating strong contenders like JP Morgan Chase and Standard Bank in the process.

About STL
STL is Nigeria’s foremost mapping and GIS consulting company with offices in Lagos and UK. STL specializes in developing geospatial databases and solutions about Nigeria for the Nigerian market. The company has extensive experience in collecting and processing data from geographic information sources as digitized maps, satellite imageries and aerial data. STL is seriously investing in what is now regarded as Nigeria's largest geo-spatial database by any private company. STL’s maps and solutions power the operations of companies in telecom, vehicle tracking, retail marketing, banking, construction, and Government Agencies. STL is also the owner of LagosLocation.com which is Nigeria's foremost hotel price comparison website that checks multiple hotels across Lagos for availability and returns a list of results allowing you to choose either the cheapest rate or your preferred hotel in Lagos STL will always be found at the forefront of GIS technology and innovation in Nigeria.

For Media Enquiry
Spatial Technologies Ltd
Phone: 01-8533497(Lagos) or +447982996752(UK)
Email: info@spatialtechnologiesltd.com
Website: http://www.spatialtechnologiesltd.com

Lagos Hotel Online Price Comparison Portal Launched

2010-10-04T23:04:00.000-07:00

LagosLocation.com is Lagos' leading online hotel price comparison search engine, offering deals in several hotels and guest houses across Lagos. With the launch of this innovative server, there is no more need for Nigerians to visit each hotel's website one after the other to compare prices, LagosLocation.com brings all the prices into one single portal to give hotel hunters the benefit of price comparison. This offering ranges from budget to luxury five star hotels with regular savings off the normal room rate for a variety of independent and branded hotels in Lagos.

According to Jennifer Balepo -Product Manager for LagosLocation.com, "LagosLocation.com's wide range and choice of accommodation makes it the ideal site for bargain hunters, spontaneous travellers or those looking for great value deals within Lagos. Whether you travel to Lagos on business, or want a family friendly hotel room or a couple in need of a romantic getaway in a cosy guest house or Hotel anywhere in Lagos, LagosLocation.com gives you access to a huge range of hotels, the best hotel deals and cheap discount hotel prices across Lagos that would suit your needs"

Ireti Ajala (CEO of Spatial Technologies Ltd –owner of LagosLocation.com) said “ Users can book and make hotel room reservation directly from LagosLocation.com and get confirmation notices from the hotel itself. Each hotel listing on LagosLocation.com has hotel pictures, hotel deals, and interactive location map to improve the user online hotel search experience. LagosLocation.com guarantees that you will find the lowest hotel rates in an efficient and consistence manner using this online hotel price comparison search engine"

LagosLocation.com makes it easy for users to search for hotel bargain using Lagos suburbs as the search criteria. Users can select a particular suburb e.g. Maryland from the dropdown list and view hotels in each specific location and cross Lagos.
Map of the area is also available in major destinations, making it convenient for users to find hotels that are located in their desired location.

The benefits of LagosLocation.com is worthy of note. This online hotel price comparison search can bring tremendous traffic and help in return on an investment (ROI), brand visibility, more returning visitors, and higher number of sales. Apart from these benefits, it is a cost-effective way to market hotels in Lagos as it leads to significant rise in the traffic and potential customers. Hotel owners can register FREE and post their hotel listings directly on LagosLocation.com

Media Enquiry
Jennifer Balepo
Email: jennifer.balepo@lagoslocation.com
Mobile: 08037135901 (Lagos)
UK: +447982996752

National Address Gazetteer of Nigeria –N100million missed business opportunities for NIPOST & Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation

2010-09-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

What is your Address?
If you are living in the UK, you would realise that your postcode is very important. You need your address and postcode to sign up for several essential services like home phone, home broadband, gas, electricity, water, registering your children for school enrolment, even to register at the local clinic your address is very important. Could they know every possible house in Great Britain?

Answers to these questions led me to Ordnance Survey’s Master Map Address Layer 2 database. This map database is Britain's most complete, comprehensive, national dataset of addresses and buildings and their precise locations. AL2 as this database is fondly called is a powerful address database for over 27million postal delivery points across Great Britain. These delivery points may be premises, buildings, etc

How was such a powerful database created? AL2 dataset was created by bringing 2 big British institutions to explore business opportunities for mutual benefits.

The consortium comprises:

Ordnance Survey (OS is Great Britain's national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and individuals)
Royal Mail (UK national postal agency with over 350 years of operational history)

Royal mail supplies the address database in the form of PAF (Postal Address File), OS simply attaches a GPS point to the address, this way each agency can focus on its area of core competence –very ingenious! AL2's annual turnover runs into several millions of Pounds.

Although OS as an institution has over 200 years of operational history, what most people do not know is that it was just in the last few years that OS started operating as a full fledge Trade Fund company –meaning that after the initial operational capital provided by the British Government, OS had not received any other money from the government but had been operating as a successful business entity making over £100million annually and contributing immensely to the British economy.

This AL2 database underpins millions of Pounds’ worth of decisions made by both public agencies and private sector of the economy especially:
• Banks
• Insurance Companies
• Utilities (Gas, electricity, telecom, water companies)
• Emergency Services Provider (Police, Ambulance, Fire Service, etc)
• Government (National, Counties, Local, Agencies, etc)
• Hospitals
• Etc.

This is a classical example of how institutions in Nigeria can work together towards a common goal.

Advanced Country or 3rd World Country?
In Nigeria, we relate addresses to a major landmark. It is very common for someone in Lagos to give his address as 14 Adana Close, behind the fire station near Ojuelegba. Although there is nothing inherently wrong in relating an address to a major landmark, it however makes it extremely difficult when your business depends on spatial element of your customers' addresses.

While government agencies and ministries in 3rd world countries see themselves as islands and therefore view data they gather as their exclusive right and property, agencies and ministries in advanced countries like UK encourage cooperation especially in the gathering and sharing of data for mutual benefits.

So what does it take to create Nigerian version of Address Layer2 or NAG?
Nigerian maping agency or Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (OSOGF) is supposed to be the equivalence of UK’s OS while NIPOST is the Nigerian equivalence of UK’s Royal Mail. There are so many business opportunities in Nigeria that the Federal Survey and NIPOST can explore as a joint venture to their mutual benefit. Having NIPOST and Federal Survey come together to develop the Nigerian National Address Gazetteer (NAG) will touch the lives of millions of Nigerian in so many positive ways.
NAG can be a dataset that uniquely defines and locates residential, business and public postal addresses in Nigeria. It could be created by matching information from Nigerian Federal Survey digital map databases with millions of addresses recorded in NIPOST Postcode Address File.

NIPOST is already on the good path by creating a website that allows Nigerians to search for their postcodes - http://www.nigeriapostcodes.com/views The website even provides a list of streets sharing the same postcodes although I could not find my street on the website -meaning i still do not know my postcode. NIPOST needs to improve on this and make it more practical. I have enough expertise to implement a better online postcode finder using dynamic online map. (See what i did on LagosLocation.com ) I would be happy to offer my expertise in this regard if required :)

Nigerian maping agency or Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (OSOGF) needs to wake up and smell the coffee. The era of pushing outdated paper maps produced before Nigerian independence in 1960 is over. Now we are in the era of Google Map, Yahoo Map, cloud computing, online map, Satellite Navigation, Location Base Services, etc. OSOGF needs to start thinking proactively. How can the website of the Office of the Surveyor General of the Federation that is "statutorily saddled with the responsibility of providing and coordinating surveying and mapping activities within the Federal Republic of Nigeria" host Google map? It is a disgrace to display maps of Nigeria developed by foreigners on the website of coordinator of all mapping projects in Nigerian!!What is wrong with OSOGF developing its own online map portal to show case maps produced by Nigerian professionals. This is a classic example of missed opportunities. LagosLocation.com is a good reference point to prove that there are Nigerian GIS experts and GIS programmers that can develop online map portals for the use of Nigerians. By working with such Nigerian online map portals OSOGF would be seen as the promoter of Nigerian skills and maps as well.

OSOGF could work with NIPOST to use on-the-ground GPS survey, aerial imagery and various other techniques to establish precise coordinates for each address and match this to the property on the map – effectively joining up postal and topographic geography, creating a fixed link between the property and its address. NAG can be a huge money spinner for both NIPOST and OSOGF that they do not need to go caps in hand to Abuja for grant every year again.

BENEFITS
NAG could be a fundamental tool in economic planning and management in Nigeria. It could meet the needs of governments in Nigeria at all levels as well as private businesses providing essential doorstep services – water, electricity and telecommunications – and the need to relate a customer or property to the support infrastructures in the street.

Power & Engergy
The current administration had identified Power as one of the most important economic issue to be resolved. Without an intelligent national address database, it would be very difficult for the power distribution companies to operate effectively. For example. what capacity of transformer is required to serve Ketu in Lagos effectively? It would be difficult to answer this and other operational questions if the number of houses in Ketu is not known. NAG can assist with this.

The findings of the power sub-committee of the Senate that probed the spending of billions of Naira on power during the regime of OBJ is a reference point to underscore the fact that spending money on power generation does not automatically translate to availability of uninterrupted power supply in Nigeria. We need intelligent data to assist in the optimal power distribution. One intelligent data that could help tremendously is this National Address Gazetteer

Companies like Southern Electric, npower, EDF Energy, e-on -all based in the UK have come to understand that effective power distribution is not possible without an intelligent National Address data, hence their heavy dependency on AL2.

Other Uses of NAG
Identified below are some other specific applications that could be enabled using the NAG

1. Health
• Targeting of services to population needs
• Resource allocation
• Epidemiology
• Analysis of What if...? scenarios

2. Insurance
• Market analysis and profiling
• Geological and flood-risk analysis
• Personal and household risk assessment
• Incident area management

3. Banking/Retail
• Sales analysis by store
• Competitor analysis
• Customer buying profiles
• Store location
• Targeting promotions

4. Power & Telecommunication
• Market profiling
• Consumption analysis
• Pressure-zone analysis
• Location finding

Conclusion
NAG will support sustainable development plans for a large part of Nigeria. NAG will be the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and individuals in Nigeria. It will also encourage agencies to work together and become financially independent of the government. They would stop going to Abuja every year with cap in hand asking for money.

Ireti Ajala is a UK based Map Expert. He is the Managing Partner of Spatial Technologies Ltd –Nigeria’s foremost mapping and GIS Solution provider.

Over 17,000 Lagos Business location maps generated on LagosLocation.com in June and July 2010

2010-08-19T00:35:00.000-07:00

LagosLocation.com -Nigeria’s largest home grown online interactive map-based business directory and yellow pages recorded an unprecedented 49,015 visitors in June and July 2010. Visitors searched for over 17,000 business locations, and some 13,067 driving routes from point A to point B across different parts of Lagos.

A break down analysis showed that hotel was the most popular searched destination with over 4,700 individual searches representing about 28% of all business location searches within the period. Interestingly, searches for couriers came second with over 2,300 maps generated.

Businesses in Victoria Island understandably were the most searched within the reporting period representing over 32% of all businesses searched by suburb. This was closely followed by Surulere and Ilupeju respectively

Ireti Ajala -CEO of Spatial Technologies Ltd (owner of LagosLocation.com) said, "We are extremely excited by this statistics. This affirms our dominant position in the online location business in Nigeria. We are pleased that Lagosians are equally excited at the value that LagosLocation.com offers. We are looking forward to partnering with more businesses in the future especially those companies that wish to have the location of their businesses on LagosLocation.com. We charge absolutely nothing to show these locations on our map. It is our plan to make more people in Lagos appreciate the visual power that maps offer in making simple decisions such as where to buy things, where to go for lunch or the nearest Interswitch ATM"

To get your business location in Lagos listed on LagosLocation.com FREE of charge then send your business details to:
Email: info@lagoslocation.com
Phone: 01-8533497
Or simply fill our online business form

Greenwich Consulting of France Selected STL to conduct a Geo-marketing Research on Potential Fixed-Line Phone and Broadband Market Demand in Nigeria -

2010-07-01T21:59:00.000-07:00

Spatial Technologies Ltd (STL) –Nigeria’s foremost mapping and Geographic Intelligence solution provider announced that it was engaged by Greenwich Consulting (GWC) -a member of TwentyOne Group based in Paris, France to conduct a geo-marketing research on the Nigerian telecom market demand on behalf of its client that is interested in investing in Nigeria’s fixed telephone and broadband industry.GWC wanted an innovative methodology that improves its capability of using the available information and taking advantage of the territorial component to perform analyses that traditional tools would not consent.

The objective of this geo-marketing was to assess the potential of new telecom services in the Nigerian market especially fixed voice and fixed broadband (premium internet access+ VoIP).GWC was particularly interested in establishing the geographic location of potential customers in Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, and Porthacourt meeting the most appropriate criteria that defines the addressable population such as income, consumption pattern, housing, location and assessing the overall distribution of the mid/high-end population and SMEs.GWC being a world-class consulting firm with offices in 20 countries knows that successful market entry or optimization depends upon utilizing all resources to their full advantage – particularly with regard to sales. This geo-marketing research will therefore empower GWC in providing professional investment advice for its client who is particularly interested in investing in the fixed line telephone and broadband segment of Nigerian bursting telecom market. The award winning STL was confident ab out deliverying the solution within the agreed time frame and budget.

Using geo-referenced high resolution satellite imageries and population density maps created from Nigeria’s projected 2009 LGA demographic map data as a guide, STL was able to select geographic concentrations of households and businesses meeting the stipulated income requirements and other socio-economic criteria across Lagos, Ibadan, Portharcourt and Abuja. Using the principles of selective sampling technique, questionnaires were administered to gather information regarding current fixed line phone and internet usage and the location of each respondent was mapped using GPS and integrated into a GIS database in MapInfo Professional environment.The market holding capacity (i.e. the percentage of the addressable market) for areas sampled using weighted matrix was then calculated for the 4 cities

Thematic maps and other proximity analyses were created using graduated colour codes to show the location of polled respondents meeting the stipulated criteria. The market holding capacity was then calculated and overlaid on large-scale digital street map data of Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan and Porthacourt in a GIS environment using. With this analysis, GWC’s client had been helped to leverage on the compelling visual power of GIS and location-base analysis to zero in on Nigerian potential Fixed line and broadband markets down to street level in these 4cities with increased precision and accuracy.

According to Ireti Ajala (STL’s CEO) “Location-related business decisions such as telecom are often risky, with far reaching implications. They demand vision, expertise and tact. In entering a new market, there is always the danger of not paying enough attention to critical factors. STL as an external consultant offered GWC’s client the much-needed objectivity and provided invaluable support from the planning phase to the implementation stage. STL has years of experience advising government agencies and corporate companies like UBA PLC, Zain Nigeria, ICSL, etc from all branches of trade. We greatly appreciate being chosen for this project” -Ajala headed MTN Nigeria's GIS unit for 5years until 2007 when he resigned to run STL full timeThe proposal by STL was judged by GWC to be the best bid received from several Nigerian GIS solution providers especially in terms of quality and pricing. The project employed well-proven technology platforms – MapInfo Professional. MapInfo products are standard and well recognized in the GIS industry in Nigeria, North America, Europe. This project supports STL’s long-term focus in bringing world-class GIS solutions to telecommunication sector and other sectors of the Nigerian economy. STL used the principles of PRINCE2 (Projects in Controlled Environment) to manage and deliver all its projects.

About Greenwich

ConsultingGreenwich Consulting is an international leader in Telecom, Media & Internet strategy and management consulting. Its core target market is the top global multi-site, multi-business telecom and media organisations with European operations and emerging market. With expertise in strategy, marketing, sales, operations and programme management, Greenwich Consulting is also one of the world's fastest growing consulting firms with more than 180 professionals based in Amsterdam, Bern, Brussels, Dьsseldorf, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Stockholm, etc. Greenwich Consulting is a member of the TwentyOne group

CONTACT

Greenwich Consulting

209, Rue de l’Universitй, 75007 Paris, France

http://www.greenwich-consulting.com/

About Spatial Technologies Ltd

STL is a dynamic mapping and Geographic Intelligent solution provider. STL is registered in Nigeria with offices in Lagos and UK. The company has a select group of experienced GIS Professionals and Market Research experts who share a common vision of providing high-quality customized service at a reasonable cost. STL’s strategy is to work closely with its clients as an integral part of the project team. Some of STL’s clients include UBA PLC, Zain Nigeria, iPNX, G4S Tracking, Galaxy Wireless Communication Ltd, Powerlink Ltd, etc.MEDIA

CONTACT

Spatial Technologies Ltd

Phone: 01-8533497

Email: info@spatialtechnologiesltd.com

http://www.spatialtechnologiesltd.com/

Is UBA PLC a helpful bank like NatWest?

2010-05-25T23:07:00.000-07:00

United Bank for Africa PLC is one of Africa’s leading financial institutions offering universal banking to more than 7 million customers across 750 branches in 19 African countries and a presence in New York, London and Paris. -Wikipedia

UBA has the largest branch distribution network in Nigeria with over 6.5 million customers in personal, commercial and corporate market segments. As of 30 September 2008, it had over 650 business offices, 296 deployed POS and 1332 ATMs -Wikipedia

Granted a number of transactions that could only be done inside the banking halls some years ago in Nigeria are now done from ATMs. UBA however had realized that its customers still have legitimate reasons to visit their nearest branches to transact one business or the other hence the decision to provide information about their branch network. The question is, how useful is the branch information provided on UBA’s website?

UBA has shown its intention to help visitors to its website find their nearest branch
//www.ubagroup.com/web/customerservice/branchlocator.jsp#lagos
UBA only provided a tabular list of all its branches grouped by State. Searching for a particular branch from the list is even harder than making N1million a year as a taxi driver in Lagos! On the average, it takes between 5-10minutes to search for a particular branch from the list. A user needs to scroll up and down the long list to get the details required. I tried doing a search for the UBA branch on Ikosi Rd, Ketu. I had to scroll up and down the list several times until I discovered that the particular branch was not listed. I mean it took me almost 10mins to discovered that the branch was not listed -how helpful could that be!

I found this very strange because I know this branch was built in 2007, so why was it not listed on UBA’s website? Is the list the most updated anyway? I stopped to ask myself, why provide the list in the first place when it is outdated? How global can UBA be when it cannot help its customers locate their nearest branch accurately and in a consistent manner?

National Westminster Bank Plc, commonly known as NatWest, is a retail bank in the United Kingdom that has been part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc since 2000.Traditionally considered one of the Big Four clearing banks, NatWest has a large network of 1,600 branches and 3,400 cash machines across. Today it has more than 7.5 million personal customers and 850,000 small business accounts -Wikipedia

With over 1,600 branches across Great Britain, NatWest has provided a useful tool on its website to allow its customers find their nearest branch. http://www.natwest.com/tools/personal/branch_locator/step1.asp
A user simply needs to enter a street name, a town, or the postcode to get the nearest NatWest branch to that location.

The result of the search shows up in the form of a map, showing the location of several branches nearest to the street name or Postcode entered. Comparing this innovative way of providing information by NatWest by UBA will show UBA’s attempt to provide useful information as a joke.

Although it has more branches and customers than UBA, NatWest provides enough information on its website to assist its customers find their nearest breach. This is what true greatness stands for. No wonder NatWest says it provides "Helping Banking" for its customers. Can UBA say it does the same at least from its website?

UBA could argue that perhaps there are no map experts in Nigeria to implement this type of map-based branch locator, but I am here to prove them wrong.
My website – http://www.lagoslocation.com/ contains the location of over 80 UBA branches in Lagos alone. Each branch can be searched for and be displayed on an interactive street map of Lagos.
Users can also generate accurate street-by-street direction from any street in Lagos to any of these 80 UBA branches alone.

I tried searching for UBA branch at Ikosi Rd, Ketu that was conspicuously missing from UBA website and I found it! click here to check it out

My Proposition to UBA Plc
UBA PLC should go beyond the use of beautiful colors and animation on its website and provide more useful information to their customers. Just like NatWest PLC engaged the services of a professional company to implement their map-based branch locator, I hereby offer to assist UBA PLC implement this map-based branch locator on its website FREE of charge. What do I gain from this?
It makes me very happy to see a Nigerian Bank providing contextual information to its customers on its website in an accurate and consistent manner. I can be reached on ireti.ajala@lagoslocation.com

Mr Bigg's new outlet coverage map

2010-05-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

Mr Biggs seemed to have discovered the importance of location advantage. Following an article i wrote sometime ago, i was happy to to discover that Mr Bigg's website now has what looks like a map-based outlet locator.
I clicked on the "Locations" link on the homepage and a new window opens up with the map of Nigeria. This map gives the general idea of Mr Bigg's outlet coverage across the country per state.

This is wonderful and very innovative. By this token, Mr Bigg's had taken a giant leap to assist its visitors to its website search for information in a consistent and efficient manner.

Although this is a huge improvement over the old obsolete tabular format, a lot still needs to be done to make this map-based functionality useful to visitors to Mr Bigg's website.

The map is not legible enough. A user needs to try hard to read the state and city name. e.g. how many people can see where Ibadan is on the map?
The cartographic rendition of the map is a joke.
Clicking on the map is suppose to open a pop-up window with more detailed information, however this window opens up with an error message "The web page cannot be found"
The location search by state on the left is not working either. Mr Bigg's therefore needs to inform its webmaster to do something about this.
This map is still not providing much useful information to users. Who cares how many States of the federation Mr Bigg's had covered? Can a user search for a street in Nigeria and see the nearest Mr Bigg's outlet to that street?

This is a good attempt by Mr Bigg's to provide contextual and relevant information on its website to its new and old customers in a consistent and efficient manner.

When compared with professional Lagos map-based business search portals like http://www.lagoslocation.com/ this new map on Mr Bigg's website looks more like a decoration.

My Proposition to Mr Bigg's
I hereby offer to assist Mr Bigg's improve this map-based functionality FREE of charge. I can design and implement a solution for Mr Bigg's such that a user can search for ANY of its outlets down to street level and even get driving direction from/to any outlet. This will effectively make it the first restaurant chain in Nigeria to use the compelling visual power of geography to provide relevant information to its customers.
If this idea interest a decision maker in UAC Foods, i can be reached on ireti.ajala@lagoslocation.com

Zain Nigeria Selected Spatial Technologies Ltd to implement GIS based Solution for Festivals GSM Coverage Planning Project

2010-04-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

Zain Selected STL
Zain Nigeria has chosen Spatial Technologies Ltd as the key GIS-based solution provider for special festivals GSM Network coverage project. This solution, with its geographic focus across Nigeria tracks annual and special festivals and other socio-economic impact.

Annual Festivals And Events in Nigeria
Annual festivals like the Lisabi Day of Abeokuta, the Osun Oshogbo festival, the Sokoto annual horse race event, the Okpe Orime festival of Delta State, the Abuja Carnival, The Eyo Festival of Lagos, the Calabar Carnival, etc, are generally known as huge crowd attractions, pulling huge crowds from different parts of Nigeria and sometimes outside the country.

Crowd and GSM Network Issues

Thousands of GSM subscribers converging at a single venue like the Osun Oshogbo festival could be a potential network disaster if not well managed. This is because the demand for GSM network resource during this short period could be astronomical and if this demand is not met instantly, it could result in huge network failure like congestion, extreme difficulty at making or receiving calls successfully, etc

Zain Nigeria usually use special Base Trans-receiving Station (BTS) on wheel popularly called “Mobile BTS” to boost the temporary network resource demand for such events. A mobile BTS is a special BTS mounted on wheels and usually taken to an area to provide temporary GSM coverage. By deploying Mobile BTS, Zain is providing effective coverage for the duration of the festivals.

Planning temporary coverage for these festivals is a serious task as it demands extensive technical and logistics resource planning. In the past Zain maintained a tabular spreadsheet of these festivals, however it was decided that tracking them in a GIS environment would provide a dramatic improvement over the traditional technique and further empower Zain to plan for these festivals in a consistent and efficient manner

GIS Soution Proposed And Implemented

STL was contracted to create a GIS-base solution that will include a database of over 120 festivals and special events across Nigeria which would be required to plan coverage for the festivals. This project involved extensive GPS mapping across several cities and villages in Nigeria. Relevant attribution table was developed and the digital pictures of the festival venues were hotlinked using MapInfo Professional to provide contextual relevance.

STL’s expertise was evident from the speed and accuracy of data gathering which resulted in meeting the 1month project delivery deadline.
According to Ireti Ajala, (CEO of STL), “We are delighted at the prospect of partnering with a world class mobile telecom company like Zain Nigeria in using the compelling visual power of GIS to plan GSM coverage for these festivals. We were selected for this project on the strength of our experience at delivering projects of such magnitude and complexity”.

Emmanuel Ihekwereme –STL Project Manager says: “We were indeed excited to have been selected by Zain from the list of other GIS solution providers in Nigeria. The project was implemented using the principles of PRINCE2 (Projects in Controlled Environment). Zain received weekly progress reports to advice on the status of the project. This was quite useful in managing the expectation of our client.”

ABOUT STL

STL is Nigeria’s foremost mapping and GIS consulting company with offices in Lagos and UK. We specialize in developing geospatial databases and solutions about Nigeria for the Nigerian market. STL has extensive experience in collecting and processing data from geographic information sources as digitized maps, satellite imageries and aerial data. STL is the proud recipient of the prestigious RIMA Foundation Award for the best GIS solution provider in Nigeria.

Some of its clients include UBA PLC, Greenwich Consulting of France, iPNX, G4S Tracking, Galaxy Wireless Communication Ltd, Powerlink Ltd, TouchPoint Ltd, ARCUS GIBB of South Africa, ITSM of Israel, etc.
STL is the owner of http://www.mapntl.com/ and http://www.lagoslocation.com/ Nigeria’s first and most extensive online location-base portals providing important services such as online street finder for Lagos, business location finder, map-based Real Estate search and online driving direction.

For more details contact:
Spatial Technologies Ltd
Phone: 01-8533497 (Lagos), +447982996752 (UK)
Email: info@spatialtechnologiesltd.com
Website: http://www.spatialtechnologiesltd.com/

ABOUT ZAIN GROUP
Zain is a leading emerging markets player in the field of telecommunications aiming to become one of the top ten mobile operators in the world by 2011. Today it is the 4th largest mobile network in the world in terms of geographical footprint with commercial presence in 24 countries spread across the Middle East and Africa providing mobile voice and data services to 64.7 million active customers as at 31 March 2009.
Zain operates in the following countries: Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia

2010-04-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

Lagos Real Estate Search and Geography

Have you noticed that almost 60% of decisions you make when renting or buying a new home in Lagos is underpinned by geography? Just stop and consider some of them: a new home buyer wants to know how far the new property is to his/her place of work, how far is it to the children's schools? Where is the nearest market, ATM, bank, etc? Where is this...? Where is that...?

A Property search with a difference

Lagoslocation.com is Nigeria’s first online location-based real estate portal that allows a user to do a property search in Lagos and get to see the location on an interactive street map.

A search can be done by suburb e.g. Ikeja GRA, or by cost, etc The result shows a specialised page with all the property details including the agent marketing the property, contextual pictures and most importantly a link to the property location on an interactive street map of Lagos.

The Location Advantage
Portals like http://www.ip4properties.com/, www.nigeriapropertiesonline.com/ , http://www.lagos-nigeria-real-estate-advisor.com/ have been around longer and they look really impressive, however http://www.lagoslocation/ is the only real estate search engine in Nigeria incorporating the visual power of map or geography.

Users can see the location of properties on an online interactive map portal. They can generate street-by-street driving direction right from their own street to where the property is located and evaluate the drive distance. They can also see the nearest market, hotel, restauarant, bank, schools, hospitals, etc to the property. Users can print out or send property search results as links in emails to their friends or customers.

Empowering Estate Agents in Lagos

Estate Agents can register and post their properties with ease. Lagoslocation.com opens up to estate agents in Lagos an exciting world to advertise their properties in Lagos in a consistent and efficient manner using the compelling power of geography.

Within 1month of launch, over 20 thousands users mainly from Lagos used this property search engine. Over 3,500 property searches where printed within the first 10days in April 2010. Estate agents can therefore take up this opportunity to embed their adverts or logos on every paper print out containing results of search queries thereby reaching out to more potential customers in Lagos.

Website Summary

Website address: www.lagoslocation.com/properties/index.php

Website owner: Spatial Technologies Ltd http://www.spatialtechnologiesltd.com/

Target: Real Estate Agents, buyers and general public

Contact: info@lagoslocation.com or 01-8533497

Restaurant Outlet Locator -Mr Biggs Versus McDonalds

2010-01-08T23:42:00.000-08:00

Have you really asked yourself if your website provides enough information to your customers to guide them to your office or outlet? Some banks and restaurants simply have a tabular details of their branches with scanty information

Mr Biggs'Outlet Locator
Mr Bigg's has over 200 restaurants scattered across Nigeria. Click here to see Mr Bigg's Outlet locator. The presumption here is that everyone in Nigeria knows where each outlet is located. No single phone number was listed to contact each of the outlets. No direction is given to any of the outlets, perhaps none is needed!

The Akute Alagbole Syndrome!
One of the locations carried "AKUTE-IFO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, ALAGBOLE" as its address (see the record circled red below).

Is Alagbole a street or what? Can anyone in UAC Foods use that information to find Mr Biggs outlet in Alagbole?

McDonald's outlet locator
Compare this with McDonald's outlet locator here
It is very easy to use McDonald's outlet locator. All a user simply does is to enter his/her street or Postcode and search. An interactive street map of the area is displayed with the nearest McDonald's outlets clearly marked on an interactive street map of UK.

Clicking on any of the icons reveals the address and the contact phone number of that particular outlet.

By this token, McDonald's wants you to feel that no matter where you live in the UK, you can ALWAYS find the nearest outlet right from their website. What a fantastic way of achieving that objective.

What makes McDonald's Website more informative than Mr Bigg's Website?
McDonald's is not just a great brand simply because of the architectural design of its outlets or the size of its Double Cheeseburger. This greatness is evident even in seemingly inconsequential things like the quality of information provided on its website. Mr Bigg's could be the largest restaurant chain in Nigeria, but that greatness is yet to reflect on the contextual relevance of information provided about its outlets on its website. A website should provide the right information in the right format.

Yes Mr Bigg's has provided an outlet locator on its website to fulfil all righteousness, but hey if you are going to act on that scanty information, good luck to you because Mr Bigg's is saying indirectly that it your responsibility to get to their nearest outlet.

What Mr Bigg's can learn from LagosLocation.com
MapNTL.com and LagosLocation.com are location-based portals developed by Nigerians for Nigerians. Each portal contains the location map of over 55 Mr Biggs' outlets across Lagos mapped down to street level in addition to over 50,000 othe rbusiness locations across Lagos. Each location is searchable on an interactive map of Lagos. For those who do not know how to get to a particular outlet, LagosLocation.com like McDonald's map based outlet locator provides driving direction capabilty to just about any location within Lagos.

Click here to see the location of Mr Biggs outlet at Masha -Surulere

Each Mr Bigg's outlet location map on LagosLocation.com also has an integrated location picture to provide contextual relevance and improve the user experience
So, does it really matter?
Some people could take the usual escape route saying "Ore mi Londoner, Nija lo wa yi oo" meaning, my friend from London, you are now in Nigeria. This has always been the response of those who think that what works in UK will never work in Nigeria. But really to such people, websites like MapNTL.com and LagosLocation.com are eloquent testimonies that yes online interactive map in the context of business integration in Nigeria is really possible.

What Nigerian Companies can learn from McDonald's website
The era of depending on okada to know everywhere in Lagos (even places where they have never been before) is fast melting into oblivion. With over 15million Internet users in Nigeria, people now go online to get information. Companies who spend fortunes designing their websites with premium on attractive pictures and graphics and no location advantage should learn from McDonald's -true great brands WILL provide information on their websites to help their customers arrive safely at their doorsteps not simply using Akute Alagbole area syndrome!

So what do you think?

Business Finder in Lagos With the Location Advantage

2009-09-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

Have you ever found yourself in a strange situation where you are desperately looking for direction to a street or a particular shop in Lagos?
Do you own a business in Lagos? Have you really asked yourself, how easy it is for your prospective customers to find your business Location in Lagos? So, does it really matter if your customers find it easy to get to your reception or not?

Does your Business have the Location Advantage?
In the past, shoppers looking for businesses near their home or work in Lagos typically asked their friends, colleagues or neighbours.
With over 10million internet users in Nigeria and more people getting connected everyday, many in Lagos now head directly to their computers and go online instead to search for business information and directions to business location.
Searching around for a business in the blazing heat of Lagos is not fun. Consumers in Lagos now expect to be able to find their nearest Bank, Hotel, Restaurants, ATMs, Hospitals, etc quickly and easily hence the proliferation of online business search websites. The internet has given consumers in Nigeria more power than ever before.

Where is your Business in Lagos?

MapNTL.com’s Business finder service enables customers in Lagos to search by Business name and to refine searches based on the area where the business is located in Lagos. MapNTL.com’s business database contains the location of over 50,000 businesses within Lagos metropolis and outskirts such as Ikorodu, Ikotun, Ipaja, Abule Ega, Akute and Alagbado.

Features of MapNTL.com:

Users can search and find the location of over 50,000 Businesses in Lagos
Mapvertised businesses are shown on the map using their corporate logos making it very easy for prospective customers to connect with their locations
Users can Zoom in and Out and see street names and other details
Clicking on any business will reveal localised information such as address, business opening hours, a description of products and services, contact phone number and email in case a customer wishes to order by phone
links to maps generated can be embeded into users' websites under the "How to find Us" link