TO UNDERSTAND THE impact of Nigeria’s hopeless infrastructure on its businesses, look at Gloo.ng, a fast-growing startup that has already become the country’s largest online supermarket. In a crowded office young programmers huddle around MacBook computers, designing the website and intelligent-mapping systems that look for the most efficient routes to guide delivery vehicles through the perpetual gridlock which Nigerians call “go-slows”. Its slick website is hosted in the “cloud”, the massive international data centres run by internet behemoths such as Amazon and Microsoft. Yet at the back of this cutting-edge office sits a pile of fuel cans to keep delivery vans on the road during the regular shortages. And near the front is a sparkling white generator, neatly branded with Gloo’s logo, chugging away to keep the lights and the computers going. “This is my primary source of power,” says the firm’s founder, Olumide Olysanya, adding only half in jest: “The grid is my backup.”
Nigeria ought to be able to generate about 5.5 MW of electricity, but because of breakdowns, gas shortages and decrepit transmission lines, it struggles to churn out more than...
from The Economist: Special report http://ift.tt/1H14YVo
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