Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts

8 April 2017

Hafiz Adewuyi

Buy good quality t-shirts online in Lagos/Nigeria at the right price

TL;DR: Just click here to go to Fasho online t-shirt store and order your #slay t-shirt right away.

"Not every time scold a business in your articles Hafiz. Sometimes, be nice please and commend someone"
 - Anoymous

Well. Since I already rank well for suits in Nigeria, I might as well aim to do the same for t-shirts. So, here we go.

At least, five times within the past six months, I've approached Google with the sole intention of finding a good place to buy t-shirts online. More or less, an e-commerce store that focuses solely on t-shirts. T-shirts are my choice piece of clothing because they're easy to wear, easy to clean and generally need no ironing #lowMaintenance. And I want to show off my lack of a pot belly. Yes, online stores like Jumia and Konga sell t-shirts and everything else on the surface of this satanic earth. But I found that the price of t-shirts on those platforms can be quite varied and are generally on the high side.


#Slaying ðŸ˜ŽðŸ˜ŽðŸ˜Ž in my Fasho t-shirt at the Geeks and Grills meetup in Lagos #geeksAndGrills

Each of the times I tried, my Google search generally came back void. The closest I found to a niche t-shirt store in Nigeria was T-shirt factory. I was excited when I saw the name but on visiting the website, I found out that they only do custom t-shirts in bulk. T-shirt factory was definitely not the e-commerce store I was looking for.

Early this March was when I happened upon Fasho t-shirt store. They'd been mentioned in the daily Techcabal newsletter which I read almost every day. As soon as I saw it, I rushed off to check the website out. Let me just cut to the chase, I was impressed. Modern, simple and intuitive UI.

The first and only thing you can do on the site's homepage is to select your t-shirt size: Small (S), Medium (M), Large (L) or Extra Large (XL). As soon as you make a choice from the drop-down list of sizes, the site loads up what I would describe as an endless array of t-shirts. T-shirts of different colours, different designs and different styles, with the price of the shirts ranging between 2500 and 3000 Naira.

After a few minutes of scrolling down as far as I could through the photo grid of t-shirts, I finally made two picks, entered my delivery details and opted for POD (pay-on-delivery). Interestingly, delivery fee was 500 Naira only. One thing that often dissuades me from shopping online is the delivery fee which is sometimes quite exploitative. If you buy three different items on Konga, more often than not, you would pay three different delivery charges. The minimum delivery charge per item being 500 Naira and it could be higher depending on what it is you're buying. Well, I understand it's because Konga is only a middleman in such transactions, but then, I don't care. Of course, I chose POD because I didn't want to be stuck in case the shirts did not meet my expectations; quality and fit wise.

I think the same day or so, I got a call from the founder (Rotimi) who had posted about his t-shirt store on Techcabal's Radar. He was calling to confirm that the order was real and I assured him that I wasn't just playing around. The price of my order of 2 t-shirts was 5900 Naira, inclusive of delivery.

My order arrived at my office a couple of days later. I got the chance to try out the t-shirts in front of the restroom mirror while the delivery man waited. It turned out that both shirts fit just right, which was like a first for t-shirts I ordered online. I quickly returned to the delivery man to make my payment so he could carry on with his day. "Today is the last time I would wear a BYC t-shirt as a regular t-shirt from a lack of t-shirts to go around every day of the week", I thought to myself. I always remember the day (a few months back) that I was mocked by my colleagues for wearing a BYC shirt to work.


Affordable online t-shirts from Fasho t-shirts store in Nigeria
My t-shirts from Fasho. No paint-brushing.

I think what Fasho online t-shirt store gets right are as follows:
  • Great user experience in that the website is clutter-free and shows you only what you need to see by default. That stems from the fact that Fasho is a niche fashion store, focused on t-shirts as opposed to fashion in general. Also, the fact that the first thing you're asked to do on the site homepage is select your size means that you won't see any t-shirts which are not your size. Cool right?
  • Right pricing for decent quality t-shirts
  • Also, you can return shirts which do not fit you properly and get a full refund
  • I actually just discovered a killer point which makes all of the sense in the world. See this line from their about page: "Tees on our site are usually available in only one piece and in only one size. But we do have a big collection, so we are sure you'll find something you like". So, I just went to check the store now and true to that claim, this shirt and this shirt which I bought are marked "Sold Out". I like that because it means that the chance that I'll run into another bro with the same shirt in Lagos is tiny.

There you have it. If you hate the hustle of fashion shopping in the Lagos Island markets: Eko Idumota, Balogun market and CMS or even Yaba market, you should definitely try this out. A few days after I received my t-shirts, Rotimi called for feedback on my order. Needless to day, my feedback was positive. I also told him how much I'd love to patronise a niche store which carries other casual clothes like shorts and jeans at the right price, just like his t-shirt store. He told me his warehouse is in Lagos island and that for now, they only deal in t-shirts but are looking at dabbling into other areas in the near future.

I can't wait till they do because if I had my way, I would never step foot in any Lagos market again. The traders waste your time, are out to cheat you, leave you completely knackered and in the end, you find out that your choices were not necessarily the best and unfortunately, there is no option for return. Honestly, Fasho online t-shirt store's win over the traditional offline method of shopping for tees is just too obvious.

P.S.




Hey. Even though my reasons for writing this piece are mostly altruistic, it won't hurt if when you decide to try out Fasho, you use the links in this article (http://rwrd.io/xwb555g). If you do, I will get a free t-shirt for your first order. Let's make it a win-win :). #willBlogForTShirts
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2 February 2017

Hafiz Adewuyi

USSD Assistant (Nigeria) App Review

If there is one Nigerian application which I've downloaded this year and I think deserves to make the builder some good returns, then it would be the USSD Assistant app on the Android Play store.

HOW DID I FIND IT?

At lunch time yesterday, I had just downed my hefty meal of rice, beans, meat, plantain and chicken and it was time to pay up. For the past couple of weeks, I've been using mCash (NIBSS' new USSD payment product which is meant to serve as an alternative to POS and targeted at micro business owners)  to pay for lunch at the office canteen. The bank where I work happens to be one of the front-runners of the new payment scheme. So in order to put their money where their mouth is, the internal product managers got all the food vendors at the company canteen to set up merchant codes on NIBSS mCash.

As I picked up my phone to pay with mCash, I winced mentally as I remembered the length of the short code which I had to type to make a simple payment. Not only that, I also had to turn in my seat and squint at the poster on the wall to get the 7-digit merchant code. The format of the shortcode is: *402*Merchant-Code*Amount#. In yesterday's case, the code I was to dial was *402*77000567*800#. At this point, it occurred to me to check my Android Play store for an application where I could store my frequently used USSD codes. I was sure this is a problem that a reasonable amount of Nigerians face, given the recent proliferation of USSD applications in the country's financial industry.

I opened the Play store and searched for "USSD code Nigeria". The first six results were non-Nigerian applications and from the names, none of the results seemed to be what I was looking for. However, upon scrolling down a little, I found what turned out to be the perfect match for my problem. The name of the app "USSD Assistant (Nigeria)" invited me to click it and take a closer look into what it has on offer. As I finished reading the app details, a smile of contentment appeared on my face. This was exactly what I was looking for!

On the one hand, I was glad that a solution actually existed for my current problem. However, I  was not so happy that my hopes to launch my Android development practice with this idea were now laid to rest. Now, I have to look elsewhere for a real problem that is best solved with an Android app.

I went ahead to download and install the app and after exploring it for a few minutes, I was so impressed that I gave the app a rating of 4 out of 5 on the app store.


USSD assistant Nigeria Android Play store review
My Android Play store review of the USSD assistant Nigeria application

USSD ASSISTANT (NIGERIA) POSITIVES

  • auto-detects your device MSISDN and network
  • comes preloaded with the most useful USSD codes on your mobile network (airtime recharge, airtime balance, airtime transfer and so on)
  • comes preloaded with the USSD recharge code of all the Nigerian banks with USSD banking

USSD Assistant (Nigeria) Android app homepage
USSD Assistant (Nigeria) Android app homepage

  • allows you add, edit and categorize as many (named) USSD codes as you want
  • has a simple UI; except for the network website home page which I consider unnecessary. Perhaps, it's just that I'm not in the target demographic for this pesky feature

USSD ASSISTANT (NIGERIA) IMPROVABLE AREAS

  • should allow you specify placeholders in your USSD short code. This would improve the flexibility of the app. Currently, if tomorrow, I want to pay a different amount than I did on mCash yesterday, I would need to create a completely different code
  • should remove the constantly displayed ad on the homepage of the application (who am I kidding). Meanwhile, is Jiji.ng the only Nigerian organization advertising with Google Adwords these days? They are all over the videos on YouTube and now, here they are all over this application
  • should come preloaded with other useful default menus like bank transfer which will contain the USSD funds transfer codes of Nigerian banks

CONCLUSION

However useful it might be, the USSD assistant Nigeria app happens to have less than 100 downloads. As of today, it has been on the store for over three months. On noticing this, I remembered a post I read on Radar's Techcabal that through analysis, explained how difficult it is to make a mobile app which solves a problem local to Nigeria, commercially viable. I also noticed that the only other review on the app before I wrote mine today was from the developer's relative (they share a last name).

In any case, i think it's great that the developer took the effort to solve that problem. In the worst case, he would not earn any money from it but he would always be able to point to it as an item in his portfolio and use it to get rewarding opportunities in the future. In the best case, he would get sponsorship or investment from a company or organisation interested in the success of this tool. Win-win if you ask me. I want to be like Azeez Olaniran (the developer of the USSD assistant Nigeria Android app).
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5 January 2017

Hafiz Adewuyi

Get your vehicle papers renewed online in Lagos

"Hello Hafiz, I'm not back to the office because I was arrested by VIO officials for driving around with an expired road-worthiness certificate. I am currently at the VIO office sorting things out". That was how the Whatsapp message from my colleague read. He sent it after he had been away from the office for almost three consecutive business hours. I felt great pity for him because of his plight but then, I was powerless to do any more than that. In local parlance, that would have been a right situation to say "the guy don enter am".

He later returned to the office over four hours after he left the office for what was supposed to be a short self-errand. You could definitely see it written all over him that he had had a terrible terrible day. Turns out he had to pay a fine of 20000 Naira for driving around without complete vehicle papers. On top of that, he had to pay the fee to get the expired paper - which was three months overdue - renewed. 

As soon as I was done empathising with him, I went on a mission to ensure I didn't end up in his shoes in a few months time when my own papers would be expiring. My vehicle was less than a year old at the time, so I had no experience whatsoever with these things. After discussing with him and another colleague and doing my research online, I arrived at the fact that the papers - for a private car - that need to be renewed on an annual basis are as follows:
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18 April 2015

Hafiz Adewuyi

Amazing Easter Road trip to Ghana via Dealdey (April 2015) - Negative review

Towai! That's the Nigerian pidgin transcription of the bloody hot slap that landed on Paul's face on the second day of hell. The offender was a co-travelling lady who was fed up of the bullshit Paul and his organizing team members had fed us, non-stop, for the past thirty hours.

It's almost midnight and I've got to rush on this article. My aim is to highlight why this deal from Dealdey, is like, the most surprisingly tacky organization I've ever been a victim of. Yes, victim, because that's what I and the other 50+ passengers of the road trip feel like. In that light, I'll make it very simple. I will make a list of all the deal highlights (promises) and indicate the degree to which each one was fulfilled (TL;DR: Promise fulfillment ratio was less than 10 percent).
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10 April 2015

Hafiz Adewuyi

Kabukabu works - App review

It was a bit of a surprise for me, to have the cab driver call me thirty minutes before scheduled pickup time. He had called to tell me that he was in my street already. I asked him to park somewhere closer to my house, while I hurriedly put my belongings together for transportation.

Now, I've had more than my own fair share of services and goods  accessed through an online interface. However, never before had I considered booking a cab online. Reason is, I strongly believed that online cab booking would always prove more expensive than going the traditional way of flagging one down. A download of Uber and a couple of experiments had helped cement this opinion.

I had come across Kabukabu in the most serendipitous way just last week; I wasn't looking and couldn't even guess that I'd be needing the service a few days down the line. The idea had caught my attention, because it's one I had pondered on several times before. The simplest way to describe the service would be: "help people share a cab, so the fare is cheaper for everyone". So, you can call it a cab sharing service. On another note, it also allows interested car owners, who won't mind sharing a ride to offer a ride to pedestrians traveling in their route.

I'd suggest that they make rider (taxi driver or car owner) registration available over the web, as currently, the only way to do that is by placing a call to the company.

My entire experience using Kabukabu Nigeria in Lagos, just last Tuesday was nothing short of amazing. I'd admit, part of the reason is that I was skeptical of the service and not really expecting it to work.

Kabukabu was awesome on the following notes:

+ The feedback time, after I filled the route form was short (within an hour).

+ The lady, who called to confirm my booking was courteous and helpful.

+ The fare was alarmingly cheap: 2500 naira from Yaba to Iyana Ipaja (and I was the only passenger). Hailing a cab traditionally for this trip would have cost me no less than 4000 naira, considering the amount of luggage I was carrying along.

+ The taxi driver besides arriving well ahead of time, was very friendly and helpful. He helped to load and offload my luggage into and from the vehicle respectively.

+ The cab was air conditioned, and in huge contrast with the traditional yellow taxi, smelled nice.

Need I say more? The taxi service provided by Kabukabu is indeed one to try. I only pray that as their popularity and demand increases, that they are able to maintain the service at this current or even a higher standard.

Kudos, Kabukabu Nigeria. Try them out at www.Kabukabu.com.ng to save some good bucks on your next taxi ride.
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