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Daniel Godwin studied Actuary Science at the University of Lagos but he is more at home with app development. A few years back, he developed Noxiae, a hotel booking platform. He recently developed another app, Virtual Media Africa, which is meant to help entertainers earn money through virtual events. The 29-year-old, who is currently running a master’sprogramme in the United Kingdom, speaks on the app and other related issues with SULAIMON OLANREWAJU. Excerpts.
What is the motivation for developing the app?
I believe that ideas come to individuals not for the fun of it but to make changes about the problems that not only affect your close society but often times, the world. Over the years I have worked on different projects majorly aimed at making societal improvements and my truest motivation has been the same from Day 1. How do I make Nigeria better? How do I contribute and be part of the rebuilding process in an era of data and technology? I think in all the darkest times where I spent myself in solitude meditating on the right ways to make this product great and this is true because every building process has its dark moments where you are alone and you question everything constructively to make sure you have no stones left unturned. When I searched myself at those times as to why and what really motivated me to develop this app, My only answer is that- to make this country better, to create an income stream for entertainers in an era where quality education has become a luxury, people with talent can get paid in their own virtual online offices showing everything that is great about them.
What problem does it solve?
Virtual Media Africa addresses a lot of problems, we are just barely surviving from Covid-19 era where entertainers could not earn income from mass gathering events due to social distancing measures and restrictions. It is becoming more obvious that the world is changing and the meta verse has become an alternate space where the world can still go on while the problems in our physical society is being addressed and solved. We cannot have the incomes of Nigerian entertainers paused, if such a thing happens again and we cannot even wait for it to happen again, instead we can start to introduce a solution that they can be familiarised with. This solution which we call VMA is an app that lets musicians, comedians and all entertainers stream their paid content virtually and even with the option of virtual reality headsets, they can host concerts where people around the world can attend from the comfort of their living rooms.
How does it help entertainers and event planners?
The VMA app gives entertainers the ability to have and own their online offices and get paid for their content from around the world. It limits the costs of travelling, event centre bookings, crowd management planning to prevent crisis and all the necessary steps involved in holding a proper event or festival. These entertainers and event planners can host their events in the meta verse, from the comfort of their living rooms, eradicating a lot of costs, expanding their fan base across the world and most importantly earn money through the aid of our imbedded paid plug-ins on the app.
What is the ease of its deployment?
To facilitate ease of deployment, A smart phone is literally all you need to download the App as a content creator and be able to stream your content on our network and for a viewer, a smart phone is needed to watch the content or a virtual reality headset to have the full immersion experience. It is really exciting and more exciting that we could have an easy payment arrangement with Flutterwave to aid the income payments to entertainers.
One of the challenges of app development is the ease of duplication. Can this be easily duplicated?
Generally, I think idea duplication is a common phenomenon in the innovative business world but what really could set you apart is your vision. People can only imitate you to a certain level and not all the way if they do not understand your final destination, purpose or aims. What we are set to launch is a piece of a huge ice cake idea that we had to break down to the barest minimum just to introduce the world to our dream. The rest of the whole journey is huge and the versions we would release over the years is something that keeps me not bothered about being imitated, just because I know where we are headed.
How does Nigerian government make revenue from this?
We believe that in our mission, we aren’t just empowering all entertainers but all youths with dreams and once the possibility to earn is established, we have an increased population with purchasing power and that generally improves the overall economy in all manners of things. Alternatively, a functioning company that we strive to be is also liable to taxes to the Nigerian government where applicable.
What prepared you for the task of app development?
Over the years, from 2017 when I launched the Noxiae hotel reviews in Nigeria which till date visits Nigerian hotels and apartments, rates them and recommends them to incoming tourists. It operates and functions greatly on its website platform solely. Then in 2021, I launched the Noxiaevr, which we had been experimenting on since 2020 because of Covid-19. I was thinking well if people cannot travel to Nigeria at the moment, how can we create an alternate feel and experience for them that looks like they are currently here? While I was working on Noxiae virtual reality, I understood that not only did this problem affect tourism and hospitality but also entertainment in general.
The world is changing and the quest for more knowledge sent me for my Masters in International Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management in England. I could grasp the changes in modern tourism measures due to the Covid-19 crises and have an in-depth analysis into creating an app for virtual events and how to manage it. I would say the knowledge, experience, growth and studies I have made over the years, properly prepared me for the creation and Launch of VMA in 2022.
What is the future of app development?
Generally, I can hypothetically see the future of software applications in virtual and augmented reality spaces. I think this is where the shift is going to. We live in an era where companies aim to reduce labour costs through the introductions of machines and artificial intelligence devices.
In the meta-verse, people can actually go through trainings without actually being there, people can visit places around the world without actually getting on a plane and this comfort will create more demands. These demands will affect the creations of the next generation mobile apps which will be created to solve problems as usual.
How do you think the government can encourage young people who are into ICT?
Sincerely, I think reliable and affordable internet is a problem in Nigeria and should be something that should be priority in the government yearly budgets at this stage. Its alarming that they do not even consider it even with kids left at home uneducated due to the strike actions, a lot of education and skills can be added to their lives just with accessible and reliable internet. Primarily for everyone into ICT in Nigeria, no great dream can be easily achieved with the high prices of internet bundles in terms of costs. I am aware some progress has been made over the years but a lot more can still be done. The government really needs to address the foundations of our tech sector which is the accessibility to internet and the affordability of it.
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