Category: For Ghanaians

Comfortability in our homes becomes one of the main reasons why we need smart devices. Everything in this world has been made smart to simplify things, so why can’t our homes also have devices that can make things simpler?

Well, we think of the cost of these smart devices most Ghanaians are going to get discouraged as to even think of ever using these devices, the internet data consumption that’s going to be required and the average Ghanaian man’s fear of the smart technology not going to perform very well to its functions is what hinders many Ghanaians from buying smart home devices. Let’s talk about smart home devices. 

Google defines smart devices as electronic devices, generally connected to other devices or networks via different wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, NFC, Wi-Fi, LiFi, 5G, etc., that can operate to some extent interactively and autonomously. Smart home devices are connected to our phones or other devices via wireless protocols to make things easier in our homes.

Most Ghanaian major technology shops sell very cheap and affordable smart home devices that the average Ghanaian can buy and manage at home without any problems. Below, I’ll be discussing some of these cheap smart home devices that every Ghanaian can try in their homes.

Smart doorbell

A smart doorbell has been made things easier and safer in our homes. A smart doorbell doesn’t just call the owner’s attention; with the smart doorbell, you get to see who’s “knocking” and decide whether to let them in or not. Some even offer motion detection and facial recognition for robust security.

Back in the years when we were kids, we used to ring strangers doorbells to see how they’ll respond to it because we were fascinated by it.

Well, with these smart doorbells, it gives you a modern and different kind of fascination. It’s been designed like “Siri” in iPhones which can announce callers and their names. 

Surveillance cameras

Security Is very important in your homes. But you can’t see or be everywhere in your house at the same time to ensure security, but you can be able to see every part of the house you want to see with surveillance cameras.

With a few surveillance cameras in your home at the right spots you want to see, you’re assured of visibility in and around your home, which goes a long way to bump your home security up.

Some of the best surveillance cameras. You can configure the security cameras in your house so you can view everything on your phone too. 

Smart door lock

It makes life very easy, not because you’re lazy but because you can. What’s the use of coming from upstairs to open the door for your wife or kids downstairs when you can open it for them on your phone.

Also, in this covid-19 period, imagine you order something online, and a delivery guy brings it. You can open the door for him to place it down in your room without any physical touch.

Some of the best smart door locks connect to some of the best virtual assistants like Google Assistant and Siri. 

Android TV box

An Android TV box is simply a TV box running the Android operating system. This is the same operating system as running on your smartphone, tablet, and millions of other devices throughout the world.

But pretty much all of the apps you can run on your Android smartphone, you can run on your Android TV box.

The TV box is a device that gets content from your home network or the Internet to your television. It makes everything easier. You can even project your phone to your TV screen. 

Philips Hue smart bulb

It’s one of the smartest bulbs in the world. Once you have the Hue Bridge, you’ll be able to add single Philips Hue Bulbs to different areas of your home.

Some Philips Hue bulbs also work via Bluetooth, so while the Hue Bridge is not required, you’ll need it to unlock all of the smart features available with Hue lights.

Philips Hue bulbs are available in white or color and can be found in standard light bulb sizes, vintage-style light, or smaller E12 sizes.

Conclusion

These smart home devices are very easy to buy in any smart device shop around your city. Vodafone offices in offer very generous prices for these devices around their shops in Accra. Here is a list of companies that sell cheap and affordable smart home devices in ghana. Kings reality Ltd, Osu, and Elite audio, Video Automation, Kumasi. 

If you have intentions of your data being hacked by cyber fraudsters and hackers, then by any means, use the same password for multiple websites. This is it leaves your device vulnerable and prone to hackers. I’ll be explaining why having more than one password is a cybersecurity benefit.

It limits breaches to multiple accounts

Reusing the same password, you use for your PayPal account for your Facebook account puts you at risk of your PayPal being hacked if your Facebook is hacked. You might ask how hackers will know that I’ve got the same password for both accounts.

They won’t, but they’re going to guess so far as they know the password for one of the accounts. They’re going to try and error with your other accounts with the details they have till they gain access to as many as possible vulnerable accounts.

This is one of the worst ideas one can ever have, using the same password for multiple accounts. Even laziness should never make you do that because it causes grave consequences.

It can cost you a very sensitive account

Sensitive accounts like your email accounts, bank accounts, and social media business pages.

Maybe you’ve not thought of the consequences of losing such accounts to cybercriminals, but you should know that once they gain access to the account, they can perform whatever function you used to perform on it. A recent bulk password reset by WordPress tells us the story.

Early in September 2014, crooks uploaded nearly 5,000,000 Gmail account names and passwords to a Russian Bitcoin forum.

There hadn’t been a huge security failure at Google. In the same way, many women’s iCloud is hacked, and nude photos are either leaked or used to blackmail them.

Women love to explore their body as they call them. They take nude photos of themselves, sometimes send them to their partners, or keep them in their storage. There are different types of hackers.

There are ones who hack into your system for monetary purposes only and nothing else, and some who’re perverts so hack into women, especially famous women’s accounts, purposely to invade their privacy for nude photos of them.

Risk of being blackmailed

You might have very sensitive personal information in your email account or iCloud or business account that you think no one should see.

With the repetition of passwords for different accounts, you risk getting hacked by hackers to access the personal information you have stored in your accounts. Most hackers these days will blackmail with said information and ask you to pay an amount if you need their discretion.

In the case of females, sometimes these hackers blackmail you to sleep with them or risk the world seeing whatever they’re blackmailing you with, which is most times nude photos of them.

These blackmailers don’t stop after their first successful attempt. Once they get what they came for, they begin to manipulate you to get more from you.

You might lose your business

What has business got to do with passwords and repetition of them? Well, it has a lot with them. Most people in business keep details of their businesses on their iCloud google drive accounts.

Such business details might include plans of the business and the next innovative ideas you’ve planned to introduce into your business. The public doesn’t need sight of details unless the business owner decides.

But in most cases, these hackers don’t hack into your account to steal these details for the public. No, they steal them and sell them to your competitors at a price.

For example, you’re in the business of producing energy drinks. And you’ve drawn a plan of introducing sachet energy drinks, which will be the first of its kind, and then a hacker gains access to your account and steals such information, and sells them to your competitor in the market. It’s going to be a huge blow to you and your business.

Conclusion

Memorizing multiple passwords, of course, is going to be a problem, but it doesn’t mean you should be reckless enough to use multiple passwords for one account.

There are a few password managers that you can use to store your passwords to avoid forgetfulness. Password managers can help keep track of, generate and retrieve your credentials when needed, so it will be safe to use one password for one account, which should be changed promptly from time to time.

When it comes to telecommunication services in ghana, one can say that some of the services are very good while some too very poor. Some have outstanding services in specific aspects of their services.

Telecomm services have become very expensive over the years, so users tend to love reasonable offers and advantage.

This article will talk about each telco in ghana and its stronghold in each aspect of telecom service providers. 

Mobile Money – MTN

MTN has a motto that says “everywhere you go,” and that’s a fact with this telco’s financial service.
They’re everywhere and very convenient. One thing they can assure you is that you’ll never be in the lacking when you want to make a transaction with their service.

They also have cool terms and conditions and offers. You pay no fees when making transactions to other MTN MoMo users (up to GHS 100 daily) and pay regular interoperability rates when sending money to different networks.

Some people might argue that Vodafone is the best because it doesn’t charge you for any transaction whatsoever, be it to the same networks or different networks.

But are they available everywhere? Are they reliable? Are they convenient?

I’ll arguably say no, they aren’t. MTN Mobile Money is currently the best for availability everywhere and reliable services when it comes to Mobile Money Transactions in Ghana.

Data Bundle – Vodafone

Data is one of the most important services these telcos provide us.

This is because most of us use smartphones, and we need data bundles for our phones to function. Vodafone has some very cheap and amazing offers which come in different types.

They have the “made4me” offer, which also comes in different types. They have GHS 5.50 for 5 GB. This is non arguably the cheapest data offer you can get anywhere in the country. They also have special offers. Which also comes in different types. These are:

• GHS 2 for 300MB daily
• GHS 2.15 for 400MB daily and
• GHS 3.25 for 1.5GB daily.

All these offers will make a user switch to Vodafone if he’s already using a different network.

MTN also has one of the best midnight bundle offers, but midnight bundles don’t matter like the ones we need during the day.

Airteltigo also has amazing no expiry bundle offers, but in my opinion, none beats Vodafone’s bundle packages. 

Calls and SMS – AirtelTigo

When it comes to calls, some people talk a lot on their phones.

Sometimes it’s business calls or talking to their lovers. So in cases like this, they need offers that can enable them to speak without worrying too much.

AirtelTigo offers such best offers, even including international calls offers. SMS packs, either weekly or monthly or no expiry, all exist on AirtelTigo.

They even have call bundles to call all networks with no expiry, which only exists on one other telco across the country.

They also have reasonable offers at affordable prices, such as GHS 2, GHS 5, GHS 10, and GHS 15, which also come with data packages.

Conclusion

Every telco has a stronghold in each service that they render to customers.

Like I’ve said earlier, MTN mobile network is best known for their mobile money services nationwide, whereas Vodafone’s data packages are one to talk about proudly.

Very affordable SMS packs and unlimited, non-expiry call bundle packages are for AirtelTigo only.

Not saying other networks are deficient in the different aspects of their services, but their competitors are arguably better than them in other parts of their telecommunication services.

One might say from an observation that you need more than one SIM card to enjoy telco services in Ghana.

Modernization has brought a lot of change to things in society. One can say the availability of technology is one of the post changes it has brought.

It has developed culture so that one can make a living out of technology and build a life for himself. 

Being a content creator on YouTube or any social media platform

Being content can be very lucrative, considering you put much effort, time, and dedication into it. A content creator on YouTube or any social media platform like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or tik tok can make you a lot of money.

Content creation is making funny videos, tutorials, or any creative thing to catch viewers’ eyes. For example, you can decide to make a video with steps to prepare jollof rice at home. Content is how good the creator makes it.

So your uniqueness needs to be your tool for working. And be aware that there are other content creators out there who also do what you do. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to be successful in your work. As I said, content is how good and unique the creator makes it look.

Small scale e-commerce

With this, you need capital to start it and a social media platform where you sell your products online.

You get a trusted buyer and make sure you have a good market for your products so that when the products are ready to be sold, you’ll not have a limited market and make them lose their value.

For instance, you buy a sneaker at GHS 200 and then sell it at GHS 250, so that’s GHS 50 profit off one sneaker, so imagine selling 20 sneakers in a month. That’s a GHS 1000 profit from the sales of your sneakers alone.

One thing about being an online vendor is that you need to have various products to sell. You don’t have to sell just one product because the market for one product might be down during a season and when that happens, and you have other products to sell, you don’t have a problem, unlike being in the trade of only one product.

Freelancing

If you have a skill that you think people can pay for, then freelancing is the choice for you. It doesn’t require any form of investment or capital or build a presence. Returns from freelancing can be near-instantaneous.

As an online freelancer, you get access to all sorts of clients worldwide, provided you build your online platform properly and make the name with your craft to attract clients. When you start, it is helpful to focus on building your profile. Your profile will be more robust by getting more positive reviews, and you will get more gigs.

A lot of people around the world are freelancing full time to earn a living. It pays very good to make a living out of, and there are massive opportunities. As a freelancer, you should choose a skill where you have a great deal of knowledge and confidence. 

Become a social media influencer

Building a presence on social media with a large for business purposes can be a very successful venture if taken seriously.

Building a platform with a large following means many people have access to the stuff you do on the platform, so people can trust you sell ads for them. Building the brand is an essential part of selling ads on social media.

There are many social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, amongst others. You first have to build the brand you want to portray and attract many followers to the brand. Create an interaction on your platform with your followers. For example, making a unique platform on Instagram with about 20,000 followers and interacting with them about the usual stuff like sports, entertainment, politics and promoting businesses.

A robust personal platform gives whoever wants you to sell ads on their products confidence that you’d be able to deliver the service with ease.

Become an affiliate marketer

Affiliate marketing has also been a very lucrative venture from which many people make money these days. One might not know what affiliate marketing means but might be practising it.

“Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays commission to a person for sales generated from its referrals. With affiliate marketing, sometimes it doesn’t even require any capital; you arrange with a retailer to sell their stuff and get a commission after the sales.

You can even be able to add up some value to the commodity’s price to get more money from that particular sale.

Content writing

Content writing is the creation of articles, create written materials for websites and blogs. To be a content writer, you need to have good grammar, good writing and research skills.

And to write content in a specific field, you need to research to have accurate knowledge in the field of content you’re writing. This content can include text for graphic, podcasts and e-books. As a content writer, you should also be able to use modern word formatting tools.

So basically, content writers are responsible for vividly explaining topics on a website. 

Find a remote job

You can stay at home and be employed remotely. As a remote worker, you can even work for companies outside the country and still get paid for your work.

That means if you work for a company that’s based in Toronto, you’ll get paid based on what’s typical for that area rather than where you live. You can earn an NYC salary while living in Accra.

It had many advantages because you can still go about other stuff you’ve got going on in your life, and even travel and carry your work along with you. It has a very flexible schedule too. 

Conclusion

Technology has advanced, and so has our minds. The latest covid -19 restrictions have, in a way, opened people’s minds to the idea of leveraging technology to make money out of it opening online businesses, working your jobs from home, amongst other lucrative ventures one can venture into to make money digitally. 

Currently, globally the software development career has been high in demand and produces many prolific individuals in our society, including a billionaire.

And there’s no denying that as a student in senior high who’s about graduating should consider this as a career for yourself. 

The high availability of jobs

Currently, many businesses/individuals are looking for young people to fill in technology roles. Log onto your go-to jobs site and type in the word “software”.

How many jobs popped up? Probably thousands. The thing is, software development skills are no longer confined to the tech industry. Having these skills is a bonus for most jobs. All good businesses have websites and apps, and the requirement for IT know-how is huge.

So SHS students who’re yet to graduate and are thinking of a career to choose, I’d advise that you consider software development.

The remoteness of the profession

If you are someone who does not like the routine 8 to 5 work schedule, software development will offer you many remote work opportunities even here in Ghana.

As long as you are producing code at an adequate rate and creating what is required timely, it is not uncommon for many code workers to work remotely.

Such is the coding landscape when the opportunity to freelance and offer contract services to companies is higher. Likewise, many software developers have seized the opportunity to create their own companies and businesses because of the skills gap.

Some students might think it’s a difficult career because of how coding looks on screens, but the only thing I can say is that nothing is too difficult or easy.

You need to put in effort and dedication and do the work to your full capacity.

You can be your boss as a software developer

As a software developer, normally, you work as a freelancer. Companies can contact you to develop something for them. Such contracts expire after your services for them has been granted.

This allows you to also work on your personal projects. You also decide what to develop without being directed what to do. I know most young people love to feel free and do things on their own, so this poses a great opportunity to be your own boss as a developer.

As a freelance developer, too, you have the liberty to look through the tech environment and see what innovations are in high demand at a point in time. For example, currently, mobile phone applications like games and sports apps are on the rise, and as a matter of fact, a young developer like you knows what the young market consumers like yourself want.

Continuous learning opportunity

As a software developer, you’ll always be on alert to learn new stuff as the days go by due to the gradually evolving technology.

With this, you can choose not to learn any new stuff and keep on with your old work, but as the technology ecosystem continues to evolve, you’d find yourself having no choice but to join the ship and learn new stuff eventually.

As a young senior high school graduate coming into the software developing industry, you have the upper hand in learning new stuff because your mind is still active ready to accept new knowledge.

Software development also requires teamwork to be really successful, and as SHS students, teamwork is not something you’ll be new to. As a matter of fact, teamwork is one of the major things you learn in school when you come together with your colleagues to do project works.

Technology has become the standard of our economy

Technology is extremely fast-moving, so as a Software Engineer, you need to be able to learn new programming languages and technologies and adapt to the continually changing environment.

Alongside learning about technology, developers will often have the opportunity to develop their knowledge about the business and sector they are working in, as these are also ever-changing.

And what more great opportunity is there for young high school students like this? As a young graduate, this constant change is an amazing learning opportunity, keeping your mind fresh and the job interesting! What better reason do you need to get started in Software Engineering?

Conclusion

Software, as I said, has become the job haven across the world, and most people miss out on that opportunity to join ship because they have no idea what it is and what it entails, so I hope the idea of a freelancing job as a software developer, the opportunity to learn more on the job and the ultimate idea of being a billionaire if dedication, innovation, and hard work are put in work.