After several weeks of nominations and voting for the Naija Bloggers Awards 2009, winners have finally been announced for the Category A.

They are…

1. Bloggers Choice Award - Solomon Sydelle
2. Best Intellectual Blogger - Aloofar
3. Best Student Blogger - Bumight
4. Best Political Blogger - Nigerian Curiosity (SSD)
5. Best Religious Blog - Jaycee
6. Most Inspiring Blogger - Jaycee
7. Best Entertaiment Blog - Bella Naija
8. Best Fashion Blog - Jadore Fashion
9. Best Use of Media - Bella Naija
10. Best Use of Theme - Stand Tall (Activism)
11. Best Use of Visuals - Afrobabe (Blog not accessible:o)
12. Best Literary Blog - Nigerian Drama Queen
13. Most Creative Blogger - Fine Boy Agbero
14. Dedicated Blogger - Good Girl Naija
15. Best Personal Blog - Good Girl Naija
16. Best Everyday Read - Vera
17. Most Likeable Blogger - Vera
18. Best Male Blogger - Tobenna (shirak)

Note: I’ve not yet found the links of the other blog award winners. If you know them, please tell us their links.

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MWeb Nigeria has just launched a new product called Business Wi-Fi that will allow huge companies and small businesses like hotels, restaurants, etc to attract new customers and keep their existing customers loyal.

Business Wi-Fi is a commercial Wi-Fi hotspot that allows you to setup and run an Internet cafe on your premises. Customers can browse the internet, check emails or even access document on their corporate network from the convenience and comfort of your venue.

What are the features?

Customized login Pages - The service provides you with your own unique hotspot login page, which can be designed according to your needs. If need be, iWayAfrica Nigeria can help you design and implement your own login page that fits with your brand personality.

Free Access to internet sites - The walled garden facility allows you to set free internet sites which customers have access to. This feature is completely at your discretion.

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Wherever you live around the world and are looking for Nigerian news related content that is local to you, Turenchi.com will help you find it.

Turenchi (Hausa word for English) is a news aggregation site launched in January 2009 that aggregates Nigerian News from major Nigerian Newspapers and dozens of other online sources. The site examines thousands of news items daily and provides the most relevant stories.

It is the first news aggregator to focus exclusively on Nigerian News items. Before now, we had several non news sites from Nigeria that aggregate Nigerian news.

What is Unique?

With Turenchi.com, you’ll no longer find news about Lagos, Portugal showing up as Nigerian News. News items are updated several times an hour, so readers always have the latest information. I’m not sure they have a mobile site, though, so news will be on the web for now.

The site also has a Facebook app that allows you to comment on the stories you find interesting, and the comments show up on your wall and as a news feed to your friends.

My take

I’m impressed with Turenchi.com, especially for identifying a need and filling that need. Before now, I get my Nigerian news related content from Topix, but Turenchi has caught my fancy.

The service is still developing and I’m sure it’ll introduce more features in the future. I also think a mobile site (m.turenchi.com) will be very useful to users.

If you have dreams of becoming a model or make-up artist, modelsvillage.tv is the place to start your career. The site which is fast growing is set officially launch soon and would be following events such as fashion shows, exibitions as well as charity tours.

Modelsvillage.tv is an interactive online community designed for professional models, aspiring models, stylist, photographers and fashion designers to promote their portfolio and services to top agencies and hiring companies within Nigeria and around the world.

Members can add their most attractive photos and portfolio which will be visible to all members and agencies around the world.

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I’ve never been to silicon valley in San Francisco, California, but I’ve got friends and collegues up there and sure I get the heads up about happenings around the city that is home to some of the largest internet companies such as Google, Yahoo, eBay, AOL, etc.

Silicon Valley has been described as “a special habitat for innovation and entrepreneurship, consisting of dense, flexible networks and relationships among entrepreneurs, investors, university researchers, consultants, skilled employees… connecting people to ideas.”

Over the years, Silicon Valley has produced some of the best startups in the world such as Facebook, Youtube, etc This has moved a lot of Web-savvy people all around the world to keep an eye on the valley either for work, business or investments. In Africa, I’ve seen some interesting startups that I think could compete with some of those Silicon Valley-based startups. For example, Synthasite, a Web 2.0 Silicon Valley-based startup founded by South African Vinny Lingham that focuses on web publishing and designing, which recently recieved a $20 million funding.

Since the last two years, I’ve been watching the Nigerian startup scene, and I’m yet to see a great startup that could become a huge internet company, although I have to admit that there are some smart startups that got lots of potentials - if properly managed.

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