Our dear brand Nextzon has been in the market for a little over a year now, having been actively launched in the second quarter of 2005 via various creative marketing strategies. During this period, Nextzon's market presence has improved measured by all important indices.

In addition to market presence, we have also clarified our business scope and strategy to ourselves. This sharper business focus is now the basis for the info rmation you will find in this edition of our corporate profile and on our website. You will find for instance that we have more clearly wrapped the entire business model around our novel and innovative business incubation concept ; such that any business line that does not contribute directly to the operations and strategic positioning of the incubator will be gradually discontinued.

In same vein, we have sharpened our offerings under each business unit and streamlined them such that we have just a few unique offerings that are positioned to successfully take our clients to the NEXT ZONE/NEXT FRONTIER.

To further strengthen our business we have diversified ownership by admitting non-staff shareholders, who now control a significant part of the business. These new investors are also members of the Nextzon's board of directors and will assist in strengthening corporate governance over our business. Part of the funds being invested by the new shareholders will be deployed to expand the infrastructural capacity of the incubator so that it can accommodate over thirty incubatees up from the three we have in residence now (we have another seven incubatees currently who are not in-residence). A part of the funds has gone into installing the outsourcing services software which we acquired to support our incubatees and external markets. This promises to be a very large component of our business going forward.

Our talent pool continues to grow as talents from diversified sources continue to join us in pursuing our passion. We have grown to almost 50, up from the 28 we started with a year ago. Our paying clients are also growing in number. In recognition of the uniqueness and potential value of our business model to the growth of entrepreneurship and the Nigerian economy, the World Bank has approved a grant to assist us with capacity development relating to our business incubation operations. Thus a large percentage of our people are receiving local and international exposure in relevant areas. In the area of talents, we are also building alliances with other reputable professional services firms to complement our skills as various opportunities may require from time to time.

I would like to conclude this edition by re-affirming that our mission now rephrased as “ To harness our passion and experience to build and transform enterprises of African origin”. Once again, I welcome you to our world and use this medium to renew our commitment to serving our clients, beyond their expectations ALWAYS.

Mac