MSMEs

Most MSMEs Can’t Withstand Shocks—Olurotimi

by with No Comment Business

Businesses may have suffered their worst year in 2020, but this year will see Micro, Small, and Medium Scales Enterprises (MSMEs) thrive if they work on all the lessons learnt and use them to adapt to the changing landscape, Mr Seye Olurotimi, the founder of MSMEs Africa, has said.

READ ALSO: Leveraging technology to optimise MSMEs, empower women

Mr Olurotimi, while appearing as a guest on TV Continental’s programme called Business Nigeria anchored by Mr Tolu Ogunjobi, which was monitored by Business Post, noted that small businesses do not have shock absorbers, which he said affected them when the global economy was faced with an unprecedented health crisis last year.

In his words, “MSMEs don’t have shock absorbers to withstand what the big corporates could absolve and when COVID-19 came and forced people to stay back at home, a lot of them didn’t have the infrastructure to run their services.

“It affected the way they made money. So, people could not make money, couldn’t meet their obligations, some have debts. Many have had to lay off their staff because they could not afford them.”

Mr Olurotimi noted that the recession that came with the situation led many to grapple with a lot as it made it harder for them to meet up with a lot of obligations.

FG’s interventions good

However, he commended several interventions from the federal government, which he said some have benefitted from. But he noted that the programme could not meet the demands of the over 40 million SMEs in the country.

Mr Olurotimi praised the payroll scheme of the federal government, which helped to pay workers and not business founders for a specified period, adding that the Guaranteed Offtake Scheme helped to provide funds to produce goods and also provided avenue’s to help them sell these goods.

While lauding these schemes, he advised the FG not to “just give people money” but should “train them on how to use them,” submitting that “for every intervention, let’s create a part that trains people on how to manage businesses so as to build capacity.”

He further said that despite the considerable improvement made as regards the movement of Nigeria in the ranks of global ease of doing business, there was more the country could do. Nigeria moved 15 places to 131 from 146 out of the 190 countries assessed by the World Bank.

He charged the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to do more, explaining that the rate that businesses spend on electricity, rent and transport are not sustainable for business.

READ MORE

Excellence MSMEs

Leveraging technology to optimise MSMEs, empower women

by with No Comment Business

Leveraging technology to optimise MSMEs, empower women

The Team Lead, Excellence Advisory Limited, a technology business support services provider, Excellence Anurika Joshua, is leveraging technology to help Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) build structure and run their businesses with ease. She is also the founder, Techy Train, her company’s training arm, which offers technology-based vocational skills primarily to women and youths. It has trained over 3000 women and youths from across Nigeria, Ghana, United States and United Kingdom so far. She shares the inspiring story of her rise to firm and fortune, her initial challenges and plans with Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA.

READ ALSO: Paylink partners Google to train 15,000 MSMEs in Nigeria

Her fighting spirit is extraordinary. While women faced with the same or similar challenges as hers, when she started her entrepreneurial journey in 2019 would have probably capitulated, the Team Lead, Excellence Advisory Limited, a technology business support services provider, Excellence Anurika Joshua, stayed on, refusing to give up the fight to survive in the face of a turbulent marriage, which, by her admission, became toxic shortly after wedding in 2015.

Narrating her ordeal, Excellence told The Nation that she got married in February 2015 while a student at the University of Ibadan (UI). But, unfortunately, the marriage packed up later after what she described as “Three years of severe emotional and physical abuse, a failed suicide attempt and no job.” “I was broke and I had a two-year-old son. I was desperate to survive, pay my bills and feed my son, but the more I looked for help, the more I was exposed to harassment and abuse,” she added.

But, Excellence refused to allow the situation to break her. With remarkable grit, tenacity and instinct for survival, she succeeded in weathering the storm and founded Techy Train, which provides access to technology-based vocational skills primarily to women and youths across Nigeria, Africa and the world. In fact, she was able to keep hope alive until, as she put it, “I found technology, harnessed its power and leveraged it to earn big from my bed, working virtually for individuals and corporates.”

By dint of hard work and perseverance, the 2018 graduate of Biomedical Laboratory Sciences from the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, has carved a niche for herself in the provision of technology business support services solutions to MSMEs. She said her vision is to pioneer a paradigm shift in entrepreneurship in Africa by helping African born businesses and MSMEs build structures that are  sustainable, profitable and thrive globally.

Backed by experienced partners, an Advisory Board as well as highly motivated staff, Excellence Advisory Limited is located in Abuja. However, 90 per cent of its clients, according to the Team Lead, are outside Abuja. The company, however, takes clients globally, having been duly registered in the United States, too. But, Excellence said there were plans to expand the company’s services outside the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), even beyond Nigeria’s shores.

According to her, Excellence Advisory has a bouquet of services that have already positioned it as the destination of choice for MSMEs seeking for consultant to help them handle everything tech so they can focus on what matters most: their real businesses.

Some of the business support services that have endeared the company to MSMEs and non-profit organisations include Business Advisory Support Services (business plan development, finance model design, profit maximisation etc.); Management Consultancy Support Services (marketing template design, product design, services design, corporate communications etc.); Learning and Development Support Services (business training, customised trainings etc.)

Others are Business Operations (customer relations, cash management etc.); Process Re-engineering Support Services (creating internal structures, finance and audit processes, procurement, and supply chain design etc.); Strategic Branding Support Services (digital marketing, social media campaigns, brand statement design etc.); Info-tech Support Services (software development, APP development, website development, bulk SMS).

A key aspect of Excellence Advisory’s soaring brand, according to the Team Lead, is its subsidiary Techy Train. Registered as a business in July 2019 and formerly called Animations with Excellence, Techy Train is the training arm of Excellence Advisory Limited. The platform provides access to technology based vocational skills mostly to women and the youth. And it does this by using “accelerated learning” techniques that allow trainees to learn faster and remember more of what they learn.

As the Abuja-based budding entrepreneur explained: “The key is “involvement.” Our approach follows from the old saying: “What you hear, you forget; what you see, you remember; what you do, you understand.” Our lessons are simplified and practically tailored, which gives you an option to actually see what you’re learning beyond learning using our engaging audio + visual demonstration technique that helps you apply faster and immediately.

“Furthermore, you have an option of joining our robust internship where you get to do and grow and then earn. So, when women sign up with us, they learn, work and earn. We have trained over 3000 individuals from across Nigeria, Ghana, United States and United Kingdom. Over 20 per cent of them have gone up to get good employment in the online media space, while over 50 per cent have used the lessons they learnt to grow their business/enterprise and some have gone on to up-skill further in tech.”

The Biomedical Scientist-turned entrepreneur  emphasised: “Technology provides a level- playing ground for women across the world to work and earn good from their convenience and on flexible terms.” While pointing out, for instance, that there are thousands of women who are in the unemployed state she used to be, broke and desperate but handicapped, she said she founded Techy Train to help such women earn more money from the comfort of their homes leveraging technology-based vocational skills.

Excellence, who stated that the rate of unemployment in Nigeria is high, said women are the worst hit. She, however, added that the COVID-19 pandemic made the situation worse for them. While pointing out that the situation of women unemployment in Nigeria was more of an issue of underemployment, she said: “Women are rather exposed to vocational skills like soap making, hair making without going further to the skills for the future: technology skills.”

The Digital Skills Trainer explained that through Techy Train’s online academy, the company offers women skills like web design, effective social media management, virtual assistance, design thinking, graphic design and more.

“Our lessons are highly simplified and pre-recorded screen practical for them to access at their pace and convenience.

“The uniqueness we provide beyond simplifying their learning process is our skill bank where participants of our training who have scored 80 per cent and above in cumulative assessment and discipline are inducted into and offered opportunities to work and their skills further improved.

“We also provide technology services like digital marketing, content creation, video editing and more that aim at helping women build sustainable businesses leveraging technology to build structure and running their business with ease. We do this by teaching them how to do it themselves, doing it for them or doing it with them,” Excellence said.

But how did Excellence Advisory Limited and its subsidiary, Animations with Excellence, registered in August 2020 and July 2019, respectively, become hot items in Nigeria’s MSME space and women empowerment in such a remarkably short time to the extent that she could look back and say with so much pride and confidence that “I am beyond amazed at the rapid growth, the lives touched, level of impact reached as well as the profit made?”

MSMEs

READ MORE

Paylink

Paylink partners Google to train 15,000 MSMEs in Nigeria

by with No Comment BusinessNews

To help Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises recover from the impacts of COVID-19 and reposition them to take advantage of opportunities of a post-COVID future, Paylink, a payment and ecommerce solution for individuals, businesses and non-profits, has partnered with tech giant, Google.

READ ALSO: Elumelu advocates strategic long-term investment to tackle poverty in Africa

The partnership is particularly geared towards empowering MSMEs with the digital expertise they require to thrive through the Paylink MSME Digital Bootcamp.

The organiser of the bootcamp, SystemSpecs, providers of Paylink, made this disclosure during the formal announcement of the expression of participation to MSMEs across Nigeria for the free seminar supported by Google.

Through a series of online trainings, MSMEs in Nigeria will be equipped with the relevant digital skills necessary to drive and scale their businesses in the digital era, recover from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as sustain their business on a long term.

As a developing country, MSMEs form the bedrock of enterprise and employment in Nigeria.

A statement by the Ministry of Trade and Investment says Nigeria’s over 37.07 million MSMEs account for more than 84 per cent jobs in the country.

MSMEs also account for about 48.5 per cent of the gross domestic product as well as about 7.27 per cent of goods and services exported out of the country.

The Ministry of Trade and Investment further stated that micro-enterprises, which are the smallest businesses, account for the bulk of the MSMEs in Nigeria with 36,994,578 enterprises (about 99.8 per cent).

Commenting on the partnership, SystemSpecs’ Executive Director, Corporate Strategy, ‘Deremi Atanda, said: “With more than 41 million MSMEs spread across the length and breadth of the country, it is clear that if these enterprises are empowered to attain their true potentials, they would significantly impact all strata of our economy and society at large.

“This is one of the reasons we have partnered with Google, a reputable organisation that deals with businesses across various segments of the Nigerian marketplace, to equip enterprises in the micro, small and medium-scale cadre with key requirements to thrive in a post-COVID economy.

“It is our conviction that MSMEs are an essential stakeholder group in the Nigerian project and we are committed to advancing their causes.”

Covering themes that include brand building, business growth and tools for business management and to hold on selected days in the months of March, April and May, 2021, the training leverages Google’s Digital Skills Africa programme for existing and prospective Paylink subscribers.

“COVID-19 forced many businesses to re-think their strategies and challenged long-standing entrepreneurial approaches. Among others, it brought forth the need to adopt a digital-first strategy in order to reach an extensive and largely unexplored market and ultimately grow bottom-line,” said Google Nigeria’s Country Director, Juliet Ehimuan.

“While a number of MSMEs are aware of this progressive direction, many are not. As with our other trainings, partnering with SystemSpecs to train current and prospective Paylink customers will go a long way in empowering more stakeholders in Nigeria’s MSMEs space,” Ehimuan added.

Paylink.NG is a secure and seamless solution that helps individuals, MSMEs, religious organisations, not-for-profits, social media sellers, crowd funders, event planners, freelancers and others, to receive payments through multiple means, by sharing a customised link.

READ MORE

Tony Elumelu

Elumelu advocates strategic long-term investment to tackle poverty in Africa

by with No Comment Business

Disturbed by the increasing rate of poverty in Africa, Tony Elumelu, founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), has called for a framework that will widen the circle of prosperity in the continent rather than littering it with lone star billionaires.

READ ALSO: More pain for Nigerians as inflation hits 4-yr high

Elumelu said Africa needs massive investments in infrastructure, electricity, digital technology and healthcare delivery to address the massive poverty in the continent, adding that future Bill Gates could come out of Africa if access to electricity is provided.

Speaking at the ‘World Government Summit Dialogue: Africa’s Future Post 2021’, Elumelu said the continent can see more billionaires spring up if only critical investments are made.

“The ones that are there are getting stronger climbing the league table while new ones are coming up. But we need to move the emphasis away from these so-called billionaires,” Elumelu said.

“We should be talking about how many young Africans will be impacted in the next five or 10 years’ time? Instead of us having a pyramid of few billionaires, I will prefer that we have a large base that has prosperity, happier people and people whose basic human needs are met. I think that is what will give us the sustainability and the lasting peace that we need in Africa,” he said.

Read Also: Deadline to Apply for the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme Fast Approaching

“That will also address the insecurity that we have in Africa and stop the migration of our younger people. That will stem extremism and all the kidnappings we hear every day all around us because of poverty and hopelessness as people do not see a better future. We need to reset our mind to think in a better way to improve society and mankind,” he further said.

Elumelu noted that poverty anywhere is a threat to mankind everywhere and called for support for the development of entrepreneurship and SMEs so that the continent could address the challenge of poverty in a significant way.

“Without access to electricity, we cannot digitalise our local economies and communities where most of our people live. Also, this is significant in terms of informal businesses that drive the African economy.

“If we must empower our people out of poverty we must invest in electricity. The pandemic presents an opportunity for us to reprioritise and make sure that we invest in electricity. We must set for ourselves a timeline and the way we declared war on COVID-19, on polio is the same manner we need to declare war on poor access to electricity in Africa. For me, it is at the centre of poverty alleviation,” he said.

He also said strategic long-term investments by his business group, which he said is at the centre of his Africapitalism, is one of the ways to deal with poverty in Africa.

“That is the only way we can deal with the issue of poverty alleviation and create massive employment for our people. And that is the only way we can empower the economy.

“For us, investment in en, and we are looking at an integrated energy strategy because power cannot be dealt with in isolation. For us, the $1.1 billion investment that we made in January is to further help to achieve our vision for a prosperous Africa built on solid access to electricity for everyone. Africa at a time like this needs proper investment in power and access to healthcare for us to correct the poverty level we see on the ground,” he added.

Elumelu noted that the most significant contribution of the TEF’s entrepreneurship programme was the training it provides to young entrepreneurs on how to run prosperous businesses in Africa.

READ MORE

Nigerias Inflation Rate

More pain for Nigerians as inflation hits 4-yr high

by with No Comment BusinessfinanceNews

Headline inflation rate jumped to a four-year high at 17.33 percent in February, from 16.47 percent in January 2021, according to a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Nigerians cannot afford to buy as much as they used to as food costs continue to surge, aggravating the pains already inflicted by the pandemic and economic slowdown.

READ ALSO: DMO lists N162.5bn 7-year Sovereign Sukuk on Nigerian Exchange Limited

Headline inflation rate jumped to a four-year high at 17.33 percent in February, from 16.47 percent in January 2021, according to a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics. On year-on-year basis, this is the highest since February 2017.

This signals a decline in purchasing power of Nigerians as prices of goods and services are skyrocketing without a corresponding increase in income, making life miserable for the country’s population.

“The increase is obviously as a result of a surge in food cost which mainly comprises of imported food,” Ayodeji Ebo, Head Retail Investment, Chapel Hill Denham, points out.

Food inflation rose by 21.8 percent month-on-month in February compared to 20.57 percent in January 2021.

Data from NBS shows Nigeria’s import of food and beverages jumped 70.7 percent to N2.8 billion in 2020 from N1.64 billion in 2019.

“This means we still import a lot indicating that there are opportunities to produce more, generate employment and reduce demand for foreign goods which keeps prices increasing,” Ebo said.

The increased importation is also pointer to Nigeria’s failed border closure policy which kicked off as a strategy to boost local production.

The situation of Nigerians is worsened by the 23 million without jobs and another 15.9 million worked less than 40 hours a week, making them underemployed, according to the NBS.

To put in perspective, Nigeria’s total number of jobless people is equal to the entire population of Niger.

Nigeria’s Per Capita GDP which has been contracting for six straight years also gives a dim picture of untold hardship facing many businesses and household.

By Businessday’s analysis, Nigeria recorded Per Capita GDP growth of -4.57 percent in 2020, its worst contraction in more than six years.

In basic interpretation, this means an average Nigeria has a lower standard of living in 2020 than in the past six years.

A 2018 report by the Brookings Institution situated the country as the poverty capital of the world with 87 million people or roughly 40 percent of Nigeria’s 200 million populations living below $1.9 a day.

As a result of the pandemic, another 15 to 20 million Nigerians will be dragged into poverty by 2022, the World Bank estimates.

Analysts say Nigeria will continue to see an upward trend in the inflation rate in the coming months if certain factors persist.

Temitope Omosuyi an Investment Strategy Analyst at Afrinvest Limited said Nigeria’s headline inflation rate would hit 18.15 percent in March driven by foreign exchange illiquidity and heightened insecurity in the North.

There have been a number violent farm attacks, and clashes between herders and farmers in recent times and this would continue to weigh on food supply.

Also, inflationary pressures will also mount if the price of petrol rises higher.

The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) announced a new price template that put the retail price for the product at between N209.61 and N212.61. However, the agency has since retracted the statement while the NNPC has reiterated that there would no price increase in March.

READ MORE

Mobile Money Business

The Rise Fund to Invest $200m in Airtel Africa’s Mobile Money Business at $2.65bn Valuation

by with No Comment BusinessNews

Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries across Africa, today announces the signing of an agreement under which The Rise Fund, the global impact investing platform of leading alternative investment firm TPG, will invest $200 million in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (“AMC BV”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Airtel Africa plc (the “Transaction”). AMC BV is currently the holding company for several of Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations; and is now intended to own and operate the mobile money businesses across all of Airtel Africa’s fourteen operating countries.

READ ALSO: Registration for Auto Revamp Training Program

The Transaction values Airtel Africa’s mobile money business at $2.65 billion on a cash and debt free basis.

The Rise Fund will hold a minority stake in AMC BV upon completion of the Transaction, with Airtel Africa continuing to hold the remaining majority stake.

The Transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including necessary regulatory filings and approvals, as necessary, and the inclusion of specified mobile money business assets and contracts into AMC BV.

The Transaction is the latest step in the Group’s pursuit of strategic asset monetization and investment opportunities, and it is the aim of Airtel Africa to explore the potential listing of the mobile money business within four years.

The Group is in discussions with other potential investors in relation to possible further minority investments into Airtel Money, up to a total of 25% of the issued share capital of AMC BV.

There can be no certainty that a transaction will be concluded or as to the final terms of any transactions.

The proceeds from the Transaction will be used to reduce Group debt and invest in network and sales infrastructure in the respective operating countries.

Airtel Africa Mobile Money Services

Operating under the Airtel Money brand, Airtel Africa’s mobile money services is a leading digital mobile financial services platform catering to a large addressable market in Africa (characterised by limited access to formal financial institutions with limited banking infrastructure) and includes mobile wallet deposit and withdrawals, merchant and commercial payments, benefits transfers, loans and savings, virtual credit card and international money transfers.

Mobile money services are available across the Group’s 14 countries of operation, however in Nigeria the Group offers Airtel Money services through a partnership with a local bank and has applied for its own mobile banking licence.

It is the intention that all mobile money operations will be owned and operated by AMC BV.

In our most recent reported results for Q3, the mobile money service segment (corresponding to all the businesses that are intended to be transferred to AMC BV) delivered a strong operational performance:

  • Generated revenue of $110 million ($440 million annualised), and underlying EBITDA of $54 million ($216 million annualised) at a margin of 48.7%.
  • Year on year revenue growth for the quarter was 41.1% in constant currency, largely driven by 29% growth in the customer base to 21.5 million, and 9.7% ARPU growth.
  • Growth in transaction value was 53.0% to $12.8 billion ($51 billion annualised).

Our mobile money business benefits from strong network presence with our core telecom business through the extensive distribution platform of kiosks and mini shops as well as dedicated Airtel Money branches supplementing our extensive agent network, to facilitate customers’ assured wallet and cash.

We have a clear strategy to continue to drive sustainable long-term growth in Airtel Money with a focus on assured float availability, distribution expansion and increased usage cases for our customers.

In this year alone we have added partnerships with Mastercard, Samsung, Asante, Standard Chartered Bank, MoneyGram, Mukuru and WorldRemit to expand both the range and depth of the Airtel Money offerings and to further drive customer growth and penetration.

The profits before tax in the full year ending 31 March 2020 and the value of gross assets as of that date, attributable to the mobile money businesses were $143.4 million and $463.2 million, respectively.

Key Elements of the Transaction

  • Agreement values Airtel Africa’s mobile money business at $2.65 billion on a cash and debt free basis.
  • AMC BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Airtel Africa, is currently the holding company for several of Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations; and is now intended to own and operate the mobile money businesses across all of Airtel Africa’s fourteen operating countries once the inclusion of the remaining mobile money operations under AMC BV is completed.
  • A newly incorporated investment vehicle of The Rise Fund will invest $200 million through a secondary purchase of shares in AMC BV from Airtel Africa. The transaction will close in two stages. $150 million will be invested at first close, once the transfer of sufficient mobile money operations and contracts into AMC BV has been completed, with $50 million to be invested at second close upon further transfers.
  • Airtel Africa aims to explore the potential listing of the mobile money business within four years. Under the terms of the Transaction, and in very limited circumstances (in the event that there is no Initial Public Offering of shares in AMC BV within four years of first close, or in the event of changes of control without TPG’s prior approval), TPG would have the option, so as to provide liquidity to them, to sell its shares in AMC BV to Airtel Africa or its affiliates at fair market value (determined by a mutually agreed merchant bank using an agreed internationally accepted valuation methodology). The option is subject to a minimum price equal to the consideration paid by The Rise Fund for its investment (less the value of all distributions and any proceeds of sale of its shares, and with no time value of money or minimum return built in) and a maximum number of shares in AMC BV such that the consideration does not exceed $400 million.

The Transaction is expected to reach first close over the next three to four months. From first close The Rise Fund will be entitled to appoint a director to the board of AMC BV and to certain customary information and minority protection rights.

READ MORE

SME Accelerator

Incubators: Nigeria’s SME accelerator model in focus

by with No Comment Business

Bootstrapping involves growing a startup without external funding or enterprise support.

In this case, startups rely on funding from its founders and trickle off revenue from sales and its operations.

READ ALSO: TEF to prioritise economic recovery of SMEs in 2021

This is the classic Nigerian SME story of self-sabotage. It’s why we rarely scale.

Bootstrapping is great in building a minimum value proposition and in understanding the actual problem to be solved in detail.

But know when to stop. Bootstrapping is a long road to freedom. And travelling that long road is the type that can burn you down before you produce the required lights.

Let’s face it, startups do better through support, incubations and acceleration.

The Nigerian tech space is showing this, with Interswitch, Flutterwave and Paystack hitting that Unicorn (1 Billion dollars in capitalization) status.

Flutterwave was even more amazing with theirs. They did it in just five years, with more valuation than almost all Nigerian banks (most of which have been in business for about 30 years).

But they wouldn’t have gotten there through organic growth without external funding and acceleration. But what really is incubation and acceleration?

An incubator helps entrepreneurs flesh out business ideas while accelerators come after.

They expedite the growth of existing companies with a fully formed minimum viable product (MVP).

Incubators operate on a flexible time frame, ending when a business has an idea or product to pitch to investors or consumers through accelerators or any other investment vehicle.

Incubators and accelerators nurture and prepare startups to scale.

Incubators focus on startups at the conception stage while accelerators target startups at a slightly later stage that have shown some level of traction. The traction later exposes them to more investors.

The entire process (mostly involving technical enhancement, injection of corporate governance, high-level exposure through networking and mentorship) prepares them and shows they are viable and ready to scale.

Startups who successfully pass through incubators/accelerators receive seed investment during and at the end of their program.

The seed investment is introduced to startups in exchange for equity. Yes, it’s better to give away a part of your ownership to do more.

But have essence, structure and great advisory first. Once this is achieved, go for it for it’s better to own 10 percent of something that makes sense than 100 percent of nonsense.

That’s the game of incubators and accelerators.

One of the most popular incubators is Y Combinator. Y Combinator (YC) is an American seed money startup accelerator launched in March 2005.

It has been used to launch over 2,000 companies, including Stripe, our own Nigerian firm by the name of Paystack, Airbnb, Cruise Automation, DoorDash, Coinbase, Instacart, Dropbox, Twitch, and Reddit.

The combined valuation of the top YC companies was over US$155 billion as of October 2019. Y Combinator created a new model for funding early-stage startups.

Twice a year they invest a small amount of money ($125k) in a large number of start-ups.

They work intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors.

Each cycle culminates in Demo Day when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience.

Incubators and accelerators generally are programs.

What they need to see is that you are in a high growth market and that your idea is scalable.

For the former, we have highly been favoured in Nigeria thanks to our exploding population of young people, high internet penetration rate and use of smartphone.

But the latter we have to build in our business.

Incubators, accelerators, angels and investors beyond market growth potentials also need to see that the founders are deeply passionate with a disruptive narrative backed by data and that they are organized and quite business ready.

At this point, Incubators can help refine the plan, build the team, provide resources and invest in the company.

Making profit already doesn’t have to be a criterion, but a reasonable cash flow should be.

READ MORE

Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF)

TEF to prioritise economic recovery of SMEs in 2021

by with No Comment BusinessNews

The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) entrepreneurship programme says the seventh edition will prioritise the economic recovery of small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) following the global disruptions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ ALSO: We want to partner with skilled artisans within Enugu

Somachi Chris-Asoluka, director of partnerships and communications at TEF, who disclosed this, equally wants applicants for the 7th edition of the programme to ensure that their applications reach the foundation before the March 31 deadline. Application for the programme commended on January 1, hosted on the Tefconnect digital platform (www.tefconnect.com)

According to Chris-Asoluka, entrepreneurs’ full participation would create a pathway to economic prosperity.

“This year, we have the capacity to empower more African entrepreneurs than ever, further ensuring that they have adequate training, funding, and mentorship to boost their performance.

It is time for young African entrepreneurs to embrace this much-needed support system to enable thriving and sustainable economic activity. We believe we will continue to see an exponential change in sectors across the continent,” she said.

Chris-Asoluka said that the programme would empower over 3,500 young African entrepreneurs in collaboration with global partners in order to address the challenges arising from the pandemic, adding that the goal was to lift millions out of poverty and create sustainable employment across the continent.

READ MORE

Nigerian Stocks

Guinness, other stocks drive NSE ASI high by 0.41%

by with No Comment Businessfinance

Nigeria’s stocks market defied earlier negative predictions to close in the green zone on Tuesday, March 16 as investors showed interest in Guinness Nigeria Plc and other value counters.

READ ALSO: Inflation rate quickens to 48-month high…

Market watchers had predicted earlier bearish performance to filter into Tuesday trading session due to lack of positive news capable of lifting investors’ sentiment.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the February inflation report with headline inflation jumping to a 4-year high at 17.33percent year-on-year (y/y) from 16.47 percent in January 2021.

At the Nigerian stock market, Guinness led the league of advancers after its share price moved up by N2.3 or 10 percent, from N23 to N25.3. Also, Vitafoam rallied from by 40kobo or 5.44percent, from N7.35 to N7.75; while Livestock Feeds made the top advancers after its share price increased by 7kobo or 3.83percent, from N1.83 to N1.9.

At the close of the trading session on Tuesday, March 16, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) increased by 0.41 percent, from 38,561.84 points to 38,720.81 points while the value of listed stocks on the Nigerian Bourse increased by N83billion, from N20.175 trillion to N20.258trillion.

Despite the record positive close of equities trading on Custom Street, more investors chose to sell stocks like Wapic (-9.09percent), Africa Prudential (-8.26percent), Fidelity Bank (-6.69percent), ETI (-5.83percent), and GTBank (-4.84percent).

READ MORE

Digital ecommerce

MTN Nigeria, Ajua launch digital eCommerce mobile app to support SMEs

by with No Comment BusinessFeatured

NIGERIA – MTN Nigeria has partnered with Ajua, a Kenyan based Africa’s first Integrated Customer Experience Company, to launch EnGauge, a digital eCommerce customer engagement management mobile app to support SMEs.

READ ALSO: Bank of Industry: Osun Government Partners to Train 2000+ Youths

The mobile app according to the two, is set to transform how SMEs conduct business in Nigeria.

It will also help solve 4 of the UNDPs social development goals for Nigeria while also enabling business owners to oversee the smooth administration of transactions and operations of their companies.

With the SME market in Nigeria currently valued at USD220 billion annually and statistics showing that businesses that adopt Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions see their productivity increased by 40%. 

This solution by both Ajua and MTN Nigeria is set to significantly empower SMEs to conduct business more efficiently ultimately increase revenues.

“In addition, SMEs will be able to improve their Customer Experience through the app and build a strong and engaging social media presence allowing them to target and engage new customers.”

Kenfield Griffith – CEO, Ajua

Available for download Google Play store, MTN EnGauge offers innovative customer management solutions including digital payments, CRM tools, customer feedback channels, customer debt management and tracking as well as business and product promotions through mobile and social media channels.

In mid-2020 Ajua launched SME Connect, a similar platform to serve the Kenyan market, businesses across the country are actively using the app for customer retention and as a marketplace for their products.

“MTN EnGauge is the ideal platform for business owners and entrepreneurs to thrive in the new normal,” Lynda Saint-Nwafor, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, MTN Nigeria, said.

“Entrepreneurs can securely receive payment, track transactions with each of their customers and glean valuable insights to serve them better based on their preferences and buying behaviour.”

MTN EnGauge gives business owners a platform to improve their customer experience by managing interactions with their customers.

SMEs can finally get an impression of their customers’ perceptions of their brand and know exactly what their customers are looking for and inform their next steps with customer data. Ultimately increasing their customer retention and profitability.

MTN EnGauge also makes it possible to increase brand exposure through social media. SMEs can take advantage of this connection by promoting their products and services on various social media platforms.

Upon registration to the application, businesses are automatically provided with a unique business code (USSD) which allows their customers to interact, transact and communicate with them in real-time.

“Through this digital ecommerce, MTN EnGauge allows SMEs to increase their sales by automating their business processes, this can save them time and energy ultimately leading to increased productivity,” Ajua CEO, Kenfield Griffith said. 

READ MORE