In my Tekedia’s Empire of the Future presentation, I explained the evolution of economic systems. All nations typically begin as invention societies where ideas are in abundance, but with limited translations into products and services. But over time, some become innovation societies, with products and services, and then prosper.
Using the public stock market in the United States, I explained the redesign of that system, connecting the 2,000 years of GDP for the landmass called America today. In 1917, the largest publicly traded companies in the United States were in construction; US Steel was dominant. Fifty years later, the tech infrastructure firms took off with IBM leading. And now, knowledge firms like Apple and Microsoft are running the show.
In Nigeria, something like this is happening at a smaller scale. Our largest publicly traded companies are in construction (BUA Cement and Dangote Cement), food (BUA Foods and Nestle) and tech infrastructure (MTNN and Airtel Africa). The only difference is that Nigeria has merged that 1917 and 1967 American evolutions into one, trajectory-wise. I expect, by 2035, the largest companies in Nigeria to be knowledge-driven (I cannot write “largest public companies” since most of our current tech startups will not likely list locally).
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So, the ascension of MTNN with its market-leading N1.7 trillion annual revenue and Airtel Africa’s pinnacle moment at N5.4 trillion market cap, are part of the road to the new economic system. As these changes happen, new economic order will form in the nation.
MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTNN) has reported turnover in the sum of N1.7 trillion for full-year 2021, a milestone that will help firm up its status as Nigeria’s biggest listed company by revenue.
The Nigerian operation of South African-owned MTN Group attained the new height after the number of its active data users surged by 1.7 million to 34.3 million, helping income from data sales increase by 55.3 per cent to N516 billion.
MTNN cited an extension of its coverage areas for 4G services October through December as the catalyst for the higher earnings from data.
Relative to its figure for 2020, revenue for last year grew by 22.9 per cent.
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How do we intend to play in knowledge-driven economy without consciously investing in knowledge, or do we leave it at the mercy of what kids learn via YouTube and other platforms? When you have a nuanced understanding of the role knowledge plays in a nation’s economic development, it helps to drive your policies and investments, we do not know much about the fundamentals, the merchandising approach has multiple limitations.
You can learn to code via online platforms, but to conduct a research in material science, you need laboratories, what plans do we have? The funds propelling the new digital economy are foreign, so it’s not clear how we intend to domesticate the benefits. If Nigeria is the leading destination for tech focused investments, can we also make it the capital market of choice for Africa focused digital companies? You can only succeed in these if you possess the right knowledge and can guarantee its continuous supply, it’s never about who has more money in the bank.
We have to broaden our minds, build support systems, so that our understanding of economic development won’t be too shallow and ineffective. Our knowledge industry is highly deficient in many aspects, yet we are readying for knowledge economy…