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Paystack Part Ways With up to 33 employees in Europe And UAE as it Reduces Operations Outside Africa

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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Financial technology company that offers payment processing services to businesses in Africa, Paystack, has parted ways with up to 33 employees in Europe and the UAE, as it reduces its operations outside of Africa.

The company revealed that this move was a strategic one, which was necessitated to prioritize team members within the markets it serves, to localize costs and to get closer to customers.

Announcing this decision, Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade wrote,

“Today was a difficult day at Paystack. We’re reducing our operations outside of Africa and will be parting ways with up to 33 employees in Europe and the UAE. In the last 3 years, our hiring philosophy was to recruit great talent regardless of location, including opening an engineering hub in Dubai. We’re changing our operating model to prioritize locating team members within the markets we serve, to localize costs and get closer to customers.

“We’re sparing no expense to minimize disruption to the lives of team members. The severance package includes 4 months’ salary, accelerating equity vesting, extending health insurance by 3 months, and more. These are some of the most talented people I’ve ever worked with, and my goal is to ensure that every single one finds new roles as soon as possible. I’m personally happy to vouch for each one and do reference calls as needed”.

https://x.com/shollsman/status/1725143426889314619?s=46&t=5SnxbL3wcwgpHjfK1_oo8g

To facilitate the job transition for affected workers, Paystack invited companies seeking exceptional talent by dropping a Google form.

Paystack currently maintains an operational footprint in four markets which include; Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. The company, characterized by its lean operation, has experienced a moderate expansion in staff strength which has contributed to a series of product releases over the past three years.

Notable developments include the introduction of an app for Shopify, the launch of a virtual terminal, and, most recently, the addition of a direct debit feature. Paystack has also forged integrations with global software and payment solutions, with notable examples being ApplePay. The company is presently undergoing private beta testing in Ivory Coast, Egypt, and Rwanda as part of its strategic expansion efforts.

Ever since Paystack was acquired by Stripe in 2020 for over $200 million, the fintech company has continued to operate under its brand name, expanding into other markets, majorly across Africa.

The company’s remarkable success in online payments has prompted it to continue to replicate the success in other African markets as it deepens its foothold on the African continent.

Paystack revealed that the company’s expansion strategy is based on thorough research, considering factors such as GDP, card penetration, population size, and the strength of the startup and developer ecosystem.

Notably, the startup focuses on penetrating markets that serve as regional hubs and are strategically positioned to facilitate sub-regional growth.

Paystack claims to process over 50% of all online transactions in Nigeria and has achieved remarkable success, which has seen it as a trailblazer in the African tech ecosystem. As a crucial part of the ecosystem, the company continuously seeks ways to roll out innovative products and offerings to foster growth in African tech.

Effective Strategies To Networking

By
Stanley Alieke
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Motivational speakers often say that the easiest way to move up in your career is through networking. They often back it up with the cliche; “your network determines your net worth” or this other interesting one; “nobody cares about your certificate or what you graduated with, what matters is who you know and not what you know”. 

While all these are interesting theories and some have proven them to be true, what these folks always forget or intentionally ignore to tell you is that networking itself is an art and an expensive one that requires strategies to execute. 

I will tell you for free that networking itself is very expensive and it is an art that has to be mastered or else you will be seen as a hustler or a pest and people will tend to avoid you. Learn the strategies before you engage. 

The most important thing about effective networking is that for you to properly network, you need to learn to have an open budget, hence why it is expensive. For instance, most of the events or meetings where you expect your prospects to be are paid events; Some of their starting price is over 100k and there is no guarantee that the person you are hoping to meet there will even grant you the audience; if they are not paid events, you will definitely spend money to get yourself there.

I have hosted prospects and treated some to a nice dinner in expensive restaurants and years down the line I can tell you that it was a wasted investment. Not just me, if other business owners tell you how much they have invested in networking alone you will be amused. I remember someone I flew in from Lagos to Abuja and took him to nice spots with the hope that a business relationship would come out of it but nothing came out of it. The funny thing is some folks you hope to network with the thought that they are the right persons who make decisions in their organization will sometimes start asking you for help. 

One thing I have found out is that for you to network very well and for your networking to bear positive fruits you need some strategies and here are some strategies I know of that may be of help to you. 

  1. Be ready to spend money; be ready to attend events, especially paid events. Be ready to host your prospect for treats, it works magic. 
  2. If you are an introvert, you will need to come out of your shell. Networking is not for introverted persons. Learn to start a conversation and sustain a conversation, learn to compliment extravagantly and learn to take compliments with grace. 
  3. You need to have some values you are adding because nobody wants to associate with a parasite, there must be something valuable you should be bringing to the table before people will grant you an audience. 
  4. Research the prospect before you meet with the person. Find out what the person fancies; find out what helps the person to unwind; if it is football talk, politics or whatnot and gear your conversation starter towards that direction to get the prospect feel comfortable. 
  5. Finally, look for a connector. It is always easier when someone introduces you to the other person that you have been looking forward to connecting with. I remember someone who had been sending me a bunch of emails and messages on LinkedIn on how he has been looking forward to meeting with me and working with me, I saw all of it but ignored them because I get tons of similar messages on a daily basis and I usually don’t make much of them but the guy found out that that we share a mutual friend together, he told the mutual friend how he’s been trying to connect with me but it has not been working, the lady who is the mutual friend sent me a message on WhatsApp and asked me to grant him an audience and I immediately did because there was a connector who made the introduction. It is always easier when someone else who is close to that prospect links you both up. 

All these are not guarantees that your networking will click or bear positive results but it will get you started on something.

Who are Jinns?

By
Mutiu Iyanda
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The Qur’an and Hadeeth are the first two sources of religious principles, regulation, and instruction for Muslims. These two sources are expected to direct all of their activities beyond this planet. Jinns are described as God’s creatures in these two traditions, although their origin comes from flames of fire. Jinns, like humans, have a varied range of tribes, beliefs, and attitudes. They are invisible to us, but they see us; they can fly millions of miles in seconds; they can inhabit human bodies; and they can speak any language that the possessed person speaks. The list is a progression.

Jinns, like us, eat, drink, marry, and breed. Their food (for example, bones) differs from ours. Their marriages and procreation patterns differ slightly from ours. We’ve read and seen incidents where Jinns told Islamic exorcists that they had fathered or mothered children for possessed people. Those kids would be in Jinn’s world! We’ll go over this further later.

What exactly do Jinns do?

According to Islamic literature, Jinns are divided into two groups based on their faith: believers and non-believers. Most of the time, non-believer Jinns cause chaos and are manipulated by malevolent people. In rare cases, believing Jinns with poor Godliness may possess humans; these Jinns simply leave the possessed body when the possessed listens to a self-Ruqyah or the Jinns listen to sermons of an Islamic exorcist during Ruqyah.

When non-believer Jinns attack the human body, it is usually the brain that is the first to be penetrated. When they acquire control of the brain, the possessed person goes mentally insane. Uncontrollable fury, irresistible sexual desire, psychosis, suicidal ideation, taciturnity, unexplained sleeplessness, continual fear and anxiety, perpetual withdrawal and loneliness, and hatred for specific persons, among other symptoms, may appear. In reality, this type of Jinn can create unexplained divorce between a husband and wife, hostility between two admirers (e.g., father and son, mother and daughter, in-law and wife, etc.), and overwhelming love or passion between two or more people.

As a result, it is critical to understand that these Jinns may take humans voluntarily or be dispatched by a demon that has formed covenants with Jinns. The more extreme the evil person acts against Divine Law, the more active the Jinns that send them messages. You may wonder how Jinns voluntarily possess human bodies. This is where we will continue our discussion from next week.

Umar Olansile Ajetunmobi, an independent, interdisciplinary researcher with special interests in political, (mental) health, development, and digital media communication, contributes to the development of this piece through his skills and knowledge garnered over the years. 

The Nigerian Police Is Not A Debt Recovery Institution

By
Stanley Alieke
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I am currently handling a matter with the police, specifically the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), force headquarters, Abuja. 

Unfortunately, whenever I have an interaction with the police or have a matter with the police my morale always gets dampened because I am constantly reminded by the actions and the inactions of the police officers that the Nigerian police is far from changing for the good. They will always remain a bunch of corrupt, power-drunk and lawless individuals, even the ones who pride themselves as elite police officers; they are all birds of a feather. 

The crux of the matter that I’m currently handling with the police is that my client (who is now the suspect) collected money from an acquaintance, (the complainant) and the agreed time that he ought to give back the money passed and he didn’t give back the money; after so much back and forth, the lender decided to report the matter to police. 

Mind you, what transpired between them as you can see from the summarized version of the brief is totally a matter of simple contract which is totally under the purview of civil dispute which the police have no jurisdiction over; the police by law have no jurisdiction to entertain any civil dispute no matter how prolific or high profile it appears, once it is civil in nature, it is no longer it’s no longer the purview of the police. 

The core functions of the Nigeria police force as provided in section 4 of the Police Act, 2020 is to fight crime, prevent the commission of crimes and protect the lives of citizens and their properties. Debt recovery or delving into the arena of civil dispute is not covered as one of their functions and whenever the police delve into a civil dispute they are acting ultra vires (i.e. beyond their power) which is only orchestrated by corruption and abuse of power. 

I remember a senior police officer who is also a friend asking me one time while I was in her office how she can twist a civil dispute into a crime so that she can step in and act because she was interested in the matter. Being interested in the matter could only mean that she’s likely to have collected money from the complainant or have entered a deal of what she will get with the complainant and this is why most police officers always try to get involved in civil disputes, especially in debt recovery; they often enter into a deal with the complainant to take off a certain amount of percentage from the money when the money have been recovered. I have seen it happen many times and I’m sure no police officer can feign ignorance to this. 

There have been a series of directives from the Inspector General of Police charging police officers not to get involved in debt recovery. A police officer becoming a debt collector makes a total mockery of the force but due to corruption in the force, those directives from different Inspector Generals are yet to yield fruitful results. 

This is also an indictment on the citizens who help police abuse their powers by taking civil disputes to the police. The proper procedure is, if you are being owed or if you are aggrieved by anything else that falls under the purview of civil dispute is for you to go to court. Go to court for the recovery of the debts and seek other accruing damages the court can grant, the court has the jurisdiction and never the police. Go to court for your civil disputes, the court has jurisdiction and never the police. The police are not a debt recovery institution. The court in so many cases has awarded damages against the Nigerian police force and its officers for jumping into the arena of civil disputes to act as a judge and as an executioner. 

 

US Stock Surge After House of Representatives Passed a Bill to Avoid a Government Shutdown

By
Paul Ugbede Godwin
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0

Investors breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday morning, as US stock futures indicated a higher open for the major indexes. The positive sentiment came after the House of Representatives approved a bill late Tuesday night that would fund the government through December 3, averting a potential shutdown that could have disrupted the economy and the markets.

The bill, which passed by a vote of 220 to 211, with no Republicans supporting it, now heads to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain fate. The Senate must act by Thursday night to prevent a lapse in federal funding that would affect millions of workers and services. The bill also includes a suspension of the debt ceiling until December 2022, which would allow the government to continue paying its bills and avoid a default that could trigger a global financial crisis.

However, some Republican senators have vowed to block the bill, arguing that raising the debt limit would enable more spending by the Democrats, who are pursuing a $3.5 trillion social and environmental package. The Democrats have said they will not negotiate with the Republicans over the debt ceiling, which they say is a bipartisan responsibility that has been raised dozens of times under both parties.

The impasse over the debt ceiling could overshadow the positive news from the House vote, which lifted some of the uncertainty that has weighed on the markets in recent weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.4%, while the S&P 500 futures and the Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.5% and 0.6%, respectively, as of 6:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

The market rally also reflected optimism about the economic recovery, as data showed that consumer confidence rebounded in September after a sharp drop in August. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose to 109.3 from 115.2 in August, beating expectations of 115.0. The index measures consumers’ assessment of current economic conditions and their outlook for the next six months.

The improvement in consumer confidence could bode well for consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of US economic activity. Consumer spending has been resilient despite the surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Delta variant, which has dampened business activity and hiring. The Commerce Department reported on Tuesday that personal income rose 0.2% in August, while personal spending increased 0.8%, both beating estimates.

The market will also be watching for new clues on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy plans, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell testifies before the House Financial Services Committee. Powell is expected to reiterate his message from last week’s Fed meeting, where he said that the central bank could start tapering its $120 billion monthly bond purchases as soon as November, if the economy continues to improve.

However, he also stressed that tapering does not mean tightening, and that interest rates will remain near zero until inflation and employment reach the Fed’s goals. Investors will get more clues about the state of the economy from the ADP private payrolls report, which is expected to show that employers added 428,000 jobs in September, up from 374,000 in August.

The report is seen as a precursor to Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report, which is one of the most closely watched indicators of the health of the labor market and the recovery. The consensus estimate is for 488,000 jobs added in September, down from 235,000 in August. The unemployment rate is expected to drop to 5.1% from 5.2%. Other data on tap for Wednesday include the final reading of second-quarter GDP growth, which is expected to be unchanged at 6.6%, and pending home sales for August, which are expected to rise by 0.4% after falling by 1.8% in July.

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