Good People, our feed got featured in LinkedIn News. The post was an amazing one ( read here  ) – it was about a rich man who bought a blue bird with $44 billion, reminding me of my life in the village of Ovim. We hunted for birds on the road to the village stream (Tantuta) with our catapults. But here, the zen-master of money, Elon Musk, who has demonstrated new physics on how to accumulate empires with no financial gravitational force affecting his voyage, is leading the way.

I am a fan of Musk and do hope he will not do to his bird what we used to do in the village: after you have gotten a bird, most times, after playing with it, you abandon it, because there was really nothing you could do with it. His blue bird is very expensive at $44 billion and he cannot afford to leave it to fly away! Good luck Musk.

Mr. Musk, I know you have a company called The Boring Company. The way you guys bore holes to transport people reminds of how we look for rabbits in the burrow. But I tell you frankly: you do not abandon bird hunting for rabbit hunting as the tools and strategies are never the same. Simply, nurture the blue bird as it is the world’s village square.

Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion Twitter takeover, according to SEC filings. The Tesla CEO tweeted Friday that one of his first moves will be “forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints” before making big content decisions, including whether to reinstate banned accounts. Meanwhile, General Motors said it was “temporarily” suspending advertising on Twitter as it evaluates the platform’s new direction. Twitter shares were suspended from trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday. They are slated to be delisted on Nov. 8. (LinkedIn News)

People, who is running Nigeria? Tribune reports: “Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmad, has disassociated her ministry from the planned move by the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) to redesign the naira….“Distinguished senators, we were not consulted at the Ministry of Finance by CBN on the planned naira redesigning and cannot comment on it as regards merits or otherwise.” O di egwu.

From Tribune

The minister, who commented on the policy in response to a question raised by Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC Ekiti Central) during the 2023 budget defense session with the Senate Committee on Finance, warned CBN of consequences that may arise from the new policy.

Senator Bamidele had told the minister that barely two days after the announcement of the plan, the effect on the value of the naira to the US dollar was being felt.

“Just two days after the announcement of the policy, the value of naira to a US dollar has risen from N740 to N788 due to a rush in exchange of naira notes for foreign currencies, particularly dollars.

In her quick response, the minister said she and her ministry are not aware of the policy but only heard of it from the media.

“Distinguished senators, we were not consulted at the Ministry of Finance by CBN on the planned naira redesigning and cannot comment on it as regards merits or otherwise.

“However as a Nigerian privileged to be at the top of Nigeria’s fiscal management, the policy as rolled out at this time portends serious consequences on the value of the naira to other foreign currencies.

“I will however appeal to this committee to invite the CBN governor for required explanations as regards merits of the planned policy and rightness or otherwise of its implementation now,” she said.

The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had on Wednesday said that the apex bank would redesign the country’s currency from N200 denomination to N1000 notes.

He said that the action was taken in order to take control of the currency in circulation, just as he posited that 80 percent of the nation’s currency notes were outside bank vaults and that the CBN would not allow the situation to continue.

Elon Musk made it home yesterday with a special toy. Yes, the blue bird toy is his now. What he plans to do with it remains cloudy but we know that he has picked a title “Chief Twit” to organize the toy-space. It looks amazing when you have a $44 billion toy to play with. Certainly, he will hope he can make tons of friends to join to play.

But as he looks over his toy, the reality of the world of business comes into play. He  has delivered a poison pill to some Twitter executives. Yes, the same people who went to court to compel him to buy Twitter. But in the way it works, most times, after that purchase, those people usually lose their jobs: “Musk didn’t waste time firing CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett, head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde.” 

This bird will fly because Musk has shown already that he can move news. If Twitter is the modern global village square which hosts the mind of the generation’s finest innovator, that alone is a reason for many to converge. The challenge for the bird, though, is that when you let loose a bird, it may decide to pick the wrong tree to perch. 

Twitter has not been generating revenue for the EU, etc via penalties and fines (ask Facebook, Google, etc). Depending on what Musk does, this bird can become a profit-center for Europe!

As a kid, I used my catapult to hunt for birds. Going to Tantuta stream, you could see many birds. However, if you want to improve your odds of getting one, you have to aim at Kpaakpaa tree which had many birds and was the tallest tree around. Indeed, now that the richest man is in charge of Twitter, watch the high voltage regulatory searches on this blue bird because it cannot hide anymore.

Yes, the European Union has a new profit-center to balance the budget with those fines.

US SEC Announces the Delisting of Twitter from New York Stock Exchange

Join Tekedia Capital to congratulate our portfolio startup, Touch and Pay Technologies Ltd (YC W22), for winning the prestigious Ecobank Fintech Challenge. TAP is a category-king company and the largest microtransactions leader in Africa. I congratulate Congrats Olamide. Michael, Ogochukwu and Kabir for executing at the highest level possible.

Currently serving 2.3 million customers, we are confident that the 10 millionth customer will be celebrated soon as you tap into the Ecobank network to expand. Congratulations team. The path to unicorn is clearer. And ringing the special bell because I have got a bell from Ovim.

To learn more about TAP, go here. For Tekedia Capital, go here.

Press Release

Ecobank Group (www.Ecobank.com) is proud to announce that Touch and Pay a Nigeria-based fintech has won the 2022 edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge. This announcement was made at the Grand Finale, today at Ecobank’s headquarters in Lomé,  presided by H.E. Cina Lawson, Minister of  Digital Economy and Transformation, Republic of Togo. Touch and Pay took home a $50,000 cash prize, the largest no-strings attached fintech cash prize in Africa.

Touch and Pay processes microtransactions across Africa, such as paying for bus journeys. Today, Touch and Pay has over 2 million users who help 500,000 people make payments every day.

The winner and the other five finalists were also inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship – a unique programme that gives the Fintech Fellows the opportunity to explore potential commercial partnerships with the Bank, such as integrating with Ecobank’s pan-African banking platforms and scaling their fintech businesses across Ecobank’s 33 African markets.

The five other finalists for the 2022 edition are:

• Cauri Money, Senegal
• DizzitUp, Togo
• MaishaPay, Democratic Republic of Congo
• Moni Africa, Nigeria
• Paycode, South Africa
• Touch and Pay, Nigeria

Ade Ayeyemi, Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Group, congratulating the finalists, said: “This year’s six finalists have set the bar high at this Grand Finale. Their innovations are revolutionising the financial payments landscape in Africa and advancing financial inclusion. It is an honour for the Ecobank Group to partner with them and jointly transform the financial landscape of our continent.” Mr Ayeyemi also expressed Ecobank’s “profound appreciation to all our partners especially Arise, the gold sponsor of the 2022 Challenge, as well as to the Jury who worked tirelessly to evaluate the finalists and select the winner.”

Gavin Tipper, the CEO of Arise, a gold partner and co-sponsor of the challenge, said: “Arise extends its congratulations to the finalists and the winner for the creativity and innovation they displayed. The Ecobank Fintech Challenge has become an important platform for supporting fintech innovators and encouraging bold solutions to advancing financial inclusion in Africa. The talent on offer in this year’s pool of finalists once again exceeded expectations, and we look forward to seeing how the different products transform financial services on the continent.”

Oluwole Michael, CEO of Touch and Pay expressing deep satisfaction at winning the Fintech Challenge, commented: “We at Touch and pay (TAP) are excited about the opportunity given to us to work with Ecobank, a pan-African bank operating across Africa.  This plugs into our vision of helping 250m Africans process cash-based transactions digitally making them truly cashless and providing true credit facilities for merchants, retailers, and customers.”

In addition to the pitch  by each of the six finalists and a keynote address by H.E. Cina Lawson, highlights at the Grand Finale included panel discussions on ‘Sustaining and deepening investor interest in African Fintech in the face of global economic crisis: what should investors, Fintech companies and governments do?’ and ‘Ensuring Fintech-friendly regulations that accelerate start-up growth and maturity: what is the best way forward for Africa.’

Almost 4,000 start-ups have participated in the five editions of Ecobank Fintech Challenge since it was launched in 2017. Since then, 52 Fintechs have been inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship. The 2022 Challenge was supported by partners including Arise, Konfidants, Tech Cabal, Africa Fintech Network and ALX Ventures.

The New York Stock Exchange has announced it is delisting Twitter stock, following the acquisition of the social media platform by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. A new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission said the delisting will take effect on November 8.

The move is in line with Musk’s promise to shareholders to take the company private once he acquires it. Twitter was acquired by the world’s richest man on Thursday, ending months of controversy that have characterized the deal.

“The New York Stock Exchange hereby notifies the SEC of its intention to remove the entire class of the stated securities from listing and registration on the Exchange at the opening of business on November 08, 2022, pursuant to the provisions of Rule 12d2-2 (a),” the filing says.

Musk reiterated in his letter to advertisers on Thursday, that he didn’t acquire the social media company to make more money but to create a platform where healthy discussions can happen uncensored. A lot of changes are expected to happen in the company as part of the plan to take it private.

According to the SEC filing, the merger between Twitter and Musk’s subsidiary X Holdings II, Inc was complete. Musk’s X Holdings I, Inc. will now own all the stock of the social network.

“The merger between Twitter, Inc. and X Holdings II, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of X Holdings I, Inc., wholly owned by Elon R. Musk became effective on October 27, 2022. Each share of Twitter, Inc. Common Stock was exchanged for USD 54.20 in cash, without interest and less any applicable withholding taxes. The Exchange also notifies the Securities and Exchange Commission that as a result of the above-indicated conditions this security was suspended from trading before market open on October 28, 2022.”

Musk bought Twitter at $54.20 per share, way above its market value of $36.81 per share then in April. But the company has since witnessed some growth. Twitter’s stock was trading at $53.70 — slightly lower than Musk’s buying price of $54.20 early Friday.

Taking Twitter private means that the company would no longer have to make quarterly disclosures like its monthly active users or its earnings. Other changes bound to take effect in Twitter include its workforce. Musk reportedly said he would cut the company’s workforce by 75%, retaining only about 2,000 workers. Though he said he doesn’t plan to lay off as much as that number of employees, Twitter executives are already getting sacked.

Musk didn’t waste time firing CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, general counsel Sean Edgett, and head of legal policy, trust, and safety Vijaya Gadde. This means that a new board will be formed as Musk may not hold on as CEO, which he became on Thursday, for long.

However, taking Twitter private doesn’t stop Musk from making the company more profitable for investors. It was part of his promise when he made the acquisition bid and investors are counting pretty well on it.

In his note on Thursday, Musk touted “advertising done right”, suggesting he will be expanding the quality of ads on Twitter to drive revenue growth.

“I also very much believe that advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you; it can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed, but is right for you. For this to be true, it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs,” he said.