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Access Bank to Acquire 83.4% of Centum Investment Company’s Stake in Kenya’s Sidian Bank

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

Access Bank Holdings has entered an agreement with Centum Investment Company Plc (‘Centum’) to acquire its 83.4% stake in Sidian Bank Limited, increasing the Nigerian bank’s visibility on the map of African banking industry.

The Nigerian Bank has been spreading its wings over Africa through mergers and acquisitions. It is Access Bank’s fifth major acquisition outside its base Nigeria in 18 months, and its second acquisition in Kenya in recent times. The Pan-African bank acquired Transnational Bank in 2020.

The agreement gives Access Bank a controlling stake estimated at $37 million (N15 billion) in Sidian, and emboldens its stride for further deals in the Kenyan financial industry, where it has asset valuation of N49.6 billion as of the end of last year.

“The growth transaction being implemented in Kenya represents the relentless focus and execution of our strategic objectives within our banking subsidiary even as we grow the other businesses within Access Corporation’s core segments. The acquisition of Sidian is a significant step-up in scale and potential for Access Bank in Kenya which represents the largest market and trade corridor in East Africa,” Herbert Wigwe, the Group Chief Executive, Access Corporation said.

“The significant increase in scale and customer base presents us with enormous opportunities to support growth in the various ecosystems we are building in our trade and payment business. The economies of scale that derive therefrom will continue to drive and enhance contributions to all stakeholders,” he added.

Sidian Bank was founded in 1984 as K-Rep Bank. In 2015, Centum Investment Company completed its acquisition of a majority stake in the bank and changed its name to Sidian bank in 2016 to reflect its majority shareholding.

Kenya adds to the growing number of countries in Africa where Access Bank is seeking a strong foothold. In  the last three years, the trail-blazing pan African bank has acquired Grobank in South Africa, announced its intention to acquire 100% of Zambia’s Cavmont Capital, through its subsidiary, Access Bank Zambia and in talks with Atlas Mara to buy its assets in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

However, Access lost its bid to acquire the majority stake in a fellow Nigerian bank, Union Bank, through a planned acquisition of investment company Atlas Mara’s holding in the entity, to Titan Trust Bank.

The Sidian Bank deal is still subject to regulatory approval but Mr. Roosevelt Ogbonna, Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank said it will consolidate the bank’s position in the East African Community bloc.

“This transaction builds on our earlier acquisition of the former transactional Bank Plc (now Access Bank Kenya) and underscores our resolve to strengthen our presence in Kenya, a key African market that fits into our strategic focus for geographic earnings growth and diversification. The acquisition and intended subsequent merger will create a strong and competitive balance sheet for Access Bank in Kenya, positioning us to be well placed to promote regional trade finance and other cross border banking services in the East African Community (EAC) and broader COMESA region.

“The proposed combination with Access Bank Kenya would undoubtedly propel Access Bank into a strong contender in the Kenya market with enhanced capacity to play a more impactful role in the growth of its economy while delivering increased profitability for our shareholders,” he said.

 

Africa Needs Help To Overcome The Own-Goals from Sanctions on Russia

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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1

Many weeks ago as the sanctions accelerated, I wrote “It is a big irony: Putin will sell less oil compared to the level before the invasion of Ukraine, but may make more money in the end. By reducing supply via sanctions, and demand still rising, ceteris paribus, countries like …Russia will see more digits in their bank accounts.” 

Yes, as the price of oil rises, markets move and economies are rattled. And this is not ending since the war in Ukraine has moved to a stable state which may last months, if not years. Apple has even become a victim as Saudi Aramco has overtaken it: “Saudi Aramco has surpassed Apple to become the world’s most valuable company once again, following the recent rise in oil price that has been largely spurred by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

Many families have been overtaken by hunger, undue inflationary pressure, etc, and we cannot throw a baby away with the bathwater. Helping Ukraine must not bring pain to all nations and I seek for a better strategy because bad things are brooding. I call on the African Union to show leadership urgently. If not, we may fight wars of extreme hunger in coming months, even with no visible military tanks on African streets.

The United States and EU have just confirmed that reality: Russia is generating more revenue now than pre-war level – and that money, unlike in the past, is kept in the central bank of Russia’s vaults, not in the UK, New York, etc. Own-goal for the world of sanctions? Very complicated.

But one thing is evident – sanctions do not pause economic theories that if supply is reduced as demand increases, price will move north, for most products. So, if these sanctions are making Russia richer, what next? Is the world scoring an own-goal? 

I write because Africa is fighting a war of hunger right now and the world must consider that fact.

 Russia may be getting more revenue from its fossil fuels now than shortly before its invasion of Ukraine, as global price increases offset the impact of Western efforts to restrict its sales, U.S. energy security envoy Amos Hochstein told lawmakers during a hearing on Thursday.

“I can’t deny that,” Hochstein told the Senate Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation in response to a question about whether Moscow was making more money now off its crude oil and gas sales than a couple of months before the war started.

Saudi Aramco Overtakes Apple As the World’s Most Valuable Company

Africa’s Tech Ecosystem Poised For Exponential Growth, Approaching S-Curve Phase

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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0

A report has noted that Africa’s technology sector will record a significant exponential growth, estimated at $712 billion by 2050. According to the report, it disclosed Africa’s digital economy is approaching its S-curve, a period of rapid significant growth that will positively impact the continent’s GDP, job creation, and overall economic outlook.

It has been predicted that by 2050, Africa will be a home to third of the world’s youngest people, as the continent is more rapidly organized than other regions. Analysts have disclosed that the covid-19 pandemic was a driving force to digitization on the African continent, as more Africans have become engaged in digital activities.

This has no doubt paid off as there have been some remarkable start-ups and other tech infrastructures established in the region, which has seen the influx of investors.

Between January 2020 and December 2021, funding for African digital start-ups grew 2 times faster than global rates. The African tech ecosystem witnessed massive attention from top global players that saw the continent receive massive venture capital.

Few sources revealed that an estimated $2 billion went into African tech start-ups in 2019. The continent also witnessed high-profile visits from Jack Ma, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jack Dorsey. The African continent has been poised to be the next digital growth frontier.

The region has a burgeoning tech-savvy youth population that is openly embracing technology. While the continent continues to record groundbreaking achievements in its tech ecosystem, reports disclosed that the region has not even barely scratched the surface. Awesome!

It is also interesting to know that the African region is now home to seven (7) unicorns doing exceptionally well, namely; Jumia, Andela, Flutterwave, Interswitch, Opay, Chippercash, and Wave. In 2021 it was disclosed that African start-ups raised $605million, which was nearly half of the total amount of funds raised in 2020, with Fintech technology companies receiving the lion’s share of the total funding.

From every indication and prediction, the tech ecosystem in Africa is only going to get bigger and bigger due to the rate at which more start-up companies are established. Although internet penetration is still very low in the region, with just 40% of Africans having access to the internet, the region continues to defy all odds by still achieving some groundbreaking achievements in the tech ecosystem.

Gone are the days when people would mention thriving tech ecosystems in the world and fail to mention the African region. The African tech ecosystem has no doubt taken off and continues to receive massive recognition from tech top players as well as funding from investors.

Over the last few years, investors as well as venture capitalists have put their radar on the African region which has seen a lot of African start-ups receive massive funding. The rise of the African tech ecosystem has no doubt been noticed by significant top players in the industry who are keeping tabs on the latest developments.

Recall that the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai last year (2021), announced that the search engine company would invest $50 million in African start-ups, and would be funding $1billion in technology led initiatives in the continent over the next five years.

It is indeed a feeling of ecstasy that the African region has been recognised for its outstanding tech ecosystem, and also the negative narrative and perception about the continent has been changed into a positive one.

You can sue your partner for refusing to honor his/her marriage promise to you

By
Stanley Alieke
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0

Top Trend: Man Sues Kannywood’s Hadiza Gabon For Refusing To Marry Him After initially promising to marry him.

It was trending in the news earlier this week that a 48-year-old man by the name Bala Musa took a legal step against a popular Kannywood actress, Hadiza Gabon, before the Shari’a Court in Kaduna state for allegedly refusing to marry him after she initially promised to marry the plaintiff.

The complainant told the court that he had been in a relationship with the actress and she promised to marry him and out of the hope that the lady will marry him in no distant time he kept spending money on the lady and kept sending the lady money for upkeeps. He is therefore asking the court to grant him damages against the lady for breach of the promise to marry him or ask the lady to honor her promise to him and get married to him as they initially planned. 

As ridiculous as this suit May look, as frivolous as approaching the court on issues like this may appear, readers should note that whenever a person promises another person that he or she is going to get married to the person and any of the people broke the promise or refused to marry the other person as promised it will be solid ground to bring an action in court seeking for damages for the breach of promise to marry.

Cases like this are not of novelty to the Nigerian courts as there have been a plethora of cases that bother on similar facts like the one above where a person promised to marry another and they subsequently reneged on the promise and the aggrieved person approached the court seeking redress.

Just like in the case of a contract, a party to a contract can approach the court to seek redress if the other party fails to live by the promises he made while going into contract with the other person. He can sue for breach of contract so also a person who already accepted a marriage proposal but later turned down could sue for breach of promise to marry. 

A breach of promise to marry is not a criminal offense but it is, however, a civil wrong for which an aggrieved person can sue for damages.

In a case where a man who is not lawfully married to a woman promises to marry the woman as an inducement to sleep with her or to keep having sex with her, it becomes a ground for criminal liabilities and the man could be jailed for this act as provided in section 383 of the Penal Code act.

This section provides thus:
“Every man who by deceit causes a woman who is not lawfully married  to him to believe that she is lawfully married to him and to cohabit or have sexual intercourse with him in that belief shall be punished with imprisonment for  a term which may extend to ten years and shall also be liable to fine.’

Breach of promise to marry is a valid ground to approach the court to seek redress and ask for damages and is treated grievously by the court so If by any instance anybody at all has promised to marry you but later reneged on his or her promise, you should approach the court and seek redress and the court will grant your prayers based on the merits of your case. 

Do You Have A Promising Business Idea? Here’s How To Turn It Into Reality

By
TI Partners
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1

If you have a promising business idea, turning it in to reality can be exciting and rewarding. However, it takes more than just a great idea to succeed as an entrepreneur. You need to have the drive and determination to see your business through, as well as the ability to execute your vision. Here are some tips to help you turn your promising business idea into reality.

1. Register your company

This is the first step to starting any business, and it’s important to do it right. Make sure you choose a name that represents your brand well and registers all the necessary paperwork with your local government. Additionally, opening a business bank account will help you keep your personal and business finances separate. According to Uniwide.co.uk, separating your personal finances from your business finances is important. This will help you to maintain better records and could save you money come tax time. 

If you’re not sure where to start, there are plenty of resources available to help you register your company. It’s important to get this step right so that you can move on to the next steps with confidence.

2. Develop a business plan

A business plan is essential for any business, large or small. It will help you map out your goals and strategies for achieving them. Your business plan should include an executive summary, company description, market analysis, competitive analysis, product/service information, sales, and marketing strategy, financial projections, and Appendix. If you’re not sure where to start, you can find plenty of templates and examples online. Once you have a solid business plan in place, you’ll be able to move forward with confidence. Additionally, your business plan can be used to secure funding from investors or lenders.

3. Secure funding

If you need funding to get your business off the ground, there are a few options to consider. You can look into small business loans, crowdfunding, or investing. Each option has its own set of pros and cons, so be sure to do your research before making a decision. Once you’ve secured funding, you’ll be one step closer to turning your business idea into reality. Additionally, having a solid business plan will make it easier to secure funding from investors or lenders. This is why it’s so important to have a well-thought-out business plan in place before you start seeking funding. It’s also important to keep in mind that not all businesses will need funding. 

4. Hire a team of experts

If you’re not an expert in every area of business, that’s okay. You can surround yourself with a team of experts who can help you with the areas you’re not as familiar with. This could include hiring a financial advisor, accountant, lawyer, marketing consultant, or web developer. Putting together a team of experts will help you avoid making costly mistakes and will give you the best chance for success. If you’re not sure where to start, there are plenty of resources available to help you find the right experts for your team. 

Also, don’t forget to ask for referrals from your network of family and friends.

5. Create a marketing strategy

If you want people to know about your business, you need to have a solid marketing strategy in place. There are a variety of marketing channels you can use to reach your target audience. This could include online advertising, social media, content marketing, email marketing, or even event marketing. The key is to identify the channels that will work best for your business and then create a plan for how you’ll use them. 

If you’re not sure where to start, there are plenty of resources available to help you develop a solid marketing strategy.

6. Launch your business

After all the planning and preparation, it’s finally time to launch your business. This is when all your hard work will pay off. Make sure you give yourself enough time to properly launch your business so that you can avoid any last-minute hiccups. Once your business is up and running, you’ll be able to start working towards your long-term goals. Additionally, don’t forget to celebrate your successes along the way. It’s important to enjoy the journey as well as the destination. If you keep these tips in mind, you’ll be well on your way to turning your business idea into reality.

7. Keep track of your progress

As you start to achieve your goals, it’s important to keep track of your progress. This will help you identify what’s working and what’s not. Additionally, it will give you a better understanding of your customers and what they’re looking for. There are a variety of tools you can use to track your progress, such as Google Analytics or social media analytics. By regularly tracking your progress, you’ll be able to make adjustments to your business as needed. 

This will help you ensure that you’re always moving in the right direction. It’s also important to remember that your business will evolve over time. As you learn more about your customers and what they want, you’ll be able to make changes to your business accordingly.

8. Be prepared for bumps in the road

No matter how well you plan, there will always be bumps in the road. This is why it’s so important to be prepared for them. Having a solid plan in place will help you weather any storms that come your way. Additionally, it’s important to have a support system in place. This could include family, friends, or even business mentors. Having people you can rely on will make it easier to get through tough times. 

Additionally, don’t forget to take care of yourself. This is especially important if you’re the sole owner of your business. Make sure you take time for yourself so that you can avoid burnout. It’s also important to have a contingency plan in place. This way, you’ll be prepared for anything that comes your way.

More so, if you have a promising business idea and want to turn it into reality, one crucial aspect to consider is having a reliable business voip phone service that can provide you with the communication tools and features necessary to effectively connect with customers and stakeholders.

By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to turning your business idea into reality. Just remember to keep your long-term goals in mind and to be prepared for anything that comes your way. With a little hard work and dedication, you can make your business dreams come true. It’s important to enjoy the journey as well as the destination. 

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