I received the news that San Francisco-based Mercury Bank, a bank for startups, has restricted the accounts of many Africa-focused startups. The neobank has claimed that the restriction was due to “unusual activity” and possibly emanated from its supervisory bank partner, Evolve Bank & Trust. Accordingly, many startups woke up to receive this:  “Hi, your access to the Mercury account for XX  has been temporarily restricted. Let us know if you have any question or concerns.”

Statement from Immad Akhund, the neobank’s CEO:

• “I am the CEO of Mercury. Since many of you have emailed/messaged me directly I thought it would be best if I just reached out directly.
• “We found out yesterday that our partner bank noticed unusual activity and asked us to lock and investigate a large set of accounts with linked activity. We are working through our due diligence on all those accounts and will be in touch with you individually with questions if we have any on your account or activity.”
• “Since it’s a reasonably large set of accounts it’s taking us some time to work through all of them but it’s the highest priority for us internally and we have more than 10 people working on this. We apologize for this sudden inconvenience and hope to put better practices in place to avoid this in the future.”

It feels very disappointing that Mercury Bank could act in this way. But of course, it is also important to understand that it has to comply with regulatory ordinances in the United States. But typically, you give notices and provide the startups the opportunities to clear the air before you pause or restrict the accounts.

Later this month or early next month, our neobank which is a full-fledged bank will launch in the United States. We have developed a novel playbook to support immigrants and foreign companies which majorly operate outside the United States. The US regulators like the protocols we have built.

I want to assure everyone that your bank is coming. We’re confident that as you grow, people will not see it as unusual activities. Do not lose confidence, the American market remains open despite the setback from Mercury. 

We have a better KYC/AML protocol to ensure that everyone plays by the rule and that we support your growth at scale. I hope to share the first day of our operations here once the regulators finish the regulated-mandated cybersecurity checks of our technologies. 

We expect the experts to finish at any moment and we will be on the path to be included in the US banking production server. Something amazing is on the way to support African and global startups in the US banking system.

We’re Tekedia Capital, we’re funding innovators of the future including a Texas-based Digital Bank

There is no argument – Zenith Bank Plc is at the zenith of Nigerian banking: “Zenith Bank Plc has released its 2021 full-year audited financial statement reporting a profit after tax of N244.5 billion the highest on record. This reflects a 6.07% increase year on year.” I expect Zenith Bank’s number to top GTBank’s GTCO by at least N40 billion.

This company is separating itself from other players and the gap is widening quarterly. We used to be this bullish with GTBank, but it seems very soon any comparison may be academic. Left and right, Zenith Bank is the category-king on making money in the banking sector of Nigeria!

Anything it is doing is working, and other banks should learn from its playbook. From Nairametrics, here are the key metrics.

• Net Interest income which it earns from its lending business rose 7% to N320.8 billion.
• However, a 51.6% spike in loan losses meant net interest after impairments was flat at just N260.8 billion.
• Zenith Bank, however, made up for it with income from commission and fees rising 31% to N103.9 billion year on year. It also raked in N167.4 billion in net trading income representing a 37.6% increase year on year.
• Zenith Bank also grew its deposits by a whopping 21.2% to N6.4 trillion while its total assets is now N9.4 trillion. Net assets rose 14.4% to N1.27 trillion.
• Zenith Bank Plc last traded at N27.10 per share and its market capitalization stands at N850.84 billion as at Monday, February 28, 2021. Year-to-date performance shows that the share price of the company has gained 7.75%.
• The bank has proposed a dividend per share of N2.8 per share up from N2.7 per share a year ago. Based on its current share price, Zenith Bank’s dividend yield is about 10%.

As Zenith Bank dances atilogwu, owambe, etc for this result, Dangote Cement is sharing an amount that is more than some states’ budgets as dividend. When you can distribute N341 billion as dividend in a year, the overriding trajectory is that everything has converged: the customers are buying and the company is executing at a high level. 

The Nigerian people are truly resilient to be powering these results for these companies despite the paralysis in the land. As they say in our churches, my turn MUST come. Say Amen somebody! But you have to invest and take risks first!

The hotels are also doing fine: “Transcorp Hotels Plc has announced its Audited Financial Statements for the full year ended December 31, 2021.?The?results published on the Nigerian Group Exchange showed?a 114% growth in Revenue to N21.74bn from N10.16bn as of December 2020,?while Gross Profit rose by 143 %?to N16.23bn from N6.67bn.

The Company’s results show an impressive growth in its performance signalling its strong recovery from the impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic in 2020. The performance also reflects the Company’s resilience and nimbleness, as it consistently leverages innovation to achieve an outstanding performance, breaking occupancy, and revenue records in 2021.”

GTCO of GTBank

Guaranty Trust Holding Co (GTCO) Plc has released its first Full-year financial result as a group which revealed a profit of N175 billion in 2021. This reflects a 13.21% decrease year on year….The statement revealed that in FY 2021, interest income fell by 12.77% from N288.28 billion to N251.47 billion in the current period. GTCO’s profit performance is on the back of all margin decline as income from interest and trading income all depreciated year on year.

UBA

United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has announced its audited results for the full year ended December 31, 2021.. gross earnings rose significantly to N660.2 billion representing an increase of 7 percent compared to N616.8 billion recorded at the end of the 2020 financial year. UBA’s Profit Before Tax was impressive with a 20.3 percent growth to N153.1 billion, compared to N127.3 billion at the end of the 2020 financial year; while Profit After Tax rose grew by 8.7 percent to N118.7 billion in 2021, compared to N109.2 billion recorded the previous year.

Note: This post was updated with more results, from Nairametrics reports

One of the sector’s best who until recently was helping to build technologies to secure BMW of the future, from cybersecurity attacks, via its subsidiary, will be at Tekedia Live on Thursday to take us into an excursion to Information Security & Digital Forensics. Dr. Francis Nwebonyi of University College Dublin is super-amazing.

He earned PhD in Computer Science with focus on Network and Information Security from Universidade do Porto. His MSc in Computer Security and Forensics was from the University of Bedfordshire and he is a member of Tekedia Institute Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics Faculty. He continues to help us to update our curriculum in this age where most industries are going digital. We thank Dr. for this leadership.

It’s time for digital security; Zoom link in the Board. Tekedia Mini-MBA >> your better school.

If you are looking for the Aliko Dangote secret which he cooked and continues to cook for Nigeria, here is it: the man likes to take care of his investors, and because he has that business-style, he has made many friends in markets. 

For 2021, he is going to share N340.8 billion with his investors. That dividend is coming from the N1.4 trillion he unlocked in the market. Recall that he paid N272.6 billion in 2020. People, left and right, he is sharing good stuff – real money. People, he shares more money than most state budgets!

Dangote Cement Plc will pay shareholders a dividend of N20 per share translating to N340.8 billion after recording a revenue of N1.4 trillion for 2021, the company said in a note to the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Monday.

The company rewarded its shareholders with N272.6 billion as dividend the previous year, meaning the newly declared sum is 25 per cent higher than that payout.

The cement-maker said the dividend, “subject to the appropriate withholding tax and approval, will be paid to shareholders whose names appear in the register of members as at the close of business on May 30, 2022.”

On 31 May, 2022, the register of shareholders will be closed to allow the company’s registrar to prepare for payment on June 15, 2022.

As Dangote Cement drops that massive number. Lafarge is also on its own game; “Lafarge Africa Plc will pay shareholders a final dividend of 100 kobo per unit of its 50 Kobo ordinary share, translating to N1.610 billion, the manufacturing company said Tuesday. Lafarge Africa said the dividend will be paid to shareholders whose names are on its register of members as of close of business on April 1.” Simply, cement is a big business and that is why they are paying massive dividends.

But Aliko Dangote is on another level and that is possible because there is a great incentive here: only 15% of Dangote Cement is available for investors. And what that means is this:  the other 85% remains under his control. If dividends go high, Dangote will have a great Salah.  If you have that type of structure, the amazing becomes magical in the Forbes list of billionaires.